Iranian Foundations For ...
(Top Posts - History - 012201)

... the origins of theological concepts which
impacted how humans perceived the inter-
actions between the spirit world and the real
world, with some of those concepts having
an impact on the development of Judaism
and Christianity:

Disbelievers/doubters, seekers, and christians
should be enlightened regarding the nature of
the dependence on religion and worship, the
similarities to ideas in Judaism, the develop-
ment of some of the key concepts later used
in Christianity, and the fertile foundations for
religious development present in Iranian and
Indus Valley cultures, as evidenced via the
nature of the common threads between Iranian,
Jewish, Vedic, and Christian faiths:

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Iran, History of
Religious Developments
Zoroastrianism
http://www.britannica.com/eb/article?eu=109313&tocid=32150#32150.toc
Excerpt: "... Under the Sasanians, stress came to
be placed on the fire cult and the worship of Ahura
Mazda. Strong mutual relationships, furthermore,
were developed between religion and the state, and
an ecclesiastical organization was set up in which
every local district of any importance had its own
mobed ('priest'; originally magupat, 'chief priest').

At their head stood the mobedan mobed ('priest
of priests'), who, in addition to his purely religious
jurisdiction, appears, especially in later times, to
have had a more or less decisive voice in the choice
of a successor to the throne and in other matters
of state.

There is also some evidence that the mobeds, by
virtue of their proficiency in reading and writing in
general and in the interpretation of the sacred
scriptures in particular, performed the offices of
registrars and scribes in semireligious or nonreli-
gious matters, after the fashion of the Christian
clergy in medieval Europe. ...

Nonorthodox and heretical cults and forbidden
manners and customs came to be regarded as a
pollution of the land and a serious offense to the
true God. It was the duty of the believer to combat
and destroy the unbelievers and the heretics.

In short, the tolerance of the Achaemenids and the
indifference of the Arsacids were gradually replaced
by religious intolerance and persecution. ...

As stated in the Ka'be-ye Zardusht inscription of
Karter, he claims credit for the suppression of
non-Zoroastrian religious communities in Iran
('and Jews, Buddhists, Brahmins, -Nazoreans-,
Christians . . . were struck upon'), for the imposi-
tion of orthodoxy and discipline on the priesthood
('the heretics [ahlomog] . . . who in the Magus
estate did not attend to the Mazdean religion and
the services to the gods with discrimination, I
struck them with punishment and I castigated
them'), and for the establishment of royal founda-
tions for the maintenance of priests and of sacred
fires.

Christianity - The reference in the Karter inscrip-
tion to two sects of Christians continues the
indications from Syriac sources that Christianity
had by this time, the second half of the 3rd century,
gained a firm footing in the lands of the Tigris and
the Euphrates, where it was strongest among the
Aramaic-speaking communities.

Ultimately, Christian missionary effort came to
expand over the whole of Iran and even beyond.
As long as the Roman Empire remained pagan,
the Christian communities of Iran lived undis-
turbed by persecution, while the Christians
themselves showed outspoken hostility toward
such heterodox sects as the Manichaeans and
the Gnostic followers of Marcion and Barde-
sanes, who existed side by side with them.

Once the emperor Constantine the Great (306-337)
made Christianity the official religion of the Roman
world, on the one hand, the Iranian Christians were
drawn to feel a certain sympathy for their foreign
coreligionists, while, on the other, political signifi-
cance came to be attached by the Sasanian rulers
to these religious connections with an often hostile
foreign power.

After 339 the Christians of Iran were subjected to
severe persecutions at the hands of Shapur II and
his successors. Substantial Christian communities
survived, nonetheless, in parts of Iran long after
the end of the Sasanian dynasty."

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Iran, History of
Manichaeism
http://www.britannica.com/eb/article?eu=109313&tocid=32152#32152.toc
Excerpt: "During the reign of Shapur I a new religious
leader and movement made their appearance. Mani
(between 216? and 274?) was the offspring of a
Parthian family resident in Babylonia ('a thankful
disciple I am, risen from Babel's land') but himself
a speaker of Aramaic.

... it appears, among other things, that Mani's teach-
ings were formulated under the strong influence of
Gnostic ideas and philosophy. Mani proclaimed
himself to be the last and greatest Apostle of Jesus
as well as the paraclete announced in the Gospel of
St. John.

With the Gnostic interpretation of the Gospel, Mani
tried to combine the doctrines of Zoroaster and
Jesus in order to create a new religion of a universal
character. ..."

