History of Zoroastrianism/Chapter 18
CHAPTER XVIII
THE IDEA OF GOD IN THE MILLENNIUM
Yahweh, the only God of the Hebrews. We have already seen the eclipse of the old gods and the rise of the new ones in India during the millennium that opened with Zarathushtra and ended with the advent of Jesus. The monotheistic idea greatly developed during this period among the Jews who were a subject race under the Persians and whose religion was influenced by Zoroastrianism. As Judaism later gave much to Christianity and Mohammedanism, the knowledge of the belief in the godhead among this people is of great interest, and we shall discuss it in brief.
A race of sturdy nomads of Semitic stock tending their flocks from times immemorial in the Arabian desert, of handsome features with prominent aquiline nose, is seen settling down in Palestine about thirteen centuries before the Christian era. Many of their kinsmen had laboured and suffered as slaves in Egypt, until Moses brought them deliverance. The Hebrews, as the people are known to history, found their new settlement already populated by the civilized Canaanites. The new-comers intermarried with them and adopted their civilization. They succeeded later in founding a kingdom, and under the heroic ruler David, Jerusalem became the centre of Jewish religious life and the sanctuary of their national God Yahweh. During the period of the divided kingdoms of Judah and Israel prophetic literature of great value arose and enriched human thought. The kingdom of Israel ended in 721 b.c., and Judah met with her destruction in 586 b.c. The Persians brought the Jews deliverance and allowed them to restore the temple of Jerusalem that was destroyed by Nebuchadnezzar. They flourished under the tolerant Persian rule, codified their religious laws, collected and copied the sermons and teachings and songs and ancient writings that they still possessed. Thus in a few centuries more there came into being the scriptures known as the Old Testament, the most precious legacy of the Hebrews to mankind.
When they had lived in small groups, each tribe had its God, whom the people worshipped. Gradually a more powerful God from among these won the universal respect of the race. He was Yahweh, worshipped in the earlier stages in the form of a brazen serpent until the idol worship gave place to a purer form of godhead. His dominion over men was contested by Baal of Tyre who received devotion from the people side by side with him both in Israel and Judah. Yahweh ultimately came out successful and remained the only God of the Hebrews. The prophet Amos (760 b.c.) raised him to monotheistic grandeur and spoke as the mouth-piece of Yahweh. Hosea and Isaiah preach against idolatry and the prophets are incessantly enjoining upon the people not to make idols or graven images and they exhort them not to worship any other God but Yahweh. It is said that Yahweh is a jealous God and brooks no homage but to him. The children of Israel had suffered in Egypt where they were in bondage. God heard their groaning and had compassion on them. He appeared unto Moses in a flame of fire, burning in a bush, and said that he had come down to deliver the suffering children of Israel from bondage to a place flowing with milk and honey. He gave him ten commandments for the guidance of the people. Therein he demands that man shall fear him, walk in his ways, cleave unto him, obey him, love him, and serve him with all his heart and all his soul. He has chosen Israel unto himself above all people as a beacon of light and righteousness to mankind. Consequently, he demands that they shall serve him faithfully and transgress not his commandments. If people walk in the Lord's statutes and keep his commandments, he gives them seasonal rains, full crops, protection against the attacks of animals and men, victory and offspring. He goes with the armies of Israel to the battlefield and fights for them against the enemies. But when they transgress his commandments, worship idols or other gods or turn apostates, he breaks the pride of their power, lets loose their enemies over them, and chastises them by visiting their country with plagues and pestilences, famines and droughts, desolation and death. It was for the inequities of his wayward children that Yahweh sent Tiglath-Pileser as his scourge to punish them and put them under the Assyrian yoke. The prophet Isaiah tells the people that Yahweh uses Assyria as his rod to punish them. Those who seek Yahweh, find him. He does not fail or forsake them. But when they forsake him, and provoke him to anger, he casts them away forever. But even then if people repent, humble themselves before him, fall down on their faces, rend their clothes, and weep, he relents, forgives them, comes back to them, takes them under his protecting wings, helps them, and prospers them. The Psalms and Prophets are replete with higher ethical sentiment and aim at reforming the motives of conduct rather than regulating it by ceremonial observances. They are full of fervent expressions of religious emotion. God is depicted here as the compassionate Father who looks to all as his children. Judaism prepares the way for a nobler type of godhead that was to be preached by Jesus.
Taoism and Confucianism. Animism and ancestral worship ministered to the spiritual needs of the people in China from the earliest times. As in the other parts of the world, the higher conceptions of gods or of some one supreme principle like Heaven as God were gradually evolving among the sages. Tradition places the Golden Age of China in about 3000 b.c. But the authentic historical records do not go beyond a millennium before the Christian era. It is in this period that great religious and social ideals were preached that have shaped the Chinese life for all time. The country was harassed by feudal warfare, and famine and pestilence worked havoc, adding to the misery of the people. Perplexed at the visitation of misfortunes and calamities, wail goes up to Heaven from a poet in the eighth century b.c. complaining that Heaven is unjust and merciless in its dealings with mankind. Such complaints are however drowned in the chorus that Heaven does not will evil. It is man's own fault, in consequence of which he suffers. Man is born good, it is said, but when he goes astray from the path of goodness, he brings calamity on his head. When there were strife and chaos stalking the earth, the sages felt that peace and harmony reigned above in heaven. Perfect was the Way or Heaven or the Tao or the one universal principle, the ultimate reality. Happiness would fall to the lot of mankind, if it followed faithfully the Way. The imitation of the Way or Heaven was therefore the ideal of earthly conduct. It was virtue and virtue brought happiness. Man's duty was to cultivate the Way and the sages undertook to teach it to mankind. The Way was one which to all thinkers looked alike, but the methods of reaching it as taught by them were different.
Lao-tze, a great mystic born in 601 b.c., is the founder of Taoism. He teaches quietism. Confucius (551–479 b.c.) is the man of the world and teaches a moral code of personal conduct. His religion is a discipline of life and his system is a reaction against Taoism.