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Romanised transliteration as printed by the translator, not the original script. This is what we hold.
1Asha Vahista, Perfect Righteousness, _,, Fire. Khshathra Vairya, Good Royalty, ” Metals. Spenta Armaiti, Pious Modesty, » Earth. Haurvatat, Health, ” Waters. Ameretat, Immortality, ” Plants. Here again Philo presents us with a striking parallel. INTRODUCTION, VI. lvii Between God and the world, the Logos is only the first of a series of divine abstractions or powers (Adyo:, or duvdpets): in one passage, unfortunately mutilated, he enumerates six of them, the @eios Adyos being the first. The third, 4 BaotAcKy, ‘the Royal virtue,’ answers literally to the third member of the Zoroastrian series, Khshathra, Vairya. The other members of the Philonian series o:nrexy, ‘ the Creative virtue;’ fArews, ‘the power of Mercy;’ vopoderinn, ‘the Legislative virtue,’ have no counterpart in the Avesta series, which prevents our attributing any particular historical importance to the coincidence of Khshathra Vairya with the BaotAky: yet the coincidence is not quite accidental: it was made possible only by the fact that both | Philo and the organisers of the Avesta system moved in a common atmosphere of moral and metaphysical abstractions. -: In fact trews, though not one of the Amesha Spentas, might have become one, and in fact is consecrated and invoked with Khshathra Vairya under the name of Mareadika’, ‘Mercy.’ The vopoderixy is sanctified in dkaésa, ‘the Law,’ or in M&athra Spenta, ‘the Holy Word.’ This is the Gnostic atmosphere, and the Gathas, which | are, on the whole, a poem to the glory of the Amesha ‘ Spestas and the virtues they impersonate, may be termed the first monument of Gnosticism, but of practical, purely ethic Gnosticism, permeated by a strong sense of reality and a deep pre-occupation with morality: abstraction here is only a means of edification. Philo is nearer the true ' Gnostics than the writers of the Gathas: they were mere moralists, with no metaphysical instinct. CHAPTER VI. JEWISH ELEMENTS IN THE RELIGION. § 1. The Jewish influence, less visible in the doctrine than the Greek, is prominent in the general views and the , form of the book. 1 Yt. IL, 2, 7. Iviii VEND{DAD. The Avesta and the Pentateuch are the only two religious books known in which legislation descends from the heavens to the earth in a series of conversations between the lawgiver and his God. Without attaching undue importance to this correspondence, we shall be more impressed with the fact that both books have the same object, viz. to write the history of the creation and mankind ; and in mankind, more especially, the history of the elect race (the Iranians here, the Hebrews there), and in that race the history of the true religion (the religion of Mazda, revealed by Mazda to Zarathustra, and the religion of Jehovah, revealed by Jehovah to Moses). The ultimate end of both books is to teach the faithful the rule of life. § 2. Here is a series of particular concordances that show more clearly the unity of their plan:
2The ultimate end of both books is to teach the faithful the rule of life. § 2. Here is a series of particular concordances that show more clearly the unity of their plan: (1) Creation of the world.—Jehovah creates the world in six days ; he creates successively the light, the heaven, the sea, the earth and the plants, the lights in the firmament, the animals, and lastly man. Ahura Mazda creates the world in six periods; he creates successively the heaven, the water, the earth, the plants, the animals, and man. (2) Creation of man.—All the human race, in Genesis, is descended from one couple, man and woman, Adam and Eve (Adam means ‘ man’). All the human race, in the Avesta, is descended from one couple, man and woman, Mashya and Mashyana (Mashya means ‘ man’). (3) The Deluge.—Jehovah intends to destroy the human race, on account of its wickedness, and to renew it. He brings about the deluge, but saves one just man, Noah, with his family and a couple of each species of animals. Noah, on his advice, builds an ark, in which he takes refuge, with his people, and from which he goes out afterwards to repeople the earth. In course of time, the earth shall be laid waste by the: snows and rains of three long winters, the Mahrkdsha winters. Ahura, in order to repeople his earth with ’ superior races, orders kind Yima to build an underground INTRODUCTION, VI. lix palace, the Var of Yima, where the finest specimens of human, animal, and vegetable species will live till the moment when, the evil days being over, they shall open the doors of the Var and repeople the earth with a better race. (4) Division of the Earth.