Blog # 2 – Chapters 4, 5, 6, & 7

As we learned in previous chapters, early neighboring civilizations engaged in regular diplomatic or wartime, interaction, resulting in a diffusion of culture, traditions, and religion, assimilating some of these ideas into their own civilizations.  This practice still occurs in today’s societies.  I wanted to further explore this natural transmission of religious ideas and traditions from one religion to another.  Religions are not disjointed from one another; they borrow and build upon long established and accepted ideas. 

What many think are original traditions to their own religion, actually precede it.  An example of this in history, from what I distinguish, is the influence Zoroastrianism has had on the Hebrew Torah and therefore the Christian Bible.  Chapter five states several interesting examples of religious doctrine that are maintained in Christianity and in other religions.  It was the first monotheistic religion, varying greatly from the polytheistic competing religions of its time and time thereafter. 

            Zoroastrianism maintains dualism of good and evil.  Ahra Mazda is the god of light, superior to all other deities.  Angra Mainyu is the evil spirit who opposes Ahura Mazda.  This idea of a supreme God and the evil counterpart can also be found in Judaism, Christianity, and the Muslim faith.  This dualism is also a theme throughout the Gospel of John.  The cosmic struggle between Ahra Mazda and Angra Mainyu, “would be decided in favor of Ahura Mazda, aided by the arrival of a final Savior who would restore the world to its earlier purity and peace” (Strayer, 139).  Sound familiar?  The Hebrew, Christian, and Islamic traditions all refer to a savior as the Messiah.  Zoroastrianism also had dogma of a final judgment day, resurrecting bodies who aligned with Ahura Mazda, being rewarded eternal life.  So I think that many Christians may be surprised to find that these religious ideas are not unique to Christianity.  The Persian prophet of Zoroastrianism, Zarathustra, originated these ideas in the sixth or seventh century B.C.E., possibly a few hundred years earlier.  This predates the Hebrew Bible by almost 500 years and Christianity by 700 years.  Strayer explains how this diffusion of religious traditions took place when “tiny Hebrew communities lived a precarious existence in a religion politically dominated by the large empires of Assyria, Babylon, and Persia” (Strayer, 140).          

So it shouldn’t be surprising that we can also find a Babylonian religious tradition in the Hebrew religious texts.  “In 586 B.C.E. the kingdom of Judah came under Babylonian control”  (Strayer, 140).  We were briefly introduced to Hammurabi in Chapter three.  He reigned Babylon from 1792-1750 B.C.E.   I’m not sure of any of you have learned of the Code of Hammurabi?  Well it is one of the oldest deciphered writings on a stone stele consisting of hundreds of law codes such as, “an eye for an eye, a tooth for a tooth.”  These are Old Testament traditions found in the Hebrew texts.  Furthermore, this Code of Hammurabi is depicted on a cuneiform stone tablet.  The Babylonia sun god is bestowing upon King Hammurabi the law codes.  [An image of these stone tablets can be found on Google Images. ] We find this story again in the Hebrew Bible and Christian Old Testament with God handing Moses the Ten Commandments.  So one can see how the Code of Hammurabi, which pre-existed the Hebrew Bible by about 1300 years, is a prime example of the adaption and diffusion of religious beliefs and doctrines over history.