Part 24
under Nero, the Second Ep. to Timothy, the Fii'st Ep. of Peter—already referred to—and the Rev of John. In 2 Tim, Paul speaks of his impending condemnation to death, and the terror inspired by the persecution causes "all" to forsake him when he is brought to public trial (2 Tim 4 16). The "fiery trial" is spoken of in 1 Pet, and Christians are exhorted to maintain their faith with patience; they are pleaded with to have their "conversation honest" (1 Pet 2 12 AVJ, so that all accusations directed against them may be seen to be untrue, and their sufferings sliall then be, not for Hi-doing, but only for the name of Christ (3 14.16). "This important ep. proves a general persecution
(1 6; 4 12.16) in Asia Minor N. of the Taurus
The legal decisions which were favorable to the Christian faith were soon overturned on the occa-
(1 1; note esp. Bithynia) and elsewhere (5 9). The Christians suffer 'for the name,' but not the name alone (4 14). They are the objects of vile slanders
sion of the great fire in Rome, which 12. The occurred in July, 64. The public Neronic feeling of resentment broke out against Persecution the emperor to such a degree that, to
(2 12.15; 3 14-16; 4 4.15), as well as of considerable zeal on the part of officials (5 8 [Gr 3 15]). As regards the slanders, the Christians should be circumspect (2 15.16; 3 16.17; 4 15). The persecution will be short, for the end of all things is at hand (4 7.13; 5 4)" (Workman, Persecution in the Early Church, 354).
avoid the stigma, just or unjust, of being himself guilty of setting the city on fire, he made the Christians the scapegoats which he thought he needed. Tacitus {Annals xv.44) relates
all that occurred at that time, and what he says is most interesting, as being one of the very earliest notices found in any profane author, both of the Christian faith, and of Christ Himself.
In Rev the apostle John is in "Patmos, for the word of God and the testimony of Jesus" (Rev 1
9) . Persecution has broken out among 13. Persethe Christians in the province of Asia. cution in At Smyrna, there is suffering, imprisonAsia ment and prolonged tribulation; but the sufferers are cheered when they are told that if they are faithful unto death, Christ will give them the crown of life (Rev 2 10) . At Pergamum, persecution has already resulted in Antipas, Christ's faithful martyr, being slain (2 13). At Ephesus and at Thyatira the Christians are commended for their patience, evidently indicating that there had been persecution (2 2.19). At Philadelphia there has been the attempt made to cause the members of the church to deny Christ's name (3 8) ; their patience is also commended, and the hour of temptation is spoken of, which comes to try all the world, but from which Christ promised to keep the faithful Christians in Philadelphia. Strangely enough, there is no distinct mention of persecution having taken place in Sardis or in Laodicea.
(1) Testimony of Tacitus.—What Tacitus says is that nothing that Nero could do, either in the way of gifts to the populace or in that of sacrifice to the Rom deities, could make the people beUeve that he was innocent of causing the great fire which had consumed their dwelhngs. Hence to relieve himself of this infamy he falsely accused the Christians of being guilty of the crime of setting the city on fire. Tacitus uses the strange expression "the persons commonly called Christians who were hated for their enormities." This is an instance of the saying of all manner of evil against them falsely, for Christ's sake. The Cfcuistians, whose lives were pure and virtuous and beneficent, were spoken of as being the olTscouring of the
(2) References in 1 Pet.—The First Bp. of Peter Is one of the parts of the NT which seem to make direct reference to the Neronic persecution, and he uses words (1 Pet 4 12 fl!) which may be compared with the narrative of Tacitus: "Beloved, think it not strange concerning the fiery trial among you, which Cometh upon you to prove you, as though a strange thing happened unto you: but insomuch as ye are partakers of Christ's sufferings, rejoice If ye are reproached for the name of Christ, blessed are ye; because the Spirit of glory and the Spirit of God resteth upon you. For let none of you suffer as a murderer, or a thief, or an evil-doer, or as a meddler in other men's matters : but If a man suffer as a Christian, let him not be ashamed ; but let him glorify God in this name. For the time is come for judgment to begin at the house of God Wherefore let them also that suffer according to the will of God commit their souls in well-doing unto a faithful Creator."
