Zoroastrian Heaven, Hell, and the Devil in Judaism
The Urantia Book · 95:6.6
The Salem Teachings in Iran
Many of the most striking concepts of later Judaism, Christianity, and Islam regarding the doctrines of God and the devil, of angels and demons, of heaven and hell, and of a judgment day and the resurrection of the dead, were derived from the Zoroastrians. From the time of the Babylonian exile of the Jews up through the times of Christ, Persian religious concepts had been steadily and persistently penetrating Hebrew theology.Read the full UB paper →
Ancient Source · Persian Zoroastrianism
The Avesta (Yasna and Vendidad, ~1200 to 600 BCE)
I will speak of the two primal Spirits, of whom the holier said unto the destroyer at the beginning of existence: "Neither our thoughts nor our doctrines, neither our wills nor our deeds, neither our consciences nor our souls agree." At the end of time the dead shall arise, and the saved shall cross the bridge of Chinvat into the House of Song; the wicked shall fall into the House of Lies. Ahura Mazda shall reign and Angra Mainyu shall be destroyed.
Yasna 30 (the Gathas of Zarathustra) and Vendidad 19, trans. James Darmesteter (Sacred Books of the East vols. 4 and 31)
Ahura Mazda is the supreme good God; Angra Mainyu (later Ahriman) is the destructive spirit. The Chinvat Bridge is the place of judgment between heaven and hell.
The Parallel
Pre exilic Hebrew religion has no developed devil, no organized angelic hierarchy, no resurrection of the dead, no fiery hell, and no last judgment. After the Persian period, all of these appear: Satan as adversary (Job, Chronicles, Zechariah), named archangels (Daniel, Tobit), bodily resurrection (Daniel 12:2), and apocalyptic judgment (Daniel, the Enochic literature). The chronology is unmistakable. Hebrew dualism is post Persian.
Why It Matters
When the UB says the Jewish doctrine of hell and devils came from the Zoroastrians, it is stating a settled finding of comparative religion. Christianity and Islam inherited this Persian inflected Judaism. The afterlife geography of the Western religions is more Iranian than Israelite.
Scholarship
- Boyce, Mary. Zoroastrians: Their Religious Beliefs and Practices (Routledge, 2nd ed. 2001).
- Boyce, Mary. A History of Zoroastrianism, 3 vols. (Brill, 1975 to 1991).
- Barr, James. "The Question of Religious Influence: The Case of Zoroastrianism, Judaism and Christianity," JAAR 53 (1985).
- Yamauchi, Edwin. Persia and the Bible (Baker, 1990).