02.04.2008

Christian origins: the Iranian contribution

Bob Potter takes issue with Conrad's and Gray's omissions of Zoroastrian influence on Judaism

Both Chris Gray’s friendly review of Jack Conrad’s Marxism and the politics of religion (Weekly Worker March 27) and Jack’s text correctly focus on early Jewish history and the religious/philosophical development that took place in Babylonian exile - but neither comrade appears to appreciate the extent to which the Jewish faith was modified by its interaction with Zoroastrian, not Babylonian, culture. Contrary to Jack’s assertions, the exiled Jews were neither “awestruck by Babylon” nor “soon aping and adapting from the Babylonians”.¹

Early eschatologies

Perhaps a distinction between ape and man is that the latter, so far as we know, has always held some sort of eschatological belief - a hope, even a conviction, that the world as we know it must one day be transcended and that life, social and/or individual, will continue in some form beyond the grave. Archaeological evidence from the Upper Palaeolithic Age (30,000-10,000BCE) suggests that even then it was not only believed that life continued after death, but that the future life would be essentially the same as this one; the dead were interred with their utensils and weapons. Even the distant relation of Homo sapiens, Neanderthal man, buried his dead, so we can say with reasonable certainty that a measure of eschatological belief has been around for at least 70,000 years.

Implicit in any belief of life after death is dissatisfaction with the thought that this life might be ‘all there is’. One might anticipate that, the more unsatisfactory this life appears, the more important the next one will be and the more fervently it will be believed in. Feuerbach, to whom Marx and Engels were so indebted, had something like this in mind when he wrote: “The more empty life is, the fuller, the more concrete, is god. The impoverishing of the real world and the enriching of god is one act.”²

It follows from this that we would expect to find divisions of belief within the societies of our hominid ancestors - no doubt those who led the ‘primal hordes’ had less need of a belief in immortality than those who occupied the lower status within the primitive social structure; unfortunately, as Marx realised so well,³ almost always our knowledge of the earliest human societies is based on records left by those who held the power …

Perhaps the oldest source of comprehensive eschatological doctrine is Iranian Zoroastrianism. Zoroaster, a reforming priest and prophet, probably lived in the Bronze Age, about 1500BCE; so far as we know, his was the first comprehensive doctrine of one creator, a cosmic struggle engulfing a dualistic creation and the need for a moral struggle against evil. Our knowledge of his teachings is based on the 17 Gathas (songs or odes) allegedly composed by him; in his essential contribution (set out in the Book of primal creation⁴) is the positing of two primal principles: ahura mazda, good and pure; and angra mainyu, wholly malignant and ignorant - both ‘uncreated’ and perpetually at war with one another for the possession of human souls. Ahura mazda had created two worlds - one spiritual, one material; both ‘perfect’ and ‘pure’. Human beings, originally spiritual, had entered the second, material world, as this was the only way in which the power of evil (angra mainyu) might be annihilated.

Zoroaster taught that complete happiness required a reunion of soul and body, his future kingdom being very much of this earth. At death, the link between soul and body is severed, evil takes over and destroys the body. For three days the human soul hovers anxiously over the body; on the fourth day it is judged by a tribunal (presided over by Mithra), where the soul is ‘weighed’. If the finding is a preponderance of good deeds, the soul is escorted to heaven, otherwise to hell or purgatory. However, this judgement of the soul at death is but a prelude to a general resurrection and ‘final judgement’, which will take place at the end of time when all bodies will be resurrected and reunited with their souls.

These teachings appealed to the poor and unprivileged, for Zoroaster broke with the older traditions of the aristocrats and priests, who argued essentially that the present status quo remained unchanged in the future paradise. Instead, his teaching was that, provided the humble seek after righteousness, they could hope for salvation, while the rich and privileged were threatened with hell and extinction if they acted unjustly. So the post-mortem torments of the damned were not regarded as eternal - rather an expiation preparatory to the ‘final judgement’; throughout the Gathas is a sense of urgency - now is the time to repent, for the end of things is close at hand.

Readers will have recognised much of the previous paragraphs as precursing many of the fundamental christian beliefs. The important point I would make, at this stage, is that these ideas are strongly opposed to the doctrines of Judaism prior to the Babylonian captivity.

Evolution of Jewish beliefs

Pre-Mosaic Jahwism had no individual eschatology; it was concerned only with family and nation. Departed individuals were considered only in terms of a form of ancestor worship; appeasement sacrifices were offered to the dead,⁵ but the deceased were never described in terms of a continued individual life.

The living and the dead continued to form one family (Rachel in her grave weeps for her children);⁶ hence it was logical for the consequences of sins and virtues to be inherited by future generations.⁷ The grave belonged to the family (hence the frequent references to newly deceased being ‘gathered to his fathers’⁸) and refusal of burial in the family tomb (the denial of a temple for the receipt of sacrifices) was regarded as a calamity.⁹ Originally, Sheol was the post-mortem abode of ‘the collective of families’ - ‘the nation’; it was not seen as coming under Jahweh’s jurisdiction until the 4th century BCE.¹⁰; inhabitants of Sheol had a shade-like existence.

