Cyrus ;prophet or king- first to implement human rights?

  Everybody knows where Cyrus the Great’s tomb is. It attracts hundreds of tourists every year. What’s all the fuss about? He was a great king. OK. But there were other great kings, too. Did he do something hugely different? Yes. He established the first Human Rights Declaration. Something that was unprecedented and remained unique for tens of centuries later. In this article, we’re going to read about the first Human Rights Declaration. It is also known as the Cyrus Cylinder.From Babylon, the idea of human rights spread quickly to India, Greece and eventually Rome. There the concept of “natural law” arose, in observation of the fact that people tended to follow certain unwritten laws in the course of life, and Roman law was based on rational ideas derived from the nature of things.

Documents asserting individual rights, such as the Magna Carta (1215), the Petition of Right (1628), the US Constitution (1787), the French Declaration of the Rights of Man and of the Citizen (1789), and the US Bill of Rights (1791) are the written precursors to many of today’s human rights documents.

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The Magna Carta

Around the year 1285 (1879-1882), while excavating in Babylon (Mesopotamia), the Iranian archaeologist Hormuzd Rassam found a small cylinder made of baked clay (23 cm). It contained an inscription from Cyrus the Great. It was what we today know as the Cyrus Cylinder, or the first Human Rights Declaration.Cyrus was born between 590 and 580 BCE, either in Media or, more probably, in Persis, the modern Fārs province of Iran. The meaning of his name is in dispute, for it is not known whether it was a personal name or a throne name given to him when he became a ruler. It is noteworthy that after the Achaemenian empire the name does not appear again in sources relating to Iran, which may indicate some special sense of the name.

Most scholars agree, however, that Cyrus the Great was at least the second of the name to rule in Persia. One cuneiform text in Akkadian—the language of Mesopotamia (present-day Iraq) in the pre-Christian era—asserts he was the The most important source for his life is the Greek historian Herodotus. The idealized biography by Xenophon is a work for the edification of the Greeks concerning the ideal ruler, rather than a historical treatise. It does, however, indicate the high esteem in which Cyrus was held, not only by his own people, the Persians, but by the Greeks and others. Herodotus says that the Persians called Cyrus their father, while later Achaemenian rulers were not so well regarded. The story of the childhood of Cyrus, as told by Herodotus with echoes in Xenophon, may be called a Cyrus legend since it obviously follows a pattern of folk beliefs about the almost superhuman qualities of the founder of a dynasty. Similar beliefs also exist about the founders of later dynasties throughout the history of Iran. According to the legend, Astyages, the king of the Medes and overlord of the Persians, gave his daughter in marriage to his vassal in Persis, a prince called Cambyses. From this marriage Cyrus was born. Astyages, having had a dream that the baby would grow up to overthrow him, ordered Cyrus slain. His chief adviser, however, instead gave the baby to a shepherd to raise. When he was 10 years old, Cyrus, because of his outstanding qualities, was discovered by Astyages, who, in spite of the dream, was persuaded to allow the boy to live. Cyrus, when he reached manhood in Persis, revolted against his maternal grandfather and overlord. Astyages marched against the rebel, but his army deserted him and surrendered to Cyrus in 550 BCE.

After inheriting the empire of the Medes, Cyrus first had to consolidate his power over Iranian tribes on the Iranian plateau before expanding to the west. Croesus, king of Lydia in Asia Minor (Anatolia), had enlarged his domains at the expense of the Medes when he heard of the fall of Astyages, and Cyrus, as successor of the Median king, marched against Lydia. Sardis, the Lydian capital, was captured in 547 or 546, and Croesus was either killed or burned himself to death, though according to other sources he was taken prisoner by Cyrus and well treated. The Ionian Greek cities on the Aegean Sea coast, as vassals of the Lydian king, now became subject to Cyrus, and most of them submitted after short sieges. Several revolts of the Greek cities were later suppressed with severity. Next Cyrus turned to Babylonia, where the dissatisfaction of the people with the ruler Nabonidus gave him a pretext for invading the lowlands. The conquest was quick, for even the priests of Marduk, the national deity of the great metropolis of Babylon, had become estranged from Nabonidus. In October 539 BCE, the greatest city of the ancient world fell to the Persians.

In the Bible (e.g., Ezra 1:1–4), Cyrus is famous for freeing the Jewish captives in Babylonia and allowing them to return to their homeland. Cyrus was also tolerant toward the Babylonians and others. He conciliated local populations by supporting local customs and even sacrificing to local deities. The capture of Babylon delivered not only Mesopotamia into the hands of Cyrus but also Syria and Palestine, which had been conquered previously by the Babylonians. The ruler of Cilicia in Asia Minor had become an ally of Cyrus when the latter marched against Croesus, and Cilicia retained a special status in Cyrus’s empire. Thus it was by diplomacy as well as force of arms that he established the largest empire known until his time.

