While America and Iran seek to heal their long-standing wounds, and the rogue state of Israel continues to wreak havoc in the region, I investigated still a little more into the Unholy Alliance between the United States of America and the modern Israeli state.
We in the West are often told that Christians should feel indebted to the Jews, and that Western civilization is a combination of the philosophical traditions of Christianity and the ancient Greek and Roman empires. The narrative goes that in the absence of Judaism the notion of one God would never have come about, and that the Holy Trinity could never have been revealed. What we are not told is that Zoroaster (Zarathushtra) appeared before Abraham, and that like Abraham rejected the polytheistic religious beliefs of his youth.
Whereas Zoroaster was active in the Eastern half of modern Iran, Abraham was born and raised in Mesopotamia (modern Iraq).
At the time of Abraham’s birth the ancient civilizations of Mesopotamia consisted of several polytheistic kingdoms or city-states. There was no dominant empire and alliances came and went. With no single major power center in place, no single religious idea dominated the region. This made it possible for lesser religious notions to find ground. Certain is that the monotheism of Zoroaster was already in place to the east of Mesopotamia, when Abraham quit his homeland and headed west. In other words his first notion of a monotheistic being might very well have come from that of the teaching of Zoroaster (Zarathushtra).
What is certain is that the Babylonian empire did not appear until much later, and that it was clearly polytheistic in nature. By the time Babylon crushed the Jews, laid waste their temple, and enslaved them in large number, the Jews had occupied the region of Canaan for several centuries. During this period the Jews had no concept of heaven and hell. Death was not something toward which a Jew sought salvation or found damnation. It was only after those living in the south of modern-day Iran conquered Babylon, and the Achaemenid empire was established, that the Jews adopted the notion of heaven and hell — and this very likely due to the influence of the Achaemenid-Persians whose culture was now dominated by the teachings of Zoroaster (Zarathushstra). Zoroaster believed in an after-life of salvation or damnation, and it was the Alchaemenid-Persians whose leadership freed the Jews from their Babylonian enslavement. Only then did the notion of Heaven and Hell enter into the Jewish faith via the teachings of their prophet Daniel.
When Christ came onto the scene a half millennium later he rejected the Covenant of Abraham as a failed doctrine and a new Covenant — the Christian Gospel — was created. It drew from many of the ideas of the Jews who had drawn important ideas from the Zoroastrians. I bring this matter up, because the teachings of Zoroaster are still followed in the modern-day state of Iran today.
Noteworthy, in regard to the summer solstice is the Persian calendar that divides the calendar year into12 months beginning with the spring (vernal) equinox. It then counts six months of 31 days each until the autumnal equinox and the beginning of fall. After which it counts five months of 30 days with the final month equal to 29 or 30 depending on the year. In other words the first half of the Persian calendar is longer than the second half reflecting the fact that the earth does not travel around the sun in a circular, but rather elliptical orbit. The calendar was developed during the Achaemenid-Zorastrian tradition of ancient Persia (modern Iran), and the beginning of each season is perfectly punctuated by the vernal and autumnal equinoxes and summer and winter soltices.
Today is the day of the summer solstice. We have just completed the first three months of the Persian calendar. I wish you all a very happy Summer Soltice.
Roddy A. Stegemann