Cyrus, the LORD's anointed

“For taking into his hands the book of Isaiah he found as he read the section which contained the prophecy concerning himself; since Isaiah says in that section: Thus saith the Lord to his Anointed, to Cyrus, whose right hand I have holden to subdue …”

“‘Thus says the Lord God to my Christ [the] Lord, whose right hand I have held, that the nations may hear him, 'the powers of kings will I burst asunder; I will open before him the gates, and the cities shall not be closed to him.' ‘ This very thing we see now fulfilled. For whose right hand does God the Father hold but Christ's, his Son? All nations have heard of him, that is, people of all nations have believed. Their preachers, the apostles, are pointed to in the psalms of David: ‘Into the entire earth,’ he says, ‘is gone out their sound, and to the ends of the earth their words.’ For on whom else have nations the world over believed but on the Christ who has now already come?… In all these places the name of the Christ has already come to reign. He is the one before whom the gates of all cities have been opened and to whom none are closed, before whom iron bars have been crumbled and brazen gates opened. There is a spiritual sense affixed to these expressions. The hearts of individuals, having been blockaded in various ways by the devil, are now unbarred by the faith of Christ. This promise has already been evidently fulfilled, inasmuch as in all these places there are people who live believing in the name of Christ.”

“And he who restores Jerusalem, destroys Babylon. He also says to Cyrus, the king of the Persians, who first destroyed Babylon and the Chaldeans: you are my shepherd, or as the Septuagint translated, so that you may understand. The reason for this difference is clear. For the Hebrew word Roi, if we read it with the letter Res (ר), it is understood as my shepherd; if we read it with the letter Daleth (ד), it means my knowing or understanding, which are distinguished by a small apex, and therefore are often confused.”

“What is most clear is the power of the prophecy or the prophetic preaching. We should look at each of the lines to see clearly what seems obscure. For it calls Cyrus ‘Christ’ and not as if he were one of the saints, who could bear this name, but it functions to mean that he bears the name as anointed by God, in that God was in the habit of anointing those called to the kingdom even if they were not saints or worshipers. For we find the holy prophets saying to those who have received this, ‘The Lord has anointed you king over Israel.’ So Cyrus is the anointed one, anticipating Christ as king. Only through God has he triumphed and been brought to this triumphal song so as to reflect that since he is called ‘anointed,’ that is, by chrism and selection, he is called by God to the kingdom … so that you might know.… ‘I am the Lord God who calls your name, the God of Israel, for the sake of Jacob my servant/son and Jacob my chosen. I, God alone, have called you for this, and I have honored you with radiance, that you will be civil to my servant Israel. I have called you and have crowned you with glory, even though you do not know that I am the Lord and that there is no God other than me.’”

“The divine Scripture designates under the name ‘anointed’ not only those who are brought forward for unction but also those whom the God of the universe has singled out with a view toward [fulfilling] a required function. Thus, referring to the patriarchs who lived before …”

“Thus saith the Lord to his anointed - This is a direct apostrophe to Cyrus, though it was uttered not less than one hundred and fifty years before Babylon was taken by him. The word ‘anointed’ is that which is usually rendered ‘Messiah’ (משׁיח mâshı̂yach), and here is rendered by the Septuagint, Τῷ χριστῷ μου Κύρῳ Tō christō mou Kurō - ‘To Cyrus, my Christ,’ i. e, my anointed.”