Trustworthy History

The Bible tells us that King Cyrus II freed the Jews held captive in Babylon, allowing them to return to Jerusalem and rebuild God’s temple, which the Babylonians had destroyed in 607 B.C.E. (Ezra 1:1-7; 6:3-5) Corroborating this account is a clay document known as the Cyrus Cylinder, discovered in 1879 in the ruins of ancient Babylon. The inscription identifies Cyrus by name and describes his policy of returning previously captured peoples and their religious objects to their native lands.