5 ms·

There's not much information in this blog post. They seem to be "looking" for manuscripts, but don't mention finding them yet. I guess I'm curios why it has so

by jatsign 10y ago

There's not much information in this blog post. They seem to be "looking" for manuscripts, but don't mention finding them yet. I guess I'm curios why it has so many upvotes?

StreamBright 10y ago
I guess there are many zoroastrians among HN readers.
- numbsafari 10y ago
  There are many lovers of old manuscripts and lost histories among HN fans is more likely the case.
- dominotw 10y ago
  I know HN has a big population of Indian readers. Avesta has close relationship to Vedic Hinduism. Eg: Avestan Mithra is the Vedic Mitra, Sanskrit Asura is Avestan Ahura, Vedic divinity Varuna and the Avestan deity Ahura Mazda. The name for India in the Avesta is Hindu,Languange of Rig-Veda is closely related to language of Avesta. So on.
  - Ar-Curunir 10y ago
    This is actually pretty cool; the similarity stems from the Proto-Indo-Iranian religion, which split into two branches, one going into Iran, and another into India. Zoroastrianism adopted these concepts and made a entirely new religion out of them. It's interesting that Asuras are demonkind in Hinduism, but are gods in Proto-Indo-Iranian religion. It's especially interesting, because the word for Hindu gods or devas, is cognate with Deus, which is the word for God in Latin and Greek and other ancient European languages. So the split seems to have occurred after the Indo-Iranian and European branches forked.
    - wavefunction 10y ago
      From what little I admittedly know, 'gods' and 'demons' in Vedic traditions are more of clans than determiners of good or evil natures. In some epics gods do evil against good demons and vis versa in other works. I suppose with enough human history in a culture you will be able to point to at least one example of anything.
    - xherberta 10y ago
      I think the Proto-Indo-European language is at play, there.
    - eternalban 10y ago
      The split is indeed very interesting & the mirror symmetry is very intriguing. I have wondered at it quite a bit over the years. I do not think that the Prophet Zartosht (Zoroaster) (AS) adopted the shared roots, rather he pruned the proverbial collective burning bush of the Aryaman tribes. His revelations, at least in form handed down to us, are in part very confident Q & A sessions with God, his "Friend", and to an extent include theological matter dismissing certain notions, practices, and spiritual agencies. One gathers that there was a sort of free for all in terms of appeal to higher agencies at his time, in the shared millieu of the region. Note that there is a small hop from Persian Deev to Devil to counter balance the Deva to Divine. Zartosht's message was nothing if this: not all powers are pure (holy) and there is a Cosmic Choice to be made, and that this choice has eternal consequences. According to him, the Good is fundamentally Creative and Truthful. The evil is a destroyer and a liar. (Direct analog of which you can find in the Gospels.) Accepting that, one can then easily map the Zoroastrian informative doctrine of 'Good thought, Good Speech, Good Action' to related Indian scripture (e.g. The Gita) and discourses on Karmic causality.
    - hndl 10y ago
      Interesting contrast on the vocabulary. A bit of Googling reveals a possible explanation: >In the field of religion there are some interesting contrasts. Words such as devá have the meaning of god in the Vedas have the meaning of devil in the Avesta. Likewise some names for Vedic gods show up in the Avesta as evil spirits. This is likely due to the ancestors of the migrants to North India being a competing tribe of the tribe responsible for the creation of the Avesta. Taken from: http://www.sjsu.edu/faculty/watkins/sanskritavestan.htm http://www.sjsu.edu/faculty/watkins/sanskritavestan.htm
- HarryHirsch 10y ago
  You'd think just that. The Parsi community is generally highly regarded and for some reason many business leaders belong to it. The Tata family is probably the best-known exponent.
  - glitchc 10y ago
    Business is in our blood I guess. At the very least, we do it well :)
  - Kalium 10y ago
    Endogamous-tending close-knit communities with cultural emphasis on education tend to have both high-trust and high-skill populations. Such groups are often well-placed to succeed in business.
- futun 10y ago
  Or: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Virtue_signalling https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Virtue_signalling
Robotbeat 10y ago
As a Christian, I sort of consider Zoroastrianism as an ancestor of my faith. It's very interesting.
- yazaddaruvala 10y ago
  Just as an fyi, Zoroastrians did harbor Jews for a few centuries. There is a lot of combined ideology
- ColanR 10y ago
  I had not heard that before. Any sources so I can fill in a knowledge gap?
  - cygx 10y ago
    I'll leave the sources up to other people, but the general idea is that the more dualistic parts of later Jewish theology might have originated with Zoroastrianism. Heaven, hell and the devil as God's antagonist supposedly weren't part of the story originally: the devil used to be an angel with a job description that placed him in opposition to humanity, but not God, and everyone went to Sheol after death.

by jatsign 10y ago

There's not much information in this blog post. They seem to be "looking" for manuscripts, but don't mention finding them yet. I guess I'm curios why it has so many upvotes?

