Editing 538 BC (section)

== Events ==

=== By place ===
==== Near East ====
* The [[Babylonian captivity]] of the [[Jews]] in [[Babylon]] ends when [[Cyrus the Great]], king of Persia, allows them to return to [[Jerusalem]] under the leadership of [[Zerubbabel]] and [[Joshua the High Priest]];<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://www.jewishvirtuallibrary.org/jsource/History/exile2.html|title = Timeline of Judaism after the Babylonian Exile (538 BCE-70 CE)}}</ref><ref>{{cite book|first=Rainer|last=Albertz|title=Israel in exile: the history and literature of the sixth century BCE|page=xxi}}</ref><ref>1–6 [[Book of Ezra|Ezra]].</ref> possible start of construction of the [[Second Temple]].<ref>{{cite web|first=Yisrael|last=Shalem|title=Second Temple Period (538 B.C.E. to 70 C.E.): Persian Rule|work=Jerusalem: Life Throughout the Ages in a Holy City|publisher=Ingeborg Rennert Center for Jerusalem Studies, [[Bar-Ilan University]]|location=[[Ramat-Gan]], Israel|year=1997|url=https://www.biu.ac.il/JS/rennert/history_4.html|access-date=2020-01-08|archive-date=2018-11-03|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20181103074019/https://www.biu.ac.il/js/rennert/history_4.html|url-status=dead}}</ref>