Zoroastrianism (Hastings' Dictionary)

An account of the ancient religion of Iran, the religion of the Parsis at the present day, finds its place in a Bible Dictionary, not because of direct references to it in the Bible Mhich need elucidation, — for these are exceedingly few, — but because of the widely-held opinion that some of the most important later developments of Judaism were profoundly affected by contact with Persian beliefs. The developments in question affect Angelologv. Demonology, and the doctrine of the Resurrection.

lu the present article only that will be described which directly concerns the parallel phenomena in the religion of Israel. 1. The Mazilayasna ('worship of Mazda') is variously known as Mazdeism, Zoroastriani.sm, or Parsism.

Its basis is the worship of a supreme deity, Ahura Slazddh, or Onnazd ('the Lord WiMlom '), beneath w horn stand six higidy ab- stract archangels called Am-ihrmpands (Amesha Spcnta, 'immortal holy ones'), and a large num- ber of angels (yazata), who are mostly nature- powers dethroned from the divine position tliey held in the days when the ancestors of Iranian and Indian tribes lived together as one people.

The sacred book of the religion, the Avesta* con- tains some ancient hymns which appear to come from Zarathushtra, called by the tireeks Zupo- iarprii. He is probably to be regarded as a real person, the reformer to whom may plausibly be assigned the monotheistic doctrine of the religion, and the philosophic system w hich attempts to solve the problem of JEvil.

This system involves an evil spirit, Angra Mainyu, or Ahriman ('destructive spirit '), who with his hosts of demons (dalva) pre- sides over all evU things in the world and wages war with Ahura and the good creation, till the time when evil will be finally destroj'ed. Among the most powerful of the good spirits are the 'fravashis of the pious.' A fravashi is part of a man's identity, dwelling in heaven but powerful to aid on earth. It belongs to good men past, present, and to come.

It shares the fortunes of its earthly counterpart, when a living man ; and if that man becomes evil, it apparently ceases as a fravashi to be. The good Zoroastrian had a code of simple and generally high-toned morality to observe, hamjiered by a complicated and often extremely foolish ritual, which is probably to be laid to the account of alien priests who fastened on the religion during the later Acluemenian reigns.

After death, the pious receive a blissful immortality with Ahura in the ' House of Song,' while the (/nti'a, worshippers are condemned to torment in the ' House of the Lie.' Ultimately the world is to be renewed under Snoshyant ('one who shall save ' — a being miraculously descended from Zoroaster), after purification by the ' ordeal of molten metal,' which will consume all that is evil. 2. Such is, in the barest outline, the faith of Zoroastrianism.

The only other preliminary left for us to determine here is the date at which this system had penetrated countries inhabited by Jews. It is obvious that if Judaism owed any of its eschatology, or its doctrine of angels and demons, to this forei^ influence, Zoroastrianism must have been firmly established in Babylonia or Media before the Book of Daniel was written, and presumably generations before.

The date of the Avesta is a warmly disputed question ; but for our present purpose this matters little, for the doctrines which find parallels in Judaism are uni- versally admitted to be earl}-, on the witness of classical writers, from Herodotus downwards. That • Its main dh-isiona are the Yasrui (abbreviated T» ), which includes the oldest part, the Gdtfids, or hymns ; the VathU (}'0, hymns in honour ot old nature powers; End the Ven- diddil (Vd ), the Leviticus of Parsism.

Many of the most imiwrtanlof the 'Rabbinic' writings of Parnism are translated by Dr. E. W. West in the Sacred Books nf the Ea»i (SBE). Il this series also Is found the beat tmulation ot the Avesta Itaell, by Darmesteter and Uilla. 20R0ASTRIANISM ZOROASTRLVNISM 989 these doctrines were prevalent ' in the cities of the Medes,' and other regions inhabited by Israelites during and after the Exile, may also be regarded as certain.

Moreover, it is fair to argue that the Jews would be predisposed to look fav ourably on the religion of their liberator Cyrus. (That the early Acha-nienian kings did hold what may be fairly desoribcd as Zoroastrian faith, may be assumed as probable, though not at all certain.) At present we have to show how far the Zoroastrian and the later Jewish systems coincide, and examine what reason there is for assuming that foreign inllu- ence aflected the development of Judaism.

Before discussing this question, we may deal with the few passages of the Bible and Apocrypha in which direct allusion is made to Zoroastrian institutions. 3. There are two allusions in the Prophets which have caused no little difficulty, since both of them refer to pre-exilic times. In Jer 30'- '•' Kab-m.\g appears to be the IJabylonian title of an ollicial head of a sacred caste, like the Magian ii-ei/jcnroXot of Astyagcs in Hdt. i. 108.

By itself this passage is not decisive: Tiele (Rdiqionsgesch. ii. llOf.) would deny the connexion of the Rabmag with Median Magi, and make him no religious officer at all.* Tiele has not dealt with the very remark- able passage, Ezk 8'"-, which creates a strong presumption that there were Magi outside Zoro- astrianism, whose influence was felt at Jerusalem before the Exile.

The prophet sees sundry ' abominations ' in the temple, the worst of which are sun-worshippers who ' put the branch to their nose.' This 'bianch,' despite Gunkel, must be the bnrsom, or 'bundle of line tamarisk boughs' (Strabo, xv. 3. 14), which the Parsi priest of to- day holds up to his face at worship. Now, if this were 'a distinctively Persian rite' (Davidson, in loo.), it would be 'hardly probable at so early a date in Israel.' But it is only Magian, and not Persian at all.

It belongs to the mass of ritual which the Magi contrived to graft long after this time upon the Mazdavasna, hitherto almost desti- tute of ceremonies anil priestly rites. If, then, this characteristically Magian rite lias penetrated as far as Jerusalem in the 7th cent. B.C., it is no longer 'improbable ' (Tiele) that these famous medicine- men should have 'come from Media to Babylon.'

