Zoroastrianism and Judaism/Chapter 10

The Zoroastrian faith is one of the world’s great religions. The purity and ideality of Ahura Mazda, the belief in the company of holy angels that do his bidding, the expectation of a coming Saviour, the high value set upon man, the lofty conception of the future life, the final overcoming of evil by good, are among the elements of strength. The depth of its philosophy, the spirituality of many of its views, the clearness and purity of its ethics, are scarcely equalled by any creed of ancient times. In the face of these noble conceptions, it is remarkable that what is probably the purest religion of antiquity, except the Jewish, should almost have perished from the earth.

But there are some striking elements of weakness. Ahura Mazda is not almighty. The dualism is a leading feature, dualism entering into every thing in life. The influence of demons was carried to ridiculous extremes, and resembled witchcraft and enchantments. The ceremonial and ritual regulations were cumbrous, and along with lofty and profound conceptions were often puerile supersitions.

Judaism came to the conception of Yahveh as the supreme Ruler of the universe, and with that their responsibility to the nations confronted them. He ​was no longer a tribal God. There was no god beside Him. He was supreme and righteous. The spirituality and high ideals of some of the Psalms and Deutero-Isaiah, indicate that the ritual worship and ceremonial rites were not to all empty forms.^[1] But in their very forms there is a mark of strength. They preserved the worship of Yahveh, kept the Sabbaths and rest days, guarded the sacred oracles, and fostered a high morality. The rise of the synagogue worship was a valuable force in the religion. The people too cultivated love of family and of race, and their clannishness was a protection to their faith. The weakness of Judaism lay in misconceptions and diverted energies. Yahveh was thought of as Judge, and King. Only a few prayed to Him as Father and Friend. The hope of a temporal kingdom and earthly glory crowded out spiritual expectations. The ceremonial sometimes was substituted for genuine righteousness, and more often ceremonial laws and rites were absurd and harmful.

It has been pointed out already that the main elements of the Zoroastrian faith were for the most part fixed before the Persian period of Jewish history, and that there was probably no marked influence made by the Jews upon the Persian faith. The Jews, however, discovering that their rulers had many conceptions and teachings similar to, and others in advance of their own, would, in receiving ​and adopting them, easily deduce such teachings and conceptions from their own revelation, with no thought that they were borrowing. At any rate, later generations would think of them as purely Jewish beliefs. While the germs of the beliefs that came into prominence in post-exilic times in Judaism may be present in the earlier writings, the germs alone are not enough to explain the later developments. The explanation is found in the fact that the “germs which lay hidden in Judaism were fertilized by contact with the Persian religion.”^[2] To this foreign contact, therefore, we probably are indebted for some of the loftiest and most spiritual conceptions, which came into Judaism and passed from Judaism into Christianity. The Jews were not only influenced by contact with the Persian faith, but by those who became converts to Judaism. As to-day a person changing from one faith to another decidedly different carries into the new faith some of his old influences, so the very fact that many Persians became Jews^[3] would favor the development or adoption of beliefs already latent in Judaism.

The followers of the Zoroastrian faith probably furnished the stimulus for ideas and beliefs that otherwise might not have come into prominence. These beliefs Judaism preserved and fostered for fuller development under the benign influence of Christianity.