Save Your Breath. Ahura Mazda is God.
1700s. European scholars first encounter Zoroastrian texts through translations by Abraham Anquetil-Duperron. The West learns for the first time that a monotheistic religion older than Christianity exists. The debate begins: did Zoroastrianism influence the Bible? 1860s-1880s. German and British scholars — Spiegel, Kohut, Darmesteter, Haug — begin systematic comparison.
What this resource contributes
1700s. European scholars first encounter Zoroastrian texts through translations by Abraham Anquetil-Duperron. The West learns for the first time that a monotheistic religion older than Christianity exists. The debate begins: did Zoroastrianism influence the Bible? 1860s-1880s. German and British scholars — Spiegel, Kohut, Darmesteter, Haug — begin systematic comparison. Kohut publishes Ueber die Jüdische Angelologie und Dämonologie in Ihrer Abhängigkeit vom Parsismus (1866) — "On Jewish Angelology and Demonology in Its Dependence on Parsism." The title alone states the thesis. The debate intensifies. Some agree. Others push back. 1884. Martin Haug proposes his reinterpretation of Yasna 30.3. Parsis in Bombay adopt it to defend against Christian missionary attacks. The community begins defending itself — but in someone else's language, on someone else's terms. 1894.
Topics and source signals
Primary sources detected
Yasna · Avesta
Scholars detected
Mary Boyce · R.C. Zaehner · James Barr · James Darmesteter