On the contrary, their success at Jerusalem is more easily explaineil if they had alreadj' a footing at Babylon. 4. The presence of Parsism in Tobit is so clear that we may fairly discuss it at this point. That 'Atrixooam ( B 'A(rfJiioavs) is A rshma dacna, ' the demon Wrath,' t has been generally accepted, though no very successful attempt h.as been made to account for this and other Parsi traits in a Jewish romance. A key to the (h.

aracter of the book may perhaps be found in the recognition of a Median folklore story which a Jewish author has adapted : see the de- tails of this tlieor\' worked out in a paper by the present writer in Jixpos. Times, March I'JOO. The following will be included among the features of the original storj'. (l)Tlie scene is in Media, a meeting-place of Ir.anian and Semitic, and especi- ally in ' Zoro.istrian Itagha' ('Pdyai Ti}5 MriSlas, 9" K). (2) The demon .'

\cshma, aa is natural in a popular story, has enlarged his functions to include 'Lust, haitl by Hate,' his Avestan attribute. His opponent in the Median original would be Siaosha, the angel ' Obedience,' wliom Parsism sets in • He coniparcfl the Awyr. ma;) prcat,' bo that the word would mean 'prince'; cf. ~iv^ in Jer. l,c, But is this distinctive enough, where other classes of olllcers are mentioned side by side with him? f The traimlation 'covetous or histfu!,' (rivrn aliove under ASMoo.

KCS, is haflcd only on an a'<.<(unie<l etymolo^^y, and flnds no 8U|)port In I'ar^i texti. Note that the two wordn have become one, the Avesta here, a3 Id Ahura ilazdah and Artffra Ma\nj/u, keeping tbem separate. special antagonism to AuCTa Mainyu's arch-fiend Aeshnia. Behind him doubtle.ss stands the 'grate- ful dead man ' of the folk-tale, found widely in tha East, on which Hans Andersen based his Travel- ling Companion. Raphael therefore is ultimately substituted for the dead man of To 2'.

(3) The extraordinary emphasis laid on the duty of burying the dead strongly recalls the Vendidad, and it seems clear that the Jewish adapter has simply substituted burial for the Parsi ' Tower of Silence,' on which the vultures strip the bones. Great merit is accumulated when the faithful Parsi, with a companion, — it is mortal sin to do it alone, — removes a corpse thither from polluting the sacred earth.

In the original, therefore, the prototypes of Tobit and Tobias must have done this [lious work to- gether. Moreover, a dog was necessary, that his glance might exorcise the corrujition fiend.t Hence the entirely otiose and un Jewish dog which sur- vives in To 6' (S)aud5" ll^(B). In addition to this, there is a clear reference in 4" (B) to the draona, tha ' corpse-cake.' t (4) There seem very clear allu- sions (see 6", and note the attempt at explanation in N : also cf.

3" and 3") to the idea of the merit of marriage with near kin. Now this, in the form of first-cousin-marriage, has always been prominent in Parsism.§ The Magi went further, and made themselves notorious in antiquity by their vehe- ment preaching of incestuous unions, to which they attributeil extraordinary virtue. In the Median Tobit no doubt Raguel and the hero were brothers, so that 7'' (S) may be taken literally.

(5) The charm by which Tobit's blindness is healed is very much like one found in the Shah N.lmeh of Firdausi ; see the story in Atkinson's epitome (Chandos Classics), p. Iu6. The jiarallel suggests that in the Median story the blindness may have been caused by demons' enchantment ; the fish in 6- looks also like a demon. (6) In 8'(N, the original text clearly) the demon (lies dvw eis rd m^PI A.lyi- TTTov. That the original Aramaic || DTiD was a blunder for p-i:iD w.as suggested by Kohut.

H and in spite of Niildeke's objection seems highly prob- able. Mflzindaran was especially the land of .sorcery ; and on Mt. Dimavand therein (cf. dnj in 8') the hero Thraetaona ' bound ' (<n«7r65i(rtr avrdv xal iirloriijeii, ib. ) the old serpent Azhi Dahftka. (7) The seven angels of 12" may in the original liave been the Amshaspands, who are often made seven by the addition either of Ahura Mazda or of Sr.aosha.

If this is so — and it is not really neces- sary— we have the only distinctively Zoroastrian feature in Tobit ; the rest are probably Magian, .and may well antedate the Zoroastrian reform. But, of course, we have no means of dating the original story. It is noteworlliy that there is practically no eschatology in the book ; if its original was untouched by Zoroastrian ism projier, this would be natural. It follows that we cannot rely much on Tobit as a channel for Parsi influences on Judaism.

The utmost, therefore, that the book teaches us is that Israelites dwelling in Media were not strongly prejudiced ag.ainst their neighbours (cf. 14*), nor perhaps impervious to their religion. 5. To the category of direct references belongs, according to general belief, the storj' of the MaGI • .See a close parallel in F. II. Groome's (Vy/»jji/ Folk-Taiei, No. 1. In his note he pivcs a list of jtarallelH elsewhere. Add Hinton Knowles, Fotk.Tales of Katifiinir, p. 40.

