Zoroastrian Saviour Imagery and Its Influence on ... - Kaveh Farrokh

<strong>Zoroastrian</strong> <strong>Saviour</strong> <strong>Imagery</strong> I77
... the hour is coming when all who are in the tombs will hear his (i.e. the
Son of Man's) voice <strong>and</strong> come forth.
That this is not only a reference to the Lazarus episode, but also
to the eschatological resurrection is shown by the words which follow:
those who have done good, to the resurrection of life, <strong>and</strong>
those who have done evil, to the resurrection
of judgement.
Similary in Jn. 6:54 Jesus declares:
I will raise him up at the last day.
The background to this development is not clear. In the inter-testa-
mental literature the earliest text to speak of the dead being raised at
the advent of the Messiah is II Baruch 30: I second half of the first
century A.D.) which may be subject to Christian influence. 69). In I
Enoch 5I:1-3 the resurrection is said to occur in the days when the
Elect One arises, if one accepts Charles' transposition of verse 5a to
the end of verse I, 70) but that is far from certain. Unless this trans-
position is made the passage simply refers to the resurrection without
relating it to the arrival of the <strong>Saviour</strong>. There is, therefore, no earlier
evidence for the association of the <strong>Saviour</strong> with the resurrection than
the New Testament.
The <strong>Saviour</strong> <strong>and</strong> the Judgement Scene
The idea of a final judgement of those who oppose the will of God
is an old one in Israelite belief. Precisely how old does not matter
here, it is sufficient to notice that it occurs in Isaiah 3. The general
belief was in a judgement of the nations who opposed Israel, <strong>and</strong> in
the establishment of God's chosen nation, Israel. Some of the prophets,
Amos 5:8 for example, condemned blind hope in this, <strong>and</strong> warned
that it would be a day of darkness <strong>and</strong> not of light.
The inter-testamental literature generally stresses the forensic cha-
racter of the judgement scene in terms unlike the Old Testament. 71).
Some books retain the idea of the establishment of the nation of Israel
69) Eissfeldt, p. 630; Russell, pp. 64 f; Volz, p. 255.
70) Apocrypha <strong>and</strong> Pseudipigrapha, II, p. 218.
71) See Russell, p. 383.
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