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The Angels Were Always Persian

How the Amesha Spentas of Ahura Mazda Became the Archangels of the Western World eFireTemple The Problem With "Seven" When you read the Book of Revelation — written in first-century Asia Minor, deep in the former Persian Empire's cultural orbit — you encounter a strange and specific number. "Grace and peace to you from him who is, and who was, and who is to come, and from the seven spirits before his throne" (Revelation 1:4). Seven spirits. Not four. Not twelve. Not an unspecified heavenly multitude.

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How the Amesha Spentas of Ahura Mazda Became the Archangels of the Western World eFireTemple The Problem With "Seven" When you read the Book of Revelation — written in first-century Asia Minor, deep in the former Persian Empire's cultural orbit — you encounter a strange and specific number. "Grace and peace to you from him who is, and who was, and who is to come, and from the seven spirits before his throne" (Revelation 1:4). Seven spirits. Not four. Not twelve. Not an unspecified heavenly multitude. Seven named divine beings arrayed before God's throne, each with a specific function. That number — seven divine intermediaries emanating from the supreme God, each governing a domain of creation — is not biblical in origin. It is Zoroastrian. And the Avesta named them thousands of years before John of Patmos wrote a single word.

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Yasna · Avesta · Hebrew Bible · Quran

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