Page:Avesta, the Bible of Zoroaster.djvu/3

 belief in the resurrection of the body, the coming of a Saviour, and of the rewards and punishments hereafter for the immortal soul, than are to be found in the scriptures of ancient Iran, illuminated by the spirit of the great teacher himself, Zoroaster.

All that is good in these early books becomes doubly interesting in the light of biblical allusion. The law of the Medes and Persians 'which altereth not' (Dan. 6:8-12) has passed into a proverb. The Medes themselves are several times specially mentioned in the Scriptures. In 2 Kings we are told that on the destruction of Samaria (B.C. 722) 'the king of Assyria placed captive Israelites in certain cities of the Medes' (2 Kings 17:6; 18:11). In Ezra 6:2-5, it is at Acmetha (Ecbatana) 'the palace in the province of the Medes', that the famous decree of Cyrus was found. In Isaiah, Daniel and Esther (e.g., Esther 1:9 seq., 10:2; 6:1), there are several marked allusions to the Medes and Persians. The scene of the apocryphal book of Tobit is laid in Media; as is also a portion of Judith with its allusions to Rhages (Av. Ragha), the important Median town which plays no insignificant part in connection with Zoroaster. The very name Asmodeus, in the book of Tobit just referred to, was first understood when it was discovered to be none other than the name of the awful fiend Aeshma Daeva ('Demon of Fury') in the Avesta.

It may likewise well be remembered that it was Cyrus, the ancient Persian king, a follower of the faith of Zoroaster, whom God called his 'anointed' (Isa. 45:1-3), his 'shepherd' (Isa. 44:28), and the 'righteous' one (Isa. 41:2); and who gave command that the temple at Jerusalem should be rebuilt, and that the Jews be returned from captivity to their own city (2 Chr. 36:22-23; Ezra 1:1-7; 3:7; 4:3): 'thus saith the Lord to his anointed, to Cyrus whose right hand I have holden', etc. It was Darius, likewise, the worshipper of Ormazd, that favored the rebuilding of the temple, and who ordered the decree of Cyrus to be carried into effect (Ezra 5:15-17; 6:1-12). Lastly, but most important to us, it was the Magi—true followers of the ancient faith of Persia, those wise men from the East—that