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Bibliothèque Nationale de France, Paris
Cyrus’s rule ended the Jews’ half-century-long Exile in Babylon. But the Book of Isaiah goes so far as to call Cyrus, a non-Jew, God’s “messiah” (in Greek, christos, or christ)—a title reserved for the legitimate king of Judah. (Only later did the title come to be used for a hoped-for apocalyptic savior.) Why does Isaiah call Cyrus “messiah”? Because, Lisbeth S. Fried suggests in the accompanying article, Cyrus acted just the way Isaiah thought a messiah should act: He returned order to the world.