Greek religion probably copied that from the Jews, for example here:
When men began to multiply on the surface of the ground, and daughters were born to them, God’s sons saw that men’s daughters were beautiful, and they took any that they wanted for themselves as wives.
Gen. 6:1-2
Greek Hellenism is a very specific type of religion. Besides dying/rising savior deities that provide personal salvation, the concept of a soul that goes directly to it's real home in heaven, Hellenistic baptism, eucharist, Logos, the 4 trends associated with all mystery religions:
- Syncretism: combining a foreign cult deity with Hellenistic elements. Christianity is a Jewish mystery religion.
- Henotheism: transforming / reinterpreting polytheism into monotheism. Judaism introduced monolatric concepts.
- Individualism: agricultural salvation cults retooled as personal salvation cults. Salvation of community changed into personal individual salvation in afterlife. All original agricultural salvation cults were retooled by the time Christianity arose.
- Cosmopolitianism: all races, cultures, classes admitted as equals, with fictive kinship (members are all brothers) you now “join” a religion rather than being born into it
recognized by Petra Pakken in his work, Christianity is known to have borrowed all of these concepts.
Why do you believe Mary Boyce?
She was a top scholar dedicated to understanding the Persian beliefs:
Nora Elisabeth Mary Boyce (2 August 1920 – 4 April 2006) was a British scholar of
Iranian languages, and an authority on
Zoroastrianism. She was Professor of
Iranian Studies at the
School of Oriental and African Studies (SOAS) of the University of London.
[1] The
Royal Asiatic Society's annual Boyce Prize for outstanding contributions to the study of religion is named after her.
and many other scholars have since backed up her findings. She studied in Iran to find the truth about the religion and has over a dozen peer-reviewed works on the topic.
Dr John Collins also teaches some courses in the Yale Divinity Lectures, free on youtube about the Persian influence in the OT.
It seems to me that Zoroastrianism was probably caused by God, because it is said:
Now in the first year of Cyrus king of Persia, that the word of Yahweh by the mouth of Jeremiah might be accomplished, Yahweh stirred up the spirit of Cyrus king of Persia, so that he made a proclamation throughout all his kingdom, and [put it] also in writing, saying, Thus says Cyrus king of Persia, All the kingdoms of the earth has Yahweh, the God of heaven, given me; and he has charged me to build him a house in Jerusalem, which is in Judah. Whoever there is among you of all his people, Yahweh his God be with him, and let him go up.
2 Chr. 36:22-23
Yes because Cyrus was well liked, he allowed the Israelite Kings to return from exile and allowed them to form their own religion. After several centuries we see Persian ideas (dating back to the 1700 BCE) entering into Jewish thought.
"It seems to you"??? So you could care less about what is actually true. Just what you want to be true.
This is standard in historical scholarship:
Doctrines taken from Persia into Judiasm.
fundamental doctrines became disseminated throughout the region, from Egypt to the Black Sea: namely that there is a supreme God who is the Creator; that an evil power exists which is opposed to him, and not under his control; that he has emanated many lesser divinities to help combat this power; that he has created this world for a purpose, and that in its present state it will have an end; that this end will be heralded by the coming of a cosmic Saviour, who will help to bring it about; that meantime heaven and hell exist, with an individual judgment to decide the fate of each soul at death; that at the end of time there will be a resurrection of the dead and a Last Judgment, with annihilation of the wicked; and that thereafter the kingdom of God will come upon earth, and the righteous will enter into it as into a garden (a Persian word for which is 'paradise'), and be happy there in the presence of God for ever, immortal themselves in body as well as soul. These doctrines all came to be adopted by various Jewish schools in the post-Exilic period, for the Jews were one of the peoples, it seems, most open to Zoroastrian influences - a tiny minority, holding staunchly to their own beliefs, but evidently admiring their Persian benefactors, and finding congenial elements in their faith. Worship of the one supreme God, and belief in the coming of a Messiah or Saviour, together with adherence to a way of life which combined moral and spiritual aspirations with a strict code of behaviour (including purity laws) were all matters in which Judaism and Zoroastrianism were in harmony; and it was this harmony, it seems, reinforced by the respect of a subject people for a great protective power, which allowed Zoroastrian doctrines to exert their influence. The extent of this influence is best attested, however, by Jewish writings of the Parthian period, when Christianity and the Gnostic faiths, as well as northern Buddhism, all likewise bore witness to the profound effect: which Zoroaster's teachings had had throughout the lands of the Achaernenian empire.
