4 - Iranian Views of the Afterlife and the Ascent into Heaven

In the First Temple period of Israel, religious beliefs were influenced by those of Mesopotamia, Egypt, and Canaan. In the Second Temple period (539 BCE-70 CE) more articulated Jewish conceptions of the afterlife were influenced by Persia and Greece. These conceptions were passed along to Christians and Muslims.. Captivity in Bbabylon (597-539 BCE) exposed many Hebrews to Babylonian religious beliefs. This Neo-Babylonian Empire was overthrown by Cyrus the Great in 539 BCE. Herodotus describes this event:

The Babylonians, encamped without their walls, awaited his coming. A battle was fought at a short distance from the city, in which the Babylonians were defeated by the Persian king, whereupon they withdrew within their defenses. Here they shut themselves up, and made light of his siege, having laid in a store of provisions for many years in preparation against this attack; for when they saw Cyrus conquering nation after nation, they were convinced that he would never stop, and that their turn would come at last.

Cyrus was now reduced to great perplexity, as time went on and he made no progress against the place. In this distress either someone made the suggestion to him, or he bethought himself of a plan, which he proceeded to put in execution. He placed a portion of his army at the point where the river enters the city, and another body at the back of the place where it issues forth, with orders to march into the town by the bed of the stream, as soon as the water became shallow enough: he then himself drew off with the unwarlike portion of his host, and made for the place where Nitocrisnote dug the basin for the river, where he did exactly what she had done formerly: he turned the Euphrates by a canal into the basin, which was then a marsh, on which the river sank to such an extent that the natural bed of the stream became fordable.

Hereupon the Persians who had been left for the purpose at Babylon by the riverside, entered the stream, which had now sunk so as to reach about midway up a man's thigh, and thus got into the town. Had the Babylonians been apprised of what Cyrus was about, or had they noticed their danger, they would never have allowed the Persians to enter the city, but would have destroyed  them utterly; for they would have made fast all the street gates which gave access to the river, and mounting upon the walls along both sides of the stream, would so have caught the enemy, as it were, in a trap. But, as it was, the Persians came upon them by surprise and so took the city. Owing to the vast size of the place, the inhabitants of the central parts (as the residents at Babylon declare) long after the outer portions of the town were taken, knew nothing of what had chanced, but as they were engaged in a festival, continued dancing and reveling until they learnt about the capture. Such, then, were the circumstances of the first taking of Babylon.

Subsequently, many Hebrews returned to Canaan, but were no longer completely in charge of their nation. No longer the independent Davidic Kingdom, Jews now constituted a small subgroup of the Persian Empire, the district of Yehud (Aramaic for Judah). Residents of Yehud were termed Yehudi, which eventually came to mean “Jew.” Initial attempts to revive the old order failed since the Persians preferred to rule their vassal states through priests, rather than kings. Part of this reconstruction effort was the assembly of the first five books of the Bible, the Pentateuch, by an aristocracy of priests.The compositors both accepted and rejected various Persian and Greek conceptions of the afterlife including bodily resurrection (a Persian idea) and the immortality of the soul (a Greek idea). 

Much debate exists concerning the influence (or lack thereof) of Zoroastrian beliefs on Judaism. The Persians ruled Israel for two centuries and persisted as a Middle Eastern power for five centuries afterward. Iranian Zoroastrian texts are difficult to date, and their impact on Jewish thought is only important in the context of Judaism. Whereas Jews (14 million adherents) and Christians (1.4 billion adherents) have proliferated at present, the policy that Zoroastrians only marry other Zoroastrians has whittled the population of contemporary practitioners down to about 140,000.

Zarathustra was a reformer of the existing Mazdian religion (named for the wise supreme god Ahura Mazda), rather than the founder of a new religion. In the first Persian Empire Zoroastrianism became modified, diminishing Zoroaster’s influence. British scholar Robert Charles Zaehner established Zoroastrian chronology in his book, “The Dawn and Twilight of Zoroastrianism.” Its dawn, or rise, occurred under the Achaemenids, whose intended invasions of Greece were ultimately thwarted by Alexander the Great. The “twilight” fell in the Sassanian period which began around 250 BCE and ended with the 7th century Arab conquests. The author regards the “high noon” of Zoroastrianism as occurring when the Parthian Empire freed Persia from rule by the successors of Alexander around 250 BCE. There was a resurgence of Zoroastrianism in lands controlled by these adversaries of Imperial Rome. It also sheltered numerous Jews escaping persecution by a Christianized Roman Empire. The Babylonian Talmud was composed in this region in the 3rd through 7th centuries CE.

