Tranquilla Mcgee Lane, Natasha World Religion 28 March 2016 Jesus Vs Zoroaster Christianity and Zoroastrianism are to two, different in nature but similar in character, religions. Zoroastrianism is thought to be an older religion than Christianity. It is said it is the platform upon which Jewish and Christian beliefs were formed. Some of the most confusing elements of the Zoroastrian religion would be the dating of its material. The traditions remained oral until the development, sometime between the fourth and sixth centuries CE of the Avestan script. Zoroaster has many similarities to Jesus. Zoroaster was born of a virgin, just like the virgin marry with Jesus in Christian belief. He was also baptized in a river. In his youth he astounded …show more content…
wise men, and was also tempted in the wilderness by the devil. He cast out demons and restored the sight to a blind man. He taught about heaven and hell, and revealed mysteries, including resurrection, judgment, salvation and the apocalypse. Lastly he was also slain. Some of these things are proven true through scholarly literature and some date back further than Christianity time period. The main source of Zoroaster comes from the Avesta. This is a collection of sacred texts which was put into written between 346AD to 360AD. Some conspiracy theorists blame Alexander the Great and Muslims for the destruction of Zoroastrian literature. He came to Iran and destroyed everything. He killed off all of the religious leaders, judges, chiefs, and any rulers who knew the religion. He then burned the Avesta. More or less he was trying to erase the religion from the land. Zoroaster, which was born of a virgin, refers to a King like glory that was handed down from ruler to ruler. The glory was placed within his mother for 15 years, including the time she was married to Zoroaster’s father. His father was needed for the infusion of Zoroaster’s spirit and not his body. Zoroaster was also baptized in a river as Jesus was. There is no direct evidence of this, but there is a story that is told in “Zoroaster the Prophet of Ancient Iran” pg .41. In the book it explains that he received a revelation from an archangel while on the banks of a river, which Zoroaster later crosses. Zoroastrian and Christian both see god as infinite, immaterial, and impassible. They both see earth as a battle field. There are two sides to choose from. Either you are on the right side or you are living a lie. Humanity has two spiritual roads to choose from and everyone must be held accountable for their moral decisions before God. Where these two differ is where Zoroastrian belief is that there are six Amesha Spentas or Holy immortals that are a part of Ahura Mazda’s essence who is their main God. Christians only believe in one God. Sin is another area that separates these two religious areas.
Zoroastrians sin is more or less placed on error rather than knowingly doing bad. “Man’s original sin” is not seen as being disobedient or wrongful but error of judgment or ignorance. Salvation comes when you perform more good deeds than you have bad. Christianity on the other hand looks at sin as a legal transgression of moral laws established by God. A few scriptures that explain this would be (1 John 3:4) “whoever commits sin also commits lawlessness, and sin is lawlessness”; (Romans 4:15) “where there is no law, there is no transgression”. In Christian view we all are born into a world of sin and must repent of our transgressions. Zoroastrianism may be the older religion but evidence is not there to fully support it. A lot of teachings were done by word of mouth until the Avesta was written. Even once this The bible seems to be explained a little better and written out a little better. Works Cited F. M. Kotwal and P. G. Kreyenbroek, “ALEXANDER THE GREAT ii. In Zoroastrian Tradition,” Encyclopaedia Iranica, Online Edition, 1982 http://www.iranicaonline.org/articles/alexander-the-great-ii Jones. Kile . “Comparisons between Zoroastrianism and Christianity” 2006 http://www.metareligion.com/Philosophy/Articles/Philosophy_of_religion/zoroastrianism_christ.htm Young, William A. “The World’s Religions” Worldviews and Contemporary Issues: third edition. NJ: Pearson Education, 2010.
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According to the bible, King Solomon, King of Israel and the Jews, was paid by a visit from the Queen of Sheba, an Ethiopian Monarch. The Kebra Negast, the book of the glory of kings, states that by a trick, King Solomon inveigled the queen into sharing his bed with the result of a new born son, Menelik, who in due course became king or negus of Ethiopia.3 The queen was very impressed during her visit to the Holy Land, and adopted the Jewish Religion. But her son Menelik, when he grew up, visited his father, and transferred the Ark of the Covenant from Jerusalem to Axum. It is at this point where a new r...
Zoroastrianism and Judaism share distinct qualities that make them similar. Throughout thousands of centuries these religions have been around. They were the starting points of monotheistic thought. And the beginning of a religious revolution that took place in the ancient world that is still practiced today.
Christianity is closely modeled after the Zoroastrian 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.
As for the Christian belief, there are no other forms of salvation other than through Jesus. In contrast, the Jewish belief is that humans are not born good or bad, but they are born with both. As the human progress through life, they have the free moral will to choose the good and this free moral is more powerful than the evil inclination. The Jewish ethics is that humans have the ability to think for themselves on how to act. Temptation allows people to choose their course in life and to be held responsible for their action. In other words, the Jewish thinkers have focused their lives to have a good life here on earth and to try and improve the world, leaving concerns about death and beyond until that time arrives. The Christian belief propels them to seek forgiveness before they cross the
Both Christianity and Judaism are religions that have some relationship between them as much as they also have differences. Judaism and Christianity developed on the basis obeying God, on adherence to his rules and fulfillment of God’s will is a duty of a Jewish or Christian person, both religions fall into the rule deontological category.
