The Cyrus Cylinder

In the nineteenth century, Hormuzd Rassam found a nine-inch baked clay cylinder in Babylon that dated to 500 BC. Its inscription is Cyrus’s account of how the god Marduk had blessed his efforts to capture Babylon . Then Cyrus tells how his policy permitted former captives in Babylon to return home and restore the temples of their own deities:

“From [Babylon] up to the city of Ashur and Susa, Akkad, to the land of Eshnunna, to the towns Zamban, Me-Turnu, Der up to the region of the Gutians, I returned to (these) sacred cult-cities on the other side of the Tigris, the sanctuaries of which have been ruins for a long time, the gods who live in them and established for them eternal sanctuaries. I (also) gathered all their inhabitants and returned them to their habitations. Furthermore, I resettled upon the command of Marduk, the great Lord, all the gods of Sumer and Akkad whom Nabonidus has brought into Babylon to the anger of the Lord of the gods, unharmed, in their chapels, the places which make them happy.” [1]

The Cyrus Cylinder

Realistically, Cyrus merely exploited the occasion to his advantage. He knew that happy subjects would be loyal subjects. So Cyrus’s benevolence was part of his international policy. He, however, unwittingly fulfilled Isaiah’s pointed prophecy about him (Isaiah 44:28–45:1), that he would be the Lord’s “shepherd” and “anointed one” who would perform His pleasure. The Cyrus Cylinder answers doubts raised by Ezra 1:2–4. Ezra states that, in his first year after conquering Babylon , Cyrus acknowledged the Lord God of heaven, who had commanded him to build the Temple in Jerusalem and to permit God’s people (the Jews) to return.[2]