—Noah has three sons, Shem, Ham, and Japhet, the ancestors of the three races between which the earth. is divided. Thraétaona, the avenger and successor of Yima, has three sons, Airya, Sairima, and Tara, between whom the earth is divided: Airya receives Iran, the centre of the earth’s surface, Sairima receives the West, and Tara the East. Putting aside the legend of Airya, killed by his brothers, which reminds one, but not closely enough, of Joseph persecuted by his brethren, we arrive at the fact that is the central interest of the two books: (5) The Revelation. Zarathustra converses with Ahura, as Moses with Jehovah, and receives, like him, the revelation of the laws of every description, on the Mountain of the Holy Conversations, as Moses did on Sinai. (6) Both Moses and Zarathustra had forerunners. A first covenant was made by Jehovah with Noah. The Iranian Noah, Yima, had been first offered to act the part of a lawgiver, which he modestly declined. Moses was preceded by three patriarchs, Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. So Zarathustra was preceded by three great saints, who practised before him the worship of Haoma: Vivanghant, Athwya, and Thrita.
3Moses was preceded by three patriarchs, Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. So Zarathustra was preceded by three great saints, who practised before him the worship of Haoma: Vivanghant, Athwya, and Thrita. § 3. Certainly it would not be safe to affirm that the coincidences between Genesis and the Avesta are due to a direct action of one on the other. The newly-recovered fragments of a Chaldaean Genesis leave room open for a third medium. However, the myths of the creation and the deluge, the only part of the Biblico-Chaldaean mythology which has, in a rather mutilated form, come down to us, differ so widely in the Bible and the Babylonian tablets, that it is only out of scientific scruple that we leave the Chaldaean door open. For the other points of comparison, } lx venptpAp. we are obliged, for want of any Chaldaean remains, to let the Bible and the Avesta alone stand face to face. If the Mazdean Genesis rests on a Chaldaean basis, the date of the loan remains indefinite, as it may virtually have taken place at any date between the time when Iran came into contact with Chaldaea and the time when the Chaldaean , mythology died out. If it rests on the Biblical tradition, | the loan can hardly have taken place earlier than the time when Judaism began to spread beyond Palestine, that is to say, the first century before Christ and the first after. There were at that time Jewish communities in Media, Parthia, Susiana, and Mesopotamia ; the king of Adiabene, Izates, was converted to Judaism about 58 A.D.; and Jewish schools were flourishing in Babylonia and in the Greek towns. So the Magi could meet with doctors of Judaism as well as with teachers of Platonism. CHAPTER VII. ACHAEMENIAN AND EARLIER ELEMENTS. § 1. From the preceding disquisitions we assume that the Avesta doctrine is not one and self-sufficient: but it contains elements borrowed from foreign systems, from India, Greece, and Judaea. It directs its polemic against India and borrows from her, though in a hostile spirit. It owes to Greece some of its teaching, and to Judaea its historical views. And all these foreign elements were borrowed in the Parthian period. But these elements, however important they may be, do not constitute the whole of Zoroastrianism, for there are essential doctrines in it, the existence of which can be traced back far beyond the Parthian period and the Greek conquest, with historical evidence. One may, with certain accuracy, distinguish in Zoroastrianism what is old, pre- Alexandrian, or Achaemenian from what is late, or post- Alexandrian. § 2. The fundamental basis of Mazdeism, the belief in a supreme God, the organiser of the world, Ahura Mazda, INTRODUCTION, VII. lxi is as old as anything we know of Persia. Darius proclaims Auramazda, the greatest of all gods, a powerful God, who made this earth, who made that heaven, who made man, who made Darius king.
The source text as printed, transcribed diplomatically. Where the source language uses a non-Latin script that reaches us only through a Victorian romanisation, this layer is labelled transliteration, because that is what we hold.
