DIASPORA. – The term διασπορά (“dissemination,” “dispersion”) occurs seven times in the Greek Bible (Deut. 28:25 [cod. B]; Ps. 146:2; Judt. 5:19 [Vulg. 23]; 2 Macc. 1:27; John 7:35; James 1:1; 1 Pt. 1:1). Except for the last cited text, which seems to allude to the whole body of Christians (“the new Israel”) dispersed among the pagan nations, it denotes, as in Hellenistic Judaism, the entire body of Israelites “scattered” outside Palestine. Even James, writing “to the twelve tribes in the D.,” intends to address Jewish converts to Christianity who were living outside Palestine.
An idea of the immense spread of the Jews in the D. is given by Acts 2:5: “Among the Jews residing in Jerusalem [at the time of Pentecost] there were men from every nation under heaven.” These, hearing the Christians speaking in various tongues, asked, “How is it that each of us hears them in our own native language? Some of us are Parthians, Medes, Elamites; others are residents of Mesopotamia, Judea [perhaps “India” should be read], Cappadocia, Pontus, Asia [proconsular], Phrygia, Pamphylia, Egypt, the parts of Libya around Cyrene, visitors from Rome, both Jews and proselytes, Cretans and Arabs; yet we hear them telling in our own tongues the mighty works of God” (Acts 2:8–11). The Sibylline Oracles (c. 140 BC) write that “all the earth and all the sea are full” of Jews (III, 271).
While recognizing the hyperbole in the passages cited, one must admit that the dense network of D. communities that enveloped not only the Roman world but extended beyond Mesopotamia and Persia was providential for the spread of Christianity. The Jews of the D., who at the first Christian Pentecost witnessed the miracles, carried the first sparks of faith in the Messiah into the world. In their missions, the Apostles, especially St. Paul, first addressed the Jews and then the pagans (Rom. 1:16). Among the causes that gave rise to and fostered the Jewish D. one should recall, besides commercial reasons, the deportations carried out by the invaders of Palestine and the flights to escape enemy oppression.
I. IN ASSYRIA, MEDIA, BABYLONIA
In 732 BC, Tiglath-pileser III (Pal.) deported to Assyria and Media many inhabitants of the northern regions of the kingdom of Israel (2 Kgs. 15:29); after the conquest of Samaria (722 BC), Sargon increased the number of exiles (2 Kgs. 17:6; 18:6). In his inscription in the temple of Khorsabad he speaks of 27,290 Israelites deported.From 603 to 581 BC (especially in 587, when Jerusalem fell), Nebuchadnezzar II deported to Babylon many inhabitants of the kingdom of Judah, including the prophets Daniel and Ezekiel and King Jehoiachin (2 Kgs. 23:24–25:21; Dan. 1:1; Ezek. 1:1–3).
With Cyrus’s edict, some returned under the leadership of Zerubbabel (538 BC); others returned to Palestine a century later with Ezra and Nehemiah, but many Jews who had regained their freedom preferred to remain in Babylon under the administration of an exilarch (re’š galûtā). There they engaged in commerce without neglecting religious instruction. As early as the 5th century BC, a kind of Jewish bank, “Murashu and Sons,” was operating in Nippur (at the time of Artaxerxes I and Darius II). The Babylonian rabbinic school, which had among its teachers the famous Hillel, flourished until the early Middle Ages. From these regions the Jews gradually spread throughout the entire Eastern world. The Jews of Babylon and Media received from Alexander the Great permission to live according to their laws; they were favored by the Seleucids, indeed Antiochus the Great, convinced of their loyalty, transplanted 2,000 families from these regions to the restless lands of Lydia and Phrygia (Josephus, Ant. Jud., XII, 3, 4).
II. IN SYRIA AND ASIA MINOR
As early as 857 BC, King Ahab obtained permission to establish “marketplaces” for Israelites in Damascus (1 Kgs. 20:34). Many Jews settled in Syria during the Hellenistic period, especially after the founding of Antioch (301 BC). There they obtained the right to live according to their customs; they retained these privileges even under the Romans. In Damascus they had several synagogues (Acts 9:2).The presence of numerous Jews in Asia Minor is attested by Philo (Leg. ad Caium, 33), Josephus (Ant. Jud., XIV, 10; XVI, 6), Cicero (Pro Flacco, 28), many decrees of Caesar and Augustus granting privileges to the Jews of those provinces, as well as by the account of St. Paul’s missionary journeys (Acts 13:13–14, 28, etc.).
III. IN EGYPT AND CYRENAICA
From Jeremiah (chs. 42–44) it is known that many Jews took refuge in Egypt during the invasions of Nebuchadnezzar. Some had settled in Pathros, in Upper Egypt. Psammetichus had employed Jewish soldiers in his campaign against Ethiopia. At Elephantine there was a strong Jewish colony, whose life is attested by famous papyri from the 5th century BC. There stood a Jewish temple. A Jewish temple is also recorded at Leontopolis in the 2nd century BC. It is evident that the law of the unity of the sanctuary was considered valid only for Palestine. Very many Jews settled in Egypt after its founder (Alexander the Great) granted them rights equal to those of the Macedonians. There, between 250 and 150 BC, they published the Greek version of the Bible known as the “Septuagint.” According to Philo (In Flaccum, 6), after the Battle of Actium there were a million Jews in Egypt. They were governed by their own ethnarch with a senate of their own (gerousia).IV. IN EUROPE (MACEDONIA, GREECE, ROME)
St. Paul found proseuchas and synagogues of the Jews in Philippi, Thessalonica, Berea, Athens, and Corinth. It is known from Philo and Josephus that Jewish colonies existed on the islands of Euboea, Crete, Cyprus, and the smaller islands of the Aegean archipelago.In Rome the largest immigration of Jews occurred in 63 BC, when Pompey, after conquering Jerusalem, led numerous Jewish slaves to the capital. Many of these were soon freed, also because they did not adapt to the worship and diet of their pagan masters. Even before 62 BC, colonies of Jews must have been living in Rome, from which they sent offerings to the Temple in Jerusalem. They dwelt mainly in Trastevere. They experienced alternating fortunes: favored by Caesar, persecuted and expelled by Tiberius and Claudius, they constantly managed to return and obtain privileges. In Rome, as in the rest of the Empire, they enjoyed freedom of worship, their own financial administration, and exemption from military service.
The Jewish D. continues even today throughout the world, even after the establishment of the new State of Israel. St. Paul laments the unbelief of the Jews and foretells their return to the house of the Father (Rom. 9–11).
The term diaspora is also used in modern times to denote the same religiously based phenomenon that occurs when groups of a given belief find themselves scattered, as minorities, within or outside their original national homeland, maintaining relations and contacts with central religious authorities. Thus there is a Protestant diaspora, subdivided into smaller diasporas according to their differing creeds; a schismatic diaspora; and a Catholic diaspora, made up of Catholic minorities scattered in Protestant, schismatic, or pagan nations. The Catholic diaspora raises several important, complex, and sometimes fateful problems for the Faith (mixed marriages, apostasies, indifference, lax religious education, infrequent reception of the Sacraments, prolonged lack of priests).