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Manichaeism
http://www.britannica.com/eb/article?eu=51774
Excerpt: "Dualistic religious movement founded
in Persia in the 3rd century AD by Mani, who
was known as the 'Apostle of Light' and supreme
'Illuminator.' Although Manichaeism was long
considered a Christian heresy, it was a religion in
its own right that, because of the coherence of its
doctrines and the rigidness of its structure and
institutions, preserved throughout its history a
unity and unique character.

Mani was born in southern Babylonia (now in Iraq).
With his 'annunciation' at the age of 24, he obeyed
a heavenly order to manifest himself publicly and
to proclaim his doctrines; thus began the new
religion. From that point on, Mani preached through-
out the Persian Empire. At first unhindered, he later
was opposed by the king, condemned, and impri-
soned.

After 26 days of trials, which his followers called
the 'Passion of the Illuminator' or Mani's 'crucifixion,'
Mani delivered a final message to his disciples and
died (sometime between 274 and 277).

Mani viewed himself as the final successor in a long
line of prophets, beginning with Adam and including
Buddha, Zoroaster, and Jesus. ...

The Manichaean Church from the beginning was
dedicated to vigorous missionary activity in an
attempt to convert the world. Mani encouraged the
translation of his writings into other languages and
organized an extensive mission program. Manichaeism
rapidly spread west into the Roman Empire. From
Egypt it moved across northern Africa (where the
young Augustine temporarily became a convert) and
reached Rome in the early 4th century.

The 4th century marked the height of Manichaean
expansion in the West, with churches established in
southern Gaul and Spain. Vigorously attacked by
both the Christian Church and the Roman state, it
disappeared almost entirely from Western Europe
by the end of the 5th century, and, during the course
of the 6th century, from the eastern portion of the
Empire."

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Mandaeanism
http://www.britannica.com/eb/article?eu=51700
Excerpt: "(From Mandaean mandayya, 'having know-
ledge'), ancient Middle Eastern religion still surviving in
Iraq and Khuzistan (southwest Iran). The religion is
usually treated as a Gnostic sect; it resembles Mani-
chaeism in some respects.

Whereas most scholars date the beginnings of Man-
daeanism somewhere in the first three centuries AD,
the matter of its origin is highly conjectural. Some
scholars, emphasizing the Babylonian elements in
Mandaean magical texts, use of the Iranian calendar,
and the incorporation of several Iranian words into
the Mandaic language, argue that Mandaeanism
originated in the area of southwestern Mesopotamia
in early Christian or even pre-Christian times.

Others argue for a Syro-Palestinian origin, basing
their case on the quasi-historical Mandaean document,
the Haran Gawaita, which narrates the exodus from
Palestine to Mesopotamia in the 1st century AD of
a group called Nasoreans (the Mandaean priestly
caste as opposed to Mandaiia, the laity). They also
call attention to certain Mandaean affinities to Judaism:
familiarity with Old Testament writings; parallels to
Jewish ethics, particularly the high value placed on
marriage and procreation; concern for cultic purity;
and the use of Hebrew angelology.

Like other dualistic systems, Mandaeanism stresses
salvation of the soul through esoteric knowledge
(gnosis) of its divine origin. In its cosmological
superstructure, evil Archons (rulers) obstruct the
ascent of the soul through the heavenly spheres to
reunion with the supreme deity. Unlike many Gnostic
systems, however, Mandaeanism strongly supports
marriage and forbids sexual license.

The Mandaeans also developed an elaborate cultic
ritual, particularly for baptism, which was not char-
acteristic of any other known Gnostic sect. The
Mandaeans viewed Jesus as a false messiah but
revered John the Baptist, who performed miracles
of healing through baptism, which the Mandaeans
viewed as a magical process giving immortality,
purification, and physical health.

Among the more important extant Mandaean writings
are: the Ginza (Book of Adam), a cosmological treatise;
the Book of John, describing the activities of John the
Baptist; the Book of the Zodiac, a collection of magical
and astrological texts; and the Baptism of Hibil Ziwa,
describing the purification of the heavenly saviour of
the Mandaeans."

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Zoroastrianism
http://www.britannica.com/eb/article?eu=108446
Excerpt: "Ancient pre-Islamic religion of Iran that
survives there in isolated areas and, more prosper-
ously, in India, where the descendants of Zoroastrian
Iranian (Persian) immigrants are known as Parsis, or
Parsees. In India the religion is called Parsiism.

