The Babylonian and Persian influence on Judaism and Christianity
Abstract
My project examines how Babylonian and Persian cultures influenced Judaism and Christianity. It describes how the direct connection occurred between the Jews and Babylonians during the Babylonian exile, how Babylon was later conquered by Achaemenids and how the Achaemenid conquest of Babylon influenced the Jews. It also proves whether Achaemenids were real Zoroastrians, examines the minor differences and the Zoroastrian beliefs which were implemented in Judaism and later passed on to Christianity. It also describes the derivatives of Babylonian culture in Judaism and the Historical Grounds of the Babylonian Beliefs that were passed on to Judaism.
Purpose
The purpose of my project was to study the history of Judaism and Christianity. I chose to write my project about religion because I am generally interested in the history of religion. What prompted me to choose exactly this topic are my doubts and reservations about the revelation religions, which is the belief that certain religions are directly revealed to the Humans by gods. By examining the Christianity and Judaism, I tried to prove that this in not so in this case.
Procedure
The topic of my project was such that I had no chance to go somewhere, see something interesting or meet someone. The process of writing project and research consisted of reading the books indicated in the bibliography, searching the internet for various information including the recent Black Sea expedition and consultations with my advisor, Nino Mitsishvili. The most difficult in the process was studying the historical events related to each culture and then connecting them to each other.
Evaluation
I experienced no serious problems in the process of pursuing this project. I think I have studied what I expected to study and also have given a good documentation for my arguments. I think the only problem I had was with time planning. The work was extensive, I had to examine several historical periods and had to connect historical events with the development of the religions, and I think I would have done my work better and would have less work to do at the end of the process if I had done more efficient time planning.
Jewish people, in the course of their long history, have gone through several long exiles, during which they have experienced a very strong cultural and religious influence. In terms of influence the Babylonian captivity of Jews is the most interesting. The Babylonian captivity started when Nebuchadnezzar II, the king of Neobabylonian ,Chaldean dynasty, controlling whole southwestern Asia, overran the kingdom of Judah and exiled Jews in Babylon in 586 B.C.E. Jews have spent in exile about 80 years, until Cyrus the Great , who defeated the Chaldean dynasty, established the Persian rule over Babylon and gave Jews the right to return to their historical homeland, Judah. Jews have built the Temple of Solomon, the new city walls, and continued to live under the Persian rule and influence until Achaemenids were defeated by Alexander the great in 330 B.C.E. During the Babylonian captivity, Jews were at first influenced by Babylonian culture, and later, after Babylon fell to Persians, by Persian culture, and have borrowed from Achaemenids many Zoroastrian beliefs, which were later passed on to Christian religion. At first I am going to write how Jews where influenced by Babylonians, what they have taken from their culture and implemented in their beliefs, and later I will discuss a Persian influence, and the Zoroastrian beliefs which where incorporated in Judaism and consequently passed on to Christianity.
It is generally believed that the first five books of the Old Testaments, Pentateuch, were written by Moses. Pentateuch is a Greek word, “Penta”- means five, and “Teuch”- means book. This book consists of five parts which are: Genesis, Exodus, Leviticus, Numbers, and Deuteronomy. The Christian church accepts the idea that the Pentateuch was revealed by God to Moses, it is considered that he wrote it under Gods direct narration, consequently the first five books of the Old testament are sometimes called “the five books of Moses”. As the proof of this idea they come up with the excerpts from Hebrew texts: “Then the Lord instructed Moses: “Write this down as a permanent record… Write down all these instructions, for they represent the terms of my covenant with you and with Israel.” Most conservative scholars consider Moses to be the genuine author of Pentateuch:
“Moses was the human author of Genesis and the other books of the Pentateuch …..These five “books of the law” were written by Moses alone, with the exception of Deuteronomy which records the death of Moses… The Pentateuch; therefore, is an inspired, inerrant, authoritative document written by the man Moses.”[1]
Some other scholars also believe in Moses’ authorship of Genesis and even discuss the possibility how he could have written it: “The education Moses would have received as the adopted grandson of Pharaoh specially qualified him for the task of compiling and writing the Pentateuch”[2].
