The Oriental Religions in Roman Paganism [1911] - Get a Free Blog

154 THE ORIENTAL RELIGIONS.
tempters and corrupters. An almost identical picture
of the pair could be drawn, and in fact they are prac
tically the same figure under different names. It is
generally admitted that Judaism took the notion of
an adversary of God^s from the Mazdeans along with
portions
of their dualism. It was therefore natural
that Jewish doctrine, of which Christianity is heir,
should have been closely allied to the mysteries of
Mithra. A considerable part of the more or less ortho
dox beliefs and visions that gave the Middle Ages their
nightmare of hell and the devil thus came from Persia
by two channels: on the one hand Judeo-Christian
on the
literature, both canonical and apocryphal ; and
other, the remnants of the Mithra cult and the various
sects of Manicheism that continued to preach the old
Persian doctrines on the antagonism between the two
world principles.
But a theoretical adherence of the mind to dogmas
that satisfy it, does not suffice to convert it to a new
religion. There must be motives of conduct and a
basis for hope besides grounds for belief. The Per
sian dualism was not only a powerful metaphysical
conception ; it was also the foundation of a very effi
cacious system of ethics, and this was the chief agent
in the success of the mysteries of Mithra during the
second and third centuries in the Roman world then
animated by unrealized aspirations for more perfect
justice and holiness.
A sentence of the Emperor Julian, 46 unfortunately
too brief, tells us that Mithra subjected his worshipers
to "commandments"* and rewarded faithful observ
ance both in this world and in the next. The impor-