Founded by the Iranian prophet and reformer Zoro-
aster in the 6th century BC, the religion contains both
monotheistic and dualistic features. It influenced the
other major Western religons--Judaism, Christianity,
and Islam.

The ancient Greeks saw in Zoroastrianism the arche-
type of the dualistic view of the world and of man's
destiny. Zoroaster was supposed to have instructed
Pythagoras in Babylon and to have inspired the
Chaldean doctrines of astrology and magic. It is
likely that Zoroastrianism influenced the develop-
ment of Judaism and the birth of Christianity.

The Christians, following a Jewish tradition, identified
Zoroaster with Ezekiel, Nimrod, Seth, Balaam, and
Baruch, and even, through the latter, with Christ him-
self.

On the other hand, Zoroaster, as the presumed founder
of astrology and magic, could be considered the arch-
heretic. In more recent times the study of Zoroastri-
anism has played a decisive part in reconstructing the
religion and social structure of the Indo-European
peoples.

Though Zoroastrianism was never, even in the think-
ing of its founder, as aggressively monotheistic as,
for instance, Judaism or Islam, it does represent an
original attempt at unifying under the worship of one
supreme god a polytheistic religion comparable to
those of the ancient Greeks, Latins, Indians, and
other early peoples.

Its other salient feature, namely dualism, was never
understood in an absolute, rigorous fashion. Good
and Evil fight an unequal battle in which the former
is assured of triumph. God's omnipotence is thus
only temporarily limited. In this struggle man must
enlist because of his capacity of free choice.

He does so with his soul and body, not against his
body, for the opposition between good and evil is
not the same as the one between spirit and matter. ..."

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Zoroastrianism
History
Pre-Zoroastrian Iranian religion
http://www.britannica.com/eb/article?eu=108446&tocid=9186#9186.toc
Excerpt: "The language of Iran is closely akin to that
of northern India, and hence the people of the two
lands probably had common ancestors--the Indo-
Iranians, or Aryans. The religion of the latter has
been reconstructed by means of common elements
contained in the sacred books of Iran and India:
mainly the Avesta and the Vedas.

Both collections exhibit the same kind of polytheism,
with many of the same gods, notably the Indian Mitra
(the Iranian Mithra), the cult of fire, sacrifice by means
of a sacred liquor (soma in India, in Iran haoma), and
other parallels. ..."

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Zoroastrianism
Afterlife (Concepts of Man)
http://www.britannica.com/eb/article?eu=108446&tocid=9197#9197.toc
Excerpt: "... Indian and Iranian beliefs in the afterlife
have many features in common, probably dating back
to the Indo-Iranian period: a feminine encounter, a bridge
with dogs watching it, a heavenly journey.

In the ancient Indian texts, the Upanisads, the soul is
welcomed in heaven by 500 apsaras (cloud maidens).
In Iran the soul meets his own religion (daena) in the
form of a beautiful damsel if he has lived justly; other-
wise, he meets a hideous hag.

Either before this encounter or after, according to the
various texts, the soul must cross a bridge. This, with
the young girl and the gods, is attested in India in the
Yajurveda and the Upanisads. In the Gathas it is called
the Bridge of the Requiter. It leads the good souls to
paradise, but the bad ones fall into hell.

The soul has also to undergo a judgment; it appears
before Mithra and his two companions, Sraosha and
Rashnu. Finally it ascends through successive stages
representing respectively his good thoughts (the stars),
good words (the moon), and good deeds (the sun) to
the paradise (of infinite lights).

In the Veda it is said only that the sojourn of the good
deed is beyond the path of the sun. In paradise the soul
is led by Vohu Manah, the Good Mind, to the golden
throne of Ormazd. Hell also has, symmetrically, four
levels. And there is, for the souls whose good actions
exactly balance their evil ones, an intermediate place."

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Zoroastrianism
Eschatology (Saviours/End of the World)
http://www.britannica.com/eb/article?eu=108446&tocid=9198#9198.toc
Excerpt: "Zoroaster used to invoke saviours who, like
the dawns of new days, would come to the world. He
hoped himself to be one of them. After his death, the
belief in coming saviours developed. Zarathushtra
(Zoroaster) was expected to return, if not personally,
at least in the form of his three sons who would be
born, at intervals of a thousand years, from his semen.

The last of these saviours, Astvat-ereta, or justice
incarnate, was also simply called the Saviour
(Saoshyans). Only in the Pahlavi books is this theme
systematically developed. It is dominated by the idea
of a final return to the initial state of things. ...

