196 



MRS. WALTER MACXDEE, ON ASTRONOMICAL 



Zoroastrians and Zoroastrians becoming Jews. The Greek and 

 Zoroastrian religions were very different, but the Zoroastrian 

 was the higher in ethics and in spiritual ideals. Was there 

 anything common to the Zoroastrian and the Jewish faiths to 

 lead the former to look for the fulfilment of its hopes in the 

 latter ? 



In the XXXth chapter of the Bundahis, found in all its aIS., 

 we read : — 



" On the nature of the resurrection and future existence it says 

 in revelation that . . . After Soshyans comes they prepare the 

 raising of the dead." 



Soshyans is the son of Zoroaster, miraculously to be born at 

 the end of the age, and the meaning of the name is Saviour or 

 Deliverer ; it could be translated into Hebrew as Joshua, or 

 in the Greek form of this as Jesus. And this doctrine of 

 a coming Saviour is not found for the first time in the Bundahis. 

 It is plainly indicated in the Gathas, the very earliest Zoro- 

 astrian literature extant. And this hope we must believe came 

 from God, for about the 600th year of the millennium of Zoro- 

 aster, some 40 or 50 years before the Bundahis was compiled, 

 Magi, that is to say men of the Magian race and Magian faith, 

 came, not improbably from Adiabene, the Magian land, the 

 kingdom of Monobasus and Helena, to Herod the Great and 

 said : " Where is He that is born King; of the Jews ? For we 

 have seen His star in the east and are come to worship Him." 

 That their journey to find the King of the Jews was undertaken 

 by direct divine guidance we may be sure, for of their return 

 journey we are expressly told that they were "warned of God." 



And as the Magi knelt before the infant King and made 

 their offerings of gold, frankincense and myrrh, there is one 

 question which we may be sure that they asked : — " What is 

 His name ? " And there is but one answer which Joseph 

 could give to them : " His name is Jesus, for He shall save His 

 people from their sins." 



IV Ezra. 



It is obvious that Greek astronomy left a strong impression 

 on the Bundahis: here the Marian traditions are incased in 

 a Greek astronomical framework, and we may trace this to the 

 Askanian training of the compilers that King Yalkash set to 

 work. Can we trace in any similar fashion the influence on 

 Jewish literature of the Magian training of Persian converts to 

 Judaism ? 