A folk-tAle closely connected with ToOit may be seen in T/iS Utory qf AkXkarivi. Harris, Lewis, and Conyhearo). t See ()e:i.'er. Cieiligntwn of K. I'ranvnitt, 1. 85 ff. t West, SBE V. 283 f. Also cf. Ilarlland, Ugmd <if Pertna, U. 2i«S-312. 5 Technically known by the Pahlavi term KhvHitk.dcu. i Assuming the truth of Kendcl Harris's thesis, .^ ;ner. 7oum. 0/ Thent. ISllll, p. 641 ff., esp. p. 654. Ii Geiger's Jiul. Zcittfc-h. \. To this jmper, vitiated by an im- possible theory of aiiti-rar.'

dc polemic and s very late dftte fol TobU, are due several points in (UH^) here. 990 ZOROASTRIANISM ZOROASTRIANISM in Mt 2. The assumption that the name is strictly used is as old as the early Syriac commentators on Matt.,* but it is curious that there is so little cor- roborative evidence. Discussion here is hampered by the necessity of assuming the investigation of Alagianism in general.

The difficulty lies in the very limited attestation which the most authentic sources of orthodox Parsism give to the connexion of tlie stars with /ravas/iis. We have a very strik- ing identification of stars with representative spirits of a community in Kev l-^. Aleanwhile, we may note tliat although tlie Avesta and the Pahlavi scriptures but faintly encourage this association, there is a remarkably strong consensus of tradition connecting the Magi witli star-lore.

It is a side of theiractivitywhicli would naturally be strengthened by connexion with Babylon (see § 3, above). The extent to which these Magi were ortliodox Zoro- astrians must remain doubtful. It seems fair to assume that the star did for them represent the frnvfiM of a great one just born.

If we insist on Avestan doctrine, that star must have been a brilliant new star, and not a planet, for these were considered malign ; there seem, however, to be traces of an ojiposite view, so that this need not be decisive against Kepler's theory. The question remains why they expected a king, and a king of the Jews; a prophet or 'saviour' (saoshyant) would seem a more natural idea. It is possible that we may fall back on the oneiromancy tradi- tionally associated with the Magit (cf.

Mt 2''), and suppose that they interpreted the meaning of this new star by the help of an unrecorded dream. It must be noted, however, that both dreams and star-lore are extra-Avestan, though not inconsist- ent developments of the sj'stem as we know it.

It is only provisionally that we may cherish the belief that the earliest Gentile homage to the Lord Christ was paid by priests of the loftv re- ligion which in earlier times was perhaps privileged to stimulate within Judaism the growth of the doctrine of the Resurrection. 6. Such are the biblical passages in which direct allusion to Parsism may be traced or reasonably suspected ; sundry more doubtful examples may be left to the end of this article. We pass on to a much more important question.

It being granted that during and after the Exile great numbers of Jews were living in Mazdayasnian countries, have we reason to believe tliat the development of certain doctrines among these Jews was stimulated by what they knew of corresponding doctrines in Parsism, and that in this way the history of doctrine in Judaism was vitally attected?

The essential parts of our problem may be stated in terms of Ac 23', where (if we may include demons under ' spirits ') the Sadducees represent the older Judaism, the Pharisees the newer, which arose after the Jews came in contact with Parsism. Pout hoc, obviously : is it also projitcr hoc ! A detailed examination of Parsism will show the marked likeness between the two religions in respect of eschatology and spirit-lore. Is this coincidence, or has one religion atfected the other ?

If the latter, which is the debtor, or is the obliga- tion mutual? Finally, if foreign influence on Judaism is to be postulated, liave the claims of Babylon or Hellas a prior right to be heard ? The last question is rather beyond our present range ; but we may at least plead that Parsism is in- comparably nearer to the faith of Israel than any other religion can pretend to be, and that its influence is antecedently more likely to have been felt.

The ease for the independent develop- ment of Judaism may be seen in the articles on * See Oottheil, 'References to Zoroaster' lo the Dritler CloJfSicai aiudies, pp. 24-61. I X.g. in HdL i. 107. EscHATOLOCv, Angel, and Demon. But weighty authorities bespeak at least respectful hearing for the theory that the development of Jewish doctrine was stimulated by the knowledge of a ;reed which contained full-grown dogma that within Judaism was only in germ.

* It is natural to assume that gratitude to the Persians as their deliverers, to whom the Jews owed the protection which made the birth of the Jewish Church possible, may have predisposed them in favour of religious ideaa wherein thinkers could recognize what was latent in their own faith. 7. In Exchatolugy one ground of hesitation to accept a measure of Parsi influence has been the doubt whether the Resurrection is a truly ancient doctrine in Parsism.

t The doubt is entirely ground- less : the mere fact that Darmesteter himself, the great champion of a late date for the Avesta, acknowledges the Resurrection as a doctrine of Achaemenian antiquity, might silence questioning. The important diflerences between Parsi eschat- ology and the various systems which struggled for recognition among the Jews during the last centuries B.C. are drawn out by Charles, Eschat. p. 135 f.

These divergences are fatal to any theory of borrowing, but they do not afiect the assertion that the Jewish belief 'can hardly have developed without Persian stimulus' (Cheyne). It is generally conceded that OT passages speak- ing of an individual resurrection do not appear until a period when Persian stimulus is historically possible, when the knowledge that the Persians held this belief could encourage thoughtful Jews to develop their own doctrine in a thoroughly Jewish form.

In this case the foreign influence would show itself by the absorption of details, minor doctrines or illustrations of doctrine. Now these are forthcoming, if not beyond dispute iu individual cases, yet to an extent making coin- cidence improbable. Amon^ these are the follow- ing.J Is 24-"- is allowed by Charles, a hostile witness [Eschat. pp. 116 n., 159), to show probable traces of Parsism : the imprisonment of evu powers before their flnal punishment may be compared with Bund. 3-* (SBE v.

19), which seems to repre- sent an Avestan picture of war in heaven, followed by the binding of the fiend, as in the Apocalypse. In Is 05" 66^ a new heaven and earth, following the final judgment and destruc- tion of evil, is parallel with the frasho-kereti, 'renewing,' which in Parsism follows the 'ordeal of molten metal ' (§ 1). This last, the ayo-khshusta, somewhat resembles the tigure of Mai 3-' 4'. The four periods in Daniel have a very close parallel in the Pahlavi Buhman Yasht (HBE v.

