Zoroaster

ZOROASTER. I should not speak of this famous Man here, had not he been confounded with Abraham; and if in Scripture there had not been mention made of the Chamanims, or Temples consecrated to Fire, which was the principal Object of the Worship of the Disciples of Zoroaster.

The Learned are much divided as to the Time in which Zoroaster lived. We shall first propose the Opinions of the Orientals, and then those of the Greeks and Latins. The Orientals generally call him Zerdasht, or Zaradasht, or Zerdoust. The Work entituled, The Book of the Philosopher Giamasb,¹ says, that in the Year 1300 after the Deluge, Zoroaster began to appear, and to instruct Men in the Worship and Adoration of Fire. That after his Death, Kistab the Son of Lohorasb, who reigned in Persia, embraced his Religion, and continued firmly attached to it.

Under the Reign of this Prince lived the great Philosopher Giamasb, surnamed the Magian, who in his Book of the great Conjunctions, says, that during the great Conjunction of the Planets, which happened 1300 Years after the Deluge, in the Month Schebat, under the Reign of Feridoun King of Persia, of the first Dynasty; God sent the Prophet Zerdasche, or Zoroaster.

He says a little farther; after Zoroaster, and since the building of the Pyræa, or Temples appointed for the Worship of Fire, there happened the second Conjunction, called a very great one, and there then came out of the Mountains of the third Climate a Person named The Master of the Virgin, (meaning Moses) who founded another Religion differing from that of Zoroaster. This is the oldest Account we have of Zoroaster. The Book of Giamasb is not suppositious, no more than another which is ascribed to Zoroaster himself, and which bears the Name of Kesab-al -Keranat. This observes, as well as the first, that the Master of the Virgin, or Moses, appeared under the second great Conjunction of the Planets; and they agree in this with the Sentiments of the ancient Persians, who all contend that Zoroaster was more ancient than Moses.²

Upon this Supposition Zoroaster must have appeared in the World thirteen hundred Years after the Deluge; that is to say, according to the Chronology which we follow, in the Year of the World 2956, before Christ 1044, before the Vulgar Æra 1048. And, consequently, a great while after Moses, who came out of Egypt in the Year of the World 2513, before Christ 1487, before the Vulgar Æra 1491. Thus the Chronology of the Persians must be erroneous, who will have Zoroaster to be much more ancient than Moses, and yet believe that he appeared 1300 Years after the Deluge. It must therefore be admitted, that he did not begin to appear till the Beginning of the Reign of David over Israel, after the Death of Ishbosheth.

The Magians of Persia,a to procure the greater Authority to their Doctrine, maintain that their Master Zoroaster is the same as the Patriarch Abraham; who having been cast into a burning Furnace by the Order of Nimrod, whose Idolatry he had condemned, was miraculously delivered from thence, without suffering the least harm. The Sight of this Miracle converted a great number of Persons, and drew after Abraham, whom now they called Abraham Zerdascht, which is, Abraham a Friend of Fire, an infinite number of Followers, who were easily persuaded by him to pay their Adoration to the Fire. Therefore it was in Mesopotamia and Chaldea, that the first Pyræa, or Temples of Fire, were set up.

But this Opinion is still more insupportable than the former, upon many Accounts. First, from Chronology: Nimrod was born soon after the Deluge; for the Scripture represents him as building Cities, and founding a great Monarchy, quickly after the raising of the Tower of Babel. Therefore, if we place his Birth about the Year of the World 1660, four or five Years after the Deluge, he must be 423 Years old at the time that Abraham came out of the City of Ur, to go into the Land of Canaan, in the Year of the World 2083, before Christ 1917, before the Vulgar Æra 1921. But it would be a rare Example of Longevity to find any that were born after the Deluge to arrive to such an Age.

