Page:History of Zoroastrianism.djvu/360

This page has been proofread, but needs to be validated.
327
THE ACTIVE PROPAGANDA OF THE FAITH

opposed to the pure law of Mazda.[1] The religions that most struggled in this manner with the national faith during the Sasanian period were Judaism and Christianity, whose position in Persia we shall now discuss.

Judaism in Persia. Judea had come under the Persian rule at the very early period. The Babylonian exile brought the Jews into close touch with the Persians in the sixth century B.C. We have already referred to the fact that the restoration of the temple at Jerusalem was executed at the royal command of the Persian kings Cyrus and Darius. The Jews had settled in Persia in large numbers from very early times, and had planted their colonies all over the country. They thrived peacefully and were given privileges to manage their own civic affairs without molestation from the state. Some of the members of the royal house had even married Jewish princesses King Yazdagard I, for example, had a Jewish consort.[2] But in general those who contracted matrimonial alliances with Jewish women were disliked, and the Dinkart inveighs in strong terms against the practice of contracting such unions.[3] In the course of time, the Persians and the Israelites seem to have been sharply divided in religious matters. Disputations on questions of belief must have been frequent. All of the Pahlavi works denounce Judaism in unsparing terms. The writer of the Dinkart, for instance, avers that Judaism is not a divine religion,[4] and points to Zohak, the most detested of men, as the originator of the Jewish scriptures,[5] branding elsewhere the Jewish books as utterances of the demons.[6] Seno, a Zoroastrian sage, is reported to have said, in his admonitions to the kings of Persia, that the sovereign of the people ought to keep aloof from the religion of the Jews, as bringing devastation to the world.[7] The progress of the Jewish belief should be arrested, lest it spread its evil among the faithful.[8] The knowledge of this religion produces baneful influences upon the Mazdayasnians,[9] it implants vice,[10] and ag-

  1. ↑ SLS 6 7.
  2. ↑ Shatroihā-a Airān, 47, 53.
  3. ↑ Dk., vol. 2, p 97–102.
  4. ↑ Dk., vol. 4, p. 211.
  5. ↑ Dk., vol. 6, p. 372, 373; vol. 7, p 439.
  6. ↑ Dk., vol. 9, p. 604.
  7. ↑ Dk., vol. 5, p. 310.
  8. ↑ Dk., vol. 1, p. 24.
  9. ↑ Dk., vol. 6, p. 373.
  10. ↑ Dk., vol. 7, p. 456.
This article is issued from Wikisource. The text is available under Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 4.0 unless otherwise noted. Additional terms may apply for the media files.