In the last great struggle, the host of good and the
host of evil will vie with each other, and each soldier
of Ormazd will defeat and kill his own special adver-
sary. This will restore the state of peace that had
prevailed initially. The wicked will then submit to
an ordeal of molten metal and fire.

Fire and Airyaman will cause the metals of the moun-
tains to melt and to flow down as a river of fire. The
whole of resuscitated mankind must traverse it; it
will burn only the wicked, whereas to the just it will
be as sweet as warm milk.

The suffering of the wicked will last only three days,
however, after which all mankind will enjoy much
happiness. On the flattened earth (for the metal will
fill in all the valleys), men and women, henceforth
shadowless since they are sinless, will taste the
bliss of family life. Hell will be sealed forever, and
Ahriman will be either powerless or annihilated."

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Iranian Religion
Mythology and Cosmology
Creation of the Cosmos
http://www.britannica.com/eb/article?eu=119913&tocid=68330#68330.toc
Excerpt: "... Zoroaster seems to have been the
first religious thinker to conceive an eschatological
myth concerning a future saviour who will rescue
the world from evil, an idea that has been greatly
elaborated in Zoroastrianism. It may have been
influential in the development of the concept of
the Messiah in postexilic Judaism. Iranian religion
also had a variant of the Noah's Ark myth. ..."

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Iranian Religion - Major Deities
http://www.britannica.com/eb/article?eu=119913&tocid=68334#68334.toc
Excerpt: "Ahura Mazda - Ahura Mazda ('Wise
Lord') was probably the chief god of the pre-
Zoroastrian pantheon. In both the religion of
Zoroaster and that of Darius and Xerxes, he
was worshiped as the supreme god, almost
to the exclusion of all others. First of all he
is the creator of the universe and the one who
establishes and maintains the cosmic and social
order ...

Mithra - Beside Ahura Mazda, Mithra is the most
important deity of the ancient Iranian pantheon and
may have even occupied a position of near equality
with him. ... It should be mentioned that Mithra gave
his name to a mystery religion, Mithraism, which was
popular throughout the Roman Empire, but whose
Iranian origins are difficult to trace. ..."

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Mithraism
http://www.britannica.com/eb/article?eu=54365
Excerpt: "The worship of Mithra, the Iranian god of
the sun, justice, contract, and war in pre-Zoroastrian
Iran. Known as Mithras in the Roman Empire during
the 2nd and 3rd centuries AD, this deity was honoured
as the patron of loyalty to the emperor.

After the acceptance of Christianity by the emperor
Constantine in the early 4th century, Mithraism rapidly
declined.

Before Zoroaster (6th century BC or earlier), the Iranians
had a polytheistic religion, and Mithra was the most
important of their gods. First of all, he was the god of
contract and mutual obligation. In a cuneiform tablet of
the 15th century BC that contains a treaty between the
Hittites and the Mitanni, Mithra is invoked as the god of
oath. Furthermore, in some Indian Vedic texts the god
Mitra (the Indian form of Mithra) appears both as 'friend'
and as 'contract.' ...

The most important Mithraic ceremony was the sacrifice
of the bull. Opinion is divided as to whether this ceremony
was pre-Zoroastrian or not. Zoroaster denounced the
sacrifice of the bull, so it seems likely that the ceremony
was a part of the old Iranian paganism. This inference is
corroborated by an Indian text in which Mitra reluctantly
participates in the sacrifice of a god named Soma, who
often appears in the shape of a white bull or of the
moon. ...

When Alexander the Great conquered the Persian Empire
in about 330 BC, the old structure of society appears to
have broken down completely and about the worship of
Mithra in Persia no more is heard.

Local aristocrats in the western part of the former Persian
Empire retained their devotion to Mithra. The kings and
nobles of the border region between the Greco-Roman
and the Iranian world still worshipped him. ...

The worship of Mithra, however, never became popular
in the Greek world, because the Greeks never forgot
that Mithra had been the god of their enemies the
Persians.

There is little notice of the Persian god in the Roman
world until the beginning of the 2nd century, but, from
the year AD 136 onward, there are hundreds of dedi-
catory inscriptions to Mithra. This renewal of interest
is not easily explained. The most plausible hypothesis
seems to be that Roman Mithraism was practically a
new creation, wrought by a religious genius who may
have lived as late as c. AD 100 and who gave the old
traditional Persian ceremonies a new Platonic interpre-
tation that enabled Mithraism to become acceptable
to the Roman world.