StreamBright 10y ago

I guess there are many zoroastrians among HN readers.

numbsafari 10y ago
There are many lovers of old manuscripts and lost histories among HN fans is more likely the case.
dominotw 10y ago
I know HN has a big population of Indian readers. Avesta has close relationship to Vedic Hinduism. Eg: Avestan Mithra is the Vedic Mitra, Sanskrit Asura is Avestan Ahura, Vedic divinity Varuna and the Avestan deity Ahura Mazda. The name for India in the Avesta is Hindu,Languange of Rig-Veda is closely related to language of Avesta. So on.
- Ar-Curunir 10y ago
  This is actually pretty cool; the similarity stems from the Proto-Indo-Iranian religion, which split into two branches, one going into Iran, and another into India. Zoroastrianism adopted these concepts and made a entirely new religion out of them. It's interesting that Asuras are demonkind in Hinduism, but are gods in Proto-Indo-Iranian religion. It's especially interesting, because the word for Hindu gods or devas, is cognate with Deus, which is the word for God in Latin and Greek and other ancient European languages. So the split seems to have occurred after the Indo-Iranian and European branches forked.
  - wavefunction 10y ago
    From what little I admittedly know, 'gods' and 'demons' in Vedic traditions are more of clans than determiners of good or evil natures. In some epics gods do evil against good demons and vis versa in other works. I suppose with enough human history in a culture you will be able to point to at least one example of anything.
  - xherberta 10y ago
    I think the Proto-Indo-European language is at play, there.
  - eternalban 10y ago
    The split is indeed very interesting & the mirror symmetry is very intriguing. I have wondered at it quite a bit over the years. I do not think that the Prophet Zartosht (Zoroaster) (AS) adopted the shared roots, rather he pruned the proverbial collective burning bush of the Aryaman tribes. His revelations, at least in form handed down to us, are in part very confident Q & A sessions with God, his "Friend", and to an extent include theological matter dismissing certain notions, practices, and spiritual agencies. One gathers that there was a sort of free for all in terms of appeal to higher agencies at his time, in the shared millieu of the region. Note that there is a small hop from Persian Deev to Devil to counter balance the Deva to Divine. Zartosht's message was nothing if this: not all powers are pure (holy) and there is a Cosmic Choice to be made, and that this choice has eternal consequences. According to him, the Good is fundamentally Creative and Truthful. The evil is a destroyer and a liar. (Direct analog of which you can find in the Gospels.) Accepting that, one can then easily map the Zoroastrian informative doctrine of 'Good thought, Good Speech, Good Action' to related Indian scripture (e.g. The Gita) and discourses on Karmic causality.
  - hndl 10y ago
    Interesting contrast on the vocabulary. A bit of Googling reveals a possible explanation: >In the field of religion there are some interesting contrasts. Words such as devá have the meaning of god in the Vedas have the meaning of devil in the Avesta. Likewise some names for Vedic gods show up in the Avesta as evil spirits. This is likely due to the ancestors of the migrants to North India being a competing tribe of the tribe responsible for the creation of the Avesta. Taken from: http://www.sjsu.edu/faculty/watkins/sanskritavestan.htm http://www.sjsu.edu/faculty/watkins/sanskritavestan.htm
HarryHirsch 10y ago
You'd think just that. The Parsi community is generally highly regarded and for some reason many business leaders belong to it. The Tata family is probably the best-known exponent.
- glitchc 10y ago
  Business is in our blood I guess. At the very least, we do it well :)
- Kalium 10y ago
  Endogamous-tending close-knit communities with cultural emphasis on education tend to have both high-trust and high-skill populations. Such groups are often well-placed to succeed in business.
futun 10y ago
Or: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Virtue_signalling https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Virtue_signalling

Robotbeat 10y ago

As a Christian, I sort of consider Zoroastrianism as an ancestor of my faith. It's very interesting.

yazaddaruvala 10y ago
Just as an fyi, Zoroastrians did harbor Jews for a few centuries. There is a lot of combined ideology
ColanR 10y ago
I had not heard that before. Any sources so I can fill in a knowledge gap?
- cygx 10y ago
  I'll leave the sources up to other people, but the general idea is that the more dualistic parts of later Jewish theology might have originated with Zoroastrianism. Heaven, hell and the devil as God's antagonist supposedly weren't part of the story originally: the devil used to be an angel with a job description that placed him in opposition to humanity, but not God, and everyone went to Sheol after death.