An Article Review on

Albertz, Rainer. “Darius in Place of Cyrus: The First Edition of Deutero-Isaiah (Isaiah
40.1-52:12) in 521 BCE.” JSOT 27 (2003): 371-383.

Introduction

Deutero-Isaiah is generally consented to be an exilic book written by an anonymous

author. The mention of Cyrus is considered as one among the fundamental reasons for this
consent.1 Albertz rejects this traditional consent and opts for a later dating of Deutero-Isaiah
or more rightly assumes a “long redactional history” for the book.2 By dating Deutero-Isaiah
to a later date, he questions the focus on Cyrus in Deter-Isaiah, who is confined to the exilic
or the immediate postexilic period.3

The Historical Background

He begins this section by questioning the validity of the prophetical announcements of

Deutero-Isaiah concerning the downfall of Babylon (Isaiah 47) which failed to have fulfilled.4
Rather the Persian emperor Cyrus is proposed by R. Albertz to have entered Babylon
“peacefully” with the well wishes of the majority of its population.5 The frontiers of Cyrus’s
regime since include a vast empire, his relation with the Jews is considered to be not
outstanding. Albertz regards the edict of Cyrus on rebuilding and renovating the Jerusalem
temple as only part of his acts “when he (had) put the Babylonian temples in order.”6
Moreover he observes a temporal gap between the edict of Cyrus and the actual return of the
exiles and rebuilding of the Temple, which for him his hard to reconcile.7 However this
contradicts his above statement of Cyrus’s religious renovations. In the second part of this
section, based on these arguments, Albertz attempts to place Darius over the traditionally
attributed position of Cyrus. Albertz making a political observation assumes a tension
between Darius and the “central and eastern part of his empire” and thinks that Darius was
trying to make a “loyal group” by sympathizing with the Jews allowing them to let go and
built their Temple.8 Based on this he attributes the return of the “Judean exiles” to be fulfilled
1
Rainer Albertz, “Darius in Place of Cyrus: The First Edition of Deutero-Isaiah (Isaiah 40.1-52.12) in
521 BCE,” JSOT 27 (2003): 372.
2
R. Albertz, 372-373.
3
R. Albertz, 373.
4
R. Albertz, 373.
5
R. Albertz, 373-374.
6
R. Albertz, 374.
7
R. Albertz, 374.
8
R. Albertz, 374.
1
during the period of Darius and place Darius over the place of Cyrus.9 However his view
seems to contradict to himself as he also acknowledge the works of Cyrus in renovating the
Jerusalem Temple, moreover there are clear indications in 2 Chronicles 36:23b and Ezra 1:3a
concerning the edict of Cyrus letting the exiles to go back to their own land and to even build
the Temple.

The First Edition of the Book of Deutero-Isaiah

In this section Albertz brings forth the redactional history of Deutero-Isaiah to

reinforce his positions. By citing the works of Reinhard G. Kratz, Jurgen van Oorschot and
Ulrich Berges who looked at the redactional history of Deutero-Isaiah, he borrows their
consensus that the composition of Deutero-Isaiah had atleast three stages of redaction.10 Since
the first stage was just few collections of early materials, he concentrates on the second stage
during when the book took its shape.11 He identifies the redactor of this second edition to be
an exile who had “returned to Jerusalem.”12 This redactor took the collection of early
materials which included the prophecies of hope that were not fulfilled and applied it to the
new context, which Albertz attributes to the early days of Darius.13 Hence the context for the
first edition of Deutero-Isaiah is to be ascribed to Darius and not Cyrus. However this
proposal of Albertz contradicts the edict of Cyrus, which he himself had acknowledged in the
first section.

The Darius Oracles

In this section Albertz discuss the oracles that are traditionally attributed to Cyrus. He
agrees Isaiah 44: 28 and 45:1 to refer to Cyrus, however hold reservation to apply the same
for other oracles which posit an anonymous King.14 He cites 45: 11a, 12-13a; 48: 12-16a
which talks of an anonymous King and attribute it to Darius. By applying a later date for
these oracles, Albertz argues that since the redactor uses demonstrative pronouns to point this
anonymous King, he should naturally allude to someone who lived at that time.15 Since these
oracles belong to a later date, the anonymous King is to be Darius than Cyrus. Moreover the
setting of chapter 48 describes the fulfilment of the anticipated promises; a thing which

9
R. Albertz, 375.
10
R. Albertz, 375.
11
R. Albertz, 375.
12
R. Albertz, 376.
13
R. Albertz, 376.
14
R. Albertz, 379.
15
R. Albertz, 379.
2
Albertz thinks is to be well fit during the time of Darius.16 He identifies the King addressed in
chapter 48 to be Darius. However this proposal of Albertz can be only considered as a
hypothesis which needs to be substantiated with proper arguments.

The Legitimacy of Darius

Under this section, Albertz relates Darius with the servant songs and attempts to bring
legitimacy for the acceptance of Darius to be the chosen of Yahweh for the deliverance of
Judean exiles. The oracle in chapter 42:5-7 which lies between the first and the second
servant songs, implied the servant of the songs with a “political task” and this person was
traditionally considered to be alluding to Cyrus.17 But Albertz observe the designations of this
servant to be “a light to the nations” and “a covenant for/of the people,” which is a spiritual
task as contradicting with the political idea.18 He resolves this tension by stating Darius’s rule
to be a “law-based government,” which sympathized the weaker community “to win their
loyalty.”19 Albertz relates the above designations of the servant with Darius law based
government. Moreover Darius is thought to be instrumental in “resettling ...the exiled Judeans
and restoring the ruined temple of Jerusalem” than the traditionally attributed Cyrus.
Moreover Albertz regards this new insight of placing Darius over Cyrus to be bringing more
clarity in understanding Deutero-Isaiah.

16
R. Albertz, 380.
17
R. Albertz, 382.
18
R. Albertz, 382.
19
R. Albertz, 383.
3