Check this out ... interesting artifact ... that gave religious freedom to ancient conquered peoples ... Cyrus was the Persian ruler who conquered Babylon in 539 B.C. In his cylinder he announces what was an odd policy at the time: All the peoples the Babylonians had captured and deported were free to return to their homelands, rebuild, and worship their own gods. This included the Israelites, who were exiles in Babylon. Cyrus returned the confiscated treasures of the temple in Jerusalem to the Jews and helped them return to rebuild. Before Cyrus, Babylonian policy was to displace the conquered peoples from their homelands, and fill the conquered lands with the conquered from other lands. The Bible in Ezra 1 says that the Lord “moved the heart of Cyrus to make a proclamation” allowing the people to return home. But more than a century before Cyrus came to power the Bible mentions him, saying in Isaiah 44 that he would free the exiles: “I am the Lord … who says of Cyrus, ‘He is my shepherd and will accomplish all that I please; he will say of Jerusalem, ‘Let it be rebuilt,’ and of the temple, ‘Let its foundations be laid.’ … I summon you by name and bestow on you a title of honor, though you do not acknowledge me.” The cylinder uses language similar to Isaiah—Cyrus calls himself a shepherd, though he says he serves the Babylonian god Marduk. The exhibit has a mostly complete translation of the cylinder. Isaiah died more than a century before Cyrus came to power in Babylon. worldmag/2013/07/cyrus_story
Posted on: Tue, 30 Jul 2013 02:17:27 +0000
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