Eschatology

Parshat Shoftim

The topic this week unfortunately bears little correlation with the parsha.  However, the reason is obvious.  The topic is with regard to Jewish eschatology, that is, what happens at the end of times, both with regard to the individual soul's post-mortem journey, and for humanity as a whole.  The reason why this is unrelated to this week's parsha is because even though these ideas are central to Judaism today, the topic does not appear in the Torah at all.  In fact, it is pretty much absent from the Tanach altogether.

There will be two main topical areas.  The first will examine an assertion I made way back at the beginning of the blog, which stated that the Jewish ideas of life after death and a Messianic "Age" were adapted from Zoroastrianism.  We'll look at that assertion in a bit more detail.  The second will talk about how the idea of Moshiach (Messiah) came about and how it evolved to its present form.

Jewish beliefs derived from Zoroastrianism

Before we begin, I will note that I am far from an expert on Zoroastrianism.  So, to craft this blog post, I took out a few books on the religion from the library and all the information on these posts comes from those books.  You can find similar ideas online if you look, and as far as I know, everything I've written here is not controversial.  However, I am far less learned on this topic than I am on Judaism.  Ok, enough with the caveats.  Let's begin.

There are a lot of similarities between the later theology of Judaism and 6th century Zoroastrianism. These include things like a supreme deity that has subsumed all other deities into it.  To the Zoroastrians the deity was named Ahura Mazda [1].  Zoroastrianism also includes the idea of ministering angels [2], an idea that does appear in biblical texts, but gained a lot more specificity in the apocryphal literature and the Talmudic period.

In a previous post I mentioned that the idea of a personalized reward and punishment after death derived from Zoroastrianism.  Indeed, this kind of post-death judgment of the soul doesn't appear anywhere in Tanach.  However, it is a standard feature of Zoroastrianism.  Dhalla writes:

The doctrine of reward and retribution in the other world forms the chief part of the ethical teachings of Zarathustras Gathas [writings].  All precepts in the sacred stanzas are generally accompanied by a repeated mention of reward or retribution in this or the next world [3].

This divine judgment allowed for rectification of wrongs in this world [4] which was a superior solution to the "why do bad things happen to good people" question than those offered in Kohelet (Ecclesiastes) and Iyov (Job).  It included a judgment of the individual where they were required to cross a bridge, Zaehner writes:

The good man's guide across the bridge is Zoroaster himself.  He leads the souls of his followers across the dreaded Bridge and conducts them into the House of the Good Mind where they will come face to face with their creator [Ahura Mazda] who dwells together with Truth and that same Good Mind.  The wicked meet a different fate: 'their souls and conscience trouble them when they come to the Bridge of the Requiter, guests for all eternity in the House of the Lie' [5]. 

Here we see strong echoes to the Jewish idea of a judgment of the soul where a person is judged based on his good deeds, with the righteous entering Gan Eden (the Garden of Eden).

In addition to these ideas, there are other Zoroastrian ideas that seemed to find more following in Christianity than Judaism.  These included the idea of a "holy spirit" to allow communication between Ahura Mazda and men [6] and a evil counterpart to Ahura Mazda, "angra mainyu" which is similar to Christianity's Satan [7].

However, there is one other major ideological area where Judaism appears to have nicked heavily from Zoroastrianism.  That is with regard to the end of the world.  First we'll look at how Zoroastrianism describes the end of the world, and then we'll look at how Judaism's ideas evolved.

For Zoroastrianism, the end of the world involved a pitched battle between good and evil, with good eventually winning and ushering in a new peaceful era.  In Dhalla's words:

The Gathas speak of a period when the progress of creation will stop, the evolution of the universe will reach its destined goal, as the cycle of the world will then be completed and creation and life will end.  Ahura Mazda will come at this time with his Holy Spirit and with Khushathra and Vohu Manah to accomplish this great work [8].

The later texts give a systematic account of the final struggle between the good and the evil powers, and relate in detail how every one of the heavenly beings will smite his own particular opponent evil spirit...The Gathas speak of the victory of Asha, or Righteousness, and the defeat of Druj, Wickedness [9].

