next redefined in terms of the Israelitepositionvis-a`-vis Judah and the Juda-
hites. An overlaying complication was the fact that the Judahites themselves
contended with their own exile and their own diaspora, which was only
partially resolved with their repatriation from Babylon.
What makes the Israelite diaspora amenable to endless repositioning is
the way in which it is written into the biblical text as a silent diaspora, one that
does not speak. This stands in sharp contrast with the Judahite diaspora. Even
before their exile by the Babylonians in 589 , the Judahites had a diaspora,
golah,which had been formed during the seventh and sixth centuriesbce,
composed of an array of small communities of Judahite refugees and soldiers,
in various locations within Egyptian territories (the Nile’s delta, Upper Egypt,
and Nubia). More Judahites found refuge in Egypt after the destruction of
Jerusalem as well.^78 Ultimately, the Babylonian Empire itself became the home
of exiles from Jerusalem, first in 597 when King Jehoiachin was exiled with the
elites of Jerusalem, and again after the final destruction in 589.
This Judahite diaspora differed from that of the Israelites in one basic
condition: it was real. Contemporaneous with the Deuteronomistic history, its
whereabouts and conditions were written into the biblical narrative itself. The
circumstances, experiences, and setting of the exile make up a significant
portion of the Bible itself. Large portions of Jeremiah, the entirety of Ezekiel,
the later portions of Isaiah, and many of the later prophets were written in the
diaspora and are part of its history.^79 The diaspora also kept in touch with those
still in the land itself. Jeremiah, for instance, who prophesied before, during,
and after the destruction of Jerusalem, corresponded with exiled communities
both in Egypt and in Mesopotamia. Ezra and Nehemiah, as well as many of the
smaller prophetic books, testify to intensive connections and movement be-
tween the diaspora communities and the newly formed community in Judah
after the return to Jerusalem and the building of the Second Temple. Even non-
Israelites who were deported by the Assyrians to Palestine are recorded in the
biblical narrative. Against this backdrop, the silence of the Israelite deportees
resonates loudly. In this sense, their exile is not only from the “land of Israel”
but from the Bible, where we read nothing about the Israelite diaspora after the
actual moment of exile.
Edward Hine ( 1825 – 1891 CE), author of a series of books containing
scriptural “proof” that the British are the lost tribes, begins his case with a
discussion of this inaudibility, talking about “the lost tribes when last heard
of.”^80 In 1884 , the Reverend Elieser Bassin, a Russian Jewish convert to
Christianity, addressed the difference between the two diasporas: “The Lord,
for his wise ends, separated and kept them apart for nearly three thousand
years: and most of the time Israel wasunknown... while the Jews were known”
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