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THE RENOVATION

when nothing at all existed, and as he was able to create the sky and the earth, the sun and the moon, and the stars, fire and water, clouds and wind, grain and mankind, in fact everything that formerly had no existence, it would not be difficult for him at the Resurrection to form anew something that had already existed.[1] Mohammed likewise tells those that doubt, that if God could create them out of nothing, it was certainly possible for him to bring them back to life after death. The spirit of the earth, the water, the plants, and the fire will at that time restore the bones, blood, hair, life, and other materials which had been committed to them by God in the beginning, and in this manner the bodies will be formed anew.[2] And in another Pahlavi work it is said that Just as it is easier to teach what once was learnt but was forgotten than it is to teach that which had never been learnt, and as it is easier to repair a house than to build a new one, even so is it easier to bring to pass the restoration of the creation than in the beginning the original creation out of nothing.[3]

All those resurrected will be furnished with their bodily frames by the command of Ormazd.[4] The first body thus raised up will be that of Gayomaid, the father of mankind. Then will follow the first couple, Mashya and Mashyoi, and then the rest of mankind, whether righteous or wicked.[5] Exceptions to this general statement are found in other Pahlavi texts, but the tone is in general the same. Men of demoniac nature, sodomites, apostates, and the hateful Afrasiab will not be given their bodies, for these arch-enemies of religion are no longer men, but have converted themselves into fiends and must consequently share the fate of their class.[6]

Universal judgment. A further arraignment at the judgment seat now takes place. The righteous and the wicked souls are now gathered together in one place and are subjected to the collective, or universal judgment. Every soul at this judicial session sees its good and its evil deeds, and the wicked man becomes as conspicuous as a white sheep among the black.[7] Ormazd

  1. ↑ Bd. 30. 5.
  2. ↑ Bd. 30. 6.
  3. ↑ Dd. 37. 5.
  4. ↑ Dk., vol. 6, p. 359.
  5. ↑ Bd. 30. 7.
  6. ↑ SLS. 17. 7; Dk., vol. 3, p. 144.
  7. ↑ Bd. 30. 10; cf. Jackson, Persia Past and Present, p. 75, New York, 1906.
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