Tyndale Open Bible Dictionary

CYRUS CYLINDER*

Baked clay barrel nine inches (22.9 centimeters) long inscribed in cuneiform, found by archaeologist Hormuzd Rassam during his excavations at Babylon (1879–82). Now in the British Museum, London, the inscription was written by Cyrus the Great (who founded the Persian Empire and ruled it 539–530 BC) as an effort to describe and justify his policies. The largely intact text is about 1,000 words in translation and dates from about 536 BC.

Cyrus began his text with an attack on Nabonidus (last ruler of the Neo-Babylonian Empire, father of and co-regent with Belshazzar). He described Nabonidus as a “weakling” who had removed the images of the gods from their temples and had forsaken the proper worship of Marduk, chief of the Babylonian family of gods. To make matters worse, Nabonidus had also required his subjects to labor on a variety of public works projects.

Historians now believe that Nabonidus had turned from the worship of Marduk to that of Sin, the moon god with great centers of worship at Ur and Haran. Before the fall of Babylon, Nabonidus had tried to transport many of the gods of the Babylonian cities to the capital. Such tampering with the empire’s religion had won Nabonidus the undying hostility of powerful entrenched religious interests and of much of the general populace.

Cyrus continued the cylinder inscription with an observation that Marduk had heard the complaints of the gods and sought for a righteous ruler. His search led him to Cyrus, a man of “good deeds” and “upright heart.” The god subjected many lands to Cyrus and ordered him to march against Babylon, “going at his side like a real friend.” The result was that Cyrus took the capital without a fight, and Marduk delivered Nabonidus into Cyrus’s hands. According to Greek sources, Nabonidus’s life was spared. Moreover, the entire populace of Babylonia rejoiced over Cyrus’s kingship, delighted that they had been spared damage and disaster.

Next, Cyrus spoke of his lineage in order to show that he was from an established line of kingship in Anshan, a region east of the head of the Persian Gulf. Moreover, the Babylonian gods Bel and Nebo delighted in him. Perhaps Cyrus felt it necessary to make that statement because he had usurped the throne of the Median Empire (of which Anshan was a part) and had taken the Neo-Babylonian Empire by force.

Having spoken of his legitimate right to rule, Cyrus described his reception by the populace, his faithfulness in worshiping Marduk his benefactor, and his beneficent treatment of his subjects. His beneficence included strict control over his troops to prevent acts of terror against the newly conquered subjects, maintenance of peace in the cities of Babylonia, abolition of the hated public works detail, and development of public housing projects. Cyrus saw Marduk as pleased with his deeds and bestowing favor on Cyrus, his son Cambyses, and his troops. Moreover, princes from all over the empire came to Babylon to pay homage and bring tribute.

The next section of the inscription relates to the Jews and to a significant part of biblical history. Cyrus decided to reverse the deportation policy of the Babylonians and of the Assyrians before them. He permitted all the captive peoples who had been uprooted to return to their ancestral homes. He also returned the images of the gods to their former sanctuaries and helped the various groups to rebuild the temples of their gods. Thus it is clear that Ezra’s decree permitting the Jews to return to Palestine (Ezr 1) was not a result of Cyrus’s conversion to faith in the God of Israel, but only part of a larger public policy. Presumably each of the subjected peoples had its own decree of rehabilitation.

In the last paragraph of his text he asked all the resettled gods to intercede with Bel and Nebo for long life for him and to commend him to Marduk. Cyrus obviously thought that grateful priests and worshipers who were praying for him would be loyal subjects. Thus important sources of disaffection would be removed.