--- In evola_as_he_is@yahoogroups.com, "evola_as_he_is" <evola_as_he_is@...>
wrote:
>
>>>[Some further comments regarding dualism]
>
> Other scholars trace procreationism back to dualism, a concept according to
which there are two conflicting forces, represented respectively by the
principle of good and that of evil, warring for the control of man's mind.
>>>[As the rest of the excerpts later point out but only partially, there are
varieties of dualism, of which this "moral" dualism is only one. The defining
feature seems to be the discontinuity between opposite poles or extremes, or an
imbalance between them.
> "The Zoroastrian doctrine of dualism greatly influenced Jewish, and in later
times, Christian thinking. Echoes of both Ethical and Cosmic dualism can be
found in the Bible. The Jews first encountered Persia and Zoroastrian philosophy
at the end of their captivity in Babylon, when the Persians overran the area and
their king Cyrus freed the Jews to return to their homeland. During that period
(6th century BCE), and afterward, Jewish contact continued with Persia. In that
early period, there may still have been Zoroastrian priests and scholars who
knew the old Avestan language and could study and teach directly from the
Gathas. These thinkers may have professed the Ethical view rather than the
Cosmic,
[[Current research on Zoroastrianism is against the proposition that original
Mazdean dualism was not what they here mean by "cosmic," which seems to be a
slightly crude way of referring to the opposition of light and darkness in the
tradition. It might be more nuanced to say that Zoroastrian dualism was both
*cosmologically absolute,* in the sense that it set two powers each with their
own origin against each other, and also moral, in the sense of opposing "good"
to "evil." Perhaps "ethical" should be reserved to describe systems like the
original Indo-European worldview, which presents a type of cosmic ethics in
terms of "right action," rather than "good deeds." In terms of its "cosmism,"
it is also important that the Mazdeans emphatically considered the cosmos good,
hence evil was a spiritual principle, not a material one. This remained the
case even in later forms of Zoroastrianism when various animals and natural
phenomena were demonized: it was held that they only existed due to spiritual
perversion. This gradual evolution toward stronger and stronger dualism does
not support the contention that the type of dualism itself changed. Good
references are Boyce, Stoyanov, Coulianu, and Bianchi.]]
and thus Jews may have exchanged ideas on Ethical dualism with their Persian
neighbors. At that same time, Jewish sages and scribes were re-editing their own
scriptural texts into the five books known as the Torah. Deuteronomy, the fifth
book, was re-written during the Exile. In this book, at Chapter 31:15, there is
a clear and familiar statement of Ethical dualism, adapted into the Jewish
context:
>
> "See, today I set before you life and prosperity, death and disaster. If you
obey the commandments of YHVH your God that I enjoin on you today, if you love
YHVH your God and follow His ways, if you keep His commandments, His laws, His
customs, you will live and increase, and YHVH your God will bless you in the
land which you are entering to make your own. But if your heart strays, if you
refuse to listen, if you let yourself be drawn into worshipping other gods and
serving them, I tell you today, you will most certainly perish....I set before
you life or death, blessing or curse. Choose life, then, so that you and your
descendants may live...." (Deut. 31:15-19, Jerusalem Bible translation)
>
> Centuries later, Jews were again inspired by Zoroastrian tradition, this time
the Cosmic-dualistic. The mythologized timelines of Zoroastrianism contributed
to the formation of Jewish apocalyptic thought, which is also concerned with
sacred history and the cosmic battle between Good and Evil. Such apocalyptic
motifs can be found in the book of the prophet Daniel, which is a very late
addition to the Old Testament, full of Persian influence (Daniel, after all,
served at the court of the Persian king).
[[This assertion of a double borrowing of Zoroastrian ideas by the Jews, or a
distinction between two phases of Zoroastrian dualism, seems equally dubious.
The suggestion of YHVHs rewards and punishments for ethical behavior also fails
to resemble Mazdean moral dualism in its henotheistic rather than monotheistic
nature, its lack of absolute morality, and is failure to reference the
afterlife. It seems to have much more in common with a focused and virulent
form of standard Semitic sin-concepts and divine authoritarianism. As the rest
of the previously quoted material explained, the Essenes were much closer to a
Zoroastrian dualism, with the major exception that the Devil was ultimately
under the power of God in their system, despite its war motifs.]]