Was Zoroastrianism first and how does this effect Judaism and Christianity?

[masterchief_118]

Recentely, I have been interested in finding out which is the first monotheistic religion. I have been looking around and many say that zoroastrianism was the first and Judaism is an off-shot from zoroastrianism. Some similarites that I found comparing Judaism to zoroastrianism is how in zoroastrianism they believe how the end of the world will happen. It sound very similar to Judaism and our Christian faith, any help clearing this up will be greatly appreciated.

 

[Fr.Vincent_Serpa]

Hi,

Judaism wins hands down. Zoroastrianism is a dualistic religion. It teaches the existence of two gods; one that is good and the other that is evil. To have two gods means that each of them lacks the distiguishing quality that the other has. An onmipotent God cannot be lacking in any quality. As the source of all created being, God is uncreated being whose very essence is His totally independent existence. Therefore, the Zoroastrian god can only be a god with a lower case “g” and is therefore, small potatoes campared to the one God of Judaism and Christianity. It, in fact, is not God at all. Therefore, how old Zoroastrianism is becomes rather irrelevant.

See: %between%

• Avesta
• Theological Aspects of Avesta

Fr. Vincent Serpa, O.P.