Did Zoroastrianism have an effect on Judaism and Christianity?

[Image_of_God]

And if it did, how great was that influence? And how exactly?

 

[Ahimsa]

Yes, certainly on Judaism (and, therefore, on Christianity).

And if it did, how great was that influence? And how exactly?

Just to take one example: Zarathustra envisioned an ultimate “end time” in which Good is victorious over evil. This idea of an “end to history” impacted the Abrahamic faiths.

Zarathustra came from an Indo-Iranian cultural context. His distant relatives were the ones who composed the Vedic texts, the central sacred texts of much of Hinduism. Thus, the great religions of the world may be divided by a line that goes between Iran and India: to the West, are the Zarathustric-Abrahamic traditions; to the East, are the Dharmic-Buddhic traditions.

The points of resemblance between Zoroastrianism and Judaism, and hence also between the former and Christianity, are many and striking. Ahuramazda, the supreme lord of Iran, omniscient, omnipresent, and eternal, endowed with creative power, which he exercises especially through the medium of his Spenta Mainyu (“Holy Spirit”), and governing the universe through the instrumentality of angels and archangels, presents the nearest parallel to Yhwh that is found in antiquity. But Ormuzd’s power is hampered by his adversary, Ahriman, whose dominion, however, like Satan’s, shall be destroyed at the end of the world. Zoroastrianism and Judaism present a number of resemblances to each other in their general systems of angelology and demonology, points of similarity which have been especially emphasized by the Jewish rabbinical scholars Schorr and Kohut and the Christian theologian Stave. There are striking parallels between the two faiths and Christianity in their eschatological teachings—the doctrines of a regenerate world, a perfect kingdom, the coming of a Messiah, the resurrection of the dead, and the life everlasting. Both Zoroastrianism and Judaism are revealed religions: in the one Ahuramazda imparts his revelation and pronounces his commandments to Zarathustra on “the Mountain of the Two Holy Communing Ones”; in the other Yhwh holds a similar communion with Moses on Sinai. The Magian laws of purification, moreover, more particularly those practised to remove pollution incurred through contact with dead or unclean matter, are given in the Avestan Vendïdād quite as elaborately as in the Levitical code, with which the Zoroastrian book has been compared (see Avesta). The two religions agree in certain respects with regard to their cosmological ideas. The six days of Creation in Genesis find a parallel in the six periods of Creation described in the Zoroastrian scriptures. Mankind, according to each religion, is descended from a single couple, and Mashya (man) and Mashyana are the Iranian Adam (man) and Eve. In the Bible a deluge destroys all people except a single righteous individual and his family; in the Avesta a winter depopulates the earth except in the Vara (“enclosure”) of the blessed Yima. In each case the earth is peopled anew with the best two of every kind, and is afterward divided into three realms. The three sons of Yima’s successor Thraetaona, named Erij (Avesta, “Airya”), Selm (Avesta, “Sairima”), and Tur (Avesta, “Tura”), are the inheritors in the Persian account; Shem, Ham, and Japheth, in the Semiticstory. Likenesses in minor matters, in certain details of ceremony and ritual, ideas of uncleanness, and the like, are to be noted, as well as parallels between Zoroaster and Moses as sacred lawgivers; and many of these resemblances are treated in the works referred to at the end of this article.
Read more: jewishencyclopedia.com/view.jsp?artid=147&letter=Z#433#ixzz0d0b4y6ly

 

[Image_of_God]

Yes, certainly on Judaism (and, therefore, on Christianity).Just to take one example: Zarathustra envisioned an ultimate “end time” in which Good is victorious over evil. This idea of an “end to history” impacted the Abrahamic faiths.

Zarathustra came from an Indo-Iranian cultural context. His distant relatives were the ones who composed the Vedic texts, the central sacred texts of much of Hinduism. Thus, the great religions of the world may be divided by a line that goes between Iran and India: to the West, are the Zarathustric-Abrahamic traditions; to the East, are the Dharmic-Buddhic traditions.

Thank you very much!

 

[Vouthon]

Zoroastrian influence on Judaism, during the period of Persian exile particularly, was truly profound. Through Judaism, the mother faith of the Church, it has likewise exerted a potent influence on Christianity.

Concepts such as heaven and hell; the resurrection of the dead; a cosmic saviour of the world; the conflict between good and evil - had their origin not in the Mosaic religion of Judaism, the faith of Moses and the Patriarchs but rather the teachings of the prophet Zoroaster in the Gathas (part of the wider Zend Avesta).

Zoroastrians and Zoroastrianism is for this reason held in high esteem in the Bible.

King Cyrus, the Zoroastrian Emperor of the Persian Empire, was the first person in the Bible to be called a “Messiah” an annointed one; and thus constituted a type of Christ - although a Gentile one!

In the Book of Ezra, there is preserved an edict of King Cyrus in which the King says that the God he worships is the One, true God of Israel. Now Cyrus is not a Jew but a Zoroastrian - this means that both Zoroastrianism and Judaism were monotheistic and worshipped the same God.