If the same God had influence to both nations, that would easily explain the similarities. And it could be that neither of them copied anything from each other.
That is a ridiculous apologetic. You have no evidence of any gods here, just people writing stories.
But your suggestion is that Yahweh also spoke to the Persians. But they got all the names wrong. The stories were the same but very different details. The Persians FIRST had the myth of a coming messiah, God vs the devil, a final battle where all followers would have a bodily resurrection, free-will to choose to be good, linear time and much more the Jewish people NEVER HEARD OF??? Yahweh tells the Persians first but then tells the Hebrew with the proper names?
OR, the Israelites were occupied by the Persians for many centuries and their myths rubbed off and slowly became Hebrew myths. Which is exactly how religion has always worked.
And besides that, there is NO evidence any of those deities are real beyond stories. So again, it's pretty obvious what is happening here. The evidence is clear.
end times messianic myths are borrowed from the Persians, they already had a basic version of Revelation.
Revelations
but Zoroaster taught that the blessed must wait for this culmination till Frashegird and the 'future body' (Pahlavi 'tan i pasen'), when the earth will give up the bones of the dead (Y 30.7). This general resurrection will be followed by the Last Judgment, which will divide all the righteous from the wicked, both those who have lived until that time and those who have been judged already. Then Airyaman, Yazata of friendship and healing, together with Atar, Fire, will melt all the metal in the mountains, and this will flow in a glowing river over the earth. All mankind must pass through this river, and, as it is said in a Pahlavi text, 'for him who is righteous it will seem like warm milk, and for him who is wicked, it will seem as if he is walking in the • flesh through molten metal' (GBd XXXIV. r 8-r 9). In this great apocalyptic vision Zoroaster perhaps fused, unconsciously, tales of volcanic eruptions and streams of burning lava with his own experience of Iranian ordeals by molten metal; and according to his stern original teaching, strict justice will prevail then, as at each individual j udgment on earth by a fiery ordeal. So at this last ordeal of all the wicked will suffer a second death, and will perish off the face of the earth. The Daevas and legions of darkness will already have been annihilated in a last great battle with the Yazatas; and the river of metal will flow down into hell, slaying Angra Mainyu and burning up the last vestige of wickedness in the universe.
Ahura Mazda and the six Amesha Spentas will then solemnize a lt, spiritual yasna, offering up the last sacrifice (after which death wW be no more), and making a preparation of the mystical 'white haoma', which will confer immortality on the resurrected bodies of all the blessed, who will partake of it. Thereafter men will beome like the Immortals themselves, of one thought, word and deed, unaging, free from sickness, without corruption, forever joyful in the kingdom of God upon earth. For it is in this familiar and beloved world, restored to its original perfection, that, according to Zoroaster, eternity will be passed in bliss, and not in a remote insubstantial Paradise. So the time of Separation is a renewal of the time of Creation, except that no return is prophesied to the original uniqueness of living things. Mountain and valley will give place once more to level plain; but whereas in the beginning there was one plant, one animal, one man, the rich variety and number that have since issued from these will remain forever. Similarly the many divinities who were brought into being by Ahura Mazda will continue to have their separate existences. There is no prophecy of their re-absorption into the Godhead. As a Pahlavi text puts it, after Frashegird 'Ohrmaid and the Amahraspands and all Yazads and men will be together. .. ; every place will resemble a garden in spring, in which
there are all kinds of trees and flowers ... and it will be entirely the creation of Ohrrnazd' (Pahl.Riv.Dd. XLVIII, 99, lOO, l07).
But there are many things in the Persian religion that are very different. So Yahweh told them imperfect stories and completely wrong stories, forgot to say his actual name? And Yahweh started out as using Mesopotamian stories and acted as a typical Near Eastern deity.
So it's clearly syncretism here, as in the other 10,000 religions.
Israel adopted myths from the 2 nations that occupied them, Persian and Greek religion. And the place the Kings were exiled to.