Roman Mithraism, like Iranian Mithraism, was a religion
of loyalty toward the king. It seems to have been
encouraged by the emperors, especially Commodus
(180-192), Septimius Severus (193-211), and Caracalla
(211-217). ...

Mithraic sanctuaries and dedications to Mithra are
numerous at Rome and Ostia, along the military frontier,
in Britain, and on the Rhine, the Danube, and the
Euphrates. ... Within a few generations, the Roman
world had completely assimilated the Persian god.

When Diocletian attempted a renewal of the Roman
state and religion, he did not forget Mithra. In AD 307,
in a dedication from Carnuntum (at the Danube, near
Vienna), Diocletian and his colleagues dedicated an
altar to Mithra, as the patron of their empire (fautori
imperii sui).

But in 312, Constantine won the battle at the Milvian
Bridge under the sign of the cross. Instantaneously,
the dedications to Mithra ceased, even though there
was no immediate public interdiction of Mithraic
ceremonies. The worship seems to have collapsed
quite suddenly when imperial favour ceased to be
with the Mithraists.

Dedications to Mithra appear again between about
357 and 387, but only at Rome. The dedicators all
come from the old pagan aristocracy of the city of
Rome, which in this period was in open opposition
to the new Christian emperor at Constantinople.

In these inscriptions, however, Mithra is only one of
many traditional pagan gods. The Mithraic mysteries
had gradually faded long before. And when the
Roman opposition was defeated, pagan worship
was suppressed altogether."

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Zoroastrianism
Ethics
http://www.britannica.com/eb/article?eu=108446&tocid=9205#9205.toc
Excerpt: "... Iran ignores, even in theory, the universal
respect of life that is preached by Buddhism or that
justifies the vegetarian diet of Brahmanic India. ...

Future life should be determined by the balance of the
good and evil deeds, words, and thoughts of the whole
life. This principle, however, is tempered to allow for
human weakness. All faults do not have to be registered
or weighed forever on the scales.

There are two means of effacing them: confession and
the transfer of supererogatory merits (the equivalent of
the Roman Catholic 'Treasury of Merits' of Christ and
the saints). The latter is the justification for the prayers
and ceremonies for the departed. ..."

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Zoroastrianism
Relation to other religions
http://www.britannica.com/eb/article?eu=108446&tocid=9207#9207.toc
Excerpt: "The debt of Israel to its Eastern neighbours
in religious matters is easy to demonstrate on a few
precise points of minor importance but less so in other
more important points, such as dualism, angelology,
and eschatology.

Isaiah 40-48 offers striking parallels with the Gatha
44:3-5, as has been shown by Morton Smith. Besides
the common procedure of rhetorical questions, there
is the notion of a god who has created the world and,
notably, light and darkness.

The very idea of a creator god may be common to all
of the western part of the Semitic world. But the notion
that God created light and darkness appears in both
prophets.

It is true that Zoroaster associates light and darkness
only to waking and sleep and that no Iranian text says
that God created good and evil. Nevertheless, the juxta-
position, in Isaiah, of light-darkness with good-evil
sounds remarkably Iranian.

After the exile, the traditional hope in a messiah - king
of the House of David who would reestablish Israel as
an independent nation and make it triumph over all
enemies gave way gradually to a concept at once
more universal and more moral.

The salvation of Israel was still essential, but it had to
come about in the framework of a general renewal; the
appearance of a saviour would mean the end of this
world and the birth of a new creation; his judgment of
Israel would become a general judgment, dividing man-
kind into good and evil.

This new concept, at once universal and ethical, recalls
Iran so strongly that many scholars attribute it to the
influence of that country. John R. Hinnells has seen this
influence especially in the saviour's defeat of the demons,
his gathering of men for the judgment scene, his raising
of the dead, and his administration of the judgment.

The occasion of this influence, according to Hinnells,
may be found in the contacts between the Jews and the
Parthians that were initiated in the 2nd century BC but
that reached a climax in the middle of the 1st century
BC.

Although Pythagoras cannot have been a pupil of
Zoroaster, there are striking similarities of doctrine
between Iran and Greece. Anaximander's world picture
corresponds to that of the Avesta.

Heracleitus seems to have been impressed, in Ephesus,
by the practices of the Magi, if not by their theory on
the fiery nature of the soul. This would account for the
emergence, in 5th-century Greece, of the belief in the
heavenly fate of the soul. ..."

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