Romanised transliteration as printed by the translator, not the original script. This is what we hold.
1Asha Vahista, Perfect Righteousness, _,, Fire. Khshathra Vairya, Good Royalty, ” Metals. Spenta Armaiti, Pious Modesty, » Earth. Haurvatat, Health, ” Waters. Ameretat, Immortality, ” Plants. Here again Philo presents us with a striking parallel. INTRODUCTION, VI. lvii Between God and the world, the Logos is only the first of a series of divine abstractions or powers (Adyo:, or duvdpets): in one passage, unfortunately mutilated, he enumerates six of them, the @eios Adyos being the first. The third, 4 BaotAcKy, ‘the Royal virtue,’ answers literally to the third member of the Zoroastrian series, Khshathra, Vairya. The other members of the Philonian series o:nrexy, ‘ the Creative virtue;’ fArews, ‘the power of Mercy;’ vopoderinn, ‘the Legislative virtue,’ have no counterpart in the Avesta series, which prevents our attributing any particular historical importance to the coincidence of Khshathra Vairya with the BaotAky: yet the coincidence is not quite accidental: it was made possible only by the fact that both | Philo and the organisers of the Avesta system moved in a common atmosphere of moral and metaphysical abstractions. -: In fact trews, though not one of the Amesha Spentas, might have become one, and in fact is consecrated and invoked with Khshathra Vairya under the name of Mareadika’, ‘Mercy.’ The vopoderixy is sanctified in dkaésa, ‘the Law,’ or in M&athra Spenta, ‘the Holy Word.’ This is the Gnostic atmosphere, and the Gathas, which | are, on the whole, a poem to the glory of the Amesha ‘ Spestas and the virtues they impersonate, may be termed the first monument of Gnosticism, but of practical, purely ethic Gnosticism, permeated by a strong sense of reality and a deep pre-occupation with morality: abstraction here is only a means of edification. Philo is nearer the true ' Gnostics than the writers of the Gathas: they were mere moralists, with no metaphysical instinct. CHAPTER VI. JEWISH ELEMENTS IN THE RELIGION. § 1. The Jewish influence, less visible in the doctrine than the Greek, is prominent in the general views and the , form of the book. 1 Yt. IL, 2, 7. Iviii VEND{DAD. The Avesta and the Pentateuch are the only two religious books known in which legislation descends from the heavens to the earth in a series of conversations between the lawgiver and his God. Without attaching undue importance to this correspondence, we shall be more impressed with the fact that both books have the same object, viz. to write the history of the creation and mankind ; and in mankind, more especially, the history of the elect race (the Iranians here, the Hebrews there), and in that race the history of the true religion (the religion of Mazda, revealed by Mazda to Zarathustra, and the religion of Jehovah, revealed by Jehovah to Moses). The ultimate end of both books is to teach the faithful the rule of life. § 2. Here is a series of particular concordances that show more clearly the unity of their plan:
2The ultimate end of both books is to teach the faithful the rule of life. § 2. Here is a series of particular concordances that show more clearly the unity of their plan: (1) Creation of the world.—Jehovah creates the world in six days ; he creates successively the light, the heaven, the sea, the earth and the plants, the lights in the firmament, the animals, and lastly man. Ahura Mazda creates the world in six periods; he creates successively the heaven, the water, the earth, the plants, the animals, and man. (2) Creation of man.—All the human race, in Genesis, is descended from one couple, man and woman, Adam and Eve (Adam means ‘ man’). All the human race, in the Avesta, is descended from one couple, man and woman, Mashya and Mashyana (Mashya means ‘ man’). (3) The Deluge.—Jehovah intends to destroy the human race, on account of its wickedness, and to renew it. He brings about the deluge, but saves one just man, Noah, with his family and a couple of each species of animals. Noah, on his advice, builds an ark, in which he takes refuge, with his people, and from which he goes out afterwards to repeople the earth. In course of time, the earth shall be laid waste by the: snows and rains of three long winters, the Mahrkdsha winters. Ahura, in order to repeople his earth with ’ superior races, orders kind Yima to build an underground INTRODUCTION, VI. lix palace, the Var of Yima, where the finest specimens of human, animal, and vegetable species will live till the moment when, the evil days being over, they shall open the doors of the Var and repeople the earth with a better race. (4) Division of the Earth.