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The Biblical Period:

The ancestors of the Jewish people, Abraham, Isaac, Jacob, Sarah, Rebekkah, Rachel, and Leah lived around this time. This is the beginning of the story of the Jewish people that is described in the first book of the Torah, Genesis.

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Exodus from Egypt / Wandering in Desert:

During this time, the Israelite people were enslaved in Egypt. An Israelite and adopted Egyptian prince named Moses was chosen by God to liberate his people. Moses unleashed God's power on the Egyptians in the form of 10 plagues, and the Egyptian king decided to free the Israelite slaves. Moses parted the Red Sea and the Israelites crosses the sea, closing it behind them on the approaching Egyptian soldiers.
Following their liberation, the Israelites returned to the land of Canaan but didn't trust that God would give them the strength to defeat the Caananites. As a result, God sentenced the disloyal Israelite people to 40 years in the desert, so that the generation of Israelites that didn't have faith in Him would die out and never enter the land of Israel.

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Giving of the Torah at Mount Sinai:

Following the Israelite's liberation from Egypt and the crossing of the Red Sea, they stopped at Mount Sinai in the Sinai peninsula. Here Moses ascends the mountain and receives the Torah from G-d, while the Israelites stayed at the base of the mountain, impatiently awaiting his arrival. Although what Moses actually received on Mount Sinai from G-d is debated, the fact that Moses received the content that would become the Torah is not.

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The First Commonwealth:

The Israelites develop their own nation until they’re exiled in 722 BCE by the Assyrians, while the Kingdom of Judah falls in 586 BCE. The Israelites have their own nation for the first time ever.

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Construction of the First Temple:

Around this time, the 12 tribes of Israel received their first monarchs and Jewish states were beginning to emerge. The 3rd king of the tribes, Solomon, is noted as a great builder. He is also the successor of his father, King David, who is famous for defeating the Philistine giant Goliath and expanding Israel into a great kingdom that was centralized in Jerusalem. King David wished to build the projects that Solomon eventually carried out, but couldn't because of the constant warfare his state was in.

So, Solomon ordered that the Kingdoms of Israel and Judah undergo various massive construction projects. His magnum opus, however, was the construction of the First Temple, a home for God. The completion of the temple marked a centralized and sedentary state for the 12 tribes.

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Destruction of the First Temple and Babylonian Exile:

By 722 BCE, the 12 tribes of Israel were split into 2 kingdoms:

The Kingdom of Israel (The Northern Kingdom) consisted of 10 tribes

The Kingdom of Judah (The Southern Kingdom) consisted of 2 tribes

In 722 BCE, Babylon destroyed the 10 tribes and the Kingdom of Israel collapsed. Then, in 586 BCE, the Kingdom of Judah fell at the hands of Babylon, and the first temple was desecrated. Babylon forced the wealthiest and most influential Jews to go to Babylon, where a large Jewish population flourished as a result.

Soon after, the Persians would defeat the Babylonians, and Persia permitted the Jews to return to their homeland.

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The Second Commonwealth:

These new Jewish states were under the influence (then rule) of Greece and Rome. One of the richest periods of creativity in Jewish history that shaped modern Judaism.

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End of the Babylonian Exile:

In the year 539 BCE, King Cyrus the Great conquered Babylon and united multiple middle eastern kingdoms in his founding of the Persian Empire.

One year later, he made a public declaration which granted the Jews the right to return to Judah and rebuild the temple in Jerusalem, which had been desecrated by Babylon decades earlier. Cyrus also gave all of the Jews living in Persia citizenship. Although the Babylonian exile had now ended, many Jews chose to remain in Persia, due to the large community that had already been established there generations earlier. This is why the events of the Book of Esther are set entirely in Persia.

Also, though Jews could return to their homeland, a Jewish state wouldn't be established until around 400 years later, by the Hasmonean dynasty. But for now the Jews did have the right to practice their religion, and study the Torah.

