Zoroastrianism is essentially the missing link between polytheism and monotheism. It has two main gods, but one is the primary god and the other isn't

What's weird about the names? It's a Persian religion in the Persian language.

Zoroaster believed there was a universe of darkness and a universe of good. There was a self destructive spirit and there was a virtuous one, opposed to one another in eternity. However, evil is still subordinate to the good.

>>349093
There's one God, Ahura Mazda. He begets seven emanations that are hyposthases of basic values like kingship, motherhood, good health, etc. Those are the Amesha Spenta. Then there are angels, the yazata.
In the beginning, the Amesha Spentas were meant to be mostly metaphorical. The Yazatas were basically guardian angels who stood over certain rituals. So you had Haoma, the personification of the holy plant haoma used in liturgy, Sraosha who led souls into afterlife.
But then the religion re-absorbed elements of pre-zoroastrian cults, which Zarathustra sought to destroy and eliminate, so the Amesha Spentas started being worshipped like gods, and a lot of banned deities regained canon status and became yazatas, like Anahita, or even, as some claim, Mithra.

So basically, it's meant to be a philosophical, semi-monotheistic religion that later through folk tradition and cultural inertia, retained a lot of polytheistic elements.

>>349093
>but just with a bunch of weird names


Keep in mind Christianity is full or weird greek/semetic names they've just been Europeanised.

>a bunch of weird names for shit?
Names isn't the weird thing though, them considering incest to be holy and exposing dead bodies to be eaten by birds and dogs is.

>>349267
>which Zarathustra sought to destroy and eliminate
why so little tolerance ?

Ahura Mazda and Angra Mainyu are Enlil and Enki.

They are descendants of Assur.

Also called Anshar, Asher or Ashur.

You guys know its all about the Bloodline Kingship.

>>349267

Did Zoroastrianism have any influence on Judaism ? Especially its eschatology ?

>>349342
its influence can be felt more by the time christianity comes around when people have a concept of satan, something notably lacking in judaism.

>>349342

Judaism is Directly Derived from the worship of the Anunna Gods of Mesopotamia.

This is the same with Zoroastrianism. Its based off the old gods of the old world.

The old world was Mesopotamia as the First Region.

The Hebrew Bible is based off all the storied that come from there and that are written on the sumerian tablets.

This is called Panbabylonism.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Panbabylonism


Basically the Elohim are the Anunnaki.

>>349365
> This is the same with Zoroastrianism. Its based off the old gods of the old world.
This is bullshit, Zoroastrian Avesta is Iranian text composed independently in the Central Asia, there is no way some Akkad-Babilonian texts influenced it. Avesta is full text composed by pastoral nomads in steppe, not some city dwellers.

The Cannanite Deity El of the Elohim is Anu of the Anunnaki.

El is Personified as Saturn, or the Greeks would call him Cronus.

His sons are Enlil and Enki but they would be Jupiter and Neptune to the Romans and to the Greeks they would be Zeus and Poseidon.

It helps to look at this from a viewpoint of Comparative Mythology.

Because after the Tower of Babel our language was confounded and the gods were given new names in the new cultures.

>>349388
> Because after the Tower of Babel our language was confounded and the gods were given new names in the new cultures.
Oh, that explains everything.

>>349342
After Cyrus returned Israel to the Jews after Babylon rekt them the Jews went from Henotheistic (many gods, but we only care about X) worship of Yahweh to Monotheistic (no gods but X) worship of Yahweh in imitation of Zoroastrianisms theological system.

Zoroastrianism would also (indirectly) affect Christianity through it's influence on Gnostic and Eastern cults.

>>349388
Fuck off /x/

>>349342
Yeah. The Jews were freed from the Babylonian captivity by the Persians, and had a lot of cultural exchange with them. Cyrus the Great is the only non-Jew being called a messiah in the Bible.
As to religion, there were some thoughts imported from Zoroastrianism, but they mainly came to light with Christianity, as >>349357 said. Although it's possible that the idea of messiah in Judaism is Zoroastrian-influenced* and came into being during captivity, I'm well-versed enough in history of Judaism to tell if this is the case.

*https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Saoshyant
original messiah do not steal.

>>349378
This guy is pasting his ancient aliens/Annunaki/reptilian pasta in many threads, just disregard him.

>>349365
The most fundamental prayer of Judaism - the Shema:
>"Hear O Israel, YHWH is Elohim, YHWH is One. May His Holy name be blessed forever"
Was utilized by Islam in their similar Shahada:
>"There is no god but Allah. Muhammad is the messenger of Allah"

Elohim is technically plural (-im is the semitic equivalent to -s), but curiously Judaism always holds that the plurality is a singularity. Theoretically, this may refer to the earlier Mesopotamian pantheon from which various attributes of YHWH are derived. In Judaism, El/Elah/Elohim are all generic forms of God or Gods, while YHWH is the name of the specific Canaanite deity Jews worship exclusively.


Both faiths worship El - a Mesopotamian deity - but only Islam continues to reference El as a specific diety - Allah. This is confusing linguistically, as the Arabic form for generic god's like in Judaism is also a form of El, but Allah is directly derived from El. So they are one and the same, as the prayer implies.

The Hebrew bible, especially the pre-exodus canon, was likely ghost written by multiple authors and possibly by separate monotheistic Semitic groups that later merged as a unified Hebrew people. Abraham and Noah highlight this feature, having massive temporal and literary gaps in the canon between these stories as well as the murky heritage of Moses after so carefully detailing how the tribes separated. The 12 Tribes canon is probably the best evidence for the divided into one theory, as Islam and possibly Zoroastrianism make alleged reference to certain individuals from a tribe. Early Monotheistic Semitic anthropology is fascinating as fuck.

As far as studying religions for personal growth, it's one of the better choices. Zarathustra is a pretty big guy.

>>349322
To unite the Persian people under one faith.