193) ; but in this very late work it seems more reasonable to assume indebtedness to the Bible, as on p. 197 there is an apjiarent imitation of Lk IG'""-, and on p. 203 of Mic 7".§ A characteristic of Parsism from the Urst is, however, recogniz- able in the new manner of looking upon general human history, and in the reckoning of millennia, which became prominent in apocalyptic.

Parsi fhraseology has been found (Cheyne, UP 440) in s 26 ', where the ' dew of lights' is compared with ' the illimitable, self-created lights ' of ' the Best •See Kuonen, Itel. of 1st. iii. 32IT. ; Gritz, Uwt. of Jeiet, i. 441 ff. : Ewald, OT and XT Theol. pp. 72-78; Noldeke in C.eiger's Zeitschr. x. 233 ff. ; Kenan, llM. Jut. iv. 156 ; King, The Gnoatiat 2, p. 120 ; Kousset, ThLZ xxiv. 513 ; and esp. C'lievne, JRL 257 fl., Sineleenth Cent, for Dec. 1891, etc.

t So, among others, SchulU, OT Theol. i. 330 ; Schwally, Leben n. d. Tode, % 38. The latter observes that only twi AvesUin passages are quot«d for the doctrine. He ignores the mtness of Theopompus. Jackson (J.iOS' XT.,lb[.)add3 I'sSC, a Oatliic text. 1 The word paradise is not included among these, becauM it has developed its theological meaning entirely on Jewish soil. The Avestan pairidaeza, equated by Sfiegel, is a kr X.ty., equivalent in meaning to its con^'cner Ti^.T,ix»f. i P.

211 (i 64) hag a less decided resemblance to Bev 1211. ZOROASTRIANISM ZOROASTRIANISM 991 Worlil of til'' lilest, shininp, nil illuminated ' {Vd Itt") , ijut tliis Juus not illustrate the dew, for which Schwally rightly denies comparison with the lluoina. A mure hi>iieful parallel maj' be seen when we note the I'arsi view of the Dawn as a daily parable of the Itesiirrection — an idea witnessed in Vedic India by the pliriuse making' the dawn the 'banner of immurtalily' (flr/i-eda, iii. 61.

3): for Parsism see Darmenleter, Ormtizd ct Ahriman, p. 239. There seems no adequate reason to deny the possibility of this conception in I'.salms ol the Persian period ; and in Ps 4U'^ 17" its presence is hij;hly probable. The LXX, as Cheyne obsor>-es, bIiows the doctrine of the Resurrection unmistak- ably, as in Is SO'", Job 19-«, Psl' 65 (title). I'assins on to the Apocrypha, Knuch shows some decidedly Parsi traits: note the tr.

ansformed heaven andeartli (45*- °), and the mountain of God's throne set in the south (18), compared with Secrets of Enoch 10, where a hell is placed in the north, — this connota- tion of north and south is exceedingly common in Parsi books. The Slavonic Enoch is notable as an early witness for the idea of seven heavens (see Hkavex), which jippears in late Parsi books.t but not in the A vest a, where there are four.

In the Apocalypse, which seems to have assimilated not a little Parsism, presumably through earlier Jewish apocalyptic, we have the millennium, the binding and subsequent destruction of the 'old serpent' (see § 4 (6)), the assault of Satan on heaven and his casting down to earth (cf. SBE V. 19), the bl.-isting of a third part of the sky (ib. 164 and 17), all of which can be more or less illustrated from Par.si sources: clo.

ser still are the parallels which may be seen in some late Parsi writings described by West, ib. Iviii f. It is not till the Talniudic period that we get direct imita- tions without that thorough assimilation which makes all the comparisons hitherto noted indi- vidually disputable : for Talmudie-l'arsic eschato- logy see Kohut in ZDMG xxi. 5o2-591.

One interesting examjile may be quoted, as it has been used to illustrate Jn U, — the adoption by the Kabbis of the Avestan doctrine that the departing soul hovers three days near the corpse and takes its flight on the fourtli.J 8. In A nf)eloto(ji/ the influence of Parsism was also confined to subsidiary points, but is more marked. A tradition ia preserved in the Jerusalem Talmud (lioshhtnliiinn, p.

50) that 'the names of the angels came up with them from Babylon,' which may be taken as meaning ' from the Kxile ' in general. This coincides with the fact that the practice of naming angels, and placing them in an ordered hierarchy, dues not appear before the Return. Except, perh.aps, in tlio case of a few Talmudic angels, § no parallels are to be expected between Hebraic names and Persian originals.

As before, we are at most to postulate Persian stimulus behind the reuiarkalde contrast between the impersonal angels of early Jahvism and the individualized and ordered celestial beings of Daniel, Zechariah, and the NT — still more of the Apocrj'pha.;i The 'seven spirits' of Ilev 1* 8" En 90"'-ir(?cf. Zee 3» 4= and the 'watchers' of I)n 4") may be linked with the Amsha.spands by their appearing lirst in Tobit (12"): the .

sacred number would recommend the idea, and the Jews probably met with it in a form they would approve, with * The Indian Soma — the juice of a sacred plant, endowed in Ve<la and Avcsta with niiractilous qualilicH. t Kolmt, ^.>'. Independent, Jan. 11, 1S94. For other Parsic trait.s in this Enoch 8Ce Charles's ed. p. 74. J The doctrine woa probably taken from Parsism, but It is loueul elsewhere : Dr. J. O. Frazer quotes it from modern Cireece and from Calabria. 8 Kohut (.^ ni/r/o/. pp. 4.T-4.'

i) has one or two plausible equations, ll ForPhilo. BceSiek'tried, I'hilo, p. 141. I Charles notes here that the 'seven first whit« ODea come froai the Amshasuoiids. Sraosha (Raphael's prototype in Tobitl making up the seven, instead of the Deity liimsell (see § 4 (7)). There is exceedingly goud reason for regarding as Parsic the national angels ('[irinccs') of Dn jQis. M) 12', the decisive argument being that Israel has an angel other than J" (contrast Sir 17").

