Zoroastrianism and Judaism/Chapter 5

IN the Zoroastrian doctrine, the universe is a product of the goodness of Ormazd. He called it into existence, It is marred only by the malicious attacks and deeds of Angro Mainyu, or Aharman, the Bundahis name. The earth is the scene of the conflict between these two beings, the rulers of good and evil. Man is the centre of the universe, and his soul is at stake as the prize for which they contend. Two primeval spirits are assumed to exist at the beginning.^[1] The good spirit, Ahura Mazda, dwells above in eternal light; the evil spirit lurks in eternal darkness. They meet and struggle in the realm of Time, which Ahura Mazda has carved out as a special period for the history of the world.

This time forms an aeon of twelve thousand years, divided into four periods of three thousand years each.^[2] Each of these is presided over by a sign of the Zodiac Perhaps in this Zodiacal system there may be Babylonian influences. The first three thousand years is the period of spiritual creation, Ahura Mazda at the outset, through his omniscience, knows of the existence of Aharman. He therefore produces the whole of his creation in a spiritual state, and ​the creatures so produced, remain in a transcendental form for the first three thousand years of time. This primordial spiritual creation by Ahura Mazda is exemplified in the Fravashis and alluded to in the Avesta. Aharman, ignorant but malicious, arises from the darkness and is confounded at seeing the light. Ahura Mazda proposes to the evil spirit a period of conflict for nine thousand years, because he knows that at the end the evil spirit will be undone. On terms being accepted, he at once routs Aharman, who flees back to darkness and remains three thousand years in confusion. The weapon Abura Mazda uses is the sacred prayer Ahura Vairya. This holy word resembles the part the Logos plays in Neo-Platonic ideas of creation.^[3]

In the second three thousand years Ahura Mazda brings into tangible shape the creation which had hitherto existed only in spiritual form. At the same time Aharman produces demons and fiends which aid him in his warfare against heaven. The order of Ahura Mazda's material creation after the Amesha Spenta and the spirits, is, first, the sky; second, water; third, earth; fourth, plants; fifth, animals; sixth, mankind. The Fravashis, or celestial prototypes, also aid in this creation as they do in the management of the world. It is by deliberate choice that the guardian spirits of men, Fravashis, elect to be born into the world, in order to aid in the overthrow of Aharman and to win joys eternal.^[4]

​In the third three thousand years, Aharman having recovered from his confusion, and encouraged by the demoness Geh (like Milton’s conception of sin), heeds his fiendish hosts and springs like a snake^[5] through the sky down to the earth, The vault of heaven is shattered, earth is in distress, blight, corruption, disease, and noxious creatures are everywhere found.^[6] He assaults water, earth, plants, and the fire; pollutes them, and slays the primeval bull, (Gos), and the primal man (Gayomard). The heavenly angels finally gain the victory and hurl the fiends to hell beneath the earth, while they build a rampart around the sky to protect it against the adversary. But as the primordial bull and man pass away, they become the progenitors of all animal life and mankind. The remainder of these three thousand years is the history of the race and of the kingdoms of earth till the coming of Zaratust, (Zarathustra).^[7]

Zaratust and his sons, Ausheta and Aushetarmah, together with the coming of Saoshyant fill the Fourth period of three thousand years. At the close of this period, Ahura Mazda will triumph over Aharman, and good will be supreme.^[8]

In the late traditions, and still more in the older literature, it is plain to see, that the pious mind of ​the old Iranian, beheld in all the phenomena and wonders of nature the ever-working power of the Deity. “This I ask Thee, O Ahura! tell me a right: who by generation was the first father of the Righteous order within the world? Who gave the recurring sun and stars their undeviating way? Who established that whereby the moon waxes, and whereby she wanes save Thee? These things, O Great Creator! would I know, and others likewise still. This I ask thee, O Ahura! tell me a right: Who from beneath hath sustained the earth and the clouds above, that they do not fall? Who made the waters and the plants? Who to the wind has yoked on the storm-clouds, the swift and fleetest two? Who O Great Creator! is the inspirer of the good thoughts within our souls? This I ask Thee, O Ahura! tell me a right: Who, as a skillful artisan, hath made the lights and the darkness? Who, as thus skillful, hath made sleep and the zest of waking hours? Who spread the Auroras, the noontides and midnight, monitors to discerning man, duty’s true guides?”^[9] In a similar manner the Achaemenian kings magnify Ahura Mazda as having created heaven, earth, and man.