The fall of Jerusalem at the beginning of the 6th century and the consequent forced emigration of some 10,000 officers, fighting men, craftsmen and artisans into Babylonian captivity are well known events highlighted in Jewish (and christian) scriptures; the legend of Belshazzar’s feast, immortalised by Rembrandt’s famous painting, and the overwhelming of the city and massacre of its rulers by the Persian invaders under Cyrus the Great in a single night in 539BCE, ended the 70 years of Jewish captivity. Babylonian religion, with its galaxy of gods, had nothing to offer the former captives - monotheism was unknown in Babylon.

Cyrus and the Persian court were followers of Zoroaster.¹¹ They were understandably welcomed as liberators by the Jews, and for varying lengths of time many were happy to live under Persian protection, even after the welcome decree of Cyrus permitting the group, now comprising 42,360 males, together with many slaves and ‘professionals’, to return to Jerusalem as and when they so desired. It is hardly surprising, therefore, that the Jews during this period looked favourably upon the doctrines of their Iranian saviours - a change that is reflected in the writings of the second Isaiah and Ezekiel.

A new assessment of the ‘life after death’ doctrine was being forged. The domain of Sheol was extended to include all humanity, although it was assumed the gentile oppressors would suffer more in that realm. The old argument of the earlier prophets, that the people’s misfortunes were the punishment of Jahweh, no longer held water. If god was to remain just, there had to be a means of redressing the nation’s tribulations, and this could only come about by some sort of post-mortem procedure.

The prophets now sought a renovated world that would recapture the blessedness of the original Eden. They described the future for Israel’s ‘righteous remnant’ as being on earth and where “the lion lay down with the lamb, deserts became fertile, an abundance of food, war and want were abolished and perfected man lived in happiness and contentment”.¹²

Belief in an all-powerful and all-loving god increasingly demanded that the righteous dead be allowed to participate in the future joy:

Thy dead shall live, their bodies shall rise.
O dwellers in the dust, awake and sing for joy!¹³

wrote the later Isaiah (a text that contrasts so strongly with the pre-exile scriptures!).

The exile experience helped produce another profound modification of Hebrew theology. The earlier view had been that ‘soul’ represented the unity of body and spirit: “Dust thou art and unto dust shalt thou return.”¹⁴

In one sense, Jahwist thinkers had refused to follow this idea completely; somehow or other the ‘shade’ persisted and could, like that of Samuel, be contacted.¹⁵ Association with Iranian thought had introduced a new dualistic dimension. As the body obviously rotted away at death, belief in a separate surviving spirit and/or soul became essential. Man, rather than being soul, was conceived as consisting of body and soul. Parallel with this, the non-moral Sheol gave way to ideas more consistent with hopes for a future life based on individual behaviour. Jeremiah was the first Hebrew prophet to conceive religion as the individual’s communication with god: “everyone shall die for his own sin.”n:¹⁶

A thought reiterated in Ezekiel:

The soul that sins shall die.
The son shall not suffer for the iniquity of the father.¹⁷

Although the recompenses awarded are still assumed to be in this life - note the sharp contrast from the earlier quotation, where the son would pay for the father’s sins!

The apocalyptic

There was more paraphernalia in the religion of Zoroaster than detailed here, and allowance must be made for other less central (non-Persian?) embellishments of the central doctrines, taken from minority Babylonian sources - notions of divine transcendence, the development of angelology and demonology, fantastic symbolism and cosmic imagery, re-interpreting prophecy in combination with visionary inspiration, ‘end of the world’ cataclysm, the messianic delivery and the ‘day of judgement’.¹⁸

All this additional material returned to Jerusalem with the exiles, but its development would have been the work of lower-class sects rather than the temple-based rabbis. Over time, many of these sects prospered, incorporating various combinations of these subsidiary elements; the most successful were destined to form the early (albeit conflicting!) christian communities. All christ myths regurgitated this material - the sect that conquered, thanks to its adoption and institutionalisation of a Roman emperor, introduced Jesus in its earliest (church-recognised) gospel as saying: “The time is fulfilled, and the kingdom of god is at hand …”¹⁹

Two verses earlier, Jesus goes into the desert, where “Satan tempted him … but angels came and helped him.”²⁰ His apocalyptic message is immediate: “Remember this! There are some here who will not die until they have seen the kingdom of god come with power”²¹; and “All these things will happen before the people now living have all died.”²²

Reasons for the success of the absurd doctrines preached by the mythical Jesus (doctrines, like those cited above, falsified within decades of being stated) are explored in some detail in Jack Conrad’s Marxism and the politics of religion.

Notes

1. J Conrad Marxism and the politics of religion London 2008, p154.
2. L Feuerbach The essence of christianity New York 1957, p73.
3. K Marx The German ideology Moscow 1965, p60.
4. See RC Zaehner The teachings of the Magi London 1956, pp34-41.
5. Deut 26:14.
6. Jer 31:15.
7. Ex 20:5.
8. Is 14:20.
9. Jer 25:33.
10. RH Charles A critical history of the doctrine of a future life London 1899, p35.
11. M Boyce Zoroastrians - their religious beliefs and practices London 1979, pp51-52.
12. For detailed documentation see ‘Eschatology’ in J Hastings Encyclopaedia of religion and ethics New York 1918, Vol 5, p377.
13. Is 26:19.
14. Gen 3:19.
15. Is 28:14.
16. Jer 31:30.
17. Ez 18:20.
18. DS Russell The method and message of Jewish apocalyptic Philadelphia 1964 p19ff.
19. Mark 1:15.
20. Mark 1:13.
21. Mark 9:1.
22. Mark 13:30