Israel and the Palestinian Territories/History: Babylonians and Persians

Much of the Jewish population had been in exile in Babylon until 539 BCE, when Cyrus II, King of Persia and Media, conquered Babylon, and allowed peoples formerly conquered by Neo-Babylonian Empire to rebuild their temples. A small group of Jews, under the leadership of Zerubbabel(Zerubbavel), returned to Judaea to rebuild the Temple, which was ultimately finished under King Darius. Following the initial return, two waves of return happened, one under Ezra the Scribe, another under Nehemiah(Nechemiah), and Jerusalem was rebuilt.

Jewish traditions held that during the Persian period, the 24 Books of Hebrew Bible(Jews counted the 12 Prophets as one book, Ezra and Nehemiah as one and the two Chronicles as one) were finalized, although modern scholars believed that it happened much later. It was during this period when the Yehudim vs Goyim dichotomy was fully established. Overall, Judaea functioned as a self-governing province of Persian Empire during the period.

It was during this period when Aramaic began to be spoken among Jews, although Hebrew would remain the Jewish language for centuries.

It was during this time when the use of the term "Palestine" for the entire area now part of either Israel or Palestinian Territories began to appear. Herodotus mentioned in his The Histories that "'These Phoenicians dwelt in ancient time, as they themselves report, upon the Erythraian Sea, and thence they passed over and dwell in the country along the sea coast of Syria; and this part of Syria and all as far as Egypt is called Palestine. '"The term, of course, wasn't used by the inhabitants themselves, but the term Syria Palaistini, alongside other terms, continued to be used by Greco-Roman writers, until it finally became official in 135 CE.

Esther: Real or not?
Jewish scriptures recorded that Esther, a Jew from the Tribe of Benjamin, became the wife of King Xerxes I of Persia ''and saved the Jewish people. No gentile sources mentioned that, although sources about Persians were scarce anyway. The classical sources only recorded only one wife of Xerxes, Amestris, daughter of Octans. Nevertheless, most of the details about the Persian court in the Book of Esther were consistent with the contemporary records.''