Biblical Profile: The Medes and Persians

The Medes and Persians

The Medes (around 850–549 BC)

The early Medes left no written records. According to an inscription from Shalmaneser III of Assyria (858–824 BC), the Medes had settled around Ecbatana, their capital (modern Hamadan, Iran), by the mid-800s BC. The Medes were renowned horse breeders, so Shalmaneser raided their territory to steal large herds of fine horses. The Medes were subject to the Assyrians until the late 600s, when they gained their independence as Assyria weakened.

The Persians (around 700–549 BC)

Around 700 BC, a small kingdom of Persia was established under Achaemenes, who ruled around 700~675 BC. His son Teispes (675~640 BC) was under the domination of the Medes, who were gathering forces to overthrow Assyria. But trouble for the Medes later freed Teispes from their control. Cambyses (600~559 BC), son of Cyrus I and grandson of Teispes, married the daughter of the Median king Astyages; their son was Cyrus II (559–530 BC), who ascended the throne of Persia in 559 BC.

The Medo-Persian Empire (549–331 BC)

Cyrus II fought and defeated his grandfather, Astyages of Media, in 549 BC. He made Ecbatana in Media his capital and set up his archives there (see Ezra 6:1-5). With a Persian father and Median mother, Cyrus II embodied the joining of Media and Persia.

Cyrus exhibited an attitude of benevolence and generosity toward defeated enemies. A capable military leader, Cyrus invaded Asia Minor and defeated Croesus, king of Lydia, and brought the Greek cities of the area into subjection. In 539 BC, he captured Babylon with virtually no resistance and decreed that exiled peoples could return to their homelands to rebuild their temples (see Ezra 1:1-4).

The son of Cyrus, Cambyses II (529–522 BC), conquered Egypt, but the empire nearly disintegrated when he committed suicide. Cambyses was succeeded by Darius I (521–486 BC), the son of Hystaspes, satrap of Parthia. Darius, an energetic and efficient administrator, put down internal revolts and consolidated the empire into twenty provinces, each under a satrap or “protector of the kingdom,” with inspectors (“the ears of the king”) to check on the activities of the satraps. Darius changed the principal capital of Persia to Persepolis, where a tremendous palace complex was eventually constructed. Darius was a follower of Zoroaster and a worshiper of Ahura Mazda, the principal god of Zoroastrianism, as were Xerxes and Artaxerxes after him.

During the latter part of Darius’s reign, he suffered defeat at the hands of the Greeks at Marathon (491 BC).

Darius was succeeded by his son Khshayarsha, better known as Xerxes in Greek or as Ahasuerus in Hebrew. During his rule (486–465 BC), the Persian fleet was defeated by the Greeks at Salamis (480 BC).

The loss of the empire has been attributed to the cowardice of Darius III (336–330 BC), whose armies were defeated by Alexander the Great at Issus in 333 BC and ultimately at Gaugamela, near modern Erbil (Arbela) in 331 BC.

Persia and the Bible

The earliest mention of Persia in Israel’s history is in Isaiah 44:28–45:13, a predictive prophecy that was given to Isaiah more than 150 years before Cyrus captured Babylon and decreed the return of the exiled Jews to Jerusalem. The rest of the biblical references to Persia occur in the later period of Old Testament history (Ezra, Nehemiah, Esther) and in the writings of the exilic and postexilic prophets (Daniel, Zephaniah, Haggai). Persia is portrayed in Scripture as a stern but usually benevolent master that generally let the Jews govern themselves and worship in their own way. Nevertheless, the fact that the postexilic community of Judea was under foreign rule was never far from their minds.

Passages for Further Study

Ezra 4:5-7