18. Copied from earlier religious traditions, the Christian narrative of the Apocalypse bears persistent and substantial correlations to the older Zoroastrian narrative of the “Frashokereti”
Appearing in the Book of Revelation, the final book of the New Testament, the Second Coming of the Messiah was propagandized to symbolize the end of the world. Predicting the destruction of the Earth and divine judgment of mankind, this conception of an eventual apocalypse is not original to the Christian biblical narrative. Instead, most world religions, including those predating the Judeo-Christian tradition, possess detailed accounts of this process from which the Bible heavily drew inspiration. Of particular note, Zoroastrianism, among the oldest recorded religions, contains significant parallels.
Dating from the second millennium before the Common Era, Zoroastrian eschatology becomes a fully formed component of the religion at least five hundred years before the birth of Jesus and the subsequent Gospel of John. Predicting that the sun will decay, with the days shortening and the land growing barren, a great battle between the righteous and the wicked would be followed by the “Frashokereti”. Marked by the arrival of the “Saoshyant”, the final savior of mankind, the dead would be resurrected and those worthy of the divine gift would be granted immortality and the chance to live without want or fear in paradise.