There exists another contrasting idea which states that the first books of the Old Testament weren’t written by Moses, and the scholars defending this suggestion come up with the several arguments from the text of old testament to prove their hypothesis – they say that in the book of Genesis, when author describes the story of a flood, there are noticeable contradictions between the passages: one passage states that Noah collected the two of each species of animals, another says he collected fourteen, in one passage it is mentioned that the water came from the heaven and up from the ground, while other passage states it came in the form of the rain. The duration of the rain also varies across the passages. It is clear that if the Genesis was written by one person, namely Moses, he would have known one account, version of the event and then we wouldn’t meet such contradictions in the text. As the scholars point out, there are the series of events written in different order in different passages, probably, if it was Moses who wrote it, he would know the one proper sequence. It is clear that the origin and the descent of the Genesis and the first five books of Pentateuch is the cause of many disputations. In my opinion, in order to discuss the origin of Hebrew Old Testament, we shall start our study from the Mesopotamian epic of Gilgamesh, or from its analogical stories also coming from former region, since the text of the Old Testament comes out to be closely linked to this epic.
The epic of Gilgamesh is one of the greatest and most beautiful Babylonian stories, it is also one of the oldest written epics yet preserved by the humankind. Epic of Gilgamesh is often called the “Babylonian Genesis”. Like any other epic story, the story of Gilgamesh starts with the description and praise of his heroic deeds, sufferings and accomplishments. Then it starts describing the reign of Gilgamesh, a half human and half divine creature. The epic describes his cruel and vicious reign, the story tells how he oppressed the inhabitants of his kingdom, who, exhausted by his tyrannic rule, go for the help to gods, and gods, listen to the entreaties of the poor people and create Enkidu “the counterpart of Gilgamesh”[3] with the purpose to divert Gilgamesh’s attention from the people and force him to enter into the fight with Enkidu, but the wishes of gods are frustrated, these two became friends and later commit a number of heroic deeds of their own. After some time Enkidu sees a dream describing his death and soon in several days he dies of some illness. The death of a friend had a great effect on the Gilgamesh, he started to be afraid of death, he says: “when I die shall I not be like Enkidu”. He buried his friend, leaved the city of Uruk and started his quest for immortality. Gilgamesh has heard that Utnapishtim, the old sage, received the immortality from the gods, and starts his journey for the quest of this person. He again goes through a number of risks and perils, which include the vicious scorpion-men defending Utnapishtim, the waters of death and finally reaches the place where Utnapishtim leaves. After the long entreaties, Utnapishtim reveals to Gilgamesh the secret of the immortality, and what is most important to us, he tells him a story of a great deluge, which is amazingly similar to that of Old Testament, Noah’s flood.
The main story is the same in both texts - the gods decide to exterminate humankind by the flood, and only a small group of people, chosen by a god, survive. I am going to start the detailed comparison of the two stories, in order to demonstrate the principal similarities more vividly, but before I start doing this, I want to mention one thing. In the text, I will be citing the excerpts from the text of the flood, and I have to mention that there exist several Mesopotamian records of the flood, these are Sumerian, Akkadian Atrahasis, and the Berossus accounts of the flood. These stories have no principal difference; they are nearly the same, only some names and details vary. I will start the comparison of the two accounts from the reasons of the flood. The reasons of the flood are similar in both stories. The reason of the Hebrew account of flood was the vicious behavior of humans:
“Man could have averted this unparalleled destruction of life if he had conformed his ways to the will of his maker, but instead of that he followed his own inclinations. The whole bent of thoughts of his heart was never anything but evil. The earth was corrupt before god and was filled with violence because of man, for all flesh had corrupted its way upon the earth”[4].
The reason of the flood in the epic of Gilgamesh is the similar to its Hebrew analogy. When Ea, the Sumerian Enki, the god of wisdom and a “friend of man” reveals the flood to Utnapishtim, she mentions that the cause of the flood is the sin of the men. The similar reason is mentioned in the epic of Atrahasis (Akkadian record). In this epic the god states that people had multiplied and, apparently “became too noisy and disposed the sleep of Enlil”[5] who as the result of this decided to send a flood and destroy humanity. I think we shall not think of this fact in straightforward way. The fact that the humans multiplied and became noisy, can be taken as the spread of evil in the humans, and the fact that it disposed the sleep of Enlil, we can assume that Enlil was disturbed and worried by the viciousness of the people. In this way, this story will get in accord with the Sumerian and Hebrew accounts of the story, and also will agree with the Ea’s version of the cause of the deluge.
