The Jewish and Zoroastrian People and Their Beliefs

AP World Comparative Essay

Every culture throughout history has unique aspects in their social, political, and cultural values. Jewish and Zoroastrian people are culturally very similar in their belief of one god and one faith but they differ in social aspects because of the way they deal with sinners and there respect towards other living things. The Jewish people have the Torah or Old Testament which is the law code and beliefs of the Jewish people. The Zoroastrian people have the Avesta which consists of twenty two Fargards that explain the principles of Zoroastrian beliefs. The Jewish and Zoroastrian people are comparable in the belief of one faith but they differentiate in the way they deal with sinners and there respect towards other living things. In the Torah it is explained, people who go against the Lord “must be cut off from their people” but in the Fargards sinners “become a Peshotanu” and “corpse bearers […] shall wash [the] hair and [the] bodies” of dead sinners with urine. This sentence conveys that it was socially acceptable to outcast a person because they have went against god in the Torah, but in Zoroastrian faith it was socially adequate for sinners to become Peshotanu which are people subjected to two hundred stripes with the Aspahe-astra and Sraosho-karana.
Once dead it was a social norm to wash there bodies with urine in a place where birds and animals could eat their bodies. In the Torah it was a social rule that respect be given to “your mother and father” and that you “love your neighbor as yourself.” In Zoroastrian society it was a sin if “a man gives bones too hard to a Shepard’s dog or to a house-dog.” In the Torah respecting and loving your parents and neighbor is very important while in the Fargards there is a different social emphasis on respecting and caring for animals.
Jewish belief was that man have faith in the one true god and “have no other gods”, while in Zoroastrians believed it was a sin if a man “teaches one of the faithful another faith.” Both societies are akin in their culture of having one god and one faith at all times, and never changing your beliefs. This cultural similarity is a result of Zoroastrianism having a very major influence in the development of many religions including Judaism. The Jewish and Zoroastrian people are culturally very similar in the belief of one god and one faith but they disagree in social aspects of the way they deal with sinners and there respect towards other living things. These are both very old religions that have had a great influence throughout history and even today in people’s political, social, and cultural beliefs.