This makes a strong case for recognizing here the fravnxhi — a doctrine the more likely to be assimi- lated in that it had a (less developed) analogue in Babylonian religion. In the Apocalypse the con- ception comes out in the 'angels of the churches. The fravashi of a nation or community is a conception found in three Avestan passages: see Mills'^ version of Ys 17'* [SBE xxxi. 2o9).

The two NT allusions (Mt IS'", Ac 12") confirm the doctrine oi fravnuhis for individuals ; but that the doctrine, whatever its origin, is comiiletely assimilated may be seen from the apparent fact that the nation has lis fravashi long before the individual. The latter may indeed have been developed out of the former, just as in the doctrine of the Resurrection. In Parsism, of course, the individual came first.

The yazatas are fairly paralleled by genii in Enoch 61'" 69'-"-, and in the Apocalypse by angels who w.atch over waters (10', cf. Anfihita), fire (14", Parsi Atare), sun (19", Hvare), wind (7', Vata). In all these parallels, however, we find the Parsi sug- festion, if such there be, thoroughly assimilated. 'he fravashi is no longer a being neces.

sarily good, but becomes a coinpli;te spiritual counterpart of the nation (Daniel) or the church (Apocalypse), and capable therefore of declension and punish- ment.* Similarly, the 'angels' of the little ones are nearest the throne (Mt 18'"), because represent- ing those who have not learned to sin. The stud)' of St. Paul's attitude to these doctrines is in- structive in more ways th;in one.t He accepts an elaborate ranking of sjiirits.

The air, as in Parsism, is made the arena of strife between good and evil angels : J the spirit world is a reflex of the earthly in the inextricable mixture of contending powers. But he accepts these beliefs only as enhancing the supremacy of Christ : cf. He 1^ 2^ Rev 22". Like Zoroaster, centuries earlier, he found his contemjioraries in danger of a virtual polytheism (cf. Col 2'"), and set them free by mag- nifying the one Divine Being whose traii.scend- ence made worship of mere angels impos.

sible. In doing this, Zoroaster simplj' tried to ignore the deities of the f.aith bo reformed, with the result th:it after his death they came back like a flood, losing little in position by their formal subordina- tion, as angels, to Ahura Mazda. St. Paul was able to accept fearlessly the angelology he found, while greatly lessening its importance, and achiev- ing a permanent success in raising Christ to an un- approachable height above the s])irit world. 9.

Much of what has been said can be repeated for Demonolvgy. It would be absurd to think of Satan and his angels as borrowed from Angra Mainyu and the datras. Tlie .Semites had deintjns enough of their own, and the Satan doctrine in Parsism and in Judaism developed in very dillerent ways. We may still believe that the ranking of demons and the elevation of one s)iiril to their bead may have been stimulated by Parsism.

There are native forces which largely account for the diller- cnce between earlier and later Jahvism in this respect ; but when we find the Jews, after historical contact with Persians, advancing to a position • Cf. Weber, Jiid. Theol.t p. 170 1. ; also Soderblom in Itev. Uittt. lU'l. xl. waft, : on the whole subject see the writ-er's poper, ' It Is his Ancel," in JTS, 1902. t See BeyschlaR, A7' Tlieol. ii. lonlT. Mazdcisni hart prohaliiy mixed with in(li|;enous cults in Cilieia (see lieo.

Itift. Jiel. xxxvl. 201), so ttiut St. Paul may have been ae<)uainted with it in youth. 1 Against this view of Kph 2''' see Findloy (in Kxpoit. BibU), \}. 10;i. He observes that tlic Uabbis retranletl the alniosphere as Satan's abo<le — *a notion foreijin to Srri|ilure.' 'They, at anv rate, may well have sot the notion from Parsism 992 rOROASTRIAXISM ZOROASTRIANISM more and more like theirs, it is hard to suppose the movement entirely imlepemlent.

Stave well shows that the teaching of the Proplifts, esppcinllv Deutero- Isaiah, tended to an absolute denial of existence to heathen deities ; yet as early as 2 Ch 28^ the gods of Damascus are real, and before long they and other foreign guds aie firmly estab- lished as demons. The striking contrast between this development and tliat towards which the Projilifts li'd is explained satisfactorily by the daevas of Parsism, who were to some extent them- selves the deities of hostile tribes.

The earlier histdry of Jewish and Parsi denionology may dillbr widely ; but the doctrine of the N't might be broadly enunciated in terms which would accurately describe Zoroaster's own teaching, while that of the Talmud has much in common \vith accretions found in the Vendidad and the Pahlavi patristics.

In both NT and Gathas, Evil is a lying and murderous spirit, which in the beginning chose evil thoughts, words, and deeds, and which has over since the Fall * tempted mankind, with the aid of fiends who afllict the bodies and souls of men. In both, men are called to join in the strife which shall end with the destruction of EWl in hell.

Could we believe that a pure Gathic religion was ever preached within the Jews' hearing, the historical connexion of the two systems would be almost indisputable. But the very corruptions of later Parsism must have helped to recommend it to the popular Jewish mind, which was equally in boudage to the fear of evil spirits and the foolish ritual that pretended to control them.

It is note- worthy that Judaism deliberately forsook sug- gestions from its earlier writings — the Serpent of Gn 3 and Azazel in Lv 16 — when it formed a new demonologv with ' the Satan ' as prince of evil. We naturally seek a foreign body wliose attraction has drawn it from its proper course.