Both stories tell of the hero who, with the help of the god’s instruction, saved the humanity from the final destruction. In the Hebrew text this man is Noah, and in the Mesopotamian texts this name varies from one version of the story to another. In the oldest, Sumerian account it is called Ziusudra, which means “He who laid hold on life of distant day”. In epic of Gilgamesh, the name Ziusudra is changed by name Utnapishtim, which means “he saw the life”. There are also some other versions of the heroes of the flood in the Mesopotamian records, like Atrahasis Xishutros, Sisutrhos, Seisithros, etc. But I won’t start talking about all of them individually because they actually denote one and the same person, Utnapishtim. What is most important and common in both, Mesopotamian and Hebrew records of “The hero of the flood” is that they both were godly, religious, rigteous people. In both accounts, the heroes of the flood were the “faultless men among contemporaries, who walked with gods and were in intimate relationships with them”[6] In the both stories, the hero of a flood uses a bird in order to test whether the water subsided or not, and in both cases the bird returns only after several unsuccessful attempts. The way the heroes behave after the end of the deluge is also similar, they both make a sacrifice to the gods. Utnapishtim sacrifices an ox and the great number of sheep to the sun god. The purpose of the sacrifice in the Babylonian account is to sooth the outraged gods and to express the gratitude of the Utnapishtim towards god. Noah, after getting on the ground with the end of flood, builds an altar, and makes the sacrifice “of every clean beast and of every clean fowl”[7]; The purpose of Noah’s sacrifice is similar to that of Utnapishtim, he sacrificed in order to “appease the wrath of god which had been kindled by the sins of the mankind which he had just witnessed”[8]. So as we see from the examples above, not only the way the flood occurred, but the way the heroes of the flood, Noah and Utnapishtim, behaved are similar.
There seems to be one apparent difference between the Babylonian and the Genesis accounts of the great flood, but if we discuss this difference in the cultural background, then the importance of this difference to our topic diminishes. The principle difference which I am talking about is the announcement of the flood. From the Genesis we know that the god didn’t intend to eradicate all the humankind, and with this purpose he, himself revealed his plans about the deluge to Noah. In this case the situation in Babylonian account is slightly different. In Epic of Gilgamesh, the God who was the initiator of the flood, Enlil, wished to eradicate the mankind; he wasn’t going to reveal his plan of the flood to any human being, if not Ea, who knew about the flood and, against the wish of Enlil, informed Utnapishtim about upcoming deluge. In my opinion, the answer to this question lies in the cultural, mostly religious differences of the Hebrew and Babylonian civilizations. We know that Jews were monotheistic, they had only one god, and with this reason this god had to be humane and tolerant towards his people, while Babylonians were polytheistic, they had many gods, some of which were “kind” and some were “vicious”. It was unacceptable for Jews to show that their only god was vicious and brutal, not caring about it’s own people, and that’s why this fragment is changed in the Hebrew text. Nevertheless, for Babylonians, since Enlil was just one of the multitudes of gods, it was tolerable to show his violence and cruelty towards his own people. This religious insight of this problem makes this fact irrelevant and marginal for our topic discussing similarities of the two flood stories and their descent.