—Noah has three sons, Shem, Ham, and Japhet, the ancestors of the three races between which the earth. is divided. Thraétaona, the avenger and successor of Yima, has three sons, Airya, Sairima, and Tara, between whom the earth is divided: Airya receives Iran, the centre of the earth’s surface, Sairima receives the West, and Tara the East. Putting aside the legend of Airya, killed by his brothers, which reminds one, but not closely enough, of Joseph persecuted by his brethren, we arrive at the fact that is the central interest of the two books: (5) The Revelation. Zarathustra converses with Ahura, as Moses with Jehovah, and receives, like him, the revelation of the laws of every description, on the Mountain of the Holy Conversations, as Moses did on Sinai. (6) Both Moses and Zarathustra had forerunners. A first covenant was made by Jehovah with Noah. The Iranian Noah, Yima, had been first offered to act the part of a lawgiver, which he modestly declined. Moses was preceded by three patriarchs, Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. So Zarathustra was preceded by three great saints, who practised before him the worship of Haoma: Vivanghant, Athwya, and Thrita.
3Moses was preceded by three patriarchs, Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. So Zarathustra was preceded by three great saints, who practised before him the worship of Haoma: Vivanghant, Athwya, and Thrita. § 3. Certainly it would not be safe to affirm that the coincidences between Genesis and the Avesta are due to a direct action of one on the other. The newly-recovered fragments of a Chaldaean Genesis leave room open for a third medium. However, the myths of the creation and the deluge, the only part of the Biblico-Chaldaean mythology which has, in a rather mutilated form, come down to us, differ so widely in the Bible and the Babylonian tablets, that it is only out of scientific scruple that we leave the Chaldaean door open. For the other points of comparison, } lx venptpAp. we are obliged, for want of any Chaldaean remains, to let the Bible and the Avesta alone stand face to face. If the Mazdean Genesis rests on a Chaldaean basis, the date of the loan remains indefinite, as it may virtually have taken place at any date between the time when Iran came into contact with Chaldaea and the time when the Chaldaean , mythology died out. If it rests on the Biblical tradition, | the loan can hardly have taken place earlier than the time when Judaism began to spread beyond Palestine, that is to say, the first century before Christ and the first after. There were at that time Jewish communities in Media, Parthia, Susiana, and Mesopotamia ; the king of Adiabene, Izates, was converted to Judaism about 58 A.D.; and Jewish schools were flourishing in Babylonia and in the Greek towns. So the Magi could meet with doctors of Judaism as well as with teachers of Platonism. CHAPTER VII. ACHAEMENIAN AND EARLIER ELEMENTS. § 1. From the preceding disquisitions we assume that the Avesta doctrine is not one and self-sufficient: but it contains elements borrowed from foreign systems, from India, Greece, and Judaea. It directs its polemic against India and borrows from her, though in a hostile spirit. It owes to Greece some of its teaching, and to Judaea its historical views. And all these foreign elements were borrowed in the Parthian period. But these elements, however important they may be, do not constitute the whole of Zoroastrianism, for there are essential doctrines in it, the existence of which can be traced back far beyond the Parthian period and the Greek conquest, with historical evidence. One may, with certain accuracy, distinguish in Zoroastrianism what is old, pre- Alexandrian, or Achaemenian from what is late, or post- Alexandrian. § 2. The fundamental basis of Mazdeism, the belief in a supreme God, the organiser of the world, Ahura Mazda, INTRODUCTION, VII. lxi is as old as anything we know of Persia. Darius proclaims Auramazda, the greatest of all gods, a powerful God, who made this earth, who made that heaven, who made man, who made Darius king.
The source text as printed, transcribed diplomatically. Where the source language uses a non-Latin script that reaches us only through a Victorian romanisation, this layer is labelled transliteration, because that is what we hold.
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