Without pursuing this subject in detail, we may note in conclusion that in the Apocalypse, where parallels with Parsism (however explained) are especially numerous, there is a deep-seated connexion of thought in the characteristic balancing of the heavenly and the infernal — e.g. the devil, the beast, and tlie false prophet as the ' anti-trinity of heir(.seeMilligan, 5rtirrficc<«re, p. 11011'.)

Itseems reasonable to suppose that the author would readily make use of imagery from a system so subtlj" re- sembling his own. There is significance then in tlie identification of the Serpent of Gn 3 with Satan (12^), whose binding and subsequent destruction is narrated in striking accordance with the Parsi story of Azhi Dahaka (above, § 4 (6)).

AVe may peiliaps fairly add that Azhi Dahaka is especially connected with Bab}ion,t a coincidence which might be claimed as no mere accident — the less so as in the Pahlavi Bahmnn Yasht (SBE v. 234) we find the serpent Azlii, in his brief release before his final destruction, swallowing 'one-third of man- kinil, cattle, sheep, and other creatures of Auhar- nuizd.' The obvious parallels in the Apocalypse are only discounted by the impo.

ssibility of prov- ing that the Pahlavi translator is here faithful to his original Avestan text, now lost. (See above, § 7). 10. The question of Parsi influences upon the E.S.SKNES is raised by Lightfoot's dissertaticm (in L'omm. on Col. pp. 387-389). He accepts (like Hilgenfeld) links with Parsism in (1) dualism, (2) sun-worship, (3) angelolatry, (4) magic, (5) striving after ])urity.

Otiier points might be plausibly added, such as their white garments, the value set on truth, their devotion to agriculture, etc. (Their unblooily olferings must not be counted here, for Mazdeism has always had a sacrifice of llesli, as well as the libation and the Haoma otleruig). It • I' we may read Yima's fall in K« 32" : Tiele denies. * See }'( 5^; and Darraesteter's note (Lt ZA ii. 375).

must be allowed that there is little really distinc- tive here, except the sun-worship— the one point in which Clieyne (who in other respects endorses Lightfoot's view) thinks Josephus inaccurate.* Moreover, there was Magian sun-worship which was not Zoroastrian, as in Ezk S'"' (see § 3, above). Essene dualism seems to owe nothing to that of the Vendidad, which has no philosophical theory of the inherent evil of matter and no trace of asceticism.

The most conspicuous features in the picture Josephus draws are alien from the spirit of Parsism. In their psychology and eschatology one or two surface parallels are neutralized by deep-seated divergences. Thus in Mazdeism the pre-existent souls (frai-ashis) came to earth volun- tarily, to join in the warfare against evil, not tyy-^l TLVL (pvcTtic^ KaracTTTui^tvai.

And in denying the Resurrection in favour of the immortality of the soul, the Essenes betray affinity with Uellenistie Judaism (especially the Book of Wisdom) : note that Griitz and Montet trace the latter doctrine to Neoplatonism, recognizing Parsi influence only in the former. Unless Josephus ( Wars, II. viii.

11) is entirely drawing on imagination, we must admit, witli Soderblom, that Greek influence is demonstrable in their paradise beyond the sea, while the solitary Parsi feature, the hell io<piJiSrit xal Xfif-^P'os, is not sufficient to support an argument. 11. Sundry miscellaneous comparisons may be mentioned, and among them those given by Darmes- teter in his attempt to prove that Parsism borrowed from Judaism. (1) Philo's Ai57os (mostly Neopla- tonic) originates Vohu JIanah ('the Go(>d Mind').

(2) The enactments of Pentateuchal and Avestan law are regularly introduced with the formula, '(God) saith to (the lawgiver).' (3) Ahura creates the world in six periods — heax'en, water, earth, plants, animals, man.t (4) ^lankind in the Avesta descends from one couple, and the name Masht/a signifies 'man,' J like di^. (5) Sin begins with the first man. (6) Ahura bids king Yima collect in a subterranean palace the finest types of the human race, animals, and vegetables.

When three de- structive winters have depopulated the earth, this ' 'Var ' shall open and re-people it with a higher race.i (7) Yima's successor has three sons, between whom tlie world is parted as among the sons of Noah. (8) Zarathushtra holds converse with Ahura on a mountain before promulgating the Law. (9) Zarathushtra had three precursors in his religion, as Moses had the three patriarchs. (10) The A\esta, like the OT, is divided into Law, Prophecy, and Miscellaneous Literature.

Darmesteter tries to show that these parallels must be interpreted by Parsi borrowing. As he has convinced no one, the point need not be argued.

It is enough to say that (1) the really Avestan elements in these com- parisons are demonstrably far too old to have been borrowed ; (2) some features may come from lialjy- lonian or even Accadian antiquit}', inllueming Hebrew and Parsi alike ; (3) most of the parallels are obviously fortuitous, proving nothing even when presented apart from a setting which greatly modifies the resemblance.

That some of the later parts of the Avesta (and, a fortiori, Pahlavi writ- ings) maj" have been influenced by Judaism is likely enough. Thus Horn || thinks th.at tlie Pall is late in Parsism and due to the Hebrew, also that the virgin-birth of SaoshyantH owes some- thing to Is 7". Sundry biblical and Talmudio • Expoa. Times, ii. 206. t Cf. Oheyne, OP 283. I Strictly mortals. \ See Gekltier'8 tr. of I'd 22nf- in Usoner, Sintjtiifmgen. p. 20SfI.; Chcyne (Encyc. Bibl. g.v.

