rwederfoort
13-06-2009, 03:53 AM
[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=APdP7JZTeJ0
In the history of religions, Zoroastrianism,
founded in Persia by the prophet Zoroaster in about 1000 BC, has been an unusually fruitful faith, exercising an influence on the doctrines of other religions disproportionate to its size. Angels are but one
part of Zoroastrianism’s legacy to its sister/brother religions, Judaism, Christianity, and Islam.
While it is difficult to reconstruct the details of Zoroaster’s original message, it appears that his intention was to reform the preexisting religion of the area rather than to create a new religion. It is also clear
that Zoroaster preached the centrality of one god, Ahura Mazda. The other divinities of the earlier pantheon were reduced to the status of mere agents of the supreme deity—i.e., to the status of angels. Also,some of the gods of the original pantheon were transformed into demons, although this transformation may have been due to factors completely independent of the reforming activities of Zoroaster.
As Zoroastrianism developed, the number of celestial beings multiplied, leading some observers to remark that the old polytheistic system had unwittingly been revived in the later stages of this religious tradition
Judaism was similarly threatened by an overemphasis on angels. The Jewish religion is a complex tradition that has experienced a number of important transformations over the millennia. While most accounts of angel history attribute Zoroastrianism as the first religion to have true angels, attendant spiritual beings served Yahweh from the
very first biblical narratives, long before Persian religious ideas began to exercise an influence on Judaism.
The biblical God sends out his angels to carry messages, to protect, and to destroy. They also have the function of constantly offering praise to Yahweh. Only in the latter books of Hebrew Scriptures (the Christian Old Testament) do angels begin to do more than simply worship God and carry out his orders, as when the angel of the Lord in
the book of Zechariah intercedes with God on behalf of Israel (1:12–13)
In the history of religions, Zoroastrianism,
founded in Persia by the prophet Zoroaster in about 1000 BC, has been an unusually fruitful faith, exercising an influence on the doctrines of other religions disproportionate to its size. Angels are but one
part of Zoroastrianism’s legacy to its sister/brother religions, Judaism, Christianity, and Islam.
While it is difficult to reconstruct the details of Zoroaster’s original message, it appears that his intention was to reform the preexisting religion of the area rather than to create a new religion. It is also clear
that Zoroaster preached the centrality of one god, Ahura Mazda. The other divinities of the earlier pantheon were reduced to the status of mere agents of the supreme deity—i.e., to the status of angels. Also,some of the gods of the original pantheon were transformed into demons, although this transformation may have been due to factors completely independent of the reforming activities of Zoroaster.
As Zoroastrianism developed, the number of celestial beings multiplied, leading some observers to remark that the old polytheistic system had unwittingly been revived in the later stages of this religious tradition
Judaism was similarly threatened by an overemphasis on angels. The Jewish religion is a complex tradition that has experienced a number of important transformations over the millennia. While most accounts of angel history attribute Zoroastrianism as the first religion to have true angels, attendant spiritual beings served Yahweh from the
very first biblical narratives, long before Persian religious ideas began to exercise an influence on Judaism.
The biblical God sends out his angels to carry messages, to protect, and to destroy. They also have the function of constantly offering praise to Yahweh. Only in the latter books of Hebrew Scriptures (the Christian Old Testament) do angels begin to do more than simply worship God and carry out his orders, as when the angel of the Lord in
the book of Zechariah intercedes with God on behalf of Israel (1:12–13)