But if we grant that Nimrod might have known and persecuted Abraham; what Proof is there that he ordered him to be cast into the Fire, and that he came out of it again safe and sound? ‘Tis true, the Jews and Orientals affirm this; but upon what Foundation? It is because the Scripture says, he came out of Ur: Ur is the Hebrew Word for Fire, and therefore he came out of the Fiery Furnace. Would Moses have related a Fact of such Consequence in so slight and superficial a manner? The very way in which he relates this, does it not prove that Ur stands for a City? And Haran died before his father Gen. Terah, in the land of his nativity, in Ur of xi. 28,

31. the Chaldees. And afterwards, And Terah took Abram his son, and Lot the son of Haran, his son’s son, and Sarai his daughter-in-law, his son Abram’s wife; and they went forth with them from Ur of the Chaldees, to go into the land of Canaan. And in another place, I am the Lord that Gen. brought thee out of Ur of the Chaldees. Do xv. 7. not all these Passages concur to prove, that Ur is the Name of a City; for who ever supposed, that Terah, Abram, Lot, and Sarai were all thrown into the Fire by the Chaldeans? Indeed St. Jerome has translated that of Nehemiah ix. 7. by, Thou broughtest Abram forth out of the fire of the Chaldees, because he thought proper to render Ur in a literal manner: But in his Hebrew Questions he treats all that as a Fable, which the Jews had advanced of Abraham’s being delivered out of the Fire.

It would be doing an Injury to Religion, and to the Piety of Abraham, to imagine, that he could have established or promoted the Worship of Fire in the East. It does not appear from his true History, as it is related in Genesis, that he ever paid any particular Honour to this Element, or that he ever recommended it to his Children, to express any Devotion towards it. The ancient Israelites, who, doubtless, were well instructed in the Sentiments of their Father, have always had this Worship in abhorrence, as well as the Worship of any other Creatures. I shall not enquire, whether the Followers of Zoroaster have either heretofore, or do at this present, pay an absolute Adoration to the Element of Fire, or only a relative one. It is sufficient for my purpose to shew, that Abraham never did or taught any thing like it, and consequently he was a Person very different from Zoroaster.

The other Oriental Authors³ make Zoroaster to have lived a long time after Abraham. Kendomir, in the Life of Kischstab Son of Loborasb says, that Zoroaster having learned by the Rules of Astrology, that a great Prophet was to be born; he took it in his head to persuade the World that he himself was that Prophet. To succeed in this he often raised the Devil, who appeared to him in the midst of a Fire, and communicated a kind of luminous Brightness to his Body. This Splendor in which he appeared from time to time, and the Boldness a D’Herbelot. p. 931. b D’Herbelot. Bibl. Orient. p. 931. Boldness with which he affirmed himself to be a Messenger from God, procured him much Credit from many. He composed a Book by the Name of Zend, which contained his whole Doctrine, and all that the Devil had instructed him in out of the Fire, being transformed into an Angel of Light. The same Author says, that those who will not allow Zoroaster to be so old as this, will have him to have learned out of the Books of the Hebrews, that after Moses there was to come another great Prophet, described by Balaam under the Image of a Star, and a Light; and that he undertook to put himself upon the World as this Light.

The Tarik Monsheheb teaches us, that Zoroaster was a Disciple of the Prophets Elijah and Elisha, and of the Rechabites, from whom he learned the Secret of the Prophecies of the Jews; but that corrupting them by a mixture of his own particular Fancies, he composed from thence his Book of Life. He was the first, as the same Author says, who started the Doctrine of the two Principles of Good and Evil; and that the Name of Megiousch, or Magians, which is given to his Disciples, is a Word corrupted from the Persian Word Meikousch, which signifies bitter-sweet, because of the two Principles of Good and Evil, which he introduced.

According to the two Persian Authors before quoted, Zoroaster was cotemporary with Kischtasb, Son of Lohorasb, the fifth King of Persia of the Dynasty of the Caianians; that this Prince espoused the Doctrine of this Impostor, caused it to be embraced by all his Subjects, and built Pyræa throughout all Persia. But King Kischtasb is the same as Hystaspes, or Darius Son of Hystaspes, of the Greeks, and consequently that Zoroaster could not live till after the Captivity of Babylon. Others make him cotemporary with Jeremiah, Daniel, and Ezra, and make his Father Lohorasb cotemporary with Nebuchadnezzar and Belshazzar. All this brings down Zoroaster very much below the time of Abraham.

