Commentaria in I Esdrae
Chapter 1. Synopsis of the Chapter
Cyrus acknowledges the God of Israel, and gives the Jews leave to return from Babylon into Judea, and commands his governors to help them with their means and resources in rebuilding the city and the temple; he restores the sacred vessels taken from the temple by the Chaldeans. Wherefore the Jews with the Levites joyfully return to their country.
1. In the first year of Cyrus king of the Persians, that the word of the Lord spoken by the mouth of Jeremias might be accomplished, the Lord stirred up the spirit of Cyrus king of the Persians: and he caused a proclamation to be made in all his kingdom, and also by writing, saying: 2. Thus saith Cyrus king of the Persians: The Lord the God of heaven hath given to me all the kingdoms of the earth, and he hath charged me to build him a house in Jerusalem, which is in Judea. 3. Who is there among you of all his people? Let his God be with him. Let him go up to Jerusalem, that is in Judea, and build the house of the Lord the God of Israel: he is the God that is in Jerusalem. 4. And let all the rest, in all places wheresoever they dwell, help him every man from his own place, with silver, and gold, and goods, and cattle, besides what they offer freely to the temple of God, which is in Jerusalem. 5. And the chiefs of the fathers of Juda and Benjamin rose up, and the priests, and the Levites, and all whose spirit God had raised up to go up to build the temple of the Lord, which was in Jerusalem. 6. And all they that were round about, helped their hands with vessels of silver and gold, with substance, and cattle, and furniture, besides what they had offered willingly. 7. King Cyrus also brought forth the vessels of the temple of the Lord, which Nabuchodonosor had taken from Jerusalem and put in the temple of his god. 8. Now Cyrus king of the Persians brought them forth by the hand of Mithridates the son of Gazabar: and numbered them to Sassabasar the prince of Juda. 9. And this is the number of them: Thirty golden bowls, a thousand silver bowls, twenty-nine knives, thirty golden cups, 10. Silver cups of a second sort four hundred and ten: other vessels a thousand. 11. All the vessels of gold and silver were five thousand four hundred: Sassabasar took all with them that came up from the captivity of Babylon to Jerusalem.
1. In the first year of Cyrus king of the Persians—namely the year in which Cyrus transferred the monarchy from the Chaldeans to the Persians. This was therefore the first year of Cyrus not of the Persian kingdom, that is, not the year in which, first made king, he began to reign in Persia, and from which he reigned thirty whole years, as Eusebius and Africanus in the Chronicle, St. Jerome on Zacharias chapter 1, Pererius on Daniel chapter 5, and others will have it; but it was the first year of his monarchy and of the Babylonian kingdom, in which, having overcome Baltassar, and Babylon being taken and overthrown, he transferred it. For he could not have snatched the Jews from the hands of the Babylonians and Chaldeans unless these had been overcome and conquered. This is clear from the words of Cyrus, verse 2, saying: “The Lord hath given to me all the kingdoms of the earth.” Hence in 3 Esdras 6:24 it is said: “In the first year of the reign of Cyrus king of Babylon, king Cyrus wrote that this house should be built,” etc. For although Darius the Mede, uncle of Cyrus, is said to have succeeded to his kingdom when Babylon was taken, Daniel 5, last verse, yet Darius, being an old man, yielded the whole government to his nephew Cyrus, a spirited young man, and, dying in the same year, yielded the whole empire to him. Wherefore Cyrus in that same first year of his monarchy, which was the seventieth and last of the captivity of the Jews in Babylon, thereupon freed them.
