How many Jews returned to Jerusalem after the Babylonian captivity?
Only a few thousand Jews returned to Jerusalem after the Babylonian captivity to reestablish temple worship and prepare the nation for Christ's first advent. The rest assimilated throughout Gentile nations of the Roman Empire, adopting local languages and customs while retaining Judaistic practices.
Les explains that ever since 606 B.C., when Nebuchadnezzar took Israel captive back to Babylon, only a few thousand came back to Jerusalem. Those who returned reestablished temple worship and got the nation in place for the coming of Christ at His first advent. The rest assimilated throughout the Gentile part of what was then the Roman Empire. As they became assimilated in various nations, they took those nations' languages and customs, although they kept their Judaistic practices. When such Jews came to Jerusalem, they were called Grecians, meaning Jews who had been a generation or two outside Palestine. The Grecian widows, the non-Palestinian Jewish widows, were being cheated and neglected in the daily ministration.