Judaism and Christianity is indebted to Zoroastrianism the Heritage of True Aryans

[bob x]

Re: Judaism and Christianity is indebted to Zoroastrianism the Heritage of True Aryan

by the time of Isaiah we have outright monotheism (the gods of other nations are described as "dumb blocks of wood" who "cannot do anything"). This is all before any contact with Persians.

There is a difference between "1st Isaiah" (written during the Assyrian Empire under kings Ahaz and Hezekiah) and "2nd Isaiah" (written at the end of the Babylonian Captivity, when the end of Babylon appeared imminent). They are in distinctly different dialects ("1st Isaiah" is older, though not old like the bulk of Deuteronomy and the other books of the Torah) and styles ("1st Isaiah" consists of several separate speeches delivered to the royal court, each identified as having been spoken by Isaiah son of Amoz and given a date; "2nd Isaiah" is a long poetic ramble, with no ascription to any author or any indication of time). In the Dead Sea Scrolls, the two are still separated into different books.

And here I need to "confess error". The passage about "dumb blocks of wood" which I cited as clear evidence of "strict" monotheism (i.e., denying that other "gods" have any reality whatsoever) is from 2nd Isaiah, not 1st Isaiah, and clearly from after contact with Persians: in fact, it is in chapter 44, immediately before the passage in chapter 45 "For the sake of Jacob my servant I have raised up Cyrus as My Anointed..." which most plainly marks the late date of "2nd Isaiah".

There is monotheistic language in "1st Isaiah" as well, though not as clear-cut as chapter 44. In chapter 10, Assyria is described as YHWH's instrument, punishing Jerusalem and Samaria for failing to follow YHWH sincerely; other nations are described as "godless"; and it is pointed out that the king of Assyria, of course, does not understand himself to be working for YHWH, thinking "As my hands have reached the kingdoms of the idols, whose graven images were greater than anything in Jerusalem or Samaria, shall I not do likewise to Jerusalem and her idols, as I have done to Samaria and her idols? Therefore it will be that when YHWH has finished his work on Mt. Zion and on Jerusalem, He will punish the arrogant heart of the king of Assyria, who has thought in his pomp and his pride, The power of my own hands accomplished all this." [Isa. 10:10-13] Here YHWH is not just a national god, but a universal god, controlling everyone, even those who do not think anything of him.