In addition to Jews and Christians, the Muslim conquerors of Persia regarded Zoroastrians as being “people of the Book.” They were subject to restrictions and penalties but were not compelled to convert to Islam. Zoroastrian writings are imperfectly preserved by small, impoverished Iranian groups of practitioners. Providentially, Zoroastrians who emigrated to India (known as Parsi) have reestablished their connection to their benighted Middle Eastern brethren. Their community in India, and offshoots of it located in many Western nations, is also small but far from being impoverished 

The salient feature of Zoroastrianism is its dualistic belief system. High god Ahura Mazda, with his army of good ashovans, is opposed by evil Angra Mainyu and his evil army of Dregvans. Zoroastrian priests venerate fire as representative of the sanctity and purity of Ahura Mazda, god of light. Herodotus writes that sanctuaries dedicated to Ahura Mazda were originally located outdoors, but during the reign of Artaxerxes II Zoroastrians began to pray in fire temples, or ateshgah. The author believes that the fundamentally monotheistic nature of Zoroastrianism (and every other monotheistic religion) must be qualified by dualistic tendencies in order to explain the existence of evil. Relegating evil to a distinct, lesser deity absolves a supreme god of responsibility for its existence, Ultimately, it is promised that good will triumph over evil.

The Greeks, especially Plato, resolved this conundrum by proposing a split between body and soul. The high god, the Good, cannot abide in a corrupted, material world. Matter deteriorates, but spirit is incorruptible.

Jewish apocalyptic literature, including that of the Qumran community, is similar to the epic, cosmic battles between good and evil of Zoroastrianism influenced the subsequent development of Christianity and Islam. Platonic conceptions of evil matter verses pure spirit are less directly confrontational. Both Persian and Greek conceptions have been influential, particularly in Gnosticism. Gnostics believe that the revelation of secret knowledge can lead to salvation from an imperfect world by personal transformation. Numerous heresies developed because Gnostics exempted the soul from responsibility for atrocities performed by the flesh.

Dualism permeates Zoroastrianism at every level, presenting opposing choices for both gods and mortals. Ahura Mazda and his good son Spenta Mainyu (the good spirit) possess good natures, so they are inclined to make good choices. Ahura Mazda’s evil son Angra Manyu makes choices based on his proclivity for evil. Human nature encompasses both good and evil, light and dark, daytime and nighttime components. Human beings must choose each day whether they will abide in truth or deceitfulness. Deity and humanity interact through sacrifices, both good and bad. Late Zoroastrian writings prophesy an end time savior (saoshyant) but this superior entity is likely not the model for the Jewish Messiah. In the First Temple period, “Messiah” referred to present, rather than future kings. A future king was designated “scion” or “branch of David.” Imagery associated with the reign of the Jewish Messiah during the Greco-Roman period may be indebted to Persian descriptions of Zoroastrian messiah/savior saoshyant

Preexisting ideas about the “day of the LORD” under Persian influences flowered into an abundance of apocalyptic literature during the Second Temple period, and this genre simultaneously flourished in Peria itself. Yasna 44:15-16 of the Ushtavad Gatha (one of seventeen Avestan hymns traditionally believed to have been composed by the prophet Zarathushtra and central to Zoroastrian liturgy) describes an ultimate confrontation between the forces of good and evil:

This do I ask Thee, O Ahura and wish you to tell me truly. Since Thou art able through Asha toward me off from the harms of deceivers and hate of liars, when both hosts stand opposite each other and invoke Thy help. Then O Mazda, to which side shall Thou grant the crown of victory and where, according to Thine own laws, to the worshippers of Mazda, or to the followers of untruth. This do I ask Thee, O Ahura and wish you to tell me truly. Who is that brave and victorious person who would give us the necessary protection through the Lord’s teachings? Show me the wise and the soul-healing leader through inspirations and grant him clear insight and full obedience of Thy laws through Sraosha. Do grant, my Lord, the said two gifts to any one whom you love.