Cyrus seems to have had several capitals. One was the city of Ecbatana, modern Hamadan, former capital of the Medes, and another was a new capital of the empire, Pasargadae, in Persis, said to be on the site where Cyrus had won the battle against Astyages. The ruins today, though few, arouse admiration in the visitor. Cyrus also kept Babylon as a winter capital.

No Persian chauvinist, Cyrus was quick to learn from the conquered peoples. He not only conciliated the Medes but united them with the Persians in a kind of dual monarchy of the Medes and Persians. Cyrus had to borrow the traditions of kingship from the Medes, who had ruled an empire when the Persians were merely their vassals. A Mede was probably made an adviser to the Achaemenian king, as a sort of chief minister; on later reliefs at Persepolis, a capital of the Achaemenian kings from the time of Darius, a Mede is frequently depicted together with the great king. The Elamites, indigenous inhabitants of Persis, were also the teachers of the Persians in many ways, as can be seen, for example, in the Elamite dress worn by Persians and by Elamite objects carried by them on the stone reliefs at Persepolis. There also seems to have been little innovation in government and rule, but rather a willingness to borrow, combined with an ability to adapt what was borrowed to the new empire. Cyrus was undoubtedly the guiding genius in the creation not only of a great empire but in the formation of Achaemenian culture and civilization.

Little is known of the family life of Cyrus. He had two sons, one of whom, Cambyses, succeeded him; the other, Bardiya (Smerdis of the Greeks), was probably secretly put to death by Cambyses after he became ruler. Cyrus had at least one daughter, Atossa (who married her brother Cambyses), and possibly two others, but they played no role in history.

When Cyrus defeated Astyages he also inherited Median possessions in eastern Iran, but he had to engage in much warfare to consolidate his rule in this region. After his conquest of Babylonia, he again turned to the east, and Herodotus tells of his campaign against nomads living east of the Caspian Sea. According to the Greek historian, Cyrus was at first successful in defeating the ruler of the nomads—called the Massagetai—who was a woman, and captured her son. On the son’s committing suicide in captivity, his mother swore revenge and defeated and killed Cyrus. Herodotus’s story may be apocryphal, but Cyrus’s conquests in Central Asia were probably genuine, since a city in farthest Sogdiana was called Cyreschata, or Cyropolis, by the Greeks, which seems to prove the extent of his Eastern conquests.It is a testimony to the capability of the founder of the Achaemenian empire that it continued to expand after his death and lasted for more than two centuries. But Cyrus was not only a great conqueror and administrator; he held a place in the minds of the Persian people similar to that of Romulus and Remus in Rome or Moses for the Israelites. His saga follows in many details the stories of hero and conquerors from elsewhere in the ancient world. The manner in which the baby Cyrus was given to a shepherd to raise is reminiscent of Moses in the bulrushes in Egypt, and the overthrow of his tyrannical grandfather has echoes in other myths and legends. There is no doubt that the Cyrus saga arose early among the Persians and was known to the Greeks. The sentiments of esteem or even awe in which Persians held him were transmitted to the Greeks, and it was no accident that Xenophon chose Cyrus to be the model of a ruler for the lessons he wished to impart to his fellow Greeks.

In short, the figure of Cyrus has survived throughout history as more than a great man who founded an empire. He became the epitome of the great qualities expected of a ruler in antiquity, and he assumed heroic features as a conqueror who was tolerant and magnanimous as well as brave and daring. His personality as seen by the Greeks influenced them and Alexander the Great, and, as the tradition was transmitted by the Romans, may be considered to influence our thinking even now. In the year 1971, Iran celebrated the 2,500th anniversary of the founding of the monarchy by Cyrus.A brilliant military strategist, Cyrus vanquished the king of the Medes, then integrated all the Iranian tribes, whose skill at fighting on horseback gave his army great mobility. His triumph over Lydia, in Asia Minor near the Aegean Sea, filled his treasury with that country’s tremendous wealth.The benevolent nature of Cyrus’s reign took many forms. He placated the formerly powerful Medes by involving them in government. He adopted habits of dress and ornamentation from the Elamites. Across his conquered lands, he returned images of gods that had been seized in battle and hoarded in Babylon. And in Babylon itself, he publicly worshipped the city’s revered Marduk.

Cyrus’s most renowned act of mercy was to free the captive Jews, whom Nebuchadrezzar II had forced into exile in Babylon. Cyrus allowed them to return to their promised land. The Jews praised the Persian emperor in scripture as a savior to whom God gave power over other kingdoms so that he would restore them to Jerusalem and allow them to rebuild their Temple.

