How does an invention return?
You should know. We talked about this before, maybe you forgot, here it goes.
Israelis are hailing Trump as Cyrus, the King of Persia, returned. You can see “Cyrus the Great is Alive!” billboards in Jerusalem, comparing Trump to Cyrus the Great. But, who was Cyrus the Great, anyway?
There are a few things we know, for instance, Cyrus the Great was the founder of the Achaemenid Persian empire (550 BCE to 330 BCE). Under Cyrus, the Persian empire stretched across a vast array of territories, beyond modern day Iran. We also know a key moment in this imperial expansion was Cyrus’ capture of Babylon and its surrounding territory, Babylonia, (mostly in modern-day Iraq) in 539 BCE. Soon after he defeated the Babylonian king, Nabonidus, Cyrus issued a decree freeing captive Israelites (and others) in Babylon. We know this from the surviving Nabonidus chronicle clay tablet. Cyrus, according to the version of the story in the Hebrew Bible (OT), had been supposedly commanded by God to rebuild a temple at Jerusalem that Nebuchadnezzar II had destroyed. Just like today Donald Trump was commanded to build the 3rd Temple. Pete Hegseth, Trump's pick for Defense Secretary, proclaimed his heartfelt belief that the Third Temple will be rebuilt in Jerusalem. The decree by Cyrus released the exiles from Babylon, known in the story as Israelites, to return to Jerusalem and rebuild it. For this reason, Cyrus became (and remains) a legendary figure in Jewish history, though he was not Jewish himself and there were no Jews at that time. Only Israelites. He was more likely a devotee of Zoroastrianism embraced by his successors, including Darius I.
It was Persia's Cyrus the Great who invented the Jews. He needed to control the Levant because the Levant gave him access to Egypt, which is historically, the wealth part of the world. So what you do is you set up a group of people in the Levant that are only loyal to you. You set up people in the Levant that only exist because you, the empire, allow them to exist. If you, the empire, did not support them and the locals, everyone in that region would get rid of them right away. And that's why we have the Jews. So the Jews were invented by the Persians to control the Levant.
Important to note, alongside the Jews there were the Samaritans who are Israelites and have stayed in the Levant. So most people around them are, in fact, Israelites who adapted to local circumstances. And that means that they practice different religions. That also means that they married foreign women as well. You also have this small minority of exiles from Babylon who've come back and they're in conflict with everyone else. Over the next few decades is almost a civil war and this is exactly what the Persian Empire want in order to maintain stability in the Levant. This is the dividing rule strategy. So, Persia helped the Jews to reconstitute their nation and build their 2nd temple. Why did Cyrus do that? because when he conquered Babylon, he discovered that these exiled Israelites are really good administrators. They are literate intellectuals and they rise up very high in the Babylon administration. Another reason, the Persians encouraged cultural diversity. They saw the world as a cosmic struggle between good and evil, concepts that profoundly influenced Jewish and Christian theology. So the Jews were invented by the Persians to administer and control the Leavant. Before the Jews were of course the Israelites. Now we have the Jews. So Israel and the Jewish identity are constructs of the imperial imagination.
How does an invention return?
You should know. We talked about this before, maybe you forgot, here it goes.
Israelis are hailing Trump as Cyrus, the King of Persia, returned. You can see “Cyrus the Great is Alive!” billboards in Jerusalem, comparing Trump to Cyrus the Great. But, who was Cyrus the Great, anyway?
There are a few things we know, for instance, Cyrus the Great was the founder of the Achaemenid Persian empire (550 BCE to 330 BCE). Under Cyrus, the Persian empire stretched across a vast array of territories, beyond modern day Iran. We also know a key moment in this imperial expansion was Cyrus’ capture of Babylon and its surrounding territory, Babylonia, (mostly in modern-day Iraq) in 539 BCE. Soon after he defeated the Babylonian king, Nabonidus, Cyrus issued a decree freeing captive Israelites (and others) in Babylon. We know this from the surviving Nabonidus chronicle clay tablet. Cyrus, according to the version of the story in the Hebrew Bible (OT), had been supposedly commanded by God to rebuild a temple at Jerusalem that Nebuchadnezzar II had destroyed. Just like today Donald Trump was commanded to build the 3rd Temple. Pete Hegseth, Trump's pick for Defense Secretary, proclaimed his heartfelt belief that the Third Temple will be rebuilt in Jerusalem. The decree by Cyrus released the exiles from Babylon, known in the story as Israelites, to return to Jerusalem and rebuild it. For this reason, Cyrus became (and remains) a legendary figure in Jewish history, though he was not Jewish himself and there were no Jews at that time. Only Israelites. He was more likely a devotee of Zoroastrianism embraced by his successors, including Darius I.
