The Persian Anointed

This is this past Sunday’s first reading, which I read at Mass, from the 45th Chapter of the Book of the Prophet Isaiah:

Thus says the LORD to his anointed, Cyrus,
whose right hand I grasp,
subduing nations before him,
and making kings run in his service,
opening doors before him
and leaving the gates unbarred:
For the sake of Jacob, my servant,
of Israel, my chosen one,
I have called you by your name,
giving you a title, though you knew me not.
I am the LORD and there is no other,
there is no God besides me.
It is I who arm you, though you know me not,
so that toward the rising and the setting of the sun
people may know that there is none besides me.
I am the LORD, there is no other.

In 539 BC on this day, the 17th of October, Cyrus the Great conquered Babylon, releasing the Jews from seventy years of exile.

He ended the Babyonian Captivity by allowing the exiled Jews to return to Judea and to rebuild the city of Jerusalem and the Temple.

It’s rare that the lectionary readings coincide with the historical events they describe, but it’s always kind of neat when it happens.

Cyrus is the only gentile described in the scriptures as the anointed of the Lord. Food for thought.