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====Religious practices of Cyrus==== | ====Religious practices of Cyrus==== | ||
There is some uncertainty about the personal religious beliefs of Cyrus, though he was widely praised for religious tolerance. Supporters of the Cyrus theory claim he followed Zoroastrianism, which they also claim is monotheistic. However, the Encyclopedia Iranica in its online article on Cyrus, in a section on his religious policies, notes | There is some uncertainty about the personal religious beliefs of Cyrus, though he was widely praised for religious tolerance. Supporters of the Cyrus theory claim he followed Zoroastrianism, which they also claim is monotheistic. However, the Encyclopedia Iranica in its online article on Cyrus, in a section on his religious policies, notes the following:<ref>{{cite web |url=https://iranicaonline.org/articles/cyrus-iiI|title=CYRUS iii. Cyrus II The Great|publisher=Encyclopedia Iranica |website=iranicaonline.org}}</ref> | ||
* Babylonian texts record that Cyrus "restored the statues of the Babylonian gods to their sanctuaries" | |||
* In a temple in Uruk he called himself "caretaker of the temples of Esagila and Ezida," respectively the sanctuaries of Marduk in Babylon and Nabû in Borsippa | |||
* In another inscription, from Ur, he boasted that "the great gods have delivered all the lands into my hands" | |||
* On the Cyrus cylinder he claimed that the god Marduk had ordered him to become ruler of the whole world and to treat the Babylonians with justice | |||
* According to the same text, the idols that Nabonidus had brought to Babylon from various other Babylonian cities were reinstalled in their former sanctuaries, as were the statues of alien gods from Susa and the cities of northern Mesopotamia. The ruined temples of Babylonia, Elam, and what had been Assyria were reconstructed. | |||
A translation of the Cyrus Cylinder by Irvin Finkel of the British Museum includes the following lines: | |||
{{Quote|Cyrus Cylinder translated by Irvin Finkel<ref>{{cite web |url=https://www.worldhistory.org/article/166/the-cyrus-cylinder/ |title=The Cyrus Cylinder |last=Simonin |first=Antoine |publisher=worldhistory.org |date=2012 |website=worldhistory.org}}</ref>|"Marduk, the great lord, rejoiced at [my good] deeds [...] From [Shuanna] I sent back to their places to the city of Ashur and Susa, | |||
Akkad, the land of Eshnunna, the city of Zamban, the city of Meturnu, Der, as far as the border of the land of Guti - the sanctuaries across the river Tigris - whose shrines had earlier become dilapidated, the gods who lived therein, and made permanent sanctuaries for them. [...] I collected together all of their people and returned them to their settlements, and the gods of the land of Sumer and Akkad which Nabonidus – to the fury of the lord of the gods – had brought into Shuanna, at the command of Marduk, the great lord, I returned them unharmed to their cells, in the sanctuaries that make them happy. May all the gods that I returned to their sanctuaries, every day before Bel and Nabu, ask for a long life for me, and mention my good deeds, and say to Marduk, my lord, this: 'Cyrus, the king who fears you [...] May Marduk, the great lord, present to me as a gift a long life and the fullness of age"}} | |||
====Questions from the People of the Book==== | ====Questions from the People of the Book==== | ||