The Hebrews, Babylonians, Assyrians, and Persians all interpreted historical events through their unique lenses that were shaped by differing religious, political, and cultural worldviews. Each civilization wanted to find ways to explain historical events to affirm their values, therefore each interpretation had it’s own unique elements.
One of the biggest similarities is their use of religion to explain historical events. For example, the Hebrews saw such events as having to do with their covenant with Yahweh, and when something particularly disasterous happened, they saw it was punishment for straying away from God. they reinforced this idea with the teaching of prophets such as Jeremiah, claiming the destruction of Jerusalem was a consequence of the sins of people. Similarly, the Babylonians and Assyrians saw their victories as favor from their gods, and that a victory in battle was an endorsement of their empire from the gods.
The Hebrews view on suffering differed greatly from those of the Assyrians and Babylonians. While these two civilizations saw expansion as a demonstration of their god’s power, Hebrews saw it more like a test from God. While their conquerors often wrote about their victories very grandly, praising their rulers, Hebrew writings would often contain more self critical writings. The Hebrew bible does not flat out justify conquest, instead it questions why suffering must happen and includes moral lessons.
Finally, the Persians offered a much different approach than other empires, for Cyrus the Great was for policies of religious and cultural tolerance. In contrast to the conquerors of Babylonia and Assyria, Cyrus the Great was seen as a liberator according to the Cyrus Cylinder. This does contrast with the perspective Hebrews had, which was that he was an instrument used by Yahweh to bring exiled Jews back to Jerusalem. This shows that while Persians saw themselves as kind rulers, able to keep order with divine favor, Hebrews still saw things throw a more religious viewpoint.
To conclude, while all these civilizations saw historical events through religious lenses, they were different in how they viewed conquest, suffering, and government.
I enjoyed reading your post which can be summarised as ” the war of gods”. I was left hungrier for critics which is my view the cultural and socio-economic factors also contributed much more to the events that shaped the historical calendar of the Hebrew conquerors. well done, for expounding on the biblical and historical insights of this subject.
Hi, thanks for a brilliant post. Taking your time to compare the similarities and difference between the Hebrews and their conquerors. Writing about the tolerance approach of the Persians (Cyrus Cylinder) is very important. Thumbs up.
Great post Deanna. You’ve researched the question thoroughly and generated some really insightful analysis. I particularly like your thoughts around the ‘discomfort’ that the Hebrews felt around military conquest. They never were very good at it, and the example of Saul demonstrates that they were even willing to disobey God in the name of ‘mercy’.
That self-critical aspect of the Hebrew Bible is one of the reasons that billions of people still read them today. In contrast, few people (apart from academics) care about what the Babylonians or Assyrians had to say about anything.