During the “Persian” Period, which lasted 539 to 333 BCE, the Persian king, Cyrus, prompted the Jews to return to Jerusalem to rebuild the Temple. Because Cyrus opposed and conquered the Babylonian empire, he was viewed by Judean Exiles as great deliverer. The idea of a Persian Messiah contradicted the Promise to David, because the King of Persia was not from the divine line.
The construction of the second temple occurred between 539 BCE to 70 CE. The “2nd Temple” was destroyed in 70 CE by the Romans. Some biblical sources for the Persian Period were Book of Chronicles, Minor Prophets, Books of Ezra, Nehemiah, and “Second” Isaiah. During his exile to Babylon, the Prophet Ezekiel envisioned a new temple, which gave rise to the utopian dream of the new Jerusalem, and Yahweh as a mobile God. Ezekiel declared that once the Ark of the Covenant was placed in the Temple, the Temple itself assumed the same power as the Ark. The Temple alone became the representation of God.
During this period, there were many similarities between Judaism and Zoroastrianism. There came the introduction of another divine but evil being called Satan and angels. Some parts of the Bible were written in Aramaic.
Persian kings sent back Jewish nobles to Jerusalem to become governors, and the line of the High Priest came to replace the Davidic line. Judaism was becoming a religion that didn’t really need a temple. Now, Jews were identified through their acts of prayer, songs, holidays, laws, diet, and reading and interpretation of the Torah.
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