After demonstrating the number of similarities and differences between the Hebrew and Babylonian stories of flood, it’s clear that the stories are nearly identical, with only insignificant differences between them. It is logical to start thinking about the cause of this identity of two accounts. I think it would be illogical to say that these two civilizations, independently, spontaneously, developed the stories of a flood that are so similar, nearly identical to each other. Apparently there shall be some sort of link between these stories. One of them shall be borrowed from the other, but which one? To answer this question we have to find out which one of the two accounts is older. Most scientists accept the 700 B.C. as the date of creation of the Old Testament. The exact date of creation of the Mesopotamian Record is somewhat difficult to define. The tablets of the Ninevite version, which actually create the basis, the main part of our knowledge of this story, is connected to the reign of Assyrian king Ashurbanipal, that is about 7th century B.C. The fragment from the city of Ashur is about three centuries older. The fragments discovered at Hatussas belong approximately to the middle of the second Millennium B.C. The oldest fragments of the story yet discovered, are the two tablets in the Yale University, which date back to the first Babylonian Dynasty, but the modern scholars consider even this tablets as the copies of the older scripts, with the reason that :
“The prominence given to the old Sumerian ruler deities Anu and Enlil in our epic and the complete absence of the name of Marduk, indicate that our epic was composed before Anu and Enlil, in the days of Hammurabi, “committed the sovereignty over all the people of Marduk” and before he “brought about triumph of Marduk” The date of creation of the epic of Gilgamesh can therefore be fixed at about 2000 BC.”[9]
It’s worth mentioning that the different stories, constituents of the Epic of Gilgamesh, were written even earlier than 2000 BC, but at that time they existed as different stories and weren’t connected as the one whole story. From the facts described above, we can state that the epic of Gilgamesh, is about 14 centuries older that the Hebrew Old testament, namely Pentateuch. According the facts mentioned above, I think it would be thoughtful to affirm that since Pentateuch is newer version, it is derived from the epics of Mesopotamian culture. After this argument one question emerges: what was the historical bases of this derivation, i.e. when was the Mesopotamian story of flood implemented in Hebrew culture? In order to give the answer to this question, we have to examine some facts of Jewish history, namely the Jewish captivity in Mesopotamia.
After the death of Solomon the unified kingdom of Judaea tribe split into two: northern Israel and southern Judaea. Assyrians, under the reign of Sargon II, conquered Israel. King Sargon(721-705) followed the Assyrian tradition and deported the most of the Hebrew elites and replaced this population with immigrants from Mesopotamia. Further, Babylonians, in the end of the seventh and the beginning of the sixth century B.C., attacked the kingdom of Judaea, and similarly to Assyrians, exiled the elite members of the Judah community, “The exile began the period of Babylonian captivity. Jews were given permission to return to their homeland only after the overthrow of Babylonia by Cyrus.”[10] The direct connection between these civilizations, the number of migrations to and from the Jewish land, was the reason of the implementation of the Babylonian flood story in Jewish Old Testament. So we can conduct that the flood story was not independently developed by Jewish people, but was implemented from the Mesopotamian epic of Gilgamesh, through direct contact of these civilizations.
The story of deluge is not only one which Jews borrowed from Mesopotamians; the Biblical story of a Tower of Babylon is another story which has its grounds in Mesopotamian culture. Nearly every Christian knows the Biblical story of Godol. According to this story god was infuriated by people’s bold action, who decided to build a huge temple with the intention of reaching the realm of the god and he split the language which these people were talking so that they would not understand each other and would be unable to repeat such insolent action. The interesting thing about this account is that the description of the Tower of Babylon is very similar to the Babylonian Ziggurat, which was rebuilt by the king Nebuchadnezzar during the Jewish captivity in Babylon. It is quite logical that Jews, impressed by the magnificent construction of Ziggurat, implemented the story in their scriptures and gave it a different interpretation. The fact that the flood story is not the only one which is implemented from Mesopotamian culture in the Old Testament further support the argument that the strong Mesopotamian influence actually existed. It is clear now that both the stories of the great Tower of Babylon and the great deluge were the results of Babylonian influence. We have also examined the historical source of the Tower of Babylon story, but we have not discussed whether the great deluge story has its historical ground or is simply the story invented by Mesopotamians; I am going to answer this question in the next passage.
