Kingdom of David: The Saga of the Israelites

In 586 BC, the Babylonians lead almost all that remains of the tribe of Judah, the Israelites, to exile in Babylon. Only a few generations earlier, the northern tribes of the Israelites were taken into exile and vanished forever. Now the Judeans, too, seem destined to disappear. They fight back, however, by writing a book. Using Judean stories from the past to explain present disastrous situations, the book becomes the earliest edition of the most influential work in history: the Bible. This episode introduces the early and profoundly influential figures of Judaism: Abraham, who is the first to recognise the concept of one God, Moses, who receives the Ten Commandments from God, and David, whose sins teach the Israelites that no one is above the law of God.

A scribe named Ezra arrives in Jerusalem in 458 BC, and proceeds to read the Bible to the mostly illiterate Judeans. Study of the Bible then becomes an essential part of Jewish life but, in 330 BC, Alexander the Great's conquest of the Middle East brings Greek culture in its wake. With Jewish culture facing an existential threat, in 160 BC Judah the Maccabee leads the Jews in an epic fight to defend their religious freedom.

In 63 BC, the Roman general Pompeii leads his legions into the land of Judea. It is the beginning of a clash of cultures between Rome and the Jews that would grow into one of the most brutal conflicts in history. It also pits Jew against Jew as many of the different factions of Judaism clash over the interpretation of the true will of God. The period ends with the Roman sack of Jerusalem and the destruction of the Temple in AD 70.

With the destruction of the Temple, the Romans destroy the only place on earth where Jews can worship God, leaving rabbis struggling to reinvent the religion of Moses and David. They work during a period of bloodshed and turmoil until, in AD132, Jewish zealots rise against Rome's legions, forcing them to withdraw from the region. The Romans return to slaughter nearly 600,000 Jews and change the name of the region from Judea to Palestine, banning all Jews from Jerusalem.