دار بيبليون
Notes from a lecture by Dr Lwiis Saliba on Zoom 05/01/2022:
Zarathustra1: Epoch and Time
Next week we will discuss the Epiphany and the symbolism of water with the Baptism of Christ in relation to the bathing in the Ganges.
In the Eastern Christian tradition, Epiphany is the beginning of the year, the Holy Night, the Night of Destiny.
Today we are going to look at Zoroaster and his impact on the five great world religions: Judaism, Hinduism, Buddhism, Christianity and Islam. I wrote a big book on this which has been very successful, it is now in its fifth edition.
Zoroaster, his Country and his Time
No scholar can overlook the influence of Iran in the development of modern religions: a place of transition and creation for the five religions. This is not only through Z, but also through Mani. We are not going to study everything, but to highlight the Persian impact on the great religions of the world today.
We have indicated in our book, in our written or televised interviews, that at the origin of all the major religions, there is a Persian influence.
We will make a brief presentation before going into details
Hinduism: Close interaction between the Rig-Veda and the Avesta, which are almost similar in language.
Most historical sources show that the transfer was from Iran to India.
Buddhism: Persia served as a relay to China
Judaism: surprisingly, the influence of Persia was decisive.
Christianity: clear influence, especially in beliefs of heaven and hell, evil with Satan, Judgement Day, prophecy. The Persian emperor Cyrus is the only one praised by the Torah, he ended the Hebrew captivity. The Babylonian Talmud is called the Persian Talmud because of this proximity.
The Magi came from Persia. At Pentecost, a number of Persians were there and witnessed the miracle. Z spoke of the Saviour, as did the Buddha Maitreya, of whom the historical Buddha did not speak. This is an impact of Persia on Buddhism, in the very regions where it flourished.
Islam:
Besides the Prophet, Salman is mentioned who travelled many countries in search of the Truth. It is said of him in the hadiths: “He is part of the family of the Prophet”.
There was a clear Persian presence from the beginning of Islam, then later with Sufis like Bayazid Bistami, Hallaj, Rumi, etc.
There is a country, Aryavarsha, in the north-west of India which was the link between the latter country and Persia.
Iran is the land of the nobility, like India in the Vedic era. This leads us to look for religious and spiritual links between the two countries.
From the third century BC, Zoroastrianism became the official religion of Persia, calling itself “the true religion”.
An essential problem: who was Zoroaster, alias Zarathustra?
He is certainly the most important personality of the Persian religion. None of the founders of religions is as little known historically as Z. This is what Richard Foltz says: “As for the character of Z, his place of birth and his time are subject to doubt. The same vagueness surrounds his text, the Avesta, with contradictions in the points of view. However, possible hypotheses are: either at the time of Abraham (18th century BC), or at the time of the Buddha, or of certain Greeks 6000 BC. As for its place of origin, it may have come from Azerbaijan, or from the North East.
There is a collection of poems, Gathas, which is said to contain the actual words of Z: they are practically in a language very close to the Sanskrit of the Rig-veda.
Remarkable convergence of the two books Avesta and Rig-veda. It is the Zend-Avesta which is more recent because it quotes the Rig-veda. However, the poems seem to have been composed over several centuries. Probably, the locations of Z’s teaching moved from place to place, depending on the residence of the priests who wanted to claim that it came from their region.
As for us, we tend to follow the opinion of Mircea Eliade (1907-1986) who made a comparative study, finally giving dates between 1100 and 600 BC. The Mazdean tradition says that he existed 258 years before Alexander. But linguistic analysis discerns earlier forms.
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