What is the source of the Sumerian deluge story? The more orthodox and conservative scientists define the creation of the story on the Mythological and Symbolic basis. Twentieth century French scholar Mircha Eliade grants the deluge story with the great symbolic meaning and he states this symbolic meaning to be the reason why this story was employed in Mesopotamian Myths and makes some parallels between the baptism, i.e. chastening and the deluge: “The water has the feature of chastening, purifying everything what is soaked in it. It dissolves everything, every form, history, sign event; nothing resists and stands the deluge. Everything, coming out of water, is similar to the infant, newly born, without any history, ready for beginning the new, second life”[11]. The argument stated above dissolves if we will consider the fact, that Enlil didn’t send flood to people in order to chasten or grant them new, happy life, he wasn’t even going to warn anyone about the deluge, he did it in order to eradicate the mankind, and this fact completely contradicts the symbolic meaning of the flood story offered by Mircha Eliade. I will stick to the more empirical analysis of the story and with this purpose apply to the D. Fredrick Hierber and Bob Ballard Black Sea 2000 expedition, which started in 1999 and is still in progress nowadays (2004). The expedition was dispatched with the purpose to prove the theory, which states that the terrible cataclysmic deluge took place in the region of the Black Sea about 5000 BCE, that caused the mass migration of the people of this region across the Europe, Near East and Middle East, which consequently caused the creation of the flood story in the Mesopotamian culture. Lets examine more closely what processes took place. In about 5650 – 5000 B.C., with the end of the second Ice age, the warmth and rains “returned’ to earth. At this time the Black Sea was isolated from the ocean by the land near Bosporus River. The Black Sea at this stage is named as New Euxine Lake. As the result of the end of the ice age, the ocean level started to raise, and consequently, after some time the ocean level rose high enough to flow over the Bosporus, the theory states:
“The Mediterranean Sea and Sea of Marmarahad gradually risen to a level some 426 feet (130 meters) higher than the lake. It was held back only by a small rise of land at the Bosporus River — now the Bosporus Straight near present-day Istanbul, Turkey. Eventually, the ocean level rose high enough to slosh over into the Euxine Lake. It would have cut a small channel down to the lake. “The rivulet became a gentle brook, flowing ever more swiftly, scouring and tugging more forcefully at the bottom and walls of its channel.” In a short time, the flow would reach 10 cubic miles of water per day — 200 times the flow of the present Niagara Falls. Its velocity would have reached 50 miles per hour (over 80 km/hour)! Its noise would have been audible 120 miles (200 km) away. The lake level would have risen about six inches a day. The shoreline would have expanded up to a mile each day in some areas”[12].
It is clear how catastrophic this cataclysm would be for the people living in the region and what massive migrations would it cause, but what gives us the motive to believe in authenticity of this theory? The expedition of the Black Sea 2000 was able to prove that the great deluge really took place:
“They found seven distinct species of salt-water mollusks, all of which were carbon dated as being from 2,800 to 6,820 years old. They also found two species of freshwater mollusks which ranged from 7,460 to 15,500 years old.”[13]
These findings support the theory that about 5000 BCE, as the result of a great deluge, what we call now the Black Sea turned from a lake to the Sea. The Black Sea expedition also found a clue that the people inhabited the former coastline of Euxine Lake:
“At one site, some 150 meters (500 feet) under water, archeologists found more than 30 stone blocks, pieces of wood and other objects, possibly ceramics. The site “appeared uniquely rectangular.” The stone blocks did not appear to be part of a natural geological formation. They tentatively conclude that they have found a site that was once occupied by people.”[14]
All the scientific data support the idea that the flood took place. Again, from the archeological data it is also clear that the lake shoreline was occupied by people. It is logical that this cataclysm would cause mass migration of the people living in this region; this idea is again supported by archeological findings proved by archeological data:
” At the approximately 5500 BCE level the excavation reveals a sudden change in pottery design. Archeologists have studied other tells in the area which also showed similar abrupt changes in pottery at the same time. This shows that one society was overrun by another culture at about the same time that the New Euxine Lake was flooded”[15].
Eventually, we can say that these “fugitives” of the flood, brought with them the flood story in the region of Mesopotamia, and Consequently the Black Sea flood became the origin of the flood stories in Mesopotamian Epics, namely Gilgamesh, which later was implemented in the Old Testament as Noah’s flood.
According to the similarities between the Mesopotamian and Hebrew flood stories, grounding our argument on the historical data about Jewish and Mesopotamian interactions and the archeological data from the “Black Sea 2000” expedition, we can state: the Hebrew Flood story is derived from the Mesopotamian epics, which themselves are grounded on the real facts of Black Sea Deluge, the story that was brought to them by the migrating Black Sea people.
