Cyrus the Great of Persia captured Babylon in 539 BCE and, the following year, ended the exile, permitting Jews to return to Jerusalem and rebuild the Temple there. The biblical account attributes this to a specific decree naming Judah; the Cyrus Cylinder, the closest surviving contemporary document, describes a broader Persian policy of restoring displaced peoples and their cults rather than naming Judah specifically, and modern scholars are divided on whether a document as precise as the one Ezra describes ever existed, though a general Persian restoration policy covering Judah is not itself in serious doubt.
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Disputed
Start YearSourced to the subject's own account538 BCE, the year after Cyrus captured Babylon; whether a specific decree naming Judah, as Ezra describes, is historical, or whether this reflects a broader Persian restoration policy the biblical account has narrowed to one nation, is a live and named scholarly disagreement. Dates
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How Judaism Returned to Zion Under Cyrus
This article records tradition as it has been passed down and reported. Its sources are not yet part of the atlas's verified catalogue.
Cyrus the Great of Persia captured Babylon in 539 BCE, and the following year he ended the exile, permitting the Jews who had been displaced to return to Jerusalem and rebuild the Temple there. The biblical account attributes the return to a specific decree naming Judah by name.
The Cyrus Cylinder, the closest surviving contemporary document to the event, tells a broader story: a Persian policy of restoring displaced peoples and their cults generally, rather than a decree naming Judah specifically. Modern scholars remain divided on whether a document as precise as the one the biblical Book of Ezra describes ever existed in that exact form, though a general Persian restoration policy that covered Judah among other peoples is not itself seriously in doubt on either reading of the evidence.
What this changed for Judaism's spread was the reversal of exile: a return to Zion and the rebuilding of the Temple, made possible by an empire's broader policy of restoration rather than, on the Cylinder's own account, by any decree naming Judah specifically. Whether by a named decree or a general Persian practice, the return under Cyrus restored a Jewish presence in Jerusalem and gave the Temple a second life after its destruction.
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This source names Babylon directly: "Cyrus the Great of Persia captured Babylon in 539 BCE and, the following year, ended the exile, permitting Jews to return to Jerusalem and rebuild the Temple there."
This source names Jerusalem directly: "exile, permitting Jews to return to Jerusalem and rebuild the Temple there."
This source names Persians directly: "Cyrus the Great of Persia captured Babylon in 539 BCE and, the following year, ended the exile, permitting Jews to return to Jerusalem and rebuild the Temple there."
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Jerusalem, in ancient Judea, corresponding to modern Israel.
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