'Deluge') remarks that it seema influenced by the Hebrew. jl ' Jled. u. Pers.' p. 330 (in Uellwald, KuUurgesch. pt. 6). ^ This is a {^ood example of a parallel made plausible by selective description : the Pars) story is a most extravapmt mar\'el, to be classed with the miraculous births described Ui Hartl.ind's Legend o/ Perieui, i. 1338. ZOKOASTRIANISM ZOROASTRIANIRM 993 paralli-lB iuhv I w«n in Kolint, ■l(,ili ii. ifj: tl «nii lii. i.'*l tl.

I lif periiiil of the UitbyluniRn Taliniui seenie to have biou^'ht a closer contm't with ParBisin. Hut thcMe lat«r contartn lie oiitBiHe our allure, a« al»o doe« tbe rar»i herexy of Mani — if siK-h it really he.* 12 The l{(iok of Esther m'\\i\\t reasoimtily be ex|ipctt-<l to bIiow traces of Persian relif.'ion.

Hut thiiu^'h NironK I'ersian intlueme is betrayed by the loan "onls (oee Siheftilow itz, A risrltes im A T), we canimt with certainty lix on anythinf; of valne for the questions we are disrussinf; here. The Persian orifrin of the Feast of I'UKIM, which has receiveii new importance from the theory of J. (i. Krazer (Gulden hough*, iii. I5i> I9S), is examined elsewhere. An atterajit has lately been made by H Winckler'l to tind the names of tlie Aiiishas- fands Vohnm.'

inah and Anieretat in those of lanian and llammeilatha. It a|>|>ears pndiable that these two archangels' names underlie the 'ilfjLavoi' Kal ' Ayaddrov (T 'Aiap5droi'), iltf>aiiiujp So- fidfwy of Stralio (p. 512) : it is clear that the names only have been borrowed in this Pontic appropria- tion, so that we need not c()nsider the cliaracter of the Avestan orifxinals.

If the lM)ok really starts from an olil story celebrating the victory of natire Babylonian gods, Marduk and Ishtar, over the foreign divinities answering to ' Vashti ' and ' Hanian,' we sluuild have to treat it as a com- position essentially parallel with Tobit, as ex- plained in § -t, al>ove, that is, as a tale whose original signilicance waa unknown to or igriored by a Jewish a<lapter writing with purposes of his own.

In tliat case Jensen's identification of Hainan and Vashti as Elamitt deities is clearly preferable to Winckler's, which demands that Persian deities sliould sutler humiliation. But the whole theory will have to reckon with the ex- planation of all these names from Persian alone, as set forth in the new work of Scheftelowitz named above. 13. Two further comparisons may l>e added from the various suggestions of Prof. Cheyne.

The later Jewish practice of prayer at dawn was, he thinks, promiited by I'arsi usage — a point wliich would be hard to prove, lie draws an interesting parallel between the 'Wisdom' of OP sapiential books and the dsnn kkratu, ' heavenly wisilomf?),' of tbe Avesta. Hut even if this translation were safe, the conception is almost i»(dated in the Avesta, and it would be better to compare the .\m8ha-<pand Volnimanah, a personification strik ingly resembling the Wisdom with whom .

("created the world. His rising up to welcome the soul of the good man as it enters Gnrd demann is in agree- ment with Wisdom's (tttXavSpmloL. The sex of the impersonation answers to another Amshaspand, Armaiti, the 'daughter of Ahnra.' It is obviously impossible to assert, or to deny, that the one con- ception springs out of the otiier, or owes some thing to it, so long as the dates of the several literatures permit association. 14.

To the foregoing, more or less plausible, contacts may be added one which has been rather too ingeniously pleaded by a scholar of great learn ing, but without meeting with much acceptance. In ZDMG ixx. 716 IT. Rabbi A. Kohnl tried to prove an ' antiParsic bias' in Deutero Isaiah. It will be eiioiigli in general to refer to the criticism bv de Harlez in Hev. d. queiitioru histi/riyufji, April 1877. One passage, however, cannot lie so sum marily set aside.

In Is 45'' commentators since Saailya have seen a polemic against Persian dual- 8o f>«niipit«l«r arifl Jft^kson ; B/Kterblom daniet IRsv, Bift. Rtl. xl. ti~e y 8«« Ilamuk. Hitt. o/ Dogma, 111. KSO. t In hli AllorimUtU. Fortdt.. Srtl wriM, L I (IHOl) On (>mano« •«« JenMO, UiltiUr ». Ann^nier, p. 181 ; on tlun. <iidftlhik. ib. p. ieo4 D. vol. IV. — 6l isiii, a view from which the most recent writers have begun to recoil. If we are to recogiii/.e an allusion to some foreign dualistic idea.

s, it is more proUably Magian doctrine than anything we could su|ipose held by Cynis. It hajipens that in the (■athaa {1') 44') we Hnd A hura ail dressed as 'the artiticer of light and darkness, sleep and waking, dawn, noon, and night.' A yet more ini|>onaMt parallel is the imprecation in I)ariu«' great in- scription {li'h. 4'"""), 'may Auraina/.da slay tliee . . and whatever thon shalt do, mav Aurama/da destroy that for thee.'

It is clear tlierefore iliat even in the reign of Darius, Persian religiim could have used the language of Is 45', merely Bubstiliit- ing Aurama/.da's name for that of J". The idea, therefore, ol a veiled polemic against Cyrus' re ligion must be abandoned. 16. The student will have realized from the foregoing paragraphs that it is no easy task to sum up in the case before as, and that a verdict of ' not proven' is about as much as we can expect in the present state of our knowledge.

The dithculty is one which confronts us everywhere in the study of ancient religions in Western Asia, in which certain ideas seem to float alwut with a freedom that vetoes almost any attempt to fix their parentage. The general indejiendence of Israel's religious cle- velopment has certainly come out more clearly from the investigation.