I have discussed the influence of Babylonian culture on Judaism, and now I am going to examine what influence Persians and the Zoroastrianism had on Jewish people. As I’ve already mentioned the reign of Chaldean dynasty was overthrown by King Cyrus the Great of Persia, of Achaemenid dynasty, in 539 B.C.E. Jews passed from Babylonian rule to Persian rule. They, with the permission of Cyrus, returned to Judah and continued to live under the Persian rule until the Achaemenid dynasty was destroyed by Alexander the great in 330 B.C.E. About two hundred years of Achaemenid rule proved to be enough for Jews to adopt certain Zoroastrian beliefs, but before actually examining this influence we shall examine how Achaemenids became Zoroastrians and what are the minor differences between Achaemenid beliefs and Zoroastrianism.
Before the second millennium B.C.E there existed an Indo-Iranian race, the branch of Indo-European race. At about the second millennium B.C.E this race was split into two races of different culture, language, and religion, namely Protoindians and Protoiranians. Protoiranians settled in the territory of Modern Kazakhstan. At about 1700 B.C.E the technology was advancing in Protoiranian culture, they developed the techniques of obtaining copper and later of bronze. With the development of new technologies, the new warfare weapons, including the war chariots, where developed. At this time the different tribes engaged in warfare and it is believed that: “In this violent and turbulent times lived the prophet Zoroaster, who revealed to people the new religion of Ahura Mazda (the wise lord)”[16] Indo-Arians started to move to the south in middle east at about 1600 B.C.E. and they occupied not only Indian peninsula but also the territories of modern Afghanistan. The first Iranians who moved after them were Medes and Persians, at about 1700 B.C.E., they moved through Iranian Plateau and settled in western Iran, other Iranian tribes, which were Zoroastrians, settled in eastern Iran. Medes were becoming increasingly strong and dominated other tribes in the area. They, in alliance with Babylon, defeated Assyria and also conquered east Iranian countries, which at that time were already Zoroastrian, and apparently it was from them that Medes adopted Zoroastrianism. In 549 Persians revolted and under the leadership of King Cyrus, from dynasty of Achaemenids, defeated Medes and established the first Persian monarchy. Cyrus conquered whole Asia Minor, Babylon, all of the eastern Iranian tribes and the Mediterranean countries which earlier were under the Babylonian rule. After establishment of Achaemenid dynasty Medes still occupied major positions in government, and apparently it was through their influence, along with the influence of east Iranian tribes, that Achaemenids became Zoroastrians. When Cyrus confronted Greeks in Asia Minor, Persia was already Zoroastrian:
“The writings of archaic Greek authors prove that when Cyrus confronted Greeks in Asia Minor, Persia was already Zoroastrian. After hearing from them about Zoroaster, Greeks regarded him as a great magus, the prophet, who lived in prehistoric times. Germodor and Germip from Smyrna considered that Zoroaster lived five thousand years before Trojan War. Aristotle thought that Zoroaster lived five thousand years before the death of Plato. It is apparent that Achaemenids told Greeks that Zoroaster lived very long ago, and Greeks invented these stories themselves”[17]
The Achaemenid Zoroastrianism was slightly different from the real Zoroastrianism. Zoroastrians didn’t bury their dead. According to Zoroastrian beliefs the earth is chaste and divine, and they think that if they bury their dead they will pollute it. In order to avoid contamination of the earth they put the body on the open air for the ravens to eat it. It takes ravens about 15 minutes to eat the whole flesh from the body, and when only bones are left, Zoroastrians clean them and bury them only after that. Achaemenids do not have this tradition, perhaps they thought it was too vicious, which is why they never gave the bodies of their kings and noblemen to ravens but mummified them using wax and buried them in special sanctuaries. Although this ritual is different from Zoroastrian ritual, we can still consider Achaemenids as Zoroastrians, since during this ritual they did not let neither fire, nor earth or water to touch the body and thus didn’t violate any of the major Zoroastrian beliefs and dogmas.