It was Persia's Cyrus the Great who invented the Jews. He needed to control the Levant because the Levant gave him access to Egypt, which is historically, the wealth part of the world. So what you do is you set up a group of people in the Levant that are only loyal to you. You set up people in the Levant that only exist because you, the empire, allow them to exist. If you, the empire, did not support them and the locals, everyone in that region would get rid of them right away. And that's why we have the Jews. So the Jews were invented by the Persians to control the Levant.
Important to note, alongside the Jews there were the Samaritans who are Israelites and have stayed in the Levant. So most people around them are, in fact, Israelites who adapted to local circumstances. And that means that they practice different religions. That also means that they married foreign women as well. You also have this small minority of exiles from Babylon who've come back and they're in conflict with everyone else. Over the next few decades is almost a civil war and this is exactly what the Persian Empire want in order to maintain stability in the Levant. This is the dividing rule strategy. So, Persia helped the Jews to reconstitute their nation and build their 2nd temple. Why did Cyrus do that? because when he conquered Babylon, he discovered that these exiled Israelites are really good administrators. They are literate intellectuals and they rise up very high in the Babylon administration. Another reason, the Persians encouraged cultural diversity. They saw the world as a cosmic struggle between good and evil, concepts that profoundly influenced Jewish and Christian theology. So the Jews were invented by the Persians to administer and control the Leavant. Before the Jews were of course the Israelites. Now we have the Jews. So Israel and the Jewish identity are constructs of the imperial imagination.
How does an invention return?
You should know. We talked about this before, maybe you forgot, here it goes.
Israelis are hailing Trump as Cyrus, the King of Persia, returned. You can see “Cyrus the Great is Alive!” billboards in Jerusalem, comparing Trump to Cyrus the Great. But, who was Cyrus the Great, anyway?
There are a few things we know, for instance, Cyrus the Great was the founder of the Achaemenid Persian empire (550 BCE to 330 BCE). Under Cyrus, the Persian empire stretched across a vast array of territories, beyond modern day Iran. We also know a key moment in this imperial expansion was Cyrus’ capture of Babylon and its surrounding territory, Babylonia, (mostly in modern-day Iraq) in 539 BCE. Soon after he defeated the Babylonian king, Nabonidus, Cyrus issued a decree freeing captive Israelites (and others) in Babylon. We know this from the surviving Nabonidus chronicle clay tablet. Cyrus, according to the version of the story in the Hebrew Bible (OT), had been supposedly commanded by God to rebuild a temple at Jerusalem that Nebuchadnezzar II had destroyed. Just like today Donald Trump was commanded to build the 3rd Temple. Pete Hegseth, Trump's pick for Defense Secretary, proclaimed his heartfelt belief that the Third Temple will be rebuilt in Jerusalem. The decree by Cyrus released the exiles from Babylon, known in the story as Israelites, to return to Jerusalem and rebuild it. For this reason, Cyrus became (and remains) a legendary figure in Jewish history, though he was not Jewish himself and there were no Jews at that time. Only Israelites. He was more likely a devotee of Zoroastrianism embraced by his successors, including Darius I.
It was Persia's Cyrus the Great invented the Jews. He needed to control the Levant because the Levant gave him access to Egypt, which is historically, the wealth part of the world. So what you do is you set up a group of people in the Levant that are only loyal to you. You set up people in the Levant that only exist because you, the empire, allow them to exist. If you, the empire, did not support them and the locals, everyone in that region would get rid of them right away. And that's why we have the Jews. So the Jews were invented by the Persians to control the Levant.
Important to note, alongside the Jews there were the Samaritans who are Israelites and have stayed in the Levant. So most people around them are, in fact, Israelites who adapted to local circumstances. And that means that they practice different religions. That also means that they married foreign women as well. You also have this small minority of exiles from Babylon who've come back and they're in conflict with everyone else. Over the next few decades is almost a civil war and this is exactly what the Persian Empire want in order to maintain stability in the Levant. This is the dividing rule strategy. So, Persia helped the Jews to reconstitute their nation and build their 2nd temple. Why did Cyrus do that? because when he conquered Babylon, he discovered that these exiled Israelites are really good administrators. They are literate intellectuals and they rise up very high in the Babylon administration. Another reason, the Persians encouraged cultural diversity. They saw the world as a cosmic struggle between good and evil, concepts that profoundly influenced Jewish and Christian theology. So the Jews were invented by the Persians to administer and control the Leavant. Before the Jews were of course the Israelites. Now we have the Jews. So Israel and the Jewish identity are constructs of the imperial imagination.