Hey Narkissos..I was just reading that the Magi were pre-zoroaster priests that adopted the new faith under Darius. I had never heard that before. So the reference to them in Herodotus seems irrelevant. I'm sure none of that is new to you but anyway I thought I'd mention it.
Cyrus: Yahweh's anointed pagan and conquering ruler
by M.J. 16 Replies latest watchtower beliefs
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transhuman68
The Cyrus Cylinder
On a clay cylinder discovered in Babylon, Cyrus gives his interpretation of events:
Marduk, the great Lord (of Babylon), the protector of his people, beheld with pleasure the good deeds of Cyrus and ordered him to march against his city, Babylon. He made him set out on the road to Babylon, going at his side like a real friend. Without any battle, he made him enter his town Babylon. Cyrus was the darling of the gods... claimed by both YHWH and Marduk. Must be nice to be popular...
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Apognophos
Yahweh was seen by Cyrus as a useful deity to recast in Mazda's image. There was already a sect in Judah that had unsuccessfully attempted to elevate Yahweh above the other gods. The reformer Nehemiah that returned to Judah was a Zoroastrian member of Cyrus's court entrusted with this project. Ezra likewise has a Zoroastrian theology simply replacing the name of the local deity Yahweh. The defete of Judah was attributed to the neglect of Yahweh and wayward kingship. Yahwehist priests like first Isaiah became hailed as true prophets for having warned that Yahweh was angry. From then on Yahweh slowly became the God par excellance in Judah.
This is a fascinating suggestion, are there some reliable sources to back any of this?
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mP
Judaism copied many concepts from its neighbours including learning stuff while they were in Babylon. The whole we lost because we were not good worshippers of Jehovah is utter garbage. Why would God want to help a national that was completely pagan over a nation that still had some good faithful religious types. I guess with the twitsted logic of the past, it doesnt matter if you punish the innocent anyway given the group gult mentality of the time.
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transhuman68
This is a fascinating suggestion, are there some reliable sources to back any of this?
The Jews were impressed by the city of Babylon and its traditions. The city had the form of a vast square, covering about thirteen square kilometres, with the river Euphrates running through it. The gate of Ishtar, adorned with multi-coloured enamelled bricks, opened on to the sacred route, flanked by temples, in the midst of which rose the ziggurat (a kind of stepped tower). This was the lower of Babylon, or Babel. Annually, at New Year, they would listen to the recitation of the great poems (Enuma Elish, the Gilgamesh Epic) which told how the god Marduk, god of Babylon, created the world, and how the god Ea saved mankind from the flood. They discovered the thoughts of the wise men about the human condition. In this way the Jews were in contact with a type of thinking which was widespread in the Middle East, and this will clearly have helped them to reflect.
On 29 October 539, Cyrus seized Babylon without firing a shot, probably thanks to the help of Babylonians who were exasperated with the incompetence of their king Nabonidus.
Cyrus was a petty king of Persia, one of the provinces of the empire of the Medes which extended to the north and past of Babylon. In 550 he seized power in Media, went as far as Asia Minor to seize the fabulous treasure of king Croesus, and returned to Babylon. His amazing rise was followed passionately by the Jewish exiles and Second Isaiah; was not this the man whom God had chosen, had marked out through his anointing (messiah in Hebrew) to liberate them?
And in fact in 538 in Ecbatana, his distant summer capital, Cyrus signed an edict allowing the Jews to go home. He even granted them substantial war damages to rebuild their country. Was this because of his natural benevolence, or his political sensitivity? He was actually interested that the Jewish nation, an advance bastion of his empire in the direction of Egypt, should be utterly devoted to him. Whatever his motives, for the Jews this was the end of their nightmare, and at that time a large number of them returned to `the land'. - Etienne Charpentier.Archaeological finds of idols in the Judean area indicate that the Jews only turned to monotheism after their return from exile in Babylon. I can't confirm what peacefulpete wrote but many of the ideas in the Old Testament came from Babylon, including the story of the Flood- much of the OT was written & edited around this time period- so it could be true...
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Apognophos
Interesting, thanks.
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*lost*
Bumped to read later
lost