A GREATER ROLE FOR ZOROASTRIANISM IN JUDAISM AND CHRISTIANITY

Abstract

The period from 800 BCE to 200 BCE is described by German philosopher Karl Jaspers as the Axial Age. According to Jaspers this was a pivotal age in the development of human thought and spirituality, an age during which independent regional centers across Europe and Asia produced Platonism. Buddhism, Confucianism, and Zoroastrianism, all of which would emerge as major influences on religion and philosophy. Zoroastrian scholars Richard Foltz and Mary Boyce support Jaspers' assessment of this period and argue that Zoroastrianism should be seen as a more influential historical and cultural source for some of the major developments in world religions during the Axial Age. Foltz and Boyce believe Judaism, for instance, underwent a radical transformation under the influence of Persian Zoroastrianism between 586 BCE and 515 BCE. The changes that resulted from this transformation are thought to be reflected in Judaism and then early Christianity. This paper will explore several underappreciated ways later Judaism significantly departed from the earlier theology of the Hebrew Scripture which scholars such as Foltz and Boyce believe may be linked to the post-exilic period when the communities gathered around these scriptures came under Persian rule. Although Boyce and Foltz present some strong arguments to support the confluence of Zoroastrianism and Judaism, James Barr and Jacob Neusner present strong arguments against a direct influence. After exploring both sides of the argument. I shall offer a third possibility that balances the pros and cons of each. This third possibility is that a receptivity to Zoroastrian ideas unknowingly occurred in the specific social conditioning of exilic life for those practitioners of Judaism who chose to stay in Babylonia.