History of Judaism

By king couch potato
  • 2000 BCE

    Founding

    In Mesopotamia, Abraham, the "father of the Jewish people", made a covenant with God wherein He would "make a great nation" as long as Abraham and his followers remained faithful.
  • 2000 BCE

    Tribes

    Abraham's grandson, Jacob, had 12 sons who went on to found the 12 tribes of Israel. However, in order to escape severe famine in their homeland of Canaan, they migrated to Egypt.
  • 1200 BCE

    Exodus

    The Jewish became slaves in Egypt, but a prophet, Moses, came to lead them away from captivity.
  • 1200 BCE

    10 Commandments

    During the exodus Moses led, God gave him 10 commandments for the people to live by.
  • 1200 BCE

    Back to Canaan

    After Moses died, Joshua led the Israelites back to their homeland in Canaan, before proceeding to fight both the Philistines and Canaanites for the next 200 years.
  • 1020 BCE

    Unification

    They all united into one kingdom under King Saul, who was succeeded later on by David. King David proceeded to build their capital city, Jerusalem, and led the kingdom into great prosperity.
  • 922 BCE

    Splitting

    Israel split into two kingdoms.
  • 586 BCE

    Conquered

    Both split kingdoms of Israel were eventually conquered by the Assyrians and Babylonians.
  • 332 BCE

    Return

    Although the Jewish people were eventually able to return to their homeland, they were conquered again by Alexander the Great.
  • 63 BCE

    Chanukah

    Chanukah is the celebration of when the Selucid king, Antiochus IV, tried to force the Jews into worshiping the Greek Pantheon and Jewish rebelled, which succeeded in expelling the Greeks. They then established an independent Jewish kingdom that later was conquered by the Romans.