• I' we may read Yima's fall in K« 32" : Tiele denies.
* See }'( 5^; and Darraesteter's note (Lt ZA ii. 375).
must be allowed that there is little really distinc- tive here, except the sun-worship— the one point in which Clieyne (who in other respects endorses Lightfoot's view) thinks Josephus inaccurate.* Moreover, there was Magian sun-worship which was not Zoroastrian, as in Ezk S'"' (see § 3, above). Essene dualism seems to owe nothing to that of the Vendidad, which has no philosophical theory of the inherent evil of matter and no trace of asceticism. The most conspicuous features in the picture Josephus draws are alien from the spirit of Parsism. In their psychology and eschatology one or two surface parallels are neutralized by deep-seated divergences. Thus in Mazdeism the pre-existent souls (frai-ashis) came to earth volun- tarily, to join in the warfare against evil, not tyy-^l TLVL (pvcTtic^ KaracTTTui^tvai. And in denying the Resurrection in favour of the immortality of the soul, the Essenes betray affinity with Uellenistie Judaism (especially the Book of Wisdom) : note that Griitz and Montet trace the latter doctrine to Neoplatonism, recognizing Parsi influence only in the former. Unless Josephus ( Wars, II. viii. 11) is entirely drawing on imagination, we must admit, witli Soderblom, that Greek influence is demonstrable in their paradise beyond the sea, while the solitary Parsi feature, the hell io<piJiSrit xal Xfif-^P'os, is not sufficient to support an argument.
11. Sundry miscellaneous comparisons may be mentioned, and among them those given by Darmes- teter in his attempt to prove that Parsism borrowed from Judaism. (1) Philo's Ai57os (mostly Neopla- tonic) originates Vohu JIanah ('the Go(>d Mind'). (2) The enactments of Pentateuchal and Avestan law are regularly introduced with the formula, '(God) saith to (the lawgiver).' (3) Ahura creates the world in six periods — heax'en, water, earth, plants, animals, man.t (4) ^lankind in the Avesta descends from one couple, and the name Masht/a signifies 'man,' J like di^. (5) Sin begins with the first man. (6) Ahura bids king Yima collect in a subterranean palace the finest types of the human race, animals, and vegetables. When three de- structive winters have depopulated the earth, this ' 'Var ' shall open and re-people it with a higher race.i (7) Yima's successor has three sons, between whom tlie world is parted as among the sons of Noah. (8) Zarathushtra holds converse with Ahura on a mountain before promulgating the Law. (9) Zarathushtra had three precursors in his religion, as Moses had the three patriarchs. (10) The A\esta, like the OT, is divided into Law, Prophecy, and Miscellaneous Literature. Darmesteter tries to show that these parallels must be interpreted by Parsi borrowing. As he has convinced no one, the point need not be argued. It is enough to say that (1) the really Avestan elements in these com- parisons are demonstrably far too old to have been borrowed ; (2) some features may come from lialjy- lonian or even Accadian antiquit}', inllueming Hebrew and Parsi alike ; (3) most of the parallels are obviously fortuitous, proving nothing even when presented apart from a setting which greatly modifies the resemblance. That some of the later parts of the Avesta (and, a fortiori, Pahlavi writ- ings) maj" have been influenced by Judaism is likely enough. Thus Horn || thinks th.at tlie Pall is late in Parsism and due to the Hebrew, also that the virgin-birth of SaoshyantH owes some- thing to Is 7". Sundry biblical and Talmudio
• Expoa. Times, ii. 206. t Cf. Oheyne, OP 283.
I Strictly mortals.
\ See Gekltier'8 tr. of I'd 22nf- in Usoner, Sintjtiifmgen. p. 20SfI.; Chcyne (Encyc. Bibl. g.v. 'Deluge') remarks that it seema influenced by the Hebrew.
jl ' Jled. u. Pers.' p. 330 (in Uellwald, KuUurgesch. pt. 6).
^ This is a {^ood example of a parallel made plausible by selective description : the Pars) story is a most extravapmt mar\'el, to be classed with the miraculous births described Ui Hartl.ind's Legend o/ Perieui, i. 1338.
ZOKOASTRIANISM
ZOROASTRIANIRM
993
paralli-lB iuhv I* w«n in Kolint, ■l(,ili ii. ifj:* tl «nii lii. !i.'*l tl. I lif periiiil of the UitbyluniRn Taliniui seenie to have biou^'ht a closer contm't with ParBisin. Hut thcMe lat«r contartn lie oiitBiHe our allure, a« al»o doe« tbe rar»i herexy of Mani — if siK-h it really he.*
12 The l{(iok of Esther m'\\i\\t reasoimtily be ex|ipctt-<l to bIiow traces of Persian relif.'ion. Hut thiiu^'h NironK I'ersian intlueme is betrayed by the loan "onls (oee Siheftilow itz, A risrltes im A T), we canimt with certainty lix on anythinf; of valne for the questions we are disrussinf; here. The Persian orifrin of the Feast of I'UKIM, which has receiveii new importance from the theory of J. (i. Krazer (Gulden hough*, iii. I5i> I9S), is examined elsewhere. An atterajit has lately been made by H Winckler'l to tind the names of tlie Aiiishas-
fands Vohnm.'inah and Anieretat in those of lanian and llammeilatha. It a|>|>ears pndiable that these two archangels' names underlie the 'ilfjLavoi' Kal ' Ayaddrov (T 'A*iap5droi'), iltf>aiiiujp So*- fidfwy of Stralio (p. 512) : it is clear that the names only have been borrowed in this Pontic appropria- tion, so that we need not c()nsider the cliaracter of the Avestan orifxinals. If the lM)ok really starts from an olil story celebrating the victory of natire Babylonian gods, Marduk and Ishtar, over the foreign divinities answering to ' Vashti ' and ' Hanian,' we sluuild have to treat it as a com- position essentially parallel with Tobit, as ex- plained in § -t, al>ove, that is, as a tale whose original signilicance waa unknown to or igriored by a Jewish a<lapter writing with purposes of his own. In tliat case Jensen's identification of Hainan and Vashti as Elamitt deities is clearly preferable to Winckler's, which demands that Persian deities sliould sutler humiliation. But the whole theory will have to reckon with the ex- planation of all these names from Persian alone, as set forth in the new work of Scheftelowitz named above.