When Jerusalem was conquered and destroyed by the Neo-Babylonian Empire (587 BCE), some Jews were taken into captivity in Babylon. Cyrus the Great then conquered the Babylonians in 550 BCE and established the Persian Empire. The state cult of Persia was Zoroastrianism, founded by the prophet Zoroaster. Evil was seen as the polar opposite of good. A pure, good being, Ahura Mazda ('Wise Lord') was the source of everything, and at the polar end was druj, chaos. Druj became personified as Angra Mainyu ('false', 'deception'), also known as Ahriman. The heavens, the earth, and all humans fall within this polar range.

Cyrus permitted the Jews to return to Jerusalem (539 BCE), although some stayed. They took many elements of ancient Persian religion with them, and they merged the personification of chaos with earlier views of ha-Satan. Now he was just Satan or, in Greek, diabolos, the Devil, and the Jews began assigning all evil to Satan instead of God.

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