The Original ‘Prince of Persia’

By Neil Earle

Starring Jake Gyllenhaal and Ben Kingsley and produced by Jerry Bruckheimer, the latest cinematic sword and sandals epic offers lots of nearly non-stop action and spectacular Moroccan scenery. It should sell oodles of popcorn.

Theoretically about the struggle for power in the sixth century BCE history of the Persian Empire (Iran today), this latest summer epic touches very lightly on a theme which Bible students have long held dear. For one thing, at least four books of the Bible relate to the massive Persian period – Daniel, Esther, Ezra and Nehemiah plus a smattering of Psalms and other verses in Kings and Chronicles.

“The Cyrus Scriptures”

But don’t forget Isaiah, for it is in the book of Isaiah that Bible readers get an extended analysis of the founder of the Persian Empire, the original fighting Persian, and one of history’s greatest conquerors.

Here it is from the soaring eloquence of Isaiah 45:

“This is what the Lord says to his anointed, to Cyrus, whose right hand I take hold of to subdue nations before him and to strip kings of their armor, to open doors before him so that gates will not be shut: I will go before you and will level the mountains; I will break down gates of bronze and cut through bars of iron. I will give you the treasures of darkness, riches stored in secret places, so that you may know that I am the Lord, the God of Israel, who summons you be name.”

Two things here have caught the attention of Bible readers:

  1. Why does Isaiah use the title of the Jewish Messiah, “the anointed one,” for a pagan king?
  2. What was the God of Israel’s purpose in raising up a Gentile conqueror?

Some background is thus necessary before addressing what some call the “Cyrus Scriptures.” Let’s start with Cyrus himself.

“The Gentile Messiah”

Well-documented from secular sources, Cyrus the Great is one of the most famous people of antiquity. He was actually Cyrus II in Persian annals, the grandson of the noteworthy Cyrus 1 (c. 640-615 BCE). As Finegan documents in his Light from the Ancient Past, the Persians were part of two tribes who earlier occupied the high tableland in what is now eastern Iran before settling farther west. The name “Iran” means “the land of the Aryans” and Cyrus’ people are first mentioned on an inscription of the Assyrian king, Shalmaneser III (859-824 BCE) Entering this area around Lake Urmia as early as 1500 BCE, the two tribal grouping, Medes and Persians settled east of the Taurus Mountains, the Persians in Anshan, north and east of the Persian Gulf. (See Olmstead’s History of the Persian Empire).

Under Cambyses I there were growing tensions with the more powerful Medes. When young Cyrus II took over in 559, the Medes marched against him. But the Median army rebelled and Cyrus the Great took control of their capital, Ecbatana. He spared the Median king and most of the subjects. Henceforth this realm became known as the Bible designates it – the land of the Medes and the Persians (Daniel 5:28).

Cyrus’ actions in showing clemency to his would-be overlords (touched on in the Bruckheimer) distinguished his reign. The Assyriologist Donald J Wiseman describes Cyrus as a “sympathetic ruler.” Perhaps Cyrus purposefully distanced himself from the cruel, centralizing policies of the other two empires that came before, Assyria and Babylon. In 546 BCE Cyrus marched to defend himself against the fabulously wealthy King Croesus of Lydia in modern day Turkey. Croesus was defeated and – says Herodotus – was about to commit ritual suicide when Cyrus intervened, spared him and made him a close counselor. This may be exaggerated but speaks well to Cyrus’ reputation, summarized by Will Durant, as a wise ruler and capable administrator who “founded his empire upon generosity” (Our Oriental Heritage, page 353).

After taking Lydia, Cyrus was really on a roll. Seven years later he was knocking at the gates of Babylon, an incident described luridly in Daniel 5 where Belshazzar feasted the pagan gods while Cyrus and his men dug a ditch upstream to dam up the Euphrates. According to the Greek writer Herodotus, they entered Babylon through the dry river bed. This explains Isaiah’s reference to breaking down “the gates of bronze,” the famed ramparts of mighty Babylon.

In Babylon lived the Jewish exiles such as Daniel and his three friends. The Jews had been some deported there years before and hung their harps on the willow trees along the Euphrates rather than singing a song of their lost homeland (Psalms 139). It looked like the end for God’s people Judah up there in far-off Babylon. Not see. Now we see why Cyrus is so important to the Biblical writers. In 539 BC Cyrus was master of the known world. And here he enters the horizon of the mighty prophet Isaiah. In Hebrew the word “prophet” means “forth-teller” more than a predictor of future events. Isaiah the theologian delights in showing the world-historical significance of Cyrus taking Babylon. Isaiah unabashedly records that Israel’s God, Yahweh, had raised up this mighty Prince of Persia, to expedite the return of the captive Jews from Babylon back to Palestine. As Finegan confirms:

“Throughout his extensive campaigns, and in contrast with other ancient oriental conquerors, Cyrus always was human. The lives of [his rivals] were spared and each was allotted a royal train. Babylon was not destroyed but its people won over by his mercy and the Jews were reestablished in their homeland as we have seen” (page 232).

