A Question Put to God
One of the oldest hymns of ancient Iran asks a question a child could ask: “This I ask thee, tell me truly, Ahura. Who upheld the earth beneath and the firmament from falling?” (Yasna 44.4, Moulton). It is the right question.
The singer was Zarathustra, whom the Greeks called Zoroaster. His faith was once the religion of great Persian empires. Today surveys count only about 100,000 to 200,000 Zoroastrians, most of them Parsis in India or believers in Iran. Your friend may be a Parsi coworker from Mumbai or an Iranian neighbor who keeps the old faith. This study sets out what they believe from their own scriptures, answers the claim that the Bible borrowed from them, and helps you share the Gospel.
The old hymn asks who holds the world up. Scripture answers with a name.
“And he is before all things, and by him all things consist.”
“Who being the brightness of his glory, and the express image of his person, and upholding all things by the word of his power, when he had by himself purged our sins, sat down on the right hand of the Majesty on high;”
Zoroastrians do not all agree, and many in North America prefer the name Zarathushti. These are broad lines. Ask your friend what he believes.
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For Deeper Study
- Neighboring Faiths: A Christian Introduction to World ReligionsAmazon Winfried CorduanFair, careful descriptions of the world's religions with a Christian assessment. The second edition has a chapter on Zoroastrianism.
- Persia and the BibleAmazon Edwin M. YamauchiAn evangelical historian's full study of Persia and Scripture, including the question of Zoroastrian influence. More demanding.
- Zoroastrians: Their Religious Beliefs and PracticesAmazon Mary BoyceThe standard history by the leading modern scholar, not written from a Christian point of view. She argues for the wide influence this study answers.
- Early ZoroastrianismAmazon James Hope MoultonThe primary source for the Gathas as quoted in this study (1913). Moulton, a Methodist New Testament scholar, was warmer toward the faith than we are; in a later book he wrote that Christ had nothing in it to destroy. We differ.
- From Zoroaster to ChristDhanjibhai NaurojiThe autobiography of a Parsi baptized in Bombay in 1839 (1909). Hard to find, but it shows what following Christ cost him.
- Foxe's Book of MartyrsAmazon John FoxeThe classic Protestant record of those who died for the faith, from the early church to the English Reformation.
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Engaging Other Religions
Sincerity is not the same as truth: every religion makes exclusive claims, and Jesus Christ is the only way to the Father.
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