Yasna 51:2 refers to salvation:

First of all, O Mazda Ahura, to Thee and Asha, symbols of truth and purity, I dedicate my good deeds and then to Thee, O Armaiti, the symbol of faith and pure love. Teach me the strength of Thy will, O my Lord, and grant salvation which Vohuman brings to Thy faithful worshipper.

Yasna 51:6 describes the resurrection of the just and punishment of the unjust:

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.

Zoroastrians believed that only the ethically correct portions of selfhood persist into the afterlife. Eternal life is a reward for moral behavior. Greek dualism ideally frees the soul from the sexual urges of the flesh. Zoroastrianism is not quite so ascetic but does state that newly created humans will be freed from the need to eat, digest, and excrete. Greek thought championed the intellect at the expense of eliminating bodily lusts. Resurrection, in Zoroastrian and Hebrew though, preserved the body to extend the possibility of sex to the afterlife. The puritanical Greeks were scandalized by this possibility.

To make their journey to paradise, “truthful” Zoroastrians were compelled to cross the Chinvat Bridge (“Bridge of the Judge”). a crossing which weeded out untruthful sojourners. An ordeal which would further prove the mettle of the righteous is hinted at in Yasni 51:9:

Both parties, O Mazda, i.e. the followers of Truth and false shall be put to test by Thy Blazing Divine Fire and this fiery test shall lay bare the fate of each group, indicating Thy Award. Completes frustration shall be the share of the false ones, but the followers of truth shall reap Thy blessings.

In addition to the Yasnis, Zoroastrian literature features the Yashts, traditionally believed to be have been composed after the Yasnis. As noted, however, the chronological order of these writings is difficult to determine. The Yashts closely resemble the Rabbinic literature of the Midrash, some of which was developed in a Persian setting. Yasht 19:15:88-89 provides a description of the resurrection:

We sacrifice unto the awful kingly Glory, made by Mazda… that will cleave unto the victorious Saoshyant and his helpers, when he shall restore the world, which will (thenceforth) never grow old and never die, never decaying and never rotting, ever living and ever increasing, and master of its wish, when the dead will rise, when life and immortality will come, and the world will be restored at its wish.

The soul of the departed was believed to linger near its corpse for three days. Upon beginning its journey to heaven, it encountered its daena who appears as a beautiful maiden to the righteous dead to lead the soul over the Chinvat Bridge. Sinners are steered elsewhere by the Demon Vizaresha. Later traditions describe judgement by a tribunal composed of Ahura Mazda and the gods Sraosha and Rashnu. Pre-Zoroastrian divinities incorporated into the Persian pantheon. Audiences with various other gods seated on their thrones is a motif that reoccurs in Jewish apocalyptic literature. Persian and Jewish myths are substantially similar, differing only in their details.

The status of a departed soul hinged on proper funeral rites. Whereas Persian tribes (like Hindus) originally practiced cremation, the Zoroastrian reverence for fire inaugurated the practice of exposing a corpse to the elements to be devoured by birds of prey. After a period, the larger bones were gathered into ossuaries called dakhma, preferably located in the mountains. Persian texts indicate that after a year of violent destruction by fowls and biological decomposition, the body was resurrected. The Islamic conquest required that bodies formerly exposed on stony outcroppings be shielded from view in walled “towers of silence,” or Dakhmas. Ancient burial practices reflected the cosmology of a culture. Egyptians were mummified, but their pyramids pointed skyward. Mesopotamians, Canaanites, and Israelites interred the dead underground, indicative of the underworld destination of deceased people. Practitioners of cremation expect souls to ascend, like smoke, upward to the sky. Exposure to the elements as practiced by Zoroastrians and Tibetans can be regarded as a smokeless form of cremation. Zoroastrians believed that underground burials were an abomination, and that neighboring cultures who buried their dead were handing their forebears over to demons.

Zoroastrian apocalyptic visions were fully developed in the Bundahishn, one of the most important later examples of Zoroastrian literature written in the Middle Persian language. The end of the world is described as a “rehabilitation,” rather than a complete demolition and reconstruction. Earth continues “non-aging, immortal, non-fading, forever living, forever prosperous.”  Tradition states that as humanity evolves, it loses interest in food and other earthly pleasures. As food is forsaken, so is digestion and corruption. This deprives Az (goddess of greed, lust, avarice, avidity, and concupiscence) of nourishment.

