01_VanSeters_copiaaaa_01_25 28/04/15 11:15 Pagina 19 DATING THE YAHWIST’S HISTORY: PRINCIPLES AND PERSPECTIVES 19 a major change to the Jacob story was necessary by virtue of J’s radical modification of the patriarchal tradition in the time of Nabonidus. b. Nabonidus’ Influence on the Yahwist With respect to Cyrus’s rise to power and his relations with Nabonidus, Beaulieu has called attention to Second Isaiah’s strong praise of Cyrus in Isa 45,1 in which YHWH is spoken of as having anointed Cyrus “to subdue nations before him and undo the might of kings; before whom gates shall be opened and no doors be shut”. This Beaulieu compares with an inscription referring to events early in Nabonidus’s reign in which in a dream Marduk reveals to Nabonidus the eventual overthrow of the Medes and how three years later Marduk “aroused Cyrus, king of Anshan, his young ser- vant, who scattered the large (armies) of the Mede with his small army, and who captured Astyages, king of the Medes, and took him to his country as captive” 31. Not only is the similarity of the two texts significant in suggesting some relationship between them, but it appears also to be highly ironic in that the action of the god Mar- duk in raising up Cyrus on behalf of Nabonidus is now being used as a model for the action of YHWH in using Cyrus as his anointed to overthrow Nabonidus and the Babylonians. Furthermore, it places Second Isaiah and the Yahwist in the same social and polit- ical milieu, both very much aware of what was happening around them and shaping their literary works accordingly. There are two other features about Nabonidus that may also have had an influence upon J’s presentation of his history: 1. Nabonidus the historian. One of the distinctive features of Nabonidus’s reign was his great obsession with the past. This is reflected in his many restorations of ancient temples throughout Babylonia, including the ziggurat at Ur, which always began with a search and recovery of the ancient foundation-tablet containing the name of the ancient royal builder, sometimes going back to the third dynasty of Ur, or to even earlier times. In addition to this, in Leonard Woolley’s excavations at Ur they uncovered a number of valuable inscribed objects from a range of different periods of time in the distant past, but all found in the same location, the living 31 BEAULIEU, Nabonidus, 108.