Note from Herodotus, Justin, Eusebius, Josephus and others that Cyrus began to reign in Persia in the 55th Olympiad alone; and from that the thirty years of his whole reign are counted; but gradually he extended his empire beyond Persia, and at length stormed Babylon and overthrew the monarchy of the Chaldeans, and made himself monarch; and then he released the captivity of the Jews in Babylon, when the 70 years of captivity, of which Jeremias had prophesied, chapters 25 and 29, were already completed. Cyrus did this in the 27th year of his Persian reign, and so it is more likely that after that he reigned only three years as monarch, Babylon having been taken; for this is taught by the Seder Olam, or Chronicle of the Hebrews, and by the Hebrews everywhere, and by Lyranus on Daniel, Vatablus on Daniel chapter 1 and others, and also by Josephus, book 11 of the Antiquities, chapter 2. Hence Daniel, summing up the years of Cyrus through his deeds, goes no further than the third. Nor does Xenophon stand in the way, Cyropaedia book 8, where he assigns seven years to the rule of Cyrus. Hence Bellarmine, Tornielli, Salianus and Ribera on Zacharias 1, n. 33, think that Cyrus reigned seven years as monarch; but those books were written by Xenophon not so much for the credit of history as to fashion in Cyrus the likeness of a true prince. Again, that sevenfold rule of Cyrus could be understood of Asia, subjugated by him, rather than Babylon. Finally, the third book of Esdras, chapter 5, last verse, is rather to be believed than Xenophon. For there it is said expressly enough that Cyrus reigned only two years from the beginning of the rebuilding of the temple, which, as is plain from this chapter, was begun immediately upon the release of the captivity, that is, in the second year of the monarchy of Cyrus: for that in this second year the Jews began to rebuild the temple Esdras here teaches expressly, chapter 3, verse 8; and chapter 4, verse 6, he relates that the building of the temple was at once hindered by the Cutheans all the days of Cyrus. Josephus teaches the same more clearly, book 11, chapter 2, where he says that the Cutheans hindered it, Cyrus not knowing, being occupied with other business, and especially with the Massagetic war, in which he also perished. Hence also in chapter 3 Esdras relates that the building of the temple, granted by Cyrus in the first year of his monarchy, was suspended for nine years, namely for the two remaining years of Cyrus, and for the six in which Cambyses his son reigned, to whom Darius Hystaspes succeeded, who in the second year of his reign renewed it. Cyrus therefore did not survive seven years, as some think. For how could Cyrus, so favourable to the Jews, for seven years have been ignorant of, or have tolerated, the obstacles put by the Cutheans in the way of the building of the temple? How could the Jews, and especially Daniel, not have informed Cyrus of the whole matter, in person or by envoys? Finally, Herodotus, Justin, Berosus and others write that Cyrus, after the capture of Babylon, waged a last war against the Lydians, who had rebelled, and at length fell in the Massagetic battle. It is credible that Cyrus did all this in three years: for he was most warlike, and impatient of rest. You will ask: Whence did Cyrus receive his name? and what does it signify? First, Strabo, book 15, thinks that Cyrus took his name from the river Cyrus. Secondly, Vilalpandus, part 1 of the Apparatus, book 3, chapter 2, page 131, holds that Cyrus was named from Cyno, that is, a dog, which is feigned to have nursed him, so that Cyrus would be as it were “canine.” For, as Herodotus relates in Clio, Astyages, grandfather of Cyrus, handed the infant Cyrus to Harpagus to expose and destroy him, because he had heard from an oracle that his kingdom would be taken from him by him. Harpagus handed him over to Mithridates, herdsman of Astyages, whose wife was called in the Greek tongue Cyno (kyon), that is, a dog; in the Median, Spaco. For the Medes call a dog spaca. Hence Cyrus, as he grew, used to recall that he had been brought up by the herdsman’s wife, always following her with praises, so that in all his talk there was Cyno. His parents, taking up this name, so that the Persians might think that their son had been divinely preserved, gave out that Cyrus, when exposed, had been brought up by a dog. Hence this fable arose. So Herodotus. Hence also Trogus relates that Cyrus was reared by a dog. But Herodotus does not say that Cyrus was named from Cyno; and Cyrus seems a Persian name, not Greek. Hence Justin, book 1: “The nurse,” he says, “was afterwards called Sparco, because the Persians call a dog spio (since she had taken to herself to rear Cyrus, suckled in the woods by a dog); the boy then, when he was among the shepherds, received the name of Cyrus”: where he makes no mention of Cyno, as if Cyrus were named from it. Thirdly, Suidas, under the word Cyrus: “Cyrus,” he says, “in Greek is kyros, that is Prince, King, because in a game among the youths he gained the authority of rule (which in Greek is kyros). The Persians called Darius a huckster, on account of the tribute imposed; Cambyses, lord; Cyrus, father. For the first sold everything; Cambyses was cruel and rash; Cyrus merciful and zealous for the people’s advantages.” So Suidas; but again he gives Cyrus a Greek etymology, not a Persian. Fourthly therefore, and more truly, Plutarch in the Life of Artaxerxes Mnemon: “Cyrus,” he says, “in Persian is the same as sun”; for the Persians worshipped this as a deity, as they did Cyrus their monarch: hence Jeremias calls Cyrus the deliverer, as it were the sun of the Jews.