Possible strands of influence and confluence of thought in the Hellenistic Period
Verses From the Gathas (Writings of Zarathustra – Persian Prophet
Yasna 44. 3 – 5
Compare Isaiah 40.12 - 26
This do I ask Thee, O Ahura and wish you to tell me truly. Who has been the Creator and First Father of
the Truth? Who laid down the path of sun and stars? Who made the moon to wax and wane betimes. All
these and many other things besides I wish to know O, Mazda.
This do I ask Thee, O Ahura and wish you to tell me truly. What power doth hold the earth and the
heavens apart and prevents the later from falling down? Who is the creator of water and plants? Who
imparts swiftness to the wind and wafts from far the dark clouds charged with rain? Who is the Creator
inspiring Vohuman, O Mazda?
This do I ask Thee, O Ahura and wish you to tell me truly. Who is the Creator of light and darkness?
What architect has fashioned sleep and awakening, rest and activity? Who has created the dawn, the
day and the night, teaching the wise man to fulfill his daily duties properly.
Yasna 30
3–4
The two Spirits Compare Qumran Text The Community Rule III (4Q255)
The twain spirits which appeared in the world of thought in the beginning were good and evil in
thoughts, words and deeds. The wise will choose rightly (of the said two thoughts), but the unwise shall
not do so and shall go astray.
When these two spirits reached together life and not life (2) were created. The followers of untruth and
wicked persons shall face the worst mental situation but the followers of truth and righteous persons
shall enjoy the best mental state or mental comfort. This situation shall continue for eternity.
Community Rule (Qumran)
…He has created man to govern the world and has appointed for him two spirits in which to walk until
the time of the visitation: the spirits of truth and injustice. Those born of truth spring from a fountain of
light, but those born of injustice spring from a source of darkness…
Yasna 50. 6
(Resurrection)
The Lord of Life and Wisdom shall grant a reward, which would be far better than good, to a person who
fulfills His wishes and helps the creation on its upward march. However, the person who does not fulfill
His Wishes and does not strive for Mother Earth's progress, shall meet his retribution at the end, on the
Day of Resurrection.
[NB it is not clear in these early texts what ‘resurrection’ exactly consists in. The Zoroastrians clearly
believe in resurrection of the body in texts which date from the 4th Century CE onward, but this of
course post dates Jewish and Christian theology of the resurrection]
For a Greek narrative of Judgment and Reward, see Plato Republic X 614b ff: The near- death
experience of Er the Armenian (great name, eh?) – note little red demons. (4th Century). Note also
Plato’s belief in the transmigration of Souls.
For a Latin Version (very influential on the Christian narrative of the four last things), see Vergil, Aeneid
VI, vv.268 ff.
For the Stoic belief in a renewed world in which the numerical identity of individuals is preserved:
They like to say that after the conflagration everything comes into being again in the order of the
universe and is numerically identical. So an individual with a particular quality both is and comes into
existence again identical to the previous individual in the other world, as Chrysippus says in ‘Concerning
the Universe’. .. And they say that for these later individuals with their particular characteristics, there
can only be variations with respect to the earlier individuals which affect inessential properties – the
sort of variations which can supervene on Dion while he continues in this life without changing him. For
he does not become someone else if at one point he has a mole on his face and another point he
doesn’t: these sorts of variation they say can happen between the individuals of particular character in
each world.
Essenes on the Soul (Josephus, BJ 2, 11)
For it is a fixed belief of theirs that the body is corruptible and its constituent matter impermanent, but
that the soul is immortal and imperishable. Emanating from the finest ether, these souls become
entangled as it were in the prison house of the body, to which they are dragged down by a sort of
natural spell; but when once they are released from the bonds of the flesh, then, as though liberated
from a long servitude, they rejoice and are borne aloft. Sharing the belief of the sons of Greece, they
maintain that for virtuous souls there is reserved an abode beyond the ocean, a place which is not
oppressed by rain or snow or heat, but is refreshed by the ever gentle breath of the west wind coming in
from the ocean.
Pharisees (Josephus, BJ 2, 14)
The Pharisees, who are considered the most accurate interpreters of the laws, and hold the position of
the leading sect, attribute everything to fate and to God; they hold that to act rightly or otherwise rests,
indeed, for the most part with men, but that in each action, Fate co-operates. Every soul, they
maintain, is imperishable, but the soul of the good alone passes into another body, while the souls of
the wicked suffer eternal punishment.
Sadducees (Josephus, BJ 2, 14)
The Sadducees do away with fate altogether and remove God beyond not merely the commission, but
the very sight of evil. They maintain that man has the free choice of good or evil, and that it rests with
each man’s will whether he follows the one or the other. As for the persistence of the soul after death,
penalties in the underworld and rewards, they will have none of them.