犹太人历史，将在本条目中讲述犹太民族的发展历史。

另可参见：犹太人历史年表。

根据犹太人对圣经的注释记载，犹太人的始祖是圣经中记载的亚伯拉罕（Abraham）、以撒（Isaac）和雅各（Jacob）等人，他们大约生活在公元前2000年。雅各（阿拉伯语发音为****）是以撒的儿子、亚伯拉罕（阿拉伯发音为易卜拉欣）的孙子，后来改名叫以色列，意思是「和神搏斗的人」，而且因为他在和神搏斗的时候伤了腿筋，所以犹太人在宰杀动物时都要把腿筋挑出来丢弃。至今为止发现的证明以色列存在的年代最古的证据，是公元前1200年左右的古埃及麦伦普塔赫石碑。当时在迦南地区生存的犹太人是最先奉行一神教的民族。圣经中记载，当时的犹太人在士师（既负有宗教和仪式方面的职能，也担任法官的角色）领导下，享受着充分的自治。

Jewish history (or the history of the Jewish people) is the history of the Jews, and their religion and culture, as it developed and interacted with other peoples, religions and cultures. Although Judaism as a religion first appears in Greek records during the Hellenistic period and the earliest mention of Israel is inscribed on the Merneptah Stele dated 1213–1203 BCE, religious literature tells the story of Israelites going back at least as far as c. 1500 BCE. The Jewish diaspora began with the Assyrian conquest and continued on a much larger scale with the Babylonian conquest. Jews were also widespread throughout the Roman Empire, and this carried on to a lesser extent in the period of Byzantine rule in the central and eastern Mediterranean. In 638 CE the Byzantine Empire lost control of the Levant. The Arab Islamic Empire under Caliph Omar conquered Jerusalem and the lands of Mesopotamia, Syria, Palestine and Egypt. The Golden Age of Jewish culture in Spain coincided with the Middle Ages in Europe, a period of Muslim rule throughout much of the Iberian Peninsula. During that time, Jews were generally accepted in society and Jewish religious, cultural, and economic life blossomed.