As is the case with Jews and Christians of the Hellenistic era who buried their dead, Zoroastrian corpses awaiting resurrection are, prior to this event, reduced to bones. The Persian great day of resurrection is called Pahlavi (“raising of the dead”). Persian beliefs that God can more easily resurrect the dead than create the world from scratch are also evident in Jewish literature. 

The Zoroastrian and Muslim resurrections are bodily, so sex remains a component of the afterlife. Christian heaven is nonsexual, despite Renaissance attempts to modify this. Jewish attitudes about this matter are equivocal. Zoroastrians believe that ultimately every sinner will be saved, privileged to gain eternal life because they have been sufficiently punished for their sins beforehand. In contrast to good people who enter eternity painlessly, the Bundahishn reveals that sinners must experience excruciating compensatory pain prior to their entry. 

Around 224 CE,, Ardashir I (monarch from. 224–241 CE), a descendant of Sasan who gave his name to the new Sasanian dynasty, defeated the Parthians. The Sasanians saw themselves as the successors of the Achaemenid Persians. One of the most energetic and able Sasanian rulers was Shapur I (ruler from 241–272 CE). During his reign, the central government was strengthened, the coinage was reformed, and Zoroastrianism was made the state religion. During the preceding 450 years of Parthian dominance many local cults and more mainstream religions (Judaism, Christianity, and Manichaeism) coexisted with Zoroastrianism. Cosmopolitanism was nurtured in the wake of the conquests of Alexander the Great, and Greek became the common language of Southern Europe, North Africa, and the ancient Near East. In both the Roman and Persian empires most people were free to choose their religion, so exportable versions of the major religions were developed and promulgated. Cosmopolitanism was nurtured in the wake of the conquests of Alexander the Great, and Greek became the common language of Southern Europe, North Africa, and the ancient Near East. Proponents of Christianity and Manicheism were especially successful.

The Sasanians were committed Zoroastrians, developed a Zoroastrian orthodoxy, and strived to counter the prevailing spirit of multiculturalism. Judaism was opposed and imperfectly suppressed, mainly because of the small quantity of Jews in Persia and their lack of missionary zeal. History records that Christians and Manicheans were more strenuously persecuted. A two-pronged assault against Manicheism (Augustine, a reformed Manichean, being the second prong) led to the eventual extinction of this religion.

A 3rd century Zoroastrian priest, Kartir, left an incomplete inscription of an envisioned journey the throne of judgement. Kartir invoked humata, hukhta, and hvarshta to ward off the dangers of his journey, a triad of demigods praised as possessing the power of salvation. Similarly the Arda Viraj Nama, a 9th century Zoroastrian text written after the Muslim conquest, describes the cataclysmic arrival of Alexander the Great in Persia. Divination selected Arda (“Truth”) Viraj as delegate to heaven to discover how to deal with this crisis. The account of his journey to the heavens and hells of Ahura Mazda is the first writing that distinguishes between these two potential destinations. Heaven for the righteous and hell for the sinner. The author cites this work as a possible inspiration for Dante’s trilogy describing a similar journey. Arda Virag describes a class of people who are neither good nor bad. These are consigned to a limbo known as Hammistagan (“place of the motionless ones”) until the moment that they receive their future bodies.

The complete story of the soul’s journey from death to the afterlife only emerged in the Middle Persian, or Pahlavi texts. Much of this material existed long beforehand, however, long enough to have influenced 2nd century BCE Hebrew captives of Medo-Persia about to be repatriated to their promised land. Parallels between Zoroastrian eschatology and Christian and Jewish conception of the end of time suggest that Zoroastrianism may have been the source for these beliefs. As stated, however, the difficulty of precisely dating Zoroastrian writings makes it possible that Jews and Christians influenced Zoroastrianism, rather than vice versa. Zoroastrianism can claim precedence for the idea of resurrection, since it was evident in its earliest writings. The concept that the world is a battleground between the forces of good and evil, and that good will triumph in the end, is shared by Zoroastrians, Jews, and Christians. Much cross pollination doubtless occurred between these belief systems, even though the timeline of this mutual feedback loop is impossible to reconstruct.