The Christiansa make Oriental Zoroaster to have been cotemporary with Cambyses. Some of them make him a Native of Media, and others of Assyria, and will have him to have been a Disciple of Elijah, probably because this Prophet was 2 Kings ii. 11.taken up into a fiery Chariot, and that he made Fire to fall down upon those who were sent to apprehend him, and afterwards 10, 12. 2 Kings xviii. 38.upon the Victims that he offer’d to the Lord upon Mount Carmel. Moreover, it is said by Abulfarage, that Zoroaster foretold to his Followers the Coming of the Messiah, informed them that a new

a Apud Abulpharag. 5 Dynastic. Star should appear at his Birth; that this Messiah was to be born of a Virgin; and that they should have the first Information of it, and that they should not fail to go to offer him their Presents. To this the Magi were obedient, who went to worship Jesus Christ at Bethlehem. The Anachronism is very apparent, that makes Zoroaster to have lived at the same time as Cambyses and Elijah, who lived at times very distant from each other. Cambyses died in the Year of the World 3483, and Elijah was taken out of the World about the Year 3108.

Ebn-Batrick, otherwise Eutychius, Patriarch of Alexandria, thinks that Zoroaster was cotemporary with Smerdis, the Successor of Cambyses, Predecessor to Darius Son of Hystaspes, and that he lived under Thamurah King of Persia, of the first Dynasty of the Pischdadians. The Author of Tarik Montekeb seems to think that Zoroaster was the same as Smerdis now mentioned, and Chief of the Sect of the Guebres, whom the Magians placed upon the Throne. For the Persian Name of Mikhousch, which is an Abridgment of Mickgousch, very well agrees with Smerdis, who had his Ears cut off.

Ben-schunah pretends, that Zoroaster was a Disciple of Esdras, and that this Prophet gave him his Curse, because he maintained Opinions that were very contrary to Judaism. That to punish him for his Impiety, God struck him with a Leprosy, as he did Gehazi formerly: And that on this account being drove away from Jerusalem, he withdrew into Persia, where he became the Head of a new Religion. The Persians were then Zabians, he taught them the Worship of Fire, and made a Mixture of Zabiism and Magism, of which he was the first Inventor. Hence it is that many confound the Zabians with the Magians.

Other Persian Authors will have it, that Zoroaster was of the Number of those who undertook to build the Tower of Babel. Others confound him with Dobac; one of the Kings of Persia of the first Dynasty of the Pischdadians; others make him to descend from Manougeher King of Persia of the same Dynasty; so little are the Persians themselves agreed about the Age of this famous Impostor.

Many Authors, both ancient and modern, among the Orientals, will have Zoroaster to have been, not the Inventor, but Reformer of Magism. And indeeed we read in the Histories of the most ancient Kings of Persia, that the Worship of Fire had commenced even from the times of Cavimarrath the first Founder of this great Monarchy of the Persians, accord ing to the Orientals, or, rather, of the Assyrians, according to the Greeks and Latins. But, according to them, this was the Original of their Worship: Caiumarrath having lost his Son Siamek, who was assassinated by Robbers, he caused a great Funeral Pile to be erected and burnt on the Place where he was buried. All his Subjects, in Emulation one of another, lighted up also great Fires through all Persia, to shew their Concern for the Loss of this young Prince. These Fires by Degrees became the Object of their Worship, and the Foundation of their Religion.

