Though the Biblical narrative describes the state of Israel as having been founded by Moses and his followers after escaping from slavery in Egypt, the people of what later became the kingdom of Israel were very likely formed by an amalgamation of the escaped slaves with peoples already living in southern Canaan. Memories of captivity and liberation, and the faith of the people formed by these experiences, were preserved in the pentateuch -- the "five books of Moses."
After the period of the judges (from about 1200 - 1000 B.C.), the early kingship under Saul and then David was limited by the power of the "nabi'im" or prophets. Under Solomon, the Israelite kingdom was transformed into a full-fledged monarchy on the pattern of other oriental kingdoms. During his reign, the Kingdom of Israel reached the apogee of its power, dominating the entire land of Palestine from the Sinai to the Arabian Desert, and from the northern Euphrates to the Red Sea.
Upon the death of Solomon in 922 B.C., civil war led to a division of the realm into the northern Kingdom of Israel and the southern Kingdom of Judah. Years of intermittent warfare between the two kingdoms was interrupted only by the Assyrian invasion of Palestine in the eighth century. The Assyrians destroyed the northern Israelite Kingdom, and reduced the southern Kingdom of Judah to tributary status. Around 600 B.C., Judah was conquered by the Babylonians, and its leadership was scattered and destroyed. Judah experienced a revival under Persian rule, when the Persian emperor permitted the Jews to rebuild Jerusalem and the temple.
It was during the years of trial and captivity that occurred just prior to and in the wake of the Assyrian and Babylonian invasions that prophets like Isaiah, Ezekieh, Jeremiah, and Amos began to shift the spiritual focus in the Jewish religion away from a highly structured, priest-led religion, centered in the rites of the temple, toward a "religion of the heart," worshipping a God who demanded justice and compassion rather than sacrifice.
In 332 B.C., Palestine was conquered by Alexander the Great. In 305 B.C., Palestine passed to the Ptolemaic Empire, though it was eventually conquered by the northern Seleucid Empire. In 168 B.C., Judas Maccabeus led the Jews in a successful revolt against the Seleucids, and established the Hasmonean Dynasty and a theocratic state.
In 37 B.C., when the Kingdom of Judaea incurred the wrath of Rome by allying itself with the Parthians, the Hasmonean dynasty was overthrown by the Romans and Herod "the Great" was appointed king by the Roman senate. Upon Herod's death in 4 B.C., portions of his kingdom were divided among his three sons Archelaus (who ruled over Samaria), Antipas (who ruled over Galilee), and Philip (who ruled over Batanea). The Romans appointed an imperial procurator to rule over Judaea itself. Herod Agrippa ruled briefly over Judaea from 41-44 A.D., and his son Herod Agrippa II ruled from 50-100 A.D., after which time the kingdom came permanently under direct Roman rule. After the rebellions of the Jews in 66-70 A.D. and 132-135 A.D., the Romans destroyed Jerusalem and forced the Jewish people to disperse throughout the empire.
During the reigns of the Herods, Jews' memories were still fresh with the exploits of the Maccabees, who had successfully thrown off foreign rule, cleansed the temple of pagan sacrilege, and restored the dignity of the Jewish monarchy. The Roman procurator Pontius Pilate, determined to dispel any such notions and terrify the people into submission, crucified an estimated 30,000 Jews for offenses major and minor, especially any with the slightest messianic aspirations. The hopes and dreams of ordinary Jews, faced with the cruelty and humiliation of Roman rule, gave birth to diverse religious movements, some apocalyptic and revolutionary, and others introspective and pietistic.
Hillel the Elder, born around 70 B.C. (according to the Talmud, in Babylonia), was the first Jewish scholar to systematize the interpretation of scriptural law, and was eventually elected head of the religious council in Jerusalem. Hillel's teachings reinforced the emphasis on justice and compassion so prominent in the writings of the seventh century prophets. His teachings, focusing on humility, piety, and love for one's fellow human beings, and his opposition to legalism had an enormous impact on Judaism in the common era, and shaped the religion of Moses as we know it today. Hillel died around 10 A.D.
Jesus of Nazareth was born in 4 B.C. from much humbler roots than Hillel the scholar. From Galilee, the son of a carpenter, he preached about an immanent "Kingdom of God" and a religion of compassion that elevated the poor. Jesus never directly wrote down his teachings himself, though those of his sayings that were remembered by his disciples and recorded by later generations were in harmony with the wisdom of the prophets and the teachings of Hillel. But Jesus was renowned less for his teachings than for performing exorcisms and dramatic healings, stirring the belief among many common Jews that he might be the messiah. For this offense, Pilate had him crucified in 30 A.D.
After Jesus' death, his closest disciples claimed that they had seen him alive, that he had come back from the dead. This fanned the messianic hopes not just of Jews, but of non-Jews as well. Among the poor classes in the great cities of the empire, mystery religions and apocalypticism spread like wildfire during the first and second centuries of the empire. Saul of Tarsus helped to forge the Jewish Jesus cult into a mystery religion that appealed immensely to non-Jews, with a theology based on the blood atonement of a god incarnate, risen from the dead and promising to come again "soon" to overthrow the principalities of this world and initiate a reign of peace and justice. Thus was Christianity added to the crucible of Roman imperial culture and politics.