JoeDavid,

I accept your invitation to think out loud. In general, very few post-Tanach people are mentioned in Tanach. This is true for Jewish heroes and enemies, Rabbi Akiva and Hitler. (Cyrus lived during Biblical times).

Those that are mentioned appear in Tanach for reasons of context. It depends, in part, on what the passage is talking about. Level of impact may have some influence sometimes but will not dictate who is mentioned and who is not.

Do you think Tanach has criteria for this?