A Bold Theological Leap

Mercy paid off. Prosperous Babylon became the main economic engine of the sprawling Persian Empire while the policy of allowing people to return to their original homeland ensured their loyalty to Persia. This earned Cyrus the title of “Gentile messiah” from some Biblical schoalrs. To the Jewish people, who had lost their sacred temple, Isaiah’s theological interpretation of what was happening in the life of Cyrus would revolutionize the holy people’s explanation of world events. As Walter Brueggemann writes:

“The breathtaking affirmation is that Israel will be saved by a non-Jew. Isaiah in exile thinks very large about God’s future in the world and is not contained by Israel’s conventional categories…That is, those who enact Yahweh’s purposes in the world oftimes do not knowingly respond to Yahweh’s initiative but may act for other reasons…the move west by the Persian Empire is not just imperial policy but belongs to the larger purpose of the real Governor of international politics…it is ‘for the sake of my servant Jacob’ (Isaiah 45:4). The entire international process is for the beloved, treasured people of Israel…Israel, and often the church, wants to contain and limit the purposes of God to its own life. Here it is clear that Yahweh always looks beyond the beloved community” (Isaiah 40-66, page 76).

Cyrus the Liberator

This is an almost breathtaking view of history for the Iron Age yet it is precisely the repackaging and reorienting of history along lines overseen by the Great God that is one of the Old Testament’s special themes. Cyrus, “son of a nobody” shows up quickly on the world scene almost out of nowhere and not only adopts a resettlement policy but helps pave the way for the Jewish captives to get back to Jerusalem…and Bethlehem, and all that that means for the future. Notice the record of 2 Chronicles 36:22-23,

“In the first year of Cyrus king of Persia in order to fulfill the word of the Lord spoken by Jeremiah, the Lord moved the heart of Cyrus king of Persia to make a proclamation throughout his realm and to pout it in writing:

This is what Cyrus king of Persia says,

‘The Lord, the God of heaven, has given me all the kingdoms of the earth and he ahs appointed me to build a temple for him at Jerusalem in Judah. Anyone of his people among you – may the Lord his God be with him and go up’.”

Of course many rulers are smart enough to wrap themselves in the beliefs of their constituents if it helps their policy and Cyrus was just such a brilliant administrator. But what the Bible focuses on is how astonishing it is that the hopes of Jeremiah and Isaiah were so amazingly fulfilled. Israel would come back from captivity under the sponsorship of the conquering world ruler of that time. In the words of Brueggemann: “To be sure, the rise of Cyrus and Persia could be explained in other ways with reference to many complex geopolitical factors. In the imagination of Israel, however, it is all Yahweh” (page 31).

Isaiah puts this theological view of history in vivid terms:

“This is what the Lord says, your Redeemer who formed you in the womb: 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.’…For the sake of Jacob my servant, of Israel my chosen, I summon you by name and bestow on you a title of honor, though you do not acknowledge me. I am the Lord and there is no other” (Isaiah 44:24, 28; 45:4-5).

God Rules!

This Cyrus theme in Scripture is thrilling. It reinforces what Daniel taught and what Christians should never forget: that God rules in the kingdoms of men and gives it to whom he will (Daniel 4:25). Christians know that God will often work out his purpose through the most unlikely agents – a baby in Bethlehem, twelve stumbling disciples from the backwater, a church that moves ahead by weakness and patience, not human strength.

Secular history confirms these events attaching themselves to Cyrus.

Listen to the famous Cyrus Cylinder, a ten inch barrel with a cunieform inscription discovered in 1879 now in the British Museum, mentioning the Decree to Return in more detail. “I am Cyrus, king of the world, great king…In the cities of Ashur and Susa…the holy cities beyond the Tigris whose sanctuaries had been in ruins over a long period, the gods whose abode is in the midst of them, I returned to their places and housed in lasting abodes. I gathered together all these inhabitants and restored to their dwellings” (Shanks, Ancient Israel, page 217).

This is just what we might expect when guided by such texts as Isaiah 44-45.

A special National Geographic edition of August, 2008 (“Ancient Iran: Inside a Nation’s Persian Soul”) showed a lighted picture of one of Iran’s monumental treasures (now in danger from government plans to flood the area). It is the Tomb of Cyrus the Great, 200 miles south of Tehran in the plain east of the Taurus Mountains. The article describes the great king as “an early champion of human rights [who] allowed religious diversity and respected the local customs of those he conquered” (pages 54-55). He did. He did indeed. A true prince of the human race was Cyrus.

According to ancient and modern sources, Cyrus died campaigning in the east in 530 BCE. The Roman writer Plutarch (46-120AD) claimed to see an inscription at the tomb with the candid and humble inscription: “O man, whoever thou art and whencesoever thou comest, for I know that thou wilt come, I am Cyrus, and I won for the Persians their empire. Do not therefore begrudge me this little earth which covers my body.”

Cyrus built well. His policy of clemency and moderation helped extend his empire to the famous 127 provinces mentioned in the book of Esther. The Persians invented the pony express to keep their vast realms together. “Neither rain, snow, sleet nor hail” is a Persian motto. Together with Iraq and Egypt, they make up the triple forbears of Western civilization. Indeed, it was not until 1935 that the present-day Iranians changed the name of their country from Persia to Iran “Inside every Iranian there is an emperor or empress,” a drama teacher told National Geographic. “Of that we are sure.” The original fighting Prince of Persia cast a long shadow indeed.