Despite many parallels, important differences exist between Zoroastrian, Jewish, and Christian conceptions of the hereafter. In earlier Jewish sectarian literature and Christianity, the world ends with the utter destruction of evil people. Zoroastrianism, and Rabbinic Judaism, considers such an outcome as being impossible for a merciful God. Zoroastrian hell is merely a purgatory. Demons possess hell, and own real estate there. Deceased souls are only passing through. The author links this Zoroastrian belief with those of Rabbinic Judaism by foreshadowing the disenfranchised status of Medieval era Jews struggling to survive in the context of hostile Christian and Islamic environments. Christian and Muslims reserve the afterlife exclusively for believers. The marginalized anticipate that God will be more tolerant than the rulers of nations that reluctantly accommodated their diaspora.

The Book of Isaiah condemns Zoroastrian King Cyrus, but also praises him as savior of Israel. Isaiah 44:28 offers praise:

That saith of Cyrus, He is my shepherd, and shall perform all my pleasure: even saying to Jerusalem, Thou shalt be built; and to the temple, Thy foundation shall be laid.

Isaiah 45:1 is similar:

Thus saith the Lord to his anointed, to Cyrus, whose right hand I have holden, to subdue nations before him; and I will loose the loins of kings, to open before him the two leaved gates; and the gates shall not be shut.

Ezra 1:1-4 states:

Now in the first year of Cyrus king of Persia, that the word of the Lord by the mouth of Jeremiah might be fulfilled, the Lord stirred up the spirit of Cyrus king of Persia, that he made a proclamation throughout all his kingdom, and put it also in writing, saying, Thus saith Cyrus king of Persia, The Lord God of heaven hath given me all the kingdoms of the earth; and he hath charged me to build him an house at Jerusalem, which is in Judah. Who is there among you of all his people? his God be with him, and let him go up to Jerusalem, which is in Judah, and build the house of the Lord God of Israel, (he is the God,) which is in Jerusalem. And whosoever remaineth in any place where he sojourneth, let the men of his place help him with silver, and with gold, and with goods, and with beasts, beside the freewill offering for the house of God that is in Jerusalem.

Post exilic Hebrews proceeded to rebuild the walls of Jerusalem and the temple protected by these walls. Isaiah 66:1 records God’s statement that a temple was not required:

Thus saith the Lord, The heaven is my throne, and the earth is my footstool: where is the house that ye build unto me? and where is the place of my rest?

Isaiah 66:15-17 describes divine retribution against the ungodly:

For, behold, the Lord will come with fire, and with his chariots like a whirlwind, to render his anger with fury, and his rebuke with flames of fire. For by fire and by his sword will the Lord plead with all flesh: and the slain of the Lord shall be many. They that sanctify themselves, and purify themselves in the gardens behind one tree in the midst, eating swine's flesh, and the abomination, and the mouse, shall be consumed together, saith the Lord.

Isaiah 66:2-23 describes the resurrection of the just:

For as the new heavens and the new earth, which I will make, shall remain before me, saith the Lord, so shall your seed and your name remain. And it shall come to pass, that from one new moon to another, and from one sabbath to another, shall all flesh come to worship before me, saith the Lord.

The author writes that these verses are the scriptural origin of Jewish beliefs concerning the resurrection of the dead. Composed in the context of the Persian Empire, beliefs about the afterlife would later be definitively stated in the Book of Daniel. Daniel 12:1-3 reads as follows:

And at that time shall Michael stand up, the great prince which standeth for the children of thy people: and there shall be a time of trouble, such as never was since there was a nation even to that same time: and at that time thy people shall be delivered, every one that shall be found written in the book. And many of them that sleep in the dust of the earth shall awake, some to everlasting life, and some to shame and everlasting contempt. And they that be wise shall shine as the brightness of the firmament; and they that turn many to righteousness as the stars for ever and ever.

Babylonian, Canaanite, and Persian elements are incorporated into this vision of the apocalyptic end of time and the bodily resurrection of the just but are accessory to the overarching tale of the trials of the Hebrews as a nation and the deliverance and return of a remnant back to the promised land. This motif recurs in Genesis, Exodus, Ezra and Nehemiah, the Balfour Declaration, and will again take place when those who honor their covenant with YHWH gain eternal life.