The ark of covenent; old theory of communicating god?

 When in doubt, Judaism rejects actual indications of other worldliness, liking rather to zero in on activities and convictions. Without a doubt, the tale of Judaism starts with Abraham who, as indicated by old sources, broken the symbols that were the regular technique for strict recognition at that point. Love of graven pictures is cruelly denounced all through the Torah, and maybe the best sin the Israelites all in all dedicated was the development of the Golden Calf (in Ex. 32), proposed to fill in as an actual mediator among them and God. Today, Jews don't love any sacred relics or man-made images. 

However, throughout the entire existence of the Jewish public, there was one exemption for this standard. One man-made article was viewed as naturally blessed - the Ark of the Covenant. 

Built during the Israelites' wanderings in the desert and utilized until the obliteration of the First Temple, the Ark was the main image of the Jewish confidence, and filled in as the lone actual appearance of God on earth. The legends related with this article - and the cruel punishments credited for any individual who abuses it - affirm the Ark's centrality to the Jewish confidence of that period; the way that Jews and non-Jews the same proceed to examine and mimic it affirms its centrality even today.The development of the Ark is told by God to Moses while the Jews were as yet set up camp at Sinai (Ex. 25:10-22; 37:1-9). The Ark was a crate with the elements of over two cubits long, by one-and-a-half cubits in tallness, by one-and-a-half cubits in width (a cubit is around 18 inches). It was built of acacia wood, and was plated with unadulterated gold, all around. On the lower part of the crate, four gold rings were joined, through which two shafts, likewise made of acacia and covered in gold, were put. The group of Kehath, of the clan of Levi, would convey the ark on their shoulders utilizing these posts. 

Creative delivering of the Ark of the Covenant 

Covering the case was the kapporet an unadulterated gold covering that was more than two by one-and-a-half cubits. Joined to the kapporet were two etched Cherubs, likewise made of unadulterated gold. The two Cherubs confronted each other, and their wings, which folded over their bodies, contacted between them. 

The substance of the Ark has been bantered as the centuries progressed. The overall agreement is that the primary tablets containing the Ten Commandments, which were broken by Moses, and the subsequent tablets, which stayed flawless, were contained in the Ark (Bava Batra 14b). As per one assessment in the Talmud, the two Tablets were together in the Ark; as indicated by another, there were two Arks, and each contained one bunch of Tablets (Berakhot 8b). 

The Ark was worked by Bezalel, child of Uri, child of Hur, who developed the whole Tabernacle – the versatile Temple utilized in the desert and during the success of the place that is known for Israel. The Tabernacle was the resting place for the Ark, and furthermore contained different vessels that were utilized in the actual love of God. The Biblical pundits squabble about why God told Moses to construct a Tabernacle in any case: According to Rashi (Ex. 31:18), God acknowledged after the wrongdoing of the Golden Calf that the Israelites required a source for actual love, and instructed that they fabricate the Tabernacle as a method of communicating their own requirement for actual portrayal of God. As per Nachmanides (Ex. 25:1), in any case, the Jews were instructed to construct the Tabernacle even before the transgression of the Golden Calf; instead of filling a human need, the Tabernacle was God's technique for accomplishing nonstop disclosure in the Israelites' camp. These two suppositions regarding whether the Tabernacles, and the Temples that followed them, were a deduced need or a fundamental evil show the dubious part of actual love in Judaism overall. 

The Role of the Ark 

The Ark was utilized in the desert and in Israel appropriate for various otherworldly and practical purposes. Basically, God utilized the Ark as a marker of when he needed the country to travel, and when to stop. In the voyaging arrangement in the desert, the Ark was conveyed 2000 cubits in front of the country (Num. R. 2:9). As per one midrash, it would make the way for the country by consuming snakes, scorpions, and thistles with two planes of fire that shot from its underside (T. VaYakhel, 7); another midrash says that as opposed to being conveyed by its conveyors, the Ark indeed conveyed its carriers crawls over the ground (Sotah 35a). At the point when the Israelites did battle in the desert and during the vanquishing of Canaan, the Ark went with them; regardless of whether its quality was emblematic, to give inspiration to the Jews, or whether it really helped them in battling, is bantered by pundits. 

Profoundly, the Ark was the sign of God's actual presence on earth (the shekhina). At the point when God talked with Moses in the Tent of Meeting in the desert, he did as such from between the two Cherubs (Num. 7:89). When the Ark was moved into the Holy of Holies in the Tabernacle, and later in the Temple, it was available just once every year, and afterward, exclusively by one individual. On Yom Kippur, the High Priest (Kohen Gadol) could enter the Holy of Holies to ask absolution for himself and for all the country of Israel (Lev. 16:2). 

