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The Evidence

Cyrus Named 150 Years Before His Birth

Isaiah 44-45 names Cyrus the Great as Israel's deliverer roughly 150 years before his birth, describing his specific role in rebuilding Jerusalem and releasing the Jewish exiles.

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THE CLAIM

Isaiah 44-45 names Cyrus the Great as Israel's deliverer roughly 150 years before his birth

  1. 1Isaiah names Cyrus approximately 150 yearsThe text
  2. 2The prophecy specifies Cyrus's roleThe text
  3. 3Ezra 1The record
  4. 4The Cyrus Cylinder externally confirms Cyrus's policyThe record
  5. 5The Dead Sea Scroll Great Isaiah ScrollManuscript
  6. 6Jesus and the New Testament cite allThe text

WHERE IT STANDS

Firmly established

high confidence
The tomb of Cyrus at Pasargadae — the king Isaiah named a century and a half before his birth.
The tomb of Cyrus at Pasargadae — the king Isaiah named a century and a half before his birth.Mohammad Reza Domiri Ganji محمدرضا دومیری گنجی · CC BY-SA 4.0

The prophecy

A king called by name before he was born

“That saith of Cyrus, He is my shepherd, and shall perform all my pleasure, even saying of Jerusalem, She shall be built; and of the temple, Thy foundation shall be laid.”

“Thus saith Jehovah to his anointed, to Cyrus, whose right hand I have holden, to subdue nations before him… to open the doors before him, and the gates shall not be shut.”

— Isaiah 44:28; 45:1, ASV · c. 700–680 BC

The record

The Persian archive answers

Cyrus was born about 600–580 BC, took Lydia in 547 BC, and entered Babylon in 539 BC by the drained river bed, its gates unshut (Herodotus 1.191).

In 538 BC he released the Jewish exiles and authorised the temple's rebuilding (Ezra 1:1–4). The Cyrus Cylinder, found in 1879 and now in the British Museum, records the same policy in his own voice: gods returned to their shrines, peoples resettled in their homes.

Josephus adds that Cyrus was shown the passage naming him (Antiquities 11.1.1–2). Even on the critical dating of Isaiah 40–55 to about 540 BC, the naming still precedes the decree.

The span, dated

  1. c. 700–680 BC

    Isaiah names Cyrus

    Isaiah 44:28; 45:1–4 call a future king by name, title him God's shepherd and anointed, and assign him Jerusalem's rebuilding.

  2. c. 600–580 BC

    Cyrus is born

    Roughly a century and a half after the oracle was spoken.

  3. 547 BC

    Lydia falls

    The conquest that first made Cyrus a world-class power — after which the loins of kings were, in Isaiah's phrase, loosed before him.

  4. 539 BC

    Babylon's gates left open

    Herodotus reports the river gates open the night the Euphrates was diverted — Isaiah 45:1, “the gates shall not be shut.”

  5. 538 BC

    The decree releasing the exiles

    Ezra 1:1–4: Cyrus authorises the rebuilding of the Jerusalem temple by name and by decree.

  6. 1879

    The Cyrus Cylinder found

    The king's own account of returning displaced peoples and restoring their sanctuaries — the general policy Ezra records in the particular case.

Sources: Isaiah 44–45; Ezra 1:1–4; Herodotus 1.191; the Cyrus Cylinder (British Museum, found 1879); Josephus, Antiquities 11.1.1–2.

Isaiah 44:28 and 45:1-4 deliver one of Scripture's most startling predictions: God names a future deliverer—Cyrus—by name, approximately 150 years before his birth. Isaiah, writing c. 700-680 BC, declares that Cyrus will be God's 'shepherd' who will say of Jerusalem 'She shall be built,' and of the Temple 'Thy foundation shall be laid.' Cyrus the Great was born around 600-580 BC and issued his famous decree releasing the Jewish exiles in 539/538 BC after conquering Babylon—roughly 160 years after Isaiah's prophecy.

