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 human beings 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. Conclusion
Zoroastrianism is not the purely ethical religion it may at first seem. In practice, despite the doctrine of free choice, Zoroastrians are so constantly involved in a meticulous struggle against the contamination of death and the thousand causes of defilement and against the threat, even in sleep, of ever-present demons that they do not often believe that they are leading their lives freely and morally.
Apart from this attitude, the belief in the power of destiny sometimes culminates in fatalism. The latter is easily associated with Zurvanism, itself sometimes tainted with materialism. In the Mēnōk-i Khrat it is stated that “though one be armed with the valour and strength of wisdom and knowledge, yet it is not possible to strive against fate.” On the whole, however, as the eminent historian of religions R.C. Zaehner notes, “the theological premises” of Zoroastrianism “are based on an essentially moralistic view of life.” Jacques Duchesne-Guillemin The Editors of Encyclopaedia Britannica
Citation Information
Article Title: Zoroastrianism
Website Name: Encyclopaedia Britannica
Publisher: Encyclopaedia Britannica, Inc.
Date Published: 18 July 2019
URL: https://www.britannica.com/topic/Zoroastrianism
Access Date: August 31, 2019
Additional Reading
A wide-ranging introductory study is found in Cyrus R. Pangborn, Zoroastrianism: A Beleaguered Faith (1982). Other studies include Mary Boyce, A History of Zoroastrianism (1975– ), A Persian Stronghold of Zoroastrianism (1977, reprinted 1989), Zoroastrians: Their Religious Beliefs and Practices (1979, reissued 1986), and Zoroastrianism: Its Antiquity and Constant Vigour (1992); Jacques Duchesne-Guillemin, “Zoroastrian Religion,” in The Cambridge History of Iran, vol. 3, part 2 (1983), chapter 23, pp. 866–906; and S.A. Nigosian, The Zoroastrian Faith: Tradition and Modern Research (1993). James Hastings (ed.), Encyclopaedia of Religion and Ethics, 13 vol. (1908–26, reissued 1962); and Mircea Eliade (ed.), The Encyclopedia of Religion, 16 vol. (1987), contain many articles on Zoroastrianism. Geo Widengren, Die Religionen Irans (1965), is comprehensive. Mary Boyce (ed. and trans.), Textual Sources for the Study of Zoroastrianism (1984), is a compilation of translations.
Texts covering specific aspects of Zoroastrianism are J.R. Hinnells, “Zoroastrian Saviour Imagery and Its Influence on the New Testament,” in Numen, 16:161–185 (December 1969); Stanley Insler, The Gāthās of Zarathustra (1975); Simone Pétrement, “Sur le problème du gnosticisme,” in Revue de Métaphysique et de Morale, 85:145–177 (April–June 1980); P. Lecoq, “Ahura Mazdā ou Khvarnah,” in Acta Iranica, 23:301–326 (1984); and Jamsheed K. Choksy, Purity and Pollution in Zoroastrianism: Triumph Over Evil (1989), examining the Zoroastrian ritual of purity throughout history. Works dealing specifically with the Parsis of India include Eckehard Kulke, The Parsees in India: A Minority as Agent of Social Change (1974), which studies their history in the 19th and 20th centuries; and Jer D. Randeria, The Parsi Mind: A Zoroastrian Asset to Culture (1993). Jacques Duchesne-Guillemin The Editors of Encyclopaedia Britannica