WE’VE ALL heard how the Persian King Cyrus allowed the Jews to return to Jerusalem. But the story isn’t quite what you’ve been told.

Ancient texts confirm that the last king of Babylon, Nabonidus, moved the idols of most of the gods of Mesopotamia and the priests needed to care for them into Babylon ahead of the Medo-Persian invasion. Nabonidus believed this would bring Babylon under the protection of the gods. Obviously, the plan failed.

When Cyrus took over the Neo-Babylonian empire, he realized that many of his new subjects felt that they’d been stripped of their patron deities, leaving their cities without divine protection. Being a savvy politician, wanting to avoid political unrest in his newly enlarged kingdom, Cyrus decreed that the gods—which he said Nabonidus had brought to Babylon against their will!—would be returned to their home cities.

So, to Cyrus, the Jews weren’t returning home; Yahweh was being allowed to return to His temple in Jerusalem!

However, that doesn’t change the fact that God revealed to the prophet Isaiah that Cyrus, whom He called “His anointed” (His messiah!), would do this at least 140 years, and as much as 200 years, before the fact.