The specificity is remarkable. Isaiah doesn't merely predict 'a deliverer will arise' or 'a Persian king will release the exiles.' He names Cyrus by his actual name, calls him God's 'anointed' (Hebrew: mashiach, typically reserved for kings and priests of Israel), predicts he will subdue nations (Cyrus conquered Media, Lydia, and Babylon), predicts God will 'loose the loins of kings' before him (matching Cyrus's astonishing victories), and predicts he will 'open before him the two leaved gates' (possibly referencing Babylon's famous river gates, which according to Herodotus were left open the night Cyrus's army diverted the Euphrates to enter the city).

The Cyrus Cylinder (discovered 1879, now in the British Museum) provides external confirmation of Cyrus's general policy of returning exiled peoples and restoring their temples—a policy that perfectly matches Ezra 1:1-4 where Cyrus specifically authorizes the rebuilding of the Jerusalem Temple. Josephus (Antiquities 11.1.1-2) records that when Cyrus was shown Isaiah's prophecy naming him, he was moved to fulfill it voluntarily. While Josephus's account may be legendary embellishment, the core historical fact remains: Cyrus released the Jews and authorized the Temple rebuilding.

Critical scholarship almost universally responds to this prophecy by positing 'Deutero-Isaiah'—a second author writing during or after the Babylonian exile (c. 540 BC), making the Cyrus 'prediction' retrospective. This hypothesis, first popularized by J.C. Döderlein (1775) and Bernhard Duhm (1892), divides Isaiah into multiple authors (commonly 1-39, 40-55, and 56-66). However, the unified authorship of Isaiah is supported by: (1) ancient testimony, including the Dead Sea Scroll Great Isaiah Scroll (1QIsa-a, c. 125 BC), which shows no textual division; (2) the New Testament, where John 12:38-41 cites both Isaiah 53:1 (from 'Deutero-Isaiah') and Isaiah 6:10 (from 'First Isaiah') as written by 'Isaiah' without distinction; (3) Jesus in Mark 7:6-7 cites Isaiah 29:13 as 'Isaiah,' and in Luke 4:17-21 He reads from Isaiah 61:1-2 as Isaiah; (4) stylistic unity arguments by Oswalt, Motyer, and Young showing consistent themes, vocabulary, and theology across the 'divisions.'

Even granting the two-Isaiah hypothesis for argument's sake, the timing is still prophetic. Cyrus was not universally recognized as a world-class deliverer until his conquest of Lydia (547 BC) and Babylon (539 BC). A prediction dated anywhere before 550 BC would still precede his major military successes and his decree regarding Jerusalem (538 BC).

The prophecy's specific naming and detailed accuracy stands as among the strongest cases for genuine predictive prophecy in Scripture.

6 pieces of evidence

What this establishes

  1. 01The text

    Isaiah names Cyrus approximately 150 years before his birth

  2. 02The text

    The prophecy specifies Cyrus's role in rebuilding Jerusalem and the Temple

  3. 03The record

    Ezra 1:1-4 records the precise fulfillment via Cyrus's 538 BC decree

  4. 04The record

    The Cyrus Cylinder externally confirms Cyrus's policy of returning exiled peoples

  5. 05Manuscript

    The Dead Sea Scroll Great Isaiah Scroll shows no textual division supporting late composition

  6. 06The text

    Jesus and the New Testament cite all sections of Isaiah as Isaiah's own writing

5 passages

Key verses

Berean Standard Bible

THE RECEIPTS

Sources

  • E. J. Young, The Book of Isaiah (NICOT, Eerdmans, 1965-1972)
  • John N. Oswalt, The Book of Isaiah Chapters 40-66 (NICOT, Eerdmans, 1998)
  • J. Alec Motyer, The Prophecy of Isaiah (IVP, 1993)
  • Josephus, Antiquities of the Jews, Book 11.1
  • Herodotus, Histories, Book 1.190-191
◈Contested pointscontested
  • The 'Deutero-Isaiah' hypothesis (dominant in critical scholarship since 1775) posits a later author writing after Cyrus's rise
  • Stylistic differences between Isaiah 1-39 and 40-66 are cited as evidence of multiple authors
  • The theological focus of Isaiah 40-66 on comfort and restoration fits an exilic-era audience
  • Ancient Near Eastern 'predictive' texts often included actual post-event naming of rulers