The great world drama will then be over, the final curtain will fall on the tragic element in creation; the ultimate triumph of good over evil will be secured, the divine Kingdom of Righteousness will be established...Man will then enter into the everlasting joy of Ahura Mazda [10].

If this sounds like a "Messianic Era" well, it's not surprising.  Before we go on, I want to quote Zaehner's conclusions on whether Zoroastrianism influenced Judaism and Christianity in these matters:

Zoroaster's doctrine of rewards and punishments, of an eternity of bliss and an eternity of woe allotted to good and evil men in another life beyond the grave is so strikingly similar to Christian teaching that we cannot fail to ask whether here at least there is not a direct influence at work.  The answer is surely 'Yes,' for the similarities are so great and the historical context so neatly apposite that it would be carrying scepticism altogether too far to refuse to draw the obvious conclusion...[T]he theory of a direct Zoroastrian influence on post-exilic Judaism does explain the sudden abandonment on the part of the Jews of the old idea of Sheol, a shadowy and depersonalized existence which is the lot of all men irrespective of what they had done on earth, and the sudden adoption, at precisely the time when the exiled Jews made contact with the Medes and Persians, of the Iranian Prophet's teaching concerning the afterlife...Thus from the moment the Jews first made contact with the Iranians they took over the typical Zoroastrian doctrine of an individual afterlife in which rewards are to be enjoyed and punishments endured [11].

Messiah in Judaism

The idea of a savior deity in Judaism is ingrained in the earliest strata.  However, this kind of deity always saved the Israelites in real tangible ways.  The most obvious mention is with regard to redeeming the Israelites from their period of slavery in Egypt.  Whether the actual exodus from Egypt occurred in some significant way, or even if it was just a myth grafted on to the Israelites gaining independence from Egyptian hegemony after the Bronze Age Collapse is irrelevant for this. Either way, God is credited for delivering the Israelites from larger powers than they.

It is no surprise that the same type of redemption language is found with regard to the second sojourn in a foreign land, the Babylonian exile.  When the Israelites were allowed to return after the Persians conquered Babylon, the Persians were seen as divine instruments of redemption.  It is no surprise that after the second temple period ended with destruction, the same type of redemption language appeared. The idea that God would redeem the Israelites a third time is found all throughout the post-second temple period.

However, the third redemption, as described in the Tanach was fundamentally different than the first two.  It would have a global character to it.  The third redemption would be heralded by a Messiah, who would bring a global kingdom of God.  The same kind of ideas that we saw in Zoroastrianism eschatology are found in Judaism as well.

In reality, these fragments were found in the Exilic and post-Exilic sections of Tanach.  For example, Deutero-Isaiah has a description of the global messianic development (Is. 40:3)

3 Hark! one calleth: 'Clear ye in the wilderness the way of the LORD, make plain in the desert a highway for our God. 4 Every valley shall be lifted up, and every mountain and hill shall be made low; and the rugged shall be made level, and the rough places a plain; 5 And the glory of the LORD shall be revealed, and all flesh shall see it together; for the mouth of the LORD hath spoken it.

Yehezkel also describes a pitched battle.  In reality all of chapter 38 is worth reading, but here's a small excerpt (Ezek. 38:3-4, 16)

3 and say: Thus saith the Lord GOD: Behold, I am against thee, O Gog, chief prince of Meshech and Tubal; 4 and I will turn thee about, and put hooks into thy jaws, and I will bring thee forth, and all thine army, horses and horsemen, all of them clothed most gorgeously, a great company with buckler and shield, all of them handling swords: 16 and thou shalt come up against My people Israel, as a cloud to cover the land; it shall be in the end of days, and I will bring thee against My land, that the nations may know Me, when I shall be sanctified through thee, O Gog, before their eyes. 

Other ideas don't really seem to appear until later.  An example of this is the resurrection of the dead. Even though it doesn't appear in Tanach, it becomes an explicit part of Judaism.  A famous Mishnah in Sanhedrin 90a states (my translation)

And these do not have a portion in the world to come, a person who says that the resurrection of the dead is not from the Torah, Torah did not come from God, and an Apikoros (heretic, e.g. me).

