Page:History of Zoroastrianism.djvu/364

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SECTS
331
Zarvanites

Zarvan according to the Pahlavi writers. This image of the eternal duration of Time is as cold and lifeless in the Pahlavi works as it was in the Avestan texts. Ormazd created it, and with its creation the entire existence came into motion,[1] or according to another passage, Boundless Time is eternally in Ormazd, and the very first work of his in creation appertained to Time.[2] He brought into being the earthly and heavenly creatures through his own splendour and through the blessing of Time.[3] Zarvan, or Time, is called hungerless and thirstless, painless and deathless, ever-living and ever-predominating over the fleeting things of the universe.[4] Thus the authoritative Zoroastrian works speak of Boundless Time in its relation to Ormazd; just as any system of philosophy or theology may speak of the eternity of God. The demon Arashk is alleged to have said that Ormazd and Ahriman have been two brothers in one womb.[5] Mani calls Zarvan in his heresy, Time Eternal, the Father God of Light.[6]

Zarvan according to the non-Zoroastrian writers. The account that we get of this being from the writings of the classical and Armenian authors is different from what we find in the Iranian sources.[7] The Armenian and Syrian writers attack Zoroastrianism on this point.[8] Zarvan, or Time, they aver, is held by the Persians to be the generative principle of the universe. Moses of Chorene[9] writes that the Zoroastrians regarded Time as the source and father of existence.[10] According to Photius this being was looked upon as the ruler of the universe; he offered sacrifice in order to beget Hormizdas, but gave birth to Hormizdas and Satan.[11] Damascius quotes Eudemus (about

  1. ↑ Zsp. 1. 24.
  2. ↑ Dk., vol 6, p. 415, 416.
  3. ↑ Mkh. 8. 8.
  4. ↑ Mkh. 8. 9.
  5. ↑ Dk., SBE., vol. 37, bk 9. 30. 4, p. 241, 242.
  6. ↑ Jackson, Researches in Manichaeism, p. 8.
  7. ↑ See Jackson, Zoroaster, p. 274–278; Gray, Zrvan, in The Foundations of the Iranian Religions, p. 124-129; Junker (tr Tavadia), The idea of Zruvan in the Iranian Literature and its influence elsewhere in Journal of the Cama Oriental Institute, 5. 1–10; Pettazoni, La Religione di Zarathustra, p. 189, 190.
  8. ↑ Noldeke, Fesgtruss an Roth, p. 34–38, Stuttgart, 1893; Blue, The Zarvanite System in Indo-Iranian Studies in honour of Dastur D. P. Sanjana, p. 67. 68, London, 1925.
  9. ↑ Blue, ib., p. 68, 69.
  10. ↑ Cf. Jackson, Zoroaster, p. 275.
  11. ↑ Theodore of Mopsuestia, apud Photius, Bibl. 81.
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