Brian Hamilton

Persian Empire and the End of Exile

I’ve tended to think of Persia’s rise to power in the Old Testament as a blessing rather than a curse, through the eyes of third Isaiah rather than those of Nehemiah or Malachi. It is the end of exile, after all: homecoming requires celebration and thanksgiving! And how generous of Cyrus to offer to rebuild the temple and financially support the sacrificial system and help enforce ancient Jewish law. Yet for every word of celebration these texts offer, there is another word of hardship and despair. I’m beginning to think, in fact, that the hardship and despair ultimately outweigh the celebration—and legitimately, not as mere repetition of Israel’s complaints in the wilderness. Persia’s policies led to a consolidation of power around the temple system which distorted the more traditional vision of its place. Attempts to re-instate the usual trio of king, priest, and prophet quickly failed, and the figure of the high priest (complemented by a new aristocratic class) came to represent all three. Thus the temple ceases to be the place of sacrifice and prayer and becomes also the civic and economic center of Jerusalem, whose tables Jesus will eventually overturn. Persia encouraged and even required the strict enforcement of Jewish law not because of any trust in its value, of course, but because such a policy effectively trades on Israel’s own nostalgia for its glorious past while disciplining her into a proper colony. What Israel failed to see, at first, was that the policy was motivated entirely by Persia’s need for a centralized leadership under its wing, despite Cyrus’ initial facade of obedience to Yhwh. What Persia failed to anticipate, on the other hand, was the peculiar power of Torah. God continued to raise up prophets, calling Israel away from unfaithfulness and back to the obedience of the law. Ultimately, the kind of readers of Torah that developed in the midst of the centralization of the temple cult, readers committed to the law and skilled in its interpretation, would together with the prophets come to embody another option that could survive even the second destruction of the temple: a people of the book.

1 September 2007 |
tags: Old Testament, Torah