Old Iranic and Zoroaster’s reconfiguration
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Influence on Jews
- “While some people try to trace the emergence of Abrahamistic eka-rAkShasatvaM to the exclusivist worship of Aten by Akhenaton, we have argued that its iconoclastic streak is more consistent with a transfer from the zarathuStrians. "
- “The evidence for the transfer of aeshma-daeva comes from the story narrated in the Judaistic book of Tobiah: In the Iranian province of mAda (Media) lived a Jewish woman Sarah. She was seized by ashmedai (Judaist version of aeshma-daeva). … The Semitic deity Rafael befriended Tobiah and taught him a ritual with a burnt offering of fish meat to subjugate ashmedai. As result he was able to successfully drive away ashmedai and marry Sarah. … The setting of the story in an old Iranian province, the idea of a specific deity (Rafael) to counter ashmedai, and a specific ritual for this purpose supports the whole-scale transfer of the meme from a zarathuShtrian source. Importantly, in the narrative of Sarah, ashmedai kills seven of her husbands before Tobiah marries her. In the bundahishn (28.15) of the Iranians, aeshma daeva is described as having 7 powers to utterly destroy creatures who he seizes. This numerical correspondence clinches the above hypothesis.”