The idea of the universe is represented as one of intelligence and order. There is a geocentric conception of the universe. The sky is regarded as threefold, the supreme heaven, the gloomy abyss, and ​that which is between these two.^[10] Above the atmosphere about the earth comes the celestial sphere, in which the stars and constellations, and signs of the Zodiac are set. The moon and the sun are believed to occupy spheres beyond the stars. The abode of Ahura Mazda is above all in the supreme heaven. Different constellations guard the four quarters of heaven and the zenith, and each of these is presided over by a particular star. Planets and shooting stars mar the order of nature and they are regarded as the creatures of Aharman.^[11] The laws of nature are subject to Ahura Mazda or his agents. He is the Lord of law, of right order, and of righteousness. The Zoroastrian conception of creation seems to be rather that of a forming or shaping of pre-existent matter, than 2 real creation ex nihilo.^[12] If this is so, it is in contrast to the Jewish belief.

Whether the Iranians thought of the earth as circular and flat or as spherical, ts disputed, but the former is generally believed.^[13] It was divided into seven zones or circles.^[14] The Jews thought of the world as a disc, and to the earthly disc, the heavenly corresponded.^[15] It is probable that the idea of the seven heavens in the Book of Enoch and the ​Testaments of the Twelve Patriarchs, may be a Persian addition.

There is a fine description of the work of Yahveh in creation in the second Book of Esdras^[16] Yahveh is alone supreme. In the Iranian account of creation there is in the earlier literature a recognition of an evil spirit as joint creator with Ahura Mazda.^[17] This has no parallel in the Hebrew account. Generally, however, in the Avesta, and in the Achaemenian inscriptions, the sole creatorship of Ahura Mazda is affirmed, and ideal perfection is attributed to all his works. Here there are marked likenesses to the Semitic theory of creation. The order in creation, the different periods, the supremacy of Ahura Mazda, the ideal perfection of the newly created world, are paralleled in the legends of Genesis.^[18] It is not likely that the similar ideas of creation in the Avesta were due to Jewish influence.^[19] It seems more probable that the cosmogonic conceptions of both Persians and Jews were more or less fixed before they came into contact with each other. The Persian ideas of a fall and of a flood suggest Hebrew conceptions.^[20] But no more so than parallel ideas among other peoples. We may very reasonably suppose that the theories of creation, the fall, and the flood ​in the Semitic and Aryan races had a common origin, and that their point of union lies behind any written history. The very dissimilarities in the theories argue their common origin, rather than that one copied from the other.^[21]

As to ideas of anthropology, the Iranians believed that Gayomard, the progenitor of the race, when dying, killed by Aharman,^[22] emitted his semen, and from this there developed two beings who became the parents of mankind. Their first offspring were twins, male and female, which they devoured, but they suffered their following seven pairs of children to live. From those seven pairs the whole human family descended.^[23] The Hebrew narrative in comparison with this is simplicity itself.^[24]

The people of the Avesta regarded man as consisting of body and soul, the material and the spiritual. The body is composed of numerous constituents and members. Flesh, skin, bone, blood, fat are designated, and many parts of the body are named. The spiritual element of man exists previously to the material, and does not perish like the latter at death. The life of the individual in the hereafter will be discussed later. Generally five spiritual faculties of man are recognized.^[25] These are: spirit, ​reason, which watches over the corporeal functions of man, and probably is the least of the faculties of the soul; conscience, guarding the moral life of man; consciousness, or perception; the soul which gives freedom of the will, or the power of choice; and the Fravashi or guardian spirit. The Zoroastrian faith and philosophy recognized man’s responsibility and accountability as will be pointed out under another heading.

In the Jewish conception of man the duality^[26] of his being is assumed throughout. His body is the physical mass in the same sense in which the Zoroastrians understood it. His soul is the inseparable accompaniment of life with all its functions. The word spirit as a part of human nature is very nearly identical with that of soul.^[27] A division of inward faculties is implied.^[28] Conscience, moral affections, free-will and intellect are everywhere recognized. As many as seven spirits are spoken of in Apocryphal literature as being in man.^[29] Many terms are used, however, which do not indicate faculties of the soul.