Having described how Achaemenids became Zoroastrians and examining the specific character of their Zoroastrianism, I am going to study the influence of Zoroastrianism on Judaism and Christianity. Jews had a direct contact with Zoroastrian traditions during their captivity in Babylon, after Cyrus conquered it and established the Persian Empire. As Mary Boyce states, Judaism was not only religion which experienced a great influence from Zoroastrianism, the northern Buddhism, Hinduism, Gnostic sects and Christianity were also strongly influenced by Zoroastrianism:
“The extent of influence is better demonstrated in the sources of Parthian times, when Christianity, northern Buddhism, Gnostic sects and Hinduism in the similar degree carry the footprints of Zoroastrian influence”[18]
What made Jews especially receptive towards Zoroastrian influence was King Cyrus’s generous and tolerant act of letting Jews return to Judah, after which Hebrew people became extremely sympathetic towards Persian people. Jews considered Cyrus to be “second Isaiah”, a messiah, a person acting under the direction of “Yahweh”- the god of Judaists:
“Cyrus will herald justice over earth. He will not weaken until he will not proclaim justice over the whole land”[19]
The author of these words also praises “Yahweh” as the creator of universe using the words that Zoroastrians usually use to praise Ahura Mazda:
“I, the god, who created everything, I created the earth and the human. Sprinkle, heavens from above, and clouds spill the truth… I, the god, create this”[20]
It is obvious that Judaism experienced a very strong influence from Zoroastrianism. The existence of Supreme God who created the universe, the battle between evil and good, the final judgment at the end of the world, the end of the world announced by the coming of Messiah, which is called “Saoshianta” in Zoroastrianism , and the reign of Supreme God on the earth after final judgment are all Zoroastrian beliefs which were later implemented in various religions, including Judaism.
As I’ve already mentioned Judaism wan not only religion that experienced Zoroastrian influence. Christianity was also strongly influenced by Zoroastrianism. The idea that the messiah, Jesus Christ, will be the son of the god, born by the virgin woman can be considered to be the derivative from Zoroastrianism. According to Zoroastrian beliefs Ahura Mazda has left his seed in the lake, and once a virgin girl would be fertilized by this seed while swimming in the lake, and would give birth to messiah.
The belief of the last judgement in Christianity is very similar to Zoroastrianism. According to Zoroastrianism every human goes through two Judgments, the first one is directly after his death and the other one is after the Messiah will announce the end of the world, when all dead souls will be brought back to life and judged for the second time. It is quite logical to ask a question why we need to judge a human two times. Why shall a human be judged again at the end of the world if he is already judged after his death? Zoroastrians have an answer to this question, but Christians do not have, which shows that Christians just copied this belief from Zoroastrianism without fully incorporating it in their religion. Zoroastrians explain the need of two judgments in the following way: there are two sides of human nature, the physical and the spiritual. Both are the creations of God. An individual must be judged, rewarded or punished in both aspects of his or her being. The first judgment, which comes directly after death and during which the individuals’ thoughts, words, and deeds are weighed, is only a spiritual judgment and the body of the dead person is left on the earth. Depending on whether the individual was on the side of good or evil forces in the cosmic battle, the soul is placed either in hell or in heaven, but only temporarily. Zoroastrians do not have an eternal damnation. For the Zoroastrians Hell is not eternal. For them, in contrast to Christians, the punishment is simply of corrective character, not intended for eternal damnation. Zoroastrians believe that the punishment in the Hell is devised to fit the crime, for example the cruel ruler who tortures slaves will be tortured in the same way in the hell. According to their beliefs, when Messiah will come on earth, all souls will be resurrected to face their second judgment, but this time in their bodies, and then they will be returned either to hell or to heaven with their bodies to be either physically rewarded or punished and corrected, so that at the end of the world everyone has a chance to dwell with universal god. In Zoroastrianism everyone is doomed for salvation at the end of the world. Humans may choose either to support good or evil in the cosmic battle, and they will be rewarded or punished according to their part in this battle; finally, through two judgments everyone will be corrected by the punishment so that at the final point everyone will reside with the god, Ahura Mazda. Zoroastrians actually provide quite logical explanation for two judgments, but Christians do not, what, as I’ve already mentioned, demonstrates that the belief of two judgments in Christianity is the derivative of Zoroastrian belief about Apocalypse
