Zoroastrianism's Role in Christianity's Development

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Zoroastrianism's Role in Christianity's Development

Christianity is one of the most popular religions of the early 21st century. Through the course of Christianity's first millennia it was able to rise from its original twelve followers to become the state religion of Rome and the mighty empire which it held. However, unbeknownst to many, the concepts that exist in Christianity and Judaism (the religion from which Christianity spawned) were initially conceived by the nearly dead religion of Zoroaster. Christianity is closely modeled after the Zoroastrain's beliefs in the afterlife, redemption, judgment, duality of deities, apocalypse and messiahs. Whether Christianity adopted or coincidentally shared the beliefs of the Zoroastrians is up for debate. Regardless, the similarities are staggering.

Both Christians and Zoroastrians believe that there will be an apocalypse. When this apocalypse occurs it is believed that the world will be cleansed of non-believers and evil. This apocalypse will occur after a Messiah has arrived on earth. The Christians believe that Messiah will be Jesus, whereas the Zoroastrians believe that the messiah to spur the apocalypse will be the third Saoshyant.

Both religions also share a critical component of their individual apocalyptic views. Zoroastrians and Christians both initially believed that the apocalypse would come quickly after the death of their founders. Obviously, that apocalypse never came and strangely enough, both religions adapted to this issue in the same way. They both took up a belief in millennialism. The Christians claimed that 1000A.D. would be the end. Of course that never happened, so they moved on to believe that 2000A.D. would be the date of the apocalypse, no...

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...hierarchy which included many levels of command. The Zoroastrians on the other hand lacked this level of cohesiveness. This is probably due to their followers being mostly nomadic peoples, whereas the Christians had the benefit of a more static form of life.

The similarities between these two religions are uncanny. It is truly shocking when one first compares the two, it is simply amazing that a religion that out dates Christianity by fifteen hundred years could be so similar. This amazement continues when one ponders why the similarities are rarely, if ever, discussed when the topic of Judaism or Christianity come up in an academic setting. It would seem as if the shared beliefs between the two are not simply a product of chance, it is quite the contrary. It is clear that Zoroastrian theology had an enormous effect on the formation and rise of Christianity.

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