Written by The Strange Case of Jealous and His Unacquainted Anointed
By Diesel the Magus | eFireTemple
The Bible tells us God’s name is Jealous.
Exodus 34:14:
“For thou shalt worship no other god: for the LORD, whose name is Jealous, is a jealous God.”
Fair enough.
Now meet his Messiah.
Not Jesus.
Cyrus the Great. The Persian king.
Isaiah 45:1:
“Thus saith the LORD to his anointed, to Cyrus, whose right hand I have holden.”
The Hebrew word translated anointed is mashiach.
Messiah.
Yes. The Bible explicitly gives the Persian king that title.
Now comes the extraordinary part.
THE MESSIAH DOESN’T KNOW HIS GOD
Isaiah 45:4:
“Though thou hast not known me.”
Wait.
What?
Isaiah 45:5:
“I girded thee, though thou hast not known me.”
He says it twice.
The God whose name is Jealous has appointed his anointed king.
He has taken him by the hand.
He has equipped him.
He has given him victories.
And he openly acknowledges that the man does not know him.
JEALOUS HAS A MESSIAH WHO DOESN’T KNOW JEALOUS.
And apparently, that arrangement is working perfectly.
NOW IT GETS BETTER
Cyrus conquered Babylon in 539 BCE.
The Cyrus Cylinder, the surviving Babylonian royal account of that conquest, credits Marduk with selecting Cyrus.
Isaiah credits Yahweh.
And the Hebrew prophet admits Cyrus doesn’t know Yahweh.
So let’s review the paperwork.
The Persian king conquers Babylon.
The Babylonian account says Marduk chose him.
The Hebrew prophet says Jealous chose him.
The Hebrew prophet also says the Persian king doesn’t know Jealous.
HOW DOES THE MESSIAH NOT KNOW THE GOD WHO APPOINTED HIM?
Apparently, a divine appointment can be made without the appointee’s knowledge.
No introduction.
No recognition.
No requirement that the king acknowledge the identity of his supposed benefactor.
Just a proclamation that the Persian conqueror belongs to Yahweh’s plan.
THEN COMES JESUS
Now open John 8:55.
Jesus, speaking about his Father, says:
“Yet I know him: and if I should say, I know him not, I shall be a liar like unto you.”
Read those two accounts together.
Cyrus is called anointed and does not know Yahweh.
Jesus insists that he knows his Father—and that denying this knowledge would make him a liar.
We are not pretending these are identical messianic roles.
Cyrus is a royal instrument of deliverance. Jesus is the central Messiah of the Christian Gospel.
But that’s precisely why the contrast is worth examining.
The title alone doesn’t establish knowledge of God.
Isaiah proves that within its own narrative.
Cyrus has the title without the knowledge.
Jesus insists on the knowledge.
And in John 8, knowing the Father becomes inseparable from telling the truth.
THE FINAL QUESTION
Before somebody uses the word Messiah as proof of divine identity, perhaps they should examine the first problem.
Does the Messiah need to know God?
According to Isaiah 45, apparently not.
According to Jesus in John 8, knowing his Father is fundamental to who he is.
And according to the Cyrus Cylinder, the same Persian king’s appointment could be narrated under an entirely different divine name.
So which God did Cyrus actually recognize?
And what makes the Hebrew prophet’s declaration the final authority over a Persian king’s religious identity?
These are not questions invented by Diesel the Magus.
They arise from the ancient texts themselves.
The king was Persian.
The title was Messiah.
The God was Jealous.
And the Messiah didn’t know him.
Maybe we should start asking whether the name of the appointing God was ever demonstrated—or merely asserted.
Aša knows Aša.
Truth knows Truth.
And apparently, Jealous’s Messiah didn’t know Jealous.
— Diesel the Magus
Primary exhibits: Exodus 34:14; Isaiah 45:1–7; John 8:54–55; the Cyrus Cylinder. The comparison concerns the biblical use of “anointed,” not a claim that Cyrus and Jesus occupy identical theological roles.