Zoroastrianism is an ancient religion that is the first religion to develop a monotheistic belief system. Zoroastrianism is heavily influential in the formation of the many religions, but more specifically, Christianity. For example, both religions believe in dualism, which is the concept that there are two original spirits: good and evil. In Zoroastrianism the good god is Ahura Mazda with the evil god being Angra Mainyu (Oxtoby, 5). In Christianity the good god is just referred to as God or Lord while the evil god is simply referred to as the Devil. In class we learned about the founder of Zoroastrianism, Zoroaster who was born into the warrior class who travels from his hometown to convince King Vishtaspa of his message who then converts his kingdom to Zoroastrianism. Mirroring this in Christianity, Jesus of Nazareth, known as Christ is the founder of Christianity spreading his message of resurrection and monotheism (Oxtoby, 143). Additionally, both religions believe that Ahura Mazda and God were the creators of the world, respectively, and how it came to be and also sharing the monotheistic belief that these two gods are the only ones to worship. Both religions have an emphasis on morality and good ethics, with Zoroastrianism having five particular points while Christianity stemmed from this which also has a moral code which is known as the Ten Commandments (Oxtoby, 5). While both religious share the importance of death and reincarnation the two differ on burial rites. In Zoroastrianism the belief is that the dead should be disposed of in the “towers of silence” so that birds of prey can eat their remains (Oxtoby, 5). In Christianity, the belief is to give the person a proper burial ceremony and then to bury the body in a gra...
Christianity and Islam are two religions that grew from the same central idea of one divine being; they also originate from Jerusalem. However, the two religions bear great disparity but they also hold a few similarities. Both Islam and Christianity believe in Abraham as the forefather of both religions; they believe Him to be the founder of the two religions. The two religions have a holy book; Islam uses the Quran while Christians use the bible. Even though the two books do not bear the same teachings they are considered sacred in both religions. However, Christianity and Islam share a great deal of differences starting from the holy books, their beliefs, and the information contained in the respective holy book (Kavanaugh, 5).
Catholics believe that the Roman Catholic Church is the highest-ranking authority on earth and that God’s word is spoken through the pope. Christians on the other hand have different interpretations of the bible, they are willing to accept and reject individual teachings from the bible. The key to salvation is baptism, Christians can be baptized any time after the belief and faith in Christ is acquired. Catholics are usually baptized after birth. Christians aside from biblical readings also include the readings of the gnostic gospel, which were excluded from the bible during the fourth century. Catholics don’t follow the gnostic gospel, as an alternative they rely on sacred traditions which are believed to be handed down throughout the centuries. The place of worship between Catholics and Christians are different in the sense that Christians are conducted in a church setting or small gatherings can also be conducted in people’s homes, Catholics have a more formal service with the church being the majority part of the Catholic mass. When it comes down to confessing your sins, Catholics confess their sins to a priest where they must sit down and have a face to face conversation with the priest and confess all of the sins that they have committed in order for them to be forgiven by God, Christianity does not require having to confess to a priest instead all they must do is confess to god and all of their sins will be
Judaism does not accept the thought of original sin, the idea that people are bad from birth and cannot remove sin by themselves. An act of grace provided by the sacrificial death of Jesus as resentment for all of humanity's sins. For Christians, there are no other forms of salvation other than through Jesus.
Being educated Christian means knowing the overall aspects of Christianity. There are many aspects of Christianity that roots back to Judaism Both historically and theologically; Christianity shares a tie with Judaism. It is undeniable that historically Christianity roots back to Judaism. And theologically, it shares the same divine god and its early preaching. The customs and traditions that early Christians followed were mostly Jewish traditions. However, over the time, both religions grew up to the animosity towards each other. Observing the animosity, there has been many incidents where Jews and Christians have not tolerated each other. Therefore, understanding Judaism is essential to learn the holistic nature and history of the Christianity.
“Christianity, along with all other theistic belief systems, is the fraud of the age. It serves to detach the species from the natural world, likewise, each other. It supports blind submission to authority[control of the masses].”(Zeitgeist 2007) In this essay, we will explore the different roots of religion and the plagiarism that Christianity and a number of different religions have committed.
Although there are many religions in the world that have affected the lives and cultures of many people it is clear that most of the historical developments that have affected the way people now live seem to have been greatly influenced by the three religions with close relationships to each other resulting in being clustered together as the Abrahamic faiths. While there are many differences among the three most populous religions called the Abrahamic faith (Judaism, Christianity, and Islam), there are a number of similarities that deserve a closer look. In this article will look at three major similarities. At times there may be more similarities between any two of them but dissimilarity with the third. For instance, on the personality and
All three of these religions have the common influence of Zoroastrianism. Although the Islamic faith may have had a greater impact, Judaism and Christianity were also impacted by this religion as well:
On the surface Christianity and Islam have their very obvious differences, but at their core they hold many similarities. Both religions have monotheistic beliefs, meaning they believe that there is only one God. Both religions also have similar guidelines to their respective religion, The Five Pillars and The Ten Commandments. They do though; have different ways of worship, different holy cities and also different sacred writings.
Identical to Muslims, Christians also believe that their God is the creator and sustainer of the universe. The Bible begins with the creation of the Earth by God in seven days. Another similarity between these two religions is their belief in life after death.... ... middle of paper ... ...