Thursday, January 04, 2018

Moses and Zoroaster?

DR. SHANA STRAUCH STRICK: When Moses Was Born the House Was Filled with Light. The Iranian Origins of a Talmudic Midrash (TheGemara.com).
It is therefore unsurprising that the authors of the talmudic midrash would have depicted the singularity of Moses and his innate goodness by adapting an apparently popular motif into the narrative of his birth. Conceivably, the midrash might have functioned as a polemic against claims to the superiority of Zoroastrianism. Regardless, whether the midrash emerged as an intentional appropriation of a Zoroastrian motif or the unconscious incorporation of a prevailing contemporary religious image, it offers evidence of how the rabbis of Babylonia encountered, negotiated, and ultimately incorporated aspects of Sassanian culture into their own religious lore.
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