textual sources for the study of zoroastrianism

They were written long time ago in an otherwise unknown dialect.

It should be stressed that the Gâthâs are difficult to understand. Then as holy I have recognized Thee, Ahuramazda, when I saw Thee as First at the birth of life, when Thou didst appoint rewards for acts and words, bad for the bad, a good recompense for the good by Thy innate virtue, at the final turning point of the creation. An example: I shall recognize Thee as strong and holy, Ahuramazda, when Thou wilt help me by the hand with which Thou holdest the recompenses that Thou wilt give, through the heat of Thy truth-strong fire, to the wicked man and the just - and when the might of Good Purpose shall come to me. In the Gâthâs, Zarathustra addresses the supreme god Ahuramazda, which offers the prophet an opportunity to explain his own doctrines. This linguistic similarity suggests that the Gâthâs are very old indeed.

E.g., the Gathic word ahura, 'divine lord', is identical to the Vedic word asura. The language of these hymns resembles that of the Indian Rigveda, hymns that were probably composed in the Punjab between 15 BCE. The seventeen Gâthâs, probably composed by Zarathustra himself, are the oldest part of the Avesta ( overview). A difference with the Bible is that the Avesta often resembles a prayer book and has few narratives. Like the Bible, the Avesta (sometimes incorrectly called Zend-Avesta) is actually a library, containing different sacred texts which were written during a very long period in different languages. Table of contents Faravahar, the visual aspect of Ahuramazda.

Textual sources for the study of zoroastrianism