The word which is used for a heaven in Christianity also comes from Persia. As Mary Boyce claims, the word Paradise, which is usually thought to be Greek word is actually derived from the Persian word for heaven “Paradaisa” which was later passed on to Greece and then Spread from Greek language in European languages:
“Paradaisa- is the ancient Iranian word, from which, through Greek mediation, the notion of Heaven is derived in various European nations. In Russian << РАЙ>> is also derived from this ancient Iranian word”[21]
To sum up, I have examined the influence that Jewish people experienced during their captivity in Babylon and during Achaemenid Rule. I have demonstrated that the Story of Great Deluge and the Building of Tower of were the Babylonian influences both of which had the actual historical ground, former representing the Rebuilding of Great Ziggurat by Nebuchadnezzar in the capital of Babylon, and the other being the result of actual geological events taking place near the Black Sea, which were later passed on to Mesopotamians from migrating people and recorded in ancient Mesopotamian epic of Gilgamesh. I have also studied the influence the Zoroastrianism had on Judaism, Christianity, and different Gnostic sects, after the Babylon had been conquered by the king Cyrus and a Persian Empire under the Rule of Achaemenid dynasty had been established. I have also traced the spread of Zoroastrianism and answered the question whether the members of Achaemenid dynasty were true Zoroastrians. After examining all the sources, it became clear that the development of a religion is a very complex, long, and all embracing process, not so short and instant like the revelation of truth to a person by God. It became apparent that the development of a certain religion is closely linked with the development of other cultures and religions, and certain beliefs and concepts in religions can be derived from other religions, in which, they can be traced to have grounds in certain prehistoric events or geological processes, as was in the case of great deluge story in Christianity.
Bibliography:
1 Alexander Heidel “The Gilgamesh Epic and Old Testament parallels”, the University of Chicago, second edition 1963.
2 Microsoft Encarta Encyclopedia, the Reference Library 2003
3 Mircha Eliade, Treatise on the history of religion, Vol. 1.
4 Mary Boyce “Zoroastrianism - Beliefs and Traditions”, 2003
5 http://www.nationalgeographic.com/blacksea/ax/frame.html
6 http://www. library.yale.edu/div/ottools.html
7 http://www.encyclopedia.com/html/section/OldTesta_CronologyandAuthorship.asp
8 http://www.religioustolerance.org/ev_noah.html
9 http://www.oiney.com/Gilgamesh.html
10 http://www.Expedition2003.org
11 http://www.wikipedia.org/Babylonian_captivity
12 http://www.en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Assyria
13 Mircha Eliade “The history of belief and religious ideas” Volume N2. From Gautama Buddha to triumph of Christianity, 2002
14 P.N. Benware, Survey of the Old Testament, Moody Press, Chicago IL, (1993)
15 J.D. Douglas et al, Old Testament Volume: New Commentary on the Whole Bible, Tyndale, Wheaton, IL, (1990)
[1] P.N. Benware, Survey of the Old Testament, Moody Press, Chicago IL, (1993)
[2] J.D. Douglas et al, Old Testament Volume: New Commentary on the Whole Bible, Tyndale, Wheaton, IL, (1990)
[3]Alexadner Heidel, Summary of “Epic of Gilgamesh”.
[4] Genesis 6:1 - 13
[5] Enlil was the god of air in the Sumerian mythology
[6] Alexander Heidel, The Gilgamesh and the old Testament parallels.
[7] Genesis 8:20
[8] Alexander Heidel ,The Gilgamesh and the old Testament parallels.
[9] Alexander Heidel, The Gilgamesh Epic and old Testament, P 15
[10] Microsoft® Encarta® Reference Library 2003. Jay M.Harris on Jewish history. © 1993-2002 Microsoft Corporation.
[11] Mircha Eliade, Treatise on the history of religion, Volume one P 357.
[12] http://www.religioustolerance.org/ev_noah.html
[13] http://www.nationalgeographic.com/blacksea/ax/frame.html
[14] http://www.nationalgeographic.com/blacksea/ax/frame.html
[15] The black sea expedition http://www.nationalgeographic.com/blacksea/ax/frame.html
[16] Mary Boyce, Zoroastrianism - Beliefs and Traditions, p 19
[17] Mary Boyce, Zoroastrianism - Beliefs and Traditions, p 85
[18] Mary Boyce, Zoroastrianism - Beliefs and Traditions, p 118
[19] Isaiah 42 1:4
[20] Mary Boyce, Zoroastrianism - Beliefs and Traditions, p 87
[21] Mary Boyce , Zoroastrianism - Beliefs and Traditions, p 118