Zoroastrianism

• Zoroastrianism arose in Persia and was a monotheistic faith.

• Tradition says the prophet Zarathustra founded it somewhere around the sixth or seventh century B.C.E.

• He recast traditional Persian polytheism into a single unique god named Ahura Mazda.

Ahura Mazda ruled the world and was the source of all truth, light and goodness.

Ahura Mazda was engaged in a cosmic struggle with forces of evil, embodied in an equivalent supernatural figure named Angra Mainyu.

This represents the struggle between good and evil.

Ultimately the struggle would be decided in favor of Ahura Mazda, aided by the arrival of a final savior who would restore the world to its earlier purity and peace.

Zarathustra taught that humans are free to choose between right and wrong, truth and lie, and light and dark, and that their choices would affect their eternity destiny.

Practicing good words, good thoughts and good deeds is central to going to heaven. If one’s bad words, thoughts and deeds outweigh the good, then that person would go to hell instead of heaven.

The Zoroastrianism faith flourished in Persia, Egypt, and Anatola.Although considered a “religion of salvation,” it never became an active missionary religion.

Alexander the Great’s invasion of the Persian Empire and the subsequent Greek-ruled Seleucid dynasty (330 – 155 B.C.E.) were disastrous to Zoroastrianism.While it did survive, it was never very strong. Then the arrival of Islam and an Arab empire in the 7th – 8th centuries C.E. marked the final decline of Zoroastrianism.

Similarities between Judaism and Zoroastrianism• Monotheistic• A good god and an evil counterpart• A last judgment and resurrected bodies• A belief in the final defeat of evil• The arrival of a savior (messiah)• Remaking of the world at the end of time