Christ in History Or the Central Power Among Men

ancient fire-worshippers. Considerable dispute exists as to the primitive form of this religion, and some apparently well- grounded doubts have been cast upon the genuineness of the Zend-Avesta. Many learned men, however, allow it, in the main, to be the work or compilation of their great religious teacher, Zer- dnsht, or Zoroaster, who is supposed to have flourished before the time of Cyrus. Still the work- is fragmentary, consisting mainly of occasional institutes, prayers, and other liturgical forms. Those most competent to form an opinion say that it has the appearance of a work consisting of some original materials, with successive additions and emendations. It was brought origir nally from India byAnquetil Du Perron, by whom it was translated and published in 1771, and has ever since been the subject of frequent discussion among Oriental scholars. Upon the whole, we are compelled, from the present state of the evidence, to conclude that its genuineness, or at least its extreme antiquity, is a matter of great doubt. Zerdusht himself begins to appear almost as a mythic character.! Still the probability is, that there was such a personage, and that he gave form and pressure to the old Magian faith. Dean Prideaux and some other learned men think that the compiler of the Zend-Avesta derived much of his knowledge from the Hebrew Scriptures, perhaps from Daniel, and the Jewish exiles long resident among the Magi at the court of the Chaldean monarch. The suppositio...