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Maccabees / Hasmonean Revolt and Dynasty:

During the early, to mid-Second Commonwealth era, Judaism was heavily influenced and often under the control of Hellenistic empires. This time is called the Hellenistic period, which spans the death of Alexander the Great in 323 BCE to the emergence of the Roman Empire in 31 BCE.

During this era, the Seleucid Empire occupied much of the middle east and the Levant. Under this Hellenistic empire, Jews were not allowed to practice their religion and culture and were stripped of everything that made them Jewish. One such ruler of the Seleucid realm was a man named Antiochus IV Epiphanes, who ruled from 175 BCE to 164 BCE. He too harshly oppressed the Jews, and in 167 BCE, the Jews decided that they would fight for their religion, culture, and way of life.

The Maccabees were a small Jewish group of warriors who led the revolt against the Seleucid Empire. They defeated Antiochus and Judaism was now free from Hellenistic influence. Today, this victory is regarded as a miracle, due to the Maccabees' ability to overcome the great numbers of the Seleucid Empire. A ruling Jewish dynasty called the Hasmoneans was established, and a new fully autonomous Jewish state emerged. Jews were free of oppression and their religion prospered as a result. However, Roman influence would soon interfere with the autonomy of the newly established Jewish state.

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Late Second Temple / The Great Revolts:

Romans control Israel and oppress the Jews, denying them the right to practice their religion. Rabbinic Judaism keeps Judaism alive while the entire religion was in diaspora and facing oppression.

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Destruction of the Second Temple:

In the year 66 CE, the Jews rebelled against Roman influence, governors, and rule. However, The Zealots (rebel Jews fighting against Rome) greatly miscalculated the severity of the Roman response and their ability to defeat them. Rome defeated the rebel soldiers and in the year 68 CE they began the siege of Jerusalem.

During the siege, Rabbi Yochanan Ben Zakkai escaped Jerusalem while it was under siege. He established a school in Yavneh, a city in modern-day Israel. Through this rabbinic school, he created a Judaism that can exist without a temple, a religion without priests and sacrifices. This also produced the Mishnah, which is the teaching of how to practice Judaism without a temple. Many attribute the survival of Judaism while in the diaspora to him.

In the year 70 CE, Jerusalem was destroyed, and the Second Temple was along with it. This started a never-ending era of massive Jewish diasporas and migration, that is still present to this day.

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Bar Kochba Revolt:

From 132-135 CE, a man and messianic figure named Simon bar Koziba led a Jewish revolt against Roman rule in Israel. The revolt would result in the death of over 500,000 Jews and marked the end of Jewish sovereign autonomy until the 20th century.

The Roman emperor at the time completely crushed the Jews by not only killing them but naming their land after Judea's biblical enemy, the Philistines. With the majority of the Jewish population now in diaspora, the reformation of Judaism, its laws, and its authority would be responsible for the survival of the religion.

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Rabbinic Period:

All Jews have migrated out of Israel during this time period, while many go to Babylonia. The Talmud and Gemara are created.

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Mishnah Compiled/Edited:

After the destruction of the second temple in 70CE, the remaining Jewish leadership (like previously mentioned Yohanan ben Zakkai) reformed the religion into one that could survive while in diaspora and without sacrificial practices.

In the first chapter of tractate Avot, the Mishna is said to be an oral version of the Torah that was given to Moses alongside the written Torah at Mt. Sinai and passed down through tradition to, eventually, the rabbis. The Mishnah was eventually compiled into a layered text by Rabbi Judah Ha-Nasi, the prince, in the 3rd century CE. It is a revolutionary book for Judaism, one that is organized by logical topic, contains rules differing far from the Torah, and has allowed Judaism to survive in diaspora due to more modern laws and its smaller size.

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Babylonian Talmud Compiled/Edited:

Ever since the Babylonian exile years earlier, a large Jewish population existed within Babylon. At the turn of the 6th century CE, the Jews had been primarily in diaspora since the Bar Kochba revolt centuries earlier. As a result, the Babylonian Jewish community was constantly growing in size.

The Jewish community in Babylon had now grown to be a power center for Jewish life and study, and the Babylonian Talmud was created as a result, a compilation of the Mishnah and Gemara.