History of the Ancient Near East · Part 23 · Babylon and Persia · B2–C1
Zoroastrianism and Its Influence
Part 23 of History of the Ancient Near East: the religion of the Persian kings taught that the world is a battle between truth and the Lie, that every soul will be judged at a bridge, and that at the end of time the dead will rise and the world will be made new. Did these ideas shape Jewish, Greek and later beliefs? Noun clauses (the idea that…), be influenced by, derive from, and careful hedging (it is likely that, there is little evidence that), with Philo, Sophia, Marcos and Demetria.
Tonight, a religion. Darius spoke of “the Lie” on his cliff at Behistun. Tonight, we find out where that word came from.
Our word “magic” does come from them. But they were priests, and their prophet was one of the most interesting thinkers of the ancient world.
And some of my teachers say that certain ideas in our later books came from Persia. I would like to know if that is true.
Zarathustra, called Zoroaster by the Greeks, was a priest and poet of ancient Iran. His hymns, the Gathas, are written in a very old language close to the Sanskrit of India’s oldest hymns. Because of this, many scholars think he lived between about 1500 and 1000 BCE; others prefer a later date. Nobody knows for certain.
Zarathustra taught that Ahura Mazda, the Wise Lord, is the good creator, opposed by a destructive spirit. The world is a battle between truth and the Lie, and every person must choose a side. After death, each soul is judged at a bridge: the good cross into the House of Song, the wicked fall into the House of the Lie. At the end of time, a saviour will come, the dead will rise, and the world will be made perfect.
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