Prophecy regarding Cyrus

In one of the most stunningly accurate prophecies in Scripture, Isaiah names Cyrus of Persia as the man who would return the Jews to Jerusalem to rebuild the it Temple following the exile. This is incredible because Cyrus was not even born when Isaiah made this prediction and did not come to power for 150 years following the prophecy. Furthermore, at the time Isaiah penned these words, Jerusalem was intact, as was the Temple, so the fact that it would need to be rebuilt was unheard of. The prophecy is so specific and accurate, that many scholars have questioned Isaiah's authorship and the dating of the prophecy itself. Those unwilling to believe that God could have empowered Isaiah to predict something with such specificity, believe that the book of Isaiah was composed of several authors, some of whom wrote of events during the Babylonian captivity as they were happening. To account for the fact that the style of writing and terminology used are uniform throughout, these scholars suppose that an anonymous editor went through the entire book and made changes to ensure that it appeared to have been composed during Isaiah's time. This seems like a lot of effort to get around believing in a literal interpretation of the Bible, but until a manuscript dated earlier than the time of Cyrus is found, the debate will continue.

What has been found to corroborate the Biblical narrative, is a barrel called The Cyrus Cylinder, which contained historical records from Cyrus' reign. This was discovered in the late 1800s in the ruins of Babylon. Cyrus was a pagan worshipper of the god Marduk yet was an instrument of God and thereby His "anointed one". Cyrus issued a decree that allowed the Jews to return to their homeland to rebuild it, and the Temple, after 70 years of captivity. Fragments of the cuneiform from the cylinder indicate that Cyrus allowed for such an emancipation for many of the nations subdued by the previous Babylonian empire. Though the Jews are not mentioned by name, the text corroborates Cyrus' political policies which support the Biblical narrative. The cylinder text also states that Cyrus believed himself to be called by a supreme God, which could be a reference to Isaiah 44 and 45. It is possible that Cyrus was shown a copy of the prophecies from Isaiah by some of the Jews at that time (maybe even Daniel who was an advisor), which may have prompted his decree. According to the extra-Biblical Jewish historian Josephus, this is exactly what happened.

Tomorrow's reading: Isaiah 48:12-52:12