07-03-2006, 12:10 AM
Much has been added since I last looked at this thread, but to back up a bit, Johnny, I am surpised you would think Zoroastrianism was heavily influenced by Judaism, and not vice-versa. All the evidence points to just the opposite, as does every scholarly book and article I am aware of.
Satan is an obedient servant of God throughout the Old Testament and it was not until the return from Babylon is there any connection at all between Satan and the serpent in Eden, fallen angels, etc. These things only appear in the later, apochryphal works which Judaism no longer acknowledges.
So desperate was the early Christian church to "turn" Satan into the Zoroastrian Ahriman dragon of Revelation, that the "fallen angel Lucifer" was invented, and claimed to be "Satan" before his "fall", an incident that appears nowhere in the Holy Torah. Serious Biblical scholars now know these passages are about the very real king of Babylon, and not a heavenly creature.
In Persian mythology written long before the Book of Revelation, Ahura binds the dragon Ahriman and casts him into the Abyss exactly as Michael binds the dragon Satan. Despite the millions of dollar "Left behind" Book and film industry, there can be no doubt whatsover that "John of Patmos simply copied the earlier legend almost verbatim. There is even a very famous stele of Ahura fighting the Ahriman dragon which appears in virtually every school book about ancient Persia.
This of course, doesn't mean Jesus is not the Son of God. It simply means the author of this particular book heavily "borrowed" his ideas from earlier Zoroastrian legends, and this book therefore, perhaps should have been among the many that were not judged to be inspired, and ultimately not included in what now know as the New Testament. There are a number of other ancient Christian "apocolypse" books that do not have such a blatant similarities to Pagan mythologies that could have been chosen instead.
Dan
Satan is an obedient servant of God throughout the Old Testament and it was not until the return from Babylon is there any connection at all between Satan and the serpent in Eden, fallen angels, etc. These things only appear in the later, apochryphal works which Judaism no longer acknowledges.
So desperate was the early Christian church to "turn" Satan into the Zoroastrian Ahriman dragon of Revelation, that the "fallen angel Lucifer" was invented, and claimed to be "Satan" before his "fall", an incident that appears nowhere in the Holy Torah. Serious Biblical scholars now know these passages are about the very real king of Babylon, and not a heavenly creature.
In Persian mythology written long before the Book of Revelation, Ahura binds the dragon Ahriman and casts him into the Abyss exactly as Michael binds the dragon Satan. Despite the millions of dollar "Left behind" Book and film industry, there can be no doubt whatsover that "John of Patmos simply copied the earlier legend almost verbatim. There is even a very famous stele of Ahura fighting the Ahriman dragon which appears in virtually every school book about ancient Persia.
This of course, doesn't mean Jesus is not the Son of God. It simply means the author of this particular book heavily "borrowed" his ideas from earlier Zoroastrian legends, and this book therefore, perhaps should have been among the many that were not judged to be inspired, and ultimately not included in what now know as the New Testament. There are a number of other ancient Christian "apocolypse" books that do not have such a blatant similarities to Pagan mythologies that could have been chosen instead.
Dan
