Also see: https://brill.com/display/serial/HO2-CAVE Avestan Research 1991-2014, Hintze for an overview: https://eprints.soas.ac.uk/19207/1/082%202014%20Kratylos%2059%201-52.pdf To take a step back, for an intro to the Avesta (in French): available online: https://books.openedition.org/lesbelleslettres/24943 Current Trends in Avestan Studies lecture, Redard: https://pourdavoud.ucla.edu/video/current-trends-in-avestan-studies/ Also see: https://ada.geschkult.fu-berlin.de/ Zoroastrianism: History, Religion, and Belief: Free online course via Future Learn: https://futurelearn.com/courses/zoroastrianism-history-religion-belief The Yasna ceremony online: https://muya-film.soas.hasdai.org/yasna/

Magoi were prototypically a Zoroastrian priestly tribe, yes, from Old Persian magush, Avestan moyu-. And that’s reflected by Matthew’s statement that they came from the east. The Magoi had an extended reputation outside their homeland. Magos is the origin of the word magic, after all (Greek magia)! By the time of Matthew, magos had been…

Zoroastrianism: An Introduction by Jenny Rose (2011). A lay-friendly introduction if you are mainly looking for an overview of Zoroastrianism, or want a basic reference work. *(Find on Amazon.com) Zoroastrians: Their Religious Beliefs and Practices by Mary Boyce (1979). A summary of the defining work of modern Zoroastrian studies, and a must-read for anyone planning…

“Late Antiquity and the Religious Milieu of the Qurʾan’s Origins” by Sidney Griffith, and Griffith makes the observation that the Qurʾān directly mentions Zoroastrians in Q 22:17.Q16:51 can be a polemic against Zoroastrian’s dualistic approach to their theism, where it states, “God has said: “Do not take two gods; He is only One God; so…

The text. Of course, Avestan research pales in comparison to the study of biblical texts (as it is a small field) and an enormous amount of work remains to be done in putting together a new critical text and resolving the many corruptions. I don’t mean to compare the two. What I mean is that…

In Search of Zarathustra: The First Prophet and the Ideas That Changed the World By Paul Kriwaczek. In it, Kriwaczek strongly claims that Gnostic forms of Christianity (including Gnosticism in the 1st-2nd century AD, Catharism, Bogomilism, and Manichaeism) are all continuations of Zoroastrian dualist beliefs.‘Gnosis On The Silk Road’ by J-H Klimkeit is about and…

Zarathustra (spelled variously including as Ζωροθρύστης, Ζαθραύστης, Ζωροάστρης, and Ζαράτας, with the different renditions reflecting variations in pronunciation between Persian and Avestan and with Ζωροάστρης reflecting a folk etymology with the Greek word for “star”) was known in Greek literature from the fifth century BCE onward as attested by Xanthus of Lydia, Eudoxus of Cnidus,…

Belief in a world Saviour:An important theological development during the dark ages of ‘the faith concerned the growth of beliefs about the Saoshyant or coming Saviour. Passages in the Gathas suggest that Zoroaster was filled with a sense that the end of the world was imminent, and that Ahura Mazda had entrusted him with revealed…

The Gathas in Old Avestan are generally dated to the late second millennium BCE. P. Oktor Skjaervø (in The Indo-Aryans of Ancient South Asia: Language, Material Culture, and Ethnicity, pp. 166-167; De Gruyter, 1995) dates Old Avestan to the 14th to 11th centuries BCE, or possibly even earlier (such as the 15th century BCE). Almut…

The emergence of apocalyptic theology within Judaism occurred after the return from Babylonian exile. One religion present in Babylon after the Persian conquest was Zoroastrianism, and scholarship seems reasonably certain (Shaked1984) that cosmic dualism entered Jewish theology via Zoroastrian influence. Collins identifies a parallel within the oldest part of the Avesta (Zoroastrian scripture) where two…