[Music] zoroastrianism was the prominent religion of the iranian peoples in ancient persia it was also the faith that rulers publicly espoused through multiple dynasties all the way up until the muslim arab conquest in 651 ce zoroastrianism today is of course very different from zoroastrianism at the time of cyrus the great even the name is a later invention which is an attempt to refocus attention on the prophet zoroaster at the time it was simply known as mazdaism for the name of god which is ahura mazda sometimes it was also known as beitin or simply the good religion but all the same zoroastrianism played a very important role in shaping the iranian world view the religion survives today primarily in india among the iranian immigrant community known as the parsi community it is the earliest example that we have of a monotheistic faith central to zoroastrianism is the founder of the religion he is the religious reformer and prophet a name which in greek and subsequently sometimes in english is rendered zoroaster hence the name of the faith zoroastrianism zoroaster the prophet of zoroastrianism was likely a real person who lived between 1200 and 1000 bce in the area of eastern iran in what is today afghanistan and turkmenistan he's generally regarded as a reformer rather than a prophet in the biblical sense because he wanted to reform religious practices his function was to explain the divine purpose rather than to act as a messenger of god and in this sense there's something mystic about the figure of zoroaster and the pursuit of knowledge the promotion of good is a central part of zoroastrian religion and as a reformer zoroaster took the folk religions of his time and began to rationalize them to create a clear distinction between good and evil there are circumstances to do with the prophet zoroaster that we will encounter again as we study other prophets in this class later on including the prophet of christianity jesus christ and the prophet of islam muhammad zoroaster may remind you of either or both of these prophets for example zoroaster was a priest when he received a vision from ahura mazda who selected him to preach the truth not dissimilarly jesus was a rabbi someone who taught his jewish followers about judaism while he was also preaching the message that later became known as christianity zoroaster was opposed by civil and religious authorities in the area where he preached just like both jesus and muhammad were opposed by both civil and religious authorities as well zoroaster did not try to overthrow the older polytheistic beliefs in iran but instead he delivered ahura mazda's teachings to the people similarly to jesus and muhammad who didn't say that people should reject god but rather they that they delivered a message from the same god which their followers already believed in in zarathustra's teachings ahura mazda or god was at the center of a kingdom of justice that promised immortality and bliss which is also similar to strands of the struggles between good and evil which we find in both christianity and islam the duality the distinction between good and evil is something that the philosopher niche argued represents the moment when morality was introduced into the world this was a new way of seeing the world it was fundamentally different to how people we've studied so far saw the world the mesopotamians for example didn't see the world as a struggle between good and evil their gods were not moral or immoral they sometimes did good things sometimes did bad things they were immortal and they had special powers which they could use to help or punish people but they were not inherently good or evil with zoroastrianism we get perhaps for the first time in world history a religion which sets up a framework of good versus evil and in zoroastrianism this is explained as light versus darkness the wise lord or ahura mazda brings harmony and moderation against the falsehood and destruction of the evil spirit ahriman this was not a cosmic conflict that people could observe no people are part of this struggle and they're supposed to help ahura mazda defeat achiman the evil spirit additionally zoroaster the prophet said that there was an end of time when good would finally triumph over evil some scholars believe that zoroastrianism was influential to the developments of judaism and other monotheistic religions later on such as christianity and islam and we see that very clearly here with this duality between good and evil ahura mazda was the highest god and alone worthy of worship according to the religious texts the gothas ahura mazda created heaven and earth he created both the material and the spiritual world in other words according to zoroastrianism ahura mazda is the source of light and of darkness he is the sovereign law giver and the center of nature according to zoroastrian tradition ahura mazda is surrounded by six or seven beings which are described as beneficent immortals and which ahura mazda is the father or the creator of there's the good spirit there's the spirit of justice or truth the spirit of righteous thinking the spirit of devotion the spirit of desirable dominion the spirit of wholesomeness and the spirit of immortality [Music] the good qualities represented by these beings should be possessed by any of ahura mazda's followers this means that humankind is bound to observe ethical principles which is quite different from what we've seen with polytheistic faiths in other early societies [Music] in zoroastrian faith the evil spirit is achiman or sometimes angra mainu akriman presides over the kingdom of lies and followers of achiman have chosen the path of lie they've chosen that path of their own free will and they are therefore also evil ahura mazda is the father of both good and of evil spirits but the spirits are good or evil because of their own choices their own decisions together with the good spirits ahura mazda will eventually defeat achiman and evil but the implication of this is that human beings are ultimately responsible for their own fates our actions on earth will determine our place in the eternity [Music] a righteous person will earn an everlasting reward integrity and immortality but those who choose the lie are condemned by their own conscience as well as by the final judgment of ahura mazda they will suffer for eternity in the most miserable form of existence the avesta or the sacred text says that there is no reversal once a person has decided between good and evil the zoroastrian texts also have a so-called eschatological component meaning a component that is concerned with death judgment and the final destiny of the human soul zoroaster wrote down early hymns known as gothas which were highly eschatological in nature every passage of the gothas contained some reference to the afterlife and the fate awaiting each individual the acts words and thoughts of people were thought to be related to existence after death ahura mazda rewarded good acts good speech and good thoughts and he punished evil meaning if you were a good person then you would join ahura mazda in the kingdom of truth and light what we see very clearly for the first time in history with the zoroastrian faith is this strong emphasis on the concept of doing good and living a moral life in zoroastrian faith when a person dies then their soul must pass over the bridge of the requiter where they will be judged and everyone looks at this with fear and anxiety after all how will your soul measure up to the judgment of ahura mazda when ahura mazda has passed his judgment then the good will enter the kingdom of everlasting joy and light while the bad are condemned to horror and to darkness in zoroastrian texts we also find the term the last turn of creation this is the last phase in which achiman will be destroyed and the world will be renewed and inhabited by good these good people will all live in paradisical joy later forms of zoroastrianism also teach resurrection of the dead scholars believe that zoroastrianism influenced the development of judaism and also the birth of christianity some later christians identified zoroaster with ezekiel with nimrod zeth balaam baruch and even with jesus christ while other christians believed that zoroaster was heretical because he was presumed to be the founder of magic and of astrology but how could this influence of later monotheistic religions like judaism christianity and islam how could that have happened well we know that judaism which is the origin of both christianity and islam might have been influenced by zoroastrianism because jews were introduced to zoroastrianism in babylon when they were liberated by cyrus the great zoroastrianism may have found its way into jewish thought in this way this has led some scholars to suggest that figures like bielsa bub may have been influenced by the evil spirit achimon for example [Music] we find other striking similarities in the texts of both judaism which of course becomes part of the christian bible as well as the zoroastrian gothas take these two examples one is from the book of isaiah and it says who has measured the waters in the hollow of his hand or with the breath of his hand marked off the heavens who has held the dust of the earth in a basket or weighed the mountains on the scales and the hills in a balance and now gotha 44 who holds the whirling world from tumbling down who keeps the vaulted way in the right plane who made the silver streams the mountains brown who gives the wind and clouds their rapid pace who darkness brings who lights up a boundless space who clothes fair nature with its beautiful grace who ushers in the mornings noon and nights when thy devoted priest his hymn recites now both of these verses talk about a single monotheistic god who holds and weighs nature in his hand who has power over nature who has created nature and notice of course also the similarity of form both versus pose questions in almost identical formats and discuss almost exactly the same topics scholars see a lot of similarities in these types of verses