(April 16, 2022 at 6:56 pm)LettucePray Wrote: A Christian lady and I were talking about parts of the Bible the other day. She brought up the topic of Cyrus as being predicted a hundred years before his time. I told her I didn’t have an answer for her at the moment but would get back to her on it. I don’t know how to answer her back in providing information regarding the book of Isaiah predicting Cyrus. Will you help?
from Wikipedia:
Quote:Traditionally, these passages in Isaiah were believed to predate the rule of Cyrus by about 100 years, however, most modern scholars date Isaiah 40–55 (often referred to as Deutero-Isaiah), toward the end of the Babylonian exile (c. 536 BC).[9] Whereas Isaiah 1–39 (referred to as Proto-Isaiah) saw the destruction of Israel as imminent, and the restoration in the future, Deutero-Isaiah speaks of the destruction in the past (Isaiah 42:24–25), and the restoration as imminent (Isaiah 42:1–9). Notice, for example, the change in temporal perspective from (Isaiah 39:6–7), where the Babylonian captivity is cast far in the future, to (Isaiah 43:14), where the Israelites are spoken of as already in Babylon.[10] According to scholar R. N. Whybray, the author of Deutero-Isaiah (chapters 40–55) was mistaken for he thought that Cyrus would destroy Babylon but he did not. Cyrus made it more splendid than ever. But he did allow the Jewish exiles to return home, though not in the triumphant manner which Deutero-Isaiah expected.[11]
Who roused from the east him that victory hails at every step? Who presents him with nations, subdues kings to him? His sword makes dust of them and his bow scatters them like straw. He pursues them and advances unhindered, his feet scarcely touching the road. Who is the author of this deed if not he who calls the generations from the beginning? I, the Lord, who am the first and shall be with the last.
— Isaiah 41:2–4
Then the alliance between Cyrus and God is made explicit:
Thus says the Lord to his anointed, to Cyrus, whom he has taken by his right hand to subdue nations before him and strip the loins of kings, to force gateways before him that their gates be closed no more: I will go before you levelling the heights. I will shatter the bronze gateways, smash the iron bars. I will give you the hidden treasures, the secret hoards, that you may know that I am the Lord.
— Isaiah 45:1–3
If we can trust "most modern scholars," the predictions were interpolated into the text after the fact.