Let us now come to such Greek Authors as have spoke of Zoroaster. Eudoxus a places him six thousand Years before the Death of Plato. Aristotle does the same. Hermodorus,⁴ Hermippus,⁵ and Plutarch,⁶ will have him to have lived five thousand Years before the Trojan War. But Xanthus the Lydian,⁷ and another anonymous Author, followed by Suidas,⁸ are contented to place him, one of them five hundred Years before the Siege of Troy, and the other six hundred before the Expedition of Cyrus against Greece. This last Opinion is that of Xanthus the Lydian, whom Suidas supposes to have lived under the Reign of Darius the Son of Hystaspes, and whose Testimony would be much more weighty than it is, if we were sure, that the Writings which went under his Name were really his. But Atheneus,⁹ acquaints us, that the Works that bear his Name were composed by a Greek called Dionysius Scythobrachion, who lived a little time before Julius Cæsar. Justin says,¹⁰ that Zoroaster was King of Bactriana, and cotemporary with Ninus King of Assyria; that he invented the Magical Art, and was very skilful in Astronomy, and in the Knowledge of Antiquity; that Ninus made War upon him, conquered him, and took away his Life. Pliny¹¹ acknowledges two Zoroasters: One very ancient, one who lived, as he says, several thousands of Years before the Magical Sects of Moses, of Jamnes, and of Jotapus. This Zoroaster was of Persia, and is supposed to be the most ancient Inventor of Magick. The other was of Proconesus, and lived but a little while before Ostanes, who followed Xerxes in his Expedition against Greece. It is plain that it is impossible to reconcile, either the Oriental Authors with each other, or the Greek and Latin Authors among themselves, or with the Orientals; not even by admitting of two Zoroasters, or as many as you please.

John Cassian, Petrus Comestor, the spurious Berosus, Father Kircher, Father Scipio Sgambat, and some others,¹² have thought that Ham was the same as Zoroaster, the Inventor of Magick. The Author of the Recognitions that go under the Name of St. Clement,¹³ thinks him to have been Mizraim the Son of Ham. The Author of the Paschal Chronicle has followed the same Opinion. Gregory of Tours has confounded Zoroaster with Cush the Son of Ham. He who has given us the pretended Writings of St. Clement confounds him with Nimrod; Franciscus Patricius with Japheth. The Gospel of the Infancy of Jesus Christ informs us,¹⁴ that the Magi who came to worship Christ at Bethlehem, had notice of his Birth from their Master Zoroaster. And George Hornius has pretended that Zoroaster was the same as Balaam, mentioned by Moses. It must be owned to be a very difficult Matter to make a judicious and secure Choice among all this Variety of Opinions; and that to undertake to reconcile them would be utterly impossible. Lastly, the greatest Proof of Uncertainty in Historical Facts, is the Diversity of Opinions, which cannot be greater in any thing than in the Subject before us.

Isai. xxvii. 9.If to pave a way for our selves to come to the Knowledge of Zoroaster, we should endeavour to trace out the Original of Fireworship, we should soon find our-selves surrounded by new Perplexities. For Moses, according to the Sentiments of several learned Men, has spoke of the Pyræa, or the Temples consecrated to the Worship of this Element. ‘Tis in Leviticus,¹⁵ under the Word Chamanim. God there threatens the Israelites, if they should be disobedient to his Commands, to overthrow their High-places, and to destroy their Chamanim, or Places consecrated to the Worship of Fire, or of the Sun, and to throw their own Carkasses upon the Carkasses of their Gods of Dirt. Isaiah makes use of the same Word Chamanim; he likewise threatens the infidel Jews to overthrow their profane Groves, and their Chamanim.

2 Kings xxiii. 5. Hos. x. 5.There are some of opinion, that the Chamanim mentioned in the Second Book of Kings, in Hosea, and in Zephaniah,¹⁶ are no other than the Priests, or Magi, who kept up the sacred Fire in the Pyræa¹⁷. The Word Chamanim signifies black or sooty, a Name given in Derision to those Priests, who, like Colliers, were always employed in stirring up and maintaining the Fire. King 2 Chron. xxxiv. 4.Josiah destroyed the Altars of Baal, and overturned the Chamanim, which were above, or over them, and the Groves consecrated to false Gods. All this shews the Antiquity of this piece of Superstition and Idolatry.