Judaism and Zoroastrianism were the ONLY monotheistic religions of the ancient world, unless you include Egyptian Atenism.

In the New Testament, the Magi - who were most likely Zoroastrian priests from the Persian Empire - were honoured as the first Gentiles to be able to recognize the coming of Messiah Jesus.

The Zoroastrians had been awaiting the coming of a person they called “the Saviour” (Saoshyant) since the time of the prophet Zoroaster, who most scholars now think was roughly contemporary with Moses - modern scholarly consensus says that he lived near the 11th or 10th century BC - just after Abraham but perhaps before or contemporary with Moses.

Jesus thus fulfilled Zoroastrian prophecy.

Zoroastrianism is thus, in many ways, the “most inspired” of the Gentile philosophies and religions of the ancient world. It was a tremendously important movement and Zoroaster was an incredible man, who clearly received inspiration from God.

From Book of Ezra:

**"…In the first year of Cyrus king of Persia, that the word of the Lord by the mouth of Jeremiah might be fulfilled, the Lord stirred up the spirit of Cyrus king of Persia, so that he made a proclamation throughout all his kingdom and also put it in writing:

2“Thus says Cyrus king of Persia: The Lord, the God of heaven, has given me all the kingdoms of the earth, and he has charged me to build him a house at Jerusalem, which is in Judah. 3Whoever is among you of all his people, may his God be with him, and let him go up to Jerusalem, which is in Judah, and rebuild the house of the Lord, the God of Israel—he is the God who is in Jerusalem. 4And let each survivor, in whatever place he sojourns, be assisted by the men of his place with silver and gold, with goods and with beasts, besides freewill offerings for the house of God that is in Jerusalem…"**

From the Book of Isaiah:

"…Isaiah 45:1-7

Cyrus, ‘He is my shepherd,
and he shall carry out all my purpose’

45Thus says the Lord to his anointed, to Cyrus,
whose right hand I have grasped
to subdue nations before him
and strip kings of their robes,
to open doors before him—
and the gates shall not be closed:
2 I will go before you
and level the mountains,*
I will break in pieces the doors of bronze
and cut through the bars of iron,
3 I will give you the treasures of darkness
and riches hidden in secret places,
so that you may know that it is I, the Lord,
the God of Israel, who call you by your name.
4 For the sake of my servant Jacob,
and Israel my chosen,
I call you by your name,
I surname you, though you do not know me.
5 I am the Lord, and there is no other;
besides me there is no god.
I arm you, though you do not know me,
6 so that they may know, from the rising of the sun
and from the west, that there is no one besides me;
I am the Lord, and there is no other.
7 I form light and create darkness,
I make weal and create woe;
I the Lord do all these things.
…

I have aroused Cyrus* in righteousness,
and I will make all his paths straight;
he shall build my city
and set my exiles free,
not for price or reward,
says the Lord of hosts.
14 Thus says the Lord:
The wealth of Egypt and the merchandise of Ethiopia,*
and the Sabeans, tall of stature,
shall come over to you and be yours,
they shall follow you;
they shall come over in chains and bow down to you.
They will make supplication to you, saying,
‘God is with you alone, and there is no other;
there is no god besides him…"

 

[Vouthon]

According to Zoroaster, there is one true deity to be worshipped. His name is Ahura-Mazda (wise lord). The opening lines of the Avesta exalt this deity:

Ahura-Mazda, the creator, radiant, glorious, greatest and best, most beautiful, most firm, wisest, most perfect, the most bounteous spirit! (Max Mueller, ed., op. cit., 31:195-196).

The Gathas attribute the following characteristics to Ahura-Mazda: Creator: (Yasna, 31:7, 11; 44:7; 50:11; 51:7.)
All-seeing: (Yasna, 31:13; 44:2.)
All-knowing: (Yasna, 31:13; 453; 48:2-3.)
Most mighty, greatest: (Yasna, 28:5; 33:11; 45:6.1 Friendly: (Yasna, 31:21; 44:2; 4:2.)
Father of justice or Right, Asha: (Yasna, 44:3; 47:2.)
Father of Good Mind, Vbhu Manah: (Yasna, 31:8; 45:4.) Beneficent, hudae: (Yasna, 45:6; 48:3.)
Bountiful, spenta: (Yasna, 43:4, 5, 7, 9, 11, 13, 15; 44:2; 45:5; 46:9; 48:3; 51:10.)
Most bountiful spirit, spenishta mainyu: (Yasna, 30:5.)

 

[James224]

Hi Vouthon,

It may seem that Z had an influence because certain ideas are the same but that doesn’t mean one derived from another. This sounds similiar to what is called the
Q Source. I think sometimes religions seem to be the same because the moral law was written in our hearts. When the missionaries would find natives in the woods who had never heard of Christ, they were worshipping other gods. I’m sure they developed some things in their religion that paralleled the Judeo-Christian beliefs but that doesn’t mean the jews or christians took these truths from them.