In case you're curious where the Talmudic Rabbis derive the resurrection of the dead, the Gemara a bit later on 90b offers two possibilities (my translation)

Where do we see resurrection of the dead in the Torah?  From Num 28:28, and you should give the terumah offering to Aharon, the priest.  But Aaron died before they even entered Israel! We learn from here that Aharon will be resurrected so we can give him the offering. [R. Ishmael disagrees and thinks that Aharon here means someone like him, i.e. a Cohen. This is a more reasonable conclusion in my opinion]...Where do we see resurrection of the dead in the Torah? From Exod. 6:4 where it says, I will also establish my covenant with them to give them the land of Canaan.  It says to them and not to you, [So we see that they must be resurrected so that they can be given the land. Clearly this is the only reasonable interpretation.]

If these Talmudic explanations seem like post-hoc justifications, then that's because they clearly are. The truth is that the idea of resurrection of the dead doesn't appear until much later than the Torah, and these verses are trying to find a justification for the practice, something that is the bread and butter of the Talmud.  Furthermore, it's also clear from this Mishnah that there is tension between the Rabbinic supporters and their precursors, the Pharisees, and those who disagreed with them on these doctrines, namely the Karaites and their precursors, the Sadducees.  The Sadducees rejected this resurrection of the dead. They felt it was a clear manifestation of foreign influence [12]. It's obvious that such a schism could not be allowed, so the Rabbis cast the Sadducees out of the divine Messianic age and essentially dared people to side with them at the cost of losing the possibility of everlasting life as well.  Half a millennium or so after the Talmud, the Rambam (Maimonides) would include belief in resurrection as one of the fundamental beliefs of Judaism, where it remains to this day.

The belief in a Messiah that would usher in a divine age has led to many different schisms in the history as many people claimed to be the Messiah, or at least people who had followers who made that claim.  The most famous of these, and the first to really hit it big was Jesus.  Around that time also was Bar Kochba, hailed as the Messiah by the preeminent Rabbinic sage, Rabbi Akiva.  About 1500 years later, another movement gathered around a would be Messiah named Shabtai Tzvi; a movement which fizzled out after he was forced to convert to Islam.  In modern times, a sizable movement claims that the last Lubavitcher Rebbe is the Messiah, and is somehow still alive, even though most Jews are sure he's very much dead.  It's not clear how long this movement will last.

Conclusion

The fact that the ideas behind a divine ressurrection and personal reward and punishment are central to Judaism today indicates the the religion evolved in significant ways from what was practiced by the first temple era Israelites. When Jews today consider themselves practicing a 3500 year old religion, the claim is fairly laughable. While Rabbinic Judaism is old, it is only about 2000 years old. In other words it's only slightly older than Christianity, and far younger than Eastern religions like Hinduism and Buddhism.

Furthermore, the fact that the ideas clearly look like they were adapted from Zoroastrianism indicates that the early Jews were certainly willing to adapt other religious practices into their own. It makes it a bit humorous when right wing Jews rebel against modern culture and values and criticize Christian influence. Of course, they will never admit that ideas regarding eschatology were derived from Zoroastrianism, but that's ok. The evidence is plain for everyone else to see.

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1. M.N. Dhalla History of Zoroastrianism, Oxford Univ Press, 1938, p. 31, 70.^

2. Ibid p 39.^

3. Ibid p. 101.^

4. Ibid p. 100.^

5. R. C Zaehner, The Dawn and Twilight of Zoroastrianism" G.P. Putnam & Sons 1961, p. 56.^

6. Ibid p. 36.^

7. Ibid p. 89.^

8. Dhalla p. 108.^

9. Ibid p. 109.^

10. Ibid p. 112.^

11. Zaehner p. 57-58.^

12. Just because I can, I'm going to use Mark 12:18 as the source here. You can find the same sort of stuff in Josephus though.^