Of the Hebraists hardly any will allow more than a trilling weight to Persian influence, and even Prof, t'lieyne speaks in his latest utterances with more hesitation than lie did.* On the Iranian side an able and ex- haustive examination has been niaile in the new work on eschatology ^y •^oilerblom (named be- low), whose results are almost entirely unfavour- able to the doctrine of Persian elements in Judaism. He notes how unlike anything in .

ludaism is the Avestan hell, a place ot cold and stench and [loison, not of lire — wliich was, of coarse, too sac reil an element to be applied thus; on the other hand, the vinilerground Hadea, divided into two parts, for pious souls and sinners, is essentially Ureek. lie would allow no genuine contacts of Judaism and Parsism until a late epmh.

Thus he compares with 1 Th 4" the passage in y'< 19, where through the work of Saoshyant the world is renewed, the dead arise, and the living are endowed with immortality (p. 224). If this is supposed to be more than an accidental parallel, we may iilace it w ith the Pauline passages in S H, above. SixierbloTii remarks on the uniqaenesa of the conception in 2 P S"-, of the earth brought out of water and reserved for fire : this aspect of the future is e.

ssentially an Indo-Germanic idea, lieing found in India, Iran, Greece, Gaul, and Iceland (p. '2m4). In sharp contrast to this adRpt*tion of a nature myth he sets the purely iMietical and spiritual conception of Deutero- Naiah as to the 'new heaven and new earth' (p. •JHJ). Looking back upon the narrow range of the parallels noted in § 7, we shall probably do well to allow Persian inlluence in Escliatolopy only some weigiit in stinuiliitiiii; what was n<me the less a native growth in .luiiaism.

It may, however, have prompted the sii<lden change Irom a Resurrection ol the .Inst iwith some conspicuons siiiiiers) to a I'liiversal Resurrection : so liousset, with a half consent from .S(derbloin (p. Ml ',}. '1 be presence of Persian ideas ill the Apocalypse can hardly be denied ; and they can l^e rea.soiiably explained from the adoption of Zoroii-strian imagery in earlier apocalyptic. I In .\ngelology and Demonology we • i:f hw lntii.

Mm|{c in Kniiul lytuilifH (IHIW,, mid viirloua liolea ill thi- Knc. HM. t It is cnrioim thst Mnxdi-inm p»o entirely f«IIe<t lo peiietmt"* WMterti Aftis Minor .CumuiiU Myxt. dt Milhra. '/TS). Ottirrwiwe we Mhonitt l)nv«> nntilrnll.v thoni;llt uf Gphci^nH iie a place where Hiicti i<luUH would be In the air. 994 ZOROBABEL ZUZIM seem justified in re^anling llie forei^in iiirtnenoe as present in the elalioiHte ordering ami raiikini^ of eiiiritH.

In tlie tmiiier we have a very provable Zorondtrian feature In the' rrpresentative ant;els' ; wliile in the latter we may assign to the same cause the lireaihes nf continuity (I) in tlie «l'anilon- incnt of earlier ideas, ike Azazel and the Ser- pent, in favour of the Satan ; (2) in the clianced view of tlie gods of the nations, who were at tirst Ireateil as real K"d», liien becaiue ° nolliin^s,' and finally developed into demons.

It is an interest- iiif; result of these cotiressions, if allowed, that the New Testamenl is very much more concerned with i.lieni than the Old. LiTBKATtjRi. — The fullest (tisruwfnn will be found in Sta^e, Vhfr dfn Binjlusg dfs /'armtttius unj dtu .huli-nfutn (U''Hs ; see •uinniar^ of it in Orit R^v July 190U, p. 'i'l'.^ ff . and an iinporlanl rtrwcvN in Rm. llml Kri il, 2«« f , by S..,ierl>loin) ; Chejne,''/" 3!I4 IS-.!. Kzpol Timri. il. 202, 424, 248 9 , Knc KM. t.v.

'Anijel,' and in Knhut Sluiiif.^ (IKv»fl). The relatione between Paraism and Rabbinic Judaism were examined by Sehorr In hia Hebrew periodical Hf-Batiu, vii and viii (IsrtS) [not ween], who was closely followed by Kohut, Jud- A lufriol. u, Dnrrutrwt. (ISttfl). The auestion is well di8-UH8ed from the Biblical standpoint by M Nicolas, th'9 Ditctrinf» li'-lt^fifUiiet dp Ju\fit {X^W). See also Kohut in ZD.yfff »il. Iif>-1 fl , xxv. 59ff. ; (Jeiirer in his Jiul. Zcittchr Iv, 729., I.

11,19 ; Scbwally, Lflmt itoch d. Todf, p_ 141)9 ; Moulton In ThxJcer. 1. 401 B., II 3(i», i»i<t , Kipnt. Time; li S62 9., Oil. Rrv vi g-14, I. QB-KKi ; Soderbloni, ' l-a Vie f\iture d'aprfes le Mazdeisrae' {Ann. du Muaft Guinx^t, 1901), e8i>. pp 3iil-321. Too lale for use came F, Iloklen ■ Dis I'enrandtucriaft der jud..<;hT. init der part. Egchatolwjie (19irti), a verr full, if somewhat uncritical, collection of parallels, J. H. MOULTOK.

ZOROBABEL See Zkrihbabeu ZORZELLEUS (H *a7,s'eX3oroi, A Zo^fAXeoi, AV Berzdus), 1 Ks 5". See Barzillai.— A daUK'hter of his, named Augia, is mentioned as married to Addus, the ancestor of a priestly family, who could not trace their genealogy at the return umler Zerubbabel, The same change of the initial letter occurs in the LX.X of Ezx 2«' (H Zop^AStl, A Ze^ §t\\ai ; but in the same verse B Btps'eWatl, A -()■