The Download
The Longest Lie — Part 3 of 11 eFireTemple.com This is the inventory. Every concept listed below meets three criteria. First, it is absent from the Torah and the pre-exilic Hebrew Bible. Second, it is present in Zoroastrian theology that predates or is contemporaneous with the Persian period. Third, it appears in Jewish literature for the first time during or after the period of Persian contact. These are not vague thematic similarities.
What this resource contributes
The Longest Lie — Part 3 of 11 eFireTemple.com This is the inventory. Every concept listed below meets three criteria. First, it is absent from the Torah and the pre-exilic Hebrew Bible. Second, it is present in Zoroastrian theology that predates or is contemporaneous with the Persian period. Third, it appears in Jewish literature for the first time during or after the period of Persian contact. These are not vague thematic similarities. These are structural theological concepts with specific Zoroastrian sources that appear in Judaism at a specific historical moment — the moment when the Jewish community was living inside the Zoroastrian civilization. 1. Named angels with individual identities Before Persian contact: The Hebrew Bible uses mal'akh — messenger. No names. No ranks. No individual identities. Anonymous beings who deliver messages and disappear.
Topics and source signals
Primary sources detected
Yasna · Gathas · Yashts · Dead Sea Scrolls · Hebrew Bible · Bundahishn