THIS MIGHT SURPRISE YOU
The answer
Cyrus the Great of Persia, around 539 BCE. His decree let the exiles go back and rebuild the Temple (Ezra 1). The Bible speaks of him remarkably warmly for a foreign ruler.
Why it’s interesting
Isaiah even calls Cyrus God's "anointed" — the Hebrew word behind "messiah" — used here of a Persian emperor. It's a striking case of the Bible reading world politics as divine work.
Scholarly consensus
You can know the Bible.
Not just the stories, but the history, authorship, and scholarship behind it.