Published in Mystic and Millenarianism in Middle Ages

PDF download:

2012_01_01.pdf

This essay consists in a critical evaluation of the Iranian contribution to the origins of Judaeo-Christian millennialism through Zoroastrianism and Zurvanism. With that aim, the beginnings of Iranian millennialism with Zarathustra (Zoroaster) are reviewed, and the reason for the creation of finite time, as well as its function as a bridge to the coming epoch of unlimited time, are analysed. Some aspects of the Greek reception and transmission of Iranian eschatological ideas are briefly discussed; the relation between Zoroastrian millennialism and soteriology is evaluated, and finally some traces of the lasting western heritage of Zoroastrian apocalypticism are pointed out.