Zoroastrianism question

[AdoroTeDevote]

How would one refute the claim that pre-Christ Judaism was influenced by Zoroastrianism during the Persian captivity, and that the idea of good and evil, heaven and hell, Satan, etc. are all just based on Zoroastrianism?
Thank you!!

 

[bobperk]

Here’s a good answer, I hope the link works: Can you comment on the claims that Christianity borrowed the idea of the Messiah from Zoroastrianism? – Evidence for Christianity

Note: the website I linked to is generally pretty good, but there is quite a bit of what I would consider anti-Catholic bias depending on what the questions are. But in a case like your question, on a topic that affects Christianity generally, it is a good resource.

 

[Vonsalza]

How would one refute the claim that pre-Christ Judaism was influenced by Zoroastrianism during the Persian captivity, and that the idea of good and evil, heaven and hell, Satan, etc. are all just based on Zoroastrianism?
Thank you!!

I’m not sure you can. It certainly had an influence because pre-captivity Judaism and post-captivity Judaism do certainly have a few differences - particularly concerning the fate of souls not going to heaven. But they obviously have some similarities too. (FYI, these differences are the primary source of the spat between then-“foreign” Persian Jews returning “home” to Jerusalem and the Samaritan Jews that never left.)

It doesn’t stop there. After mixing it up with gnostic Greeks for several generations before Christ, how they described God began to change a little bit.

And that’s ok. Biblical revelation didn’t end until the last apostle died just shy of 100 AD.

 

[Dan_Defender]

Tell them it is not a one-way street. Judaism may have very well influenced Zoroastrianism as the latter developed into Manichaeism and Mithraism. In any case in Zoroastrianism the believer must choose between good and evil and this can be inferred from natural law so it is not surprising that possibly many religions have this in common.

 

[Erikaspirit16]

Why would you want to refute it? So what?

Take the well-known (?) case of Psalm 104 and the ancient Egyptian “Hymn to Aten.” Psalm 104

Influence? Sure. Why not?

Truth is not confined to Catholics; there is some degree of truth in all religions. So there is no reason to believe that Jews and/or Christians didn’t borrow what was true from other religions.

 

[TheOldColonel]

Why refute this? Rather, explore it. Many influences impacted Judaism and its theology. The influence of Egyptian theology is quite obvious in the Old Testsment.

 

[SnowRose]

There is nothing wrong with acknowledging the confluence of previous thinking that lead to the revelation and incarnation.
If anything reading up on zoroastrism, early middle eastern faiths and Egypt has depended my understanding of the scriptures.