As the book proceeds, evidences of persecution are multiplied. In 6 9, the apostle sees under the altar the souls of them that were slain 14. Rome as for the word of God and for the testiPersecutor mony which they held; and those souls are bidden to rest yet for a little season "until their fellow-servants also and their brethren, who should be killed even as they were, should have fulfilled their course" (6 11). The meaning is that there is not yet to be an end of suffering for Christ's sake; persecution may continue to be as severe as ever. Cf 20 4, "I saw the souls of them that had been beheaded for the testimony of Jesus, and for the word of God, and such as worshipped not the beast," for the persecution had raged against all classes indiscriminately, and Rom citizens who were true to Christ had suffered unto death. It is to these that reference is made in the words "had been beheaded," decapitation being reserved as the most honorable form of execution, for Rom citizens only. So terrible does the persecution of Christians by the imperial authorities become, that Rome is "drunken with the blood of the saints, and with the blood of the martyrs of Jesus" (17 6; 16 6; see also 18 24; 19 2). Paul's mart5Tdom is implied in 2 Tim, throughout the whole ep., and esp. in 4 6.7.8. The martyrdom of Peter is also implied in Jn 21 18.19, and in
(3) Tacitus' narrative.— How altogether apposite and suitable was this comforting exhortation to the case of those who suffered in the Neronic persecution. The description which 'Tacitus gives is as follows; " Christus, the founder of that name, was put to death as a criminal hy Pontius Pilate, procurator in the reign of Tiberius. But the pernicious superstition, repressed for a time, broke out again not only through Judaea, where the mischief originated, but through the city of Rome also, whither all things horrible and disgraceful flow from aU quarters as to a common sink, and where they are encouraged. Accordingly, first, those were seized who confessed they were Christians; next, on their information, a vast miiltitude were convicted, not so much on the charge of setting the city on fire, as of hating the human race. And in their deaths they were made the subject of sport, for they were covered with the skins of wild beasts and were worried to death by dogs, or nailed to crosses, or set fire to, and when day declined were burned to serve for nocturnal lights. Nero offered his own gardens for that spectacle, and exhibited circus games , indiscriminately rmngling with the common people dressed as a charioteer, or else standing in his chariot. Whence a feeling of compassion arose toward the sufferers, though guilty and deserving to be made examples of by capital punishment, because they seemed not to be cut
off for the public good, but to be victims to the ferocity of one man." See Nero.
(4) AT references.—Three of the books of the NT bear the marks of thttt most cruel persecution
Persecution THE INTERNATIONAL STANDARD BIBLE ENCYCLOPAEDIA 2326
2 Pet 1 14. The abiding impression made by these times of persecution upon the mind of the apostle John is also seen in the defiance of the world found throughout his First Ep. (2 17; 5 19), and in the rejoicing over the fall of Babylon, the great persecuting power, as that fall is described in such passages as Rev 14 8; 15 2.3; 17 14; 18 24. Following immediately upon the close of the NT, there is another remarkable witness to the continuance of the Rom persecution against the Christian church. This is Pliny, proconsul of Bithynia.
"\^Tien the apostolic period is left, persecution becomes almost the normal state in which the church
is found. And persecution, instead of abolishing the name of Christ, as the persecutors vainly imagined they had succeeded in doing, became the means of the growth of the Christian church and of
its purity. Both of these important ends, and others too, were secured by the severity of the means employed by the persecuting power of the Rom empire.
Under Trajan's successor, the emperor Hadrian, the lot of the Christians was full of uncertainty : persecution might break out at any moment. At the best Hadrian's regime was only that of unauthorized toleration.
In 111 or 112 AD, he writes to the emperor Trajan a letter in which he describes tlie growth of the Cliristian
faith. He goes on to say that "many of
Ifi Tp<;ti ^^^ ages and of all ranks and even of both >'='"" sexes are being called into danger, and will mony of continue to be so. In fact the contagion Pliny, of this superstition is not confined to the 112 AT) cities only, but has spread to the villages iiJJ amj country districts." He proceeds to narrate how the heathen temples had been deserted and the religious rites had been abandoned for so long a time: even the sacrificial food—that is, the flesh of the sacrificial victims—could scarcely find a purchaser.
With the exception of such instances as those of Nero and Domitian, there is the surprising fact to notice, that it was not the worst em-
17. Best perors, but the best, who became the Emperors most violent persecutors. One reason the Most probably was that the ability of those Cruel emperors led them to see that the Persecutors religion of Christ is really a divisive factor in any kingdom in which civil government and pagan religion are indissolubly bound up together. The more that such a ruler was intent on preserving the unity of the empire, the more would he persecute the Christian faith. Hence among the rulers who were persecutors, there are the names of Antoninus Pius, Marcus Aurelius the philosopher-emperor, and Septimius Severus (diedat York, 211 AD).
But Pliny had endeavored to stem the tide of the advancing Christian faith, and he tells the emperor how he had succeeded in bringing back