The connection between the Ark and the shekhina is built up by the repetitive theme of mists. God's quality is every now and again found in the pretense of a cloud in the Bible (Ex. 24:16), and the Ark is continually joined by mists: When God talked from between the Cherubs, there was a gleaming cloud noticeable there (Ex. 40:35); when the Jews voyaged, they were driven by the Ark and a mainstay of mists (Num. 10:34); around evening time, the mainstay of mists was supplanted by a mainstay of fire, another normal descriptor of God's appearance (Ex. 24:17); and when the High Priest entered presence of the Ark on Yom Kippur, he did as such just under the front of a haze of incense, maybe expected to veil seeing the shekhina in the entirety of its brilliance (Lev. 16:13). 

The heavenliness of the Ark additionally made it risky to the individuals who interacted with it. At the point when Nadav and Avihu, the children of Aaron, carried an unfamiliar fire to offer a penance in the Tabernacle, they were eaten up by a fire that radiated "from the Lord" (Lev. 10:2). During the adventure of the catch of the Ark by the Philistines, various individuals, including some who only took a gander at the Ark, were killed by its force. Likewise, the Priests who served in the Tabernacle and Temple were informed that review the Ark at an ill-advised time would bring about quick passing (Num. 4:20). 

History of the Ark 

The Ark went with the Jews all through their time in the desert, going with them and going with them to their conflicts with Emor and Midian. At the point when the Jews crossed into the place that is known for Canaan, the waters of the Jordan River marvelously split and the Ark drove them through (Josh. 3). All through their success of the land, the Jews were joined by the Ark. The most sensational show of its influence comes when the Jews penetrated the dividers of Jericho simply by circumnavigating them, blowing horns and conveying the Ark (Josh. 6). 

After the victory was finished, the Ark, and the whole Tabernacle, were set up in Shiloh (Josh. 18) . There they stayed until the clashes of the Jews with the Philistines during the Priesthood of Eli. The Jews, subsequent to enduring a loss at the Philistines' hands, took the Ark from Shiloh to Even-Ezer in order to win the following fight. Yet, the Jews were directed, and the Ark was caught by the Philistines. Back in Shiloh, Eli, the High Priest, promptly kicked the bucket after hearing the news (I Sam. 4). 

The Philistines returned the Ark to Ashdod, their capital city in the south of Canaan, where they set it in the sanctuary of their god Dagon. The following day, in any case, they discovered the symbol fallen all over. In the wake of supplanting the sculpture, they thought that it was the following day executed, with just its trunk remaining, and soon subsequently, the whole city of Ashdod was hit with a plague. The Philistines moved the Ark to the city of Gath, and from that point to Ekron, however whatever city the Ark was in, the occupants were hit with plague. Following seven months, the Philistines chose to send the Ark back to the Israelites, and went with it with costly blessings. The Ark was returned to Beit Shemesh, and, as per midrash, the bulls pulling the Ark burst into melody when it was indeed in Israel's ownership (A.Z. 22b). The genuine content of the story, notwithstanding, tells a lot grimmer story: The men of Beit Shemesh were rebuffed for gazing discourteously at the Ark, and many were killed with a plague. 

The Church of St. Mary. The Treasury that is said to contain the Ark is behind the scenes on the left. 

From Beit Shemesh, the Ark was shipped to Kiryat Yearim, where it stayed for a very long time. From that point, King David moved it to Jerusalem. On the way, notwithstanding, the bulls pulling it staggered, and when Uzzah connected with consistent the Ark, he kicked the bucket right away. Because of this misfortune, David chose to leave the Ark at the home of Obed-edom the Gittite. After 90 days, he moved it to Jerusalem, the seat of his realm, where it stayed until the development of the First Temple by David's child Solomon (I Sam. 5-6). At the point when the Ark was at last positioned in the Temple, the midrash reports that the brilliant tree beautifications that decorated the dividers bloomed with natural product that developed persistently until the Temple's annihilation (Yoma 39b). 

The Ark's Whereabouts 

The Ark stayed in the Temple until its annihilation on account of the Babylonian domain, driven by Nebuchadnezzar. What befell it subsequently is obscure, and has been discussed and considered for quite a long time. It is improbable that the Babylonians took it, as they did different vessels of the Temple, in light of the fact that the nitty gritty arrangements of what they took make no notice of the Ark. As indicated by certain sources, Josiah, one of the last lords to reign in the First Temple time frame, learned.from the above sources we can come to the common opinion that ark is a medium sent to man kind to communicate with god,but we lost it and now struggling hard to re establish the connection.is it possible?