Some think that the perpetual Fire which Moses ordered to be kept up upon the Altar of the Lord, was an Imitation of the Fire of the Magi, and a Condescension of Moses to the Weakness of the Hebrews, who had been long accustomed to see those sorts of Fires kept up in the Temples of the Pagans. Theophrastus, cited by Eusebius,¹⁸ puts the Custom of keeping a continual Fire in the Temples among the most ancient Practices of Religion. Ammianus Marcellinus says,¹⁹ that the Magi pretended the Fire of their Temples descended from Heaven. They always carried Fire before the Kings of Persia. It cannot be said that Zoroaster and the Magians had borrowed this from the Jews, since Moses already mentioned the Chamanim, which subsisted still in Israel in the time of Isaiah, and after him under Josiah King of Judah.

If therefore Zoroaster be the first Author of the Worship of Fire, he must be acknowledged to be more ancient than Moses. If he be only the Reformer or Restorer of it, he may be put some time after Cyrus; and if there have been several Men under the Name Zoroaster, this will allow a greater Scope for Conjectures, and for a variety of Opinions concerning his Person. We therefore cannot espouse any Party, as to the precise Time in which he lived. But it seems plain to us, that the Zoroaster who appeared in Asia a little after Cyrus, and formed the Religion of the Magi, was a mere Pagan; that he paid an impious Worship to the Heavenly Bodies, and to Fire, and to the two Principles, one of which was subordinate to the other; and that this ancient Religion was very different from that of the modern Guebres, or Gaures, who call themselves Disciples of Zoroaster, and who worship the Fire; but with the ancient Religion of their Master they have mingled other Opinions, taken from the Jews and Christians. We have spoken of the ancient Magi, and of their Principles of Religion, under their respective Article. We shall now speak concerning the Guebres, or Fire-worshippers, which are found at present in the Indies and in Persia.

Dr. Hyde, who had much studied the old Religion of the Persians, pretends that Zoroaster was the greatest Impostor that ever appeared in the World; except Mahomet. This last was utterly ignorant, and could neither write nor read; whereas Zoroaster, according to him, was very well versed in all the Sciences of the Orientals, and especially in the Religion of the Jews, and in the Books of the Old Testament, which make him think he was originally a Jew, and born in the Holy Land. He imagines him to have been a Disciple of the Prophet Daniel, and that having observed this great Man to be advanced to the chief Dignities, he resolved also to raise himself up into a Prophet, and to endeavour by that to arrive at the same good Fortune. He did not found any new Religion; he only undertook to reform that of the Magians, which for several Ages had been the prevailing Religion of the Medes and Persians.

But it appears, that Dr. Hyde has suffered himself to be too much prepossessed in favour of the Disciples of Zoroaster; and that he has not enough distinguished between the Creed of the ancient Magians, and that of the modern Guebres, or Gaures. He pretends, that the old Persians had just Notions of the Deity; and that they admitted but of one God: That indeed they received two Principles, but one of them was uncreated, and the other created: That the Worship they paid to the Sun was merely Civil. But the ancient Authors who have spoke of the Religion of the Persians, are unanimously agreed, that they adored the Sun and Fire, each of them by the Name of Mithras. If the modern Fire-Worshippers explain themselves differently, and if they have espoused several Opinions taken from the Religion of the Jews, of the Mahometans, or of the Christians, we are not to charge that to the account of their Master Zoroaster.

The Guebres hold, for Example, that there is a Sovereign, Independant Being; which has existed of itself from all Eternity. That under this Being there are two Angels, one of Light, which is the Author of Good, and the other of Darkness, which is the Author of Evil. That these two Angels have formed all things that exist, from a Mixture of Light and Darkness. Anciently the Magians built their Temples uncovered, upon the Tops of Mountains, and upon other Eminences, in the open Air, which they consecrated to Fire. But as their sacred Fire was often extinguished by Rain, Storms, and Tempests, they built Temples over these Altars, that their consecrated Fires might not be put out, and that they might the better perform their Ceremonies therein. It was before these Fires that they exercised all their Acts of Religion. The Ancients are universally agreed, that they paid them the highest Degree of Adoration: But those of this Age as constantly deny that they worship the Fire, but God only, under the Symbol of Fire. They always approach these Fires on the Western Side, so that they have always their Faces turned towards the Sun-rising and the Fire.

