maintaining their religion outside the Land of Israel, thus laying the theo-
logical basis for Jewish life in the diaspora. In addition, Jeremiah predicted
a return to Zion within seventy years, thus laying one of the cornerstones of
the Jewish belief in the Messianic Age.
Once the possibility of Jewish life in the diaspora was sanctioned by
Jeremiah, the Israelite religion was transformed to suit these radically new
circumstances. This marked the birth of what eventually matured into
Judaism. This transformation consisted primarily of four elements. First, the
God of Israel was redefined from a national deity into the sovereign God of
history, thus explaining world events, exile, and suffering as part of God’s
divine plan. Second, the centrality of the laws of the Torah now overshadowed
the promise of the Land of Israel. Third, there was a concomitant reprioritiz-
ing of the nature of holiness, with holiness of time superseding holiness of
place. The Sabbath, for example, became a temporal temple, in lieu of the
destroyed Temple in Jerusalem. Finally, the people of Israel were now under-
stood to be God’s servants. This new understanding of the religion solved
three problems at once: it allowed religion to continue in exile, it provided a
theological explanation for the destruction of Jerusalem, and it provided hope
for the future, with a notion of ultimate redemption and restoration.
One of the first applications of the notion of a universal God came in 538,
when Babylonia was conquered quickly and effortlessly by Persia. The
prophet Deutero-Isaiah described the Persian king Cyrus as the agent of
God’s vengeance on Babylonia. The ease with which Babylon fell affirmed the
omnipotence of the God of Israel. Soon afterward, Cyrus issued his Edict of
Restoration, which allowed for a restoration of a Jewish community in the
Land of Israel and for the Temple to be rebuilt at Persian expense. His reasons
for doing so were twofold: First, he wanted to create a stable community of
loyal subjects on the Egyptian border, in light of the fact that Egypt was
always a potential source of resistance. Second, such edicts were typical of
Persian policy, which, as a rule, allowed indigenous cultures to run their own
affairs as long as they were loyal and not disruptive.
Despite Cyrus’s edict, no mass of Jews returned to Israel during the
530s. The Land of Israel was far from Babylonia, and the journey very dan-
gerous. Also, Jews were well established in Babylon. That Jews were
comfortable under Persian rule is attested to by the story of Esther. In this
tale, the title character rises to the rank of queen, and her uncle Mordechai
becomes the royal vizier after defeating his predecessor. At the end of the
story, the Jews, faced with mortal danger, kill scores of the would-be
assailants, many of whom are frightened by the imposing nature of the
newly appointed Jewish vizier.
Those who did return, therefore, were the boldest and the most dedicated
to rebuilding the Temple and the land. They arrived to find Jerusalem in
ruins, without walls, and were vulnerable to attacks and raids by the local
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