Iranian influence on JudaismThis essay lays out a sophisticated and promising new approach to the problem.
The question of Iranian influence is of some importance for understanding the development of the Hebrew Bible, the history of Second Temple Judaism, and the emergence of the genre known today as the apocalypse. Understanding the origins of ideas is of interest on its own; however, the ability to pinpoint influence more specifically offers evidence for dating changes in religious thought, as well as enabling a better understanding of the ways imported ideas were adapted by Judaism. Thus, understanding how ideas parallel other systems, were borrowed from them, and adapted for a new religion improves the contextual understanding of a religion and its texts, in our case Second Temple Judaism, the Hebrew Bible, and the Dead Sea Scrolls.
See Also: Persepolis and Jerusalem (T&T Clark Int’l, 2012)
By Jason M Silverman
Trinity College Dublin
October 2011
(Via Robert Cargill at XKV8R.)