Ezek. viii. 16. Isai. xlv. 5, 6, 7.The Prophet Isaiah seems to have had in view the Error of the Magi concerning the two Principles, when he says, I am the Lord, and there is none else; there is no God besides me. I girded thee, though thou hast not known me. That they may know, from the rising of the sun, and from the west, that there is none besides me; I am the Lord, and there is none else. I form the light, and create darkness; I make peace, and create evil. I, the Lord, do all these things. ‘Tis the God of Israel, who addresses these Words to Cyrus King of Persia. Ezekiel, speaking of these Idolaters, says, At the door of the temple of the Lord, between the porch and the altar, were about five and twenty men, with their backs towards the temple of the Lord, and their faces towards the east; and they worshipped the sun towards the east. All this is a manifest Allusion to the Worship of the Magians, the Disciples of Zoroaster.

This Impostor feigned, that he had brought a sacred Fire from Heaven, and had deposited it upon the Altar of the first temple that he caused to be built in the City of Xiz, in Media, from whence it was propagated into all the other Temples which observed the Rites of the Magians. And such was the Respect that the Priests had for this pretended sacred Fire, that they watched it Night and Day, to keep it in, and never blowed it, either with their Mouth or Bellows, for fear of profaning it. This was forbid them on pain of Death; and they carried this Superstition so far, that the Priests could not so much as approach to this Fire, without a Linnen Cloth before their Mouths, for fear their Breath should pollute it. Thence it was also, that when they performed their Ceremonies, they rather muttered between their Teeth, than pronounced their Prayers in an intelligible and articulate manner.

From Media, Zoroaster passed into Bactriana, where he fixed his Abode in the City of Baleh; from thence he proceeded into the Indies, and became skilful in all the Sciences that were in request there. He returned to Baleh, which lies upon the River Oxus, in the Confines of Persia, the Indies, and Cowaresman, where he built the chief of his Temples, and ordered all his Followers to make their Pilgrimage thither. But after that Persia was ravaged by the Mahometans in the seventh Century, the Archimagus fixed his Residence at Kerman; and the Temple of this Place is not in less repute than that of Baleh was formerly.

The Magians have even at this Day a Book, which they pretend to have been composed by Zoroaster. He wrote it in a Cave whither he retired; it was wrote in twelve Volumes, each of which contained an hundred Skins of Vellum. This Book is called Zendavesta, and Zend by Contraction. This Word literally signifies Light-fire, and might with us stand for a Tinder-box. The first Part of this Book contains their Liturgy, which they now make use of in their Temples. The rest treats of other Matters of their Religion. The Magians have the same Respect for this Book as we have for our Bible: It is wrote in old Language, and in the old Persian or Chaldee Characters. Dr. Hyde offered himself to publish this Work, with a Latin Translation, if he could have been assisted in defraying the Expences of the Edition. But for want of this Assistance, his Project was never put in Execution.

In this Book we find many things taken out of the Old Testament, and a great part of the Psalms of David. Zoroaster there makes Adam and Eve to have been the first of Mankind. He there gives the History of the Creation of the World, very like to that of Moses, with this Difference, that whereas Moses says that God created the World in six Days, Zoroaster will have it to have been created at six different times, each made up of a certain number of Days, which in all come to three hundred and sixty-five Days, or a whole Year. He also speaks of Abraham, of Joseph, of Moses, and of Solomon, in the same manner as the Scriptures do. He calls his Book the Book of Abraham, and his Religion the Religion of Abraham. He gives the same Laws as Moses, concerning clean and unclean Animals, the Payment of Tythes to the Priests, the Care that must be used to avoid all kinds of Pollution, both internal and external, concerning the Manner of being purified after them; the Continuation of the Priesthood in the same Tribe; concerning the Ordination of an High-Priest. The rest of this Book contains the History of the Life and Prophecies of the Author, and Exhortations to Virtue. His Morality is pure, excepting that he looks upon Incest as an indifferent Matter.

All these Marks prove incontestably, that Zoroaster was after Moses; and other Particulars, which the Guebres relate of the Author of their Sect, taken from the History of Jesus Christ, prove that they have mingled their old Superstitions with some Truths of the Christian Religion, and with some Christian Usages, which they have however altered and corrupted in several manners. They say, for example, that the Mother of the Prophet who was their Founder, found herself with Child after a Visit that she had received from an Angel; that the Astrologers knew by the Power of their Art, that the Son she should bring into the World would be a Prophet, who should form a new Sect. They gave notice of it to Neubrom, or Nimrod, who then reigned. This Prince gave Orders, that all the Women with Child then in his Empire should be put to death. This Order was put in execution; but the big Belly of the Prophet’s Mother not being discovered, she was saved. The Child was happily brought into the World, and was called Ebrahim-Zer-Atcuscht. The King being informed of his Birth, had him brought into his Presence, and drawing forth his Sabre, intended to kill him with his own Hand; but his Arm was presently dried up, and withered. He caused a great Fire to be lighted, and had the Infant thrown into it: But it took its Rest there, as if he had been on a Bed of Roses. After several other Miracles, the Prophet disappeared, and was taken up, according to some, both Body and Soul, into Heaven; according to others, he was laid upon an Iron Couch, and carried away by Angels.

After that Ebraim-Zer-Atcuscht was enter’d into Paradise, God sent to his Disciples, by his Means, Seven Books, which contained the true Religion; after them, seven others, of the Explication of Dreams; then seven others, of Physick. When Alexander became Master of the East, he had the seven first burnt, because no body understood the Language in which they were wrote, and kept the other fourteen for his own Use. After the Death of this Conqueror, the Gaures restored, as far as their Memories could assist them, the seven Books that had been burnt, and made them into one large Volume, which the Gaures still preserve, though they do not understand the Language of it, nor even the Character, which is different from the Arabick, the Persian, or the Indian. This is what we are told of it by certain modern Travellers, who were not so well informed concerning the Character and Language of the Books of Zoroaster, as the Authors we have quoted before.

The Guebres, or Gaures, have still a Respect for Fire; they still keep it with great Care, and distribute it every Month among those of their own Sect. They call it Heavenly Fire, and swear by this Element, but they do not worship it. They acknowledge but one only God, the Creator of Heaven and Earth. They wash their Children after their Birth with warm Water, while the Magus, or Gazi, repeats some Prayer. When they are married, a Gazi rubs the Foreheads of the married Couple with a certain Water, over which the Gazi has said some Prayers. They believe the general Resurrection, and think that before that time all Nations will unite into one Religion, which will be that of their Prophet. All these Characters seem to be borrowed from Christianity. Every Gaure may have five Wives; but there is always one of these who has the Superiority over the rest: This is taken from Judaism.

The greatest part of those who have written about Pythagoras, will have him to have been a Disciple of Zoroaster at Babylon, and that he derived from him all that great Knowledge which afterwards made him so famous in the West. This is what is said by Apuleius,²⁰ Jamblicus,²¹ Porphyry,²² and Clemens Alexandrinus.²³ The Zabratus, or Zaratus, of Porphyry, and the Nazaratus of Clemens, are no other than Zoroaster. When Cambyses conquered Egypt, he there found Pythagoras travelling; he took him Prisoner, and, with other Captives, sent him to Babylon. There he became acquainted with Zoroaster, or Zabratus, who was there at that time.²⁴ Zabratus purified him from all the Defilements of his former Life, instructed him in such things as a virtuous Man should be possessed of; taught him the Secrets of Nature, and what are the Principles of the Universe. We shall not here enter upon an Examination of all these things: Perhaps here is already too much of them for a Dictionary of the Bible. The Reader may see, under the Article of EZEKIEL, that some have thought Pythagoras was acquainted with this Prophet, and that it was he whom the Ancients intended to mark out by the Name of Nazaratus, or Zaratus.

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