BABYLON AND PERSIA

THE VENDIDAD. THE LESSER AVESTA. 1 57Mainyu of Mazdeism with the Biblical Satan, aswell as the close approach of Ahura-Mazda in sub¬limity and supremacy to Jehovah himself, (notYahveh, the tribalgod of the eariy Hebrews, butYahveh, the One God and Lord of the greatprophets), has long been acknowledged by thegreatest scholars; some of whom "'^ are much inclinedto attribute the similarity to direct Hebrew influ¬ences. All that can be said here on this very farreachingsubject is that we have historical evidenceof the possibility of contact and intercourse betweenthe Eranian and Semitic minds at least as eariy asthe eighth century B.C. ; since we know that Sargonof Assyria, when he carried Israeh away into captiv¬ity after the fall of Samaria, sent a number of Jewsto " the cities of the Medes." \ Also, the scene ofthe dramatic story told in the Book of Tobit, as oc¬curring in the reign of King Sennacherib, is placedin " Ecbatane, a city of Media," and in " Riiges ofMedia " (Rhagae), where we are shown Jewish fami¬lies residing permanently, keeping their law, andtransacting the varied business of life. The fiendAsmodeus, with whom young Tobias wrestled forhis wife, is no other than the Eranian Aeshma-Da¬eva, very slightly disguised by foreign pronunciation.So if the Jews borrowed from the Medes, the reverseis by no means improbable. Only we must remem¬ber that Ahura-Mazda stands forth in all his great-* Foremost among these, indeed too absolutely and sweepinglyFriedrich Spiegel ; also, within much more reasonable bounds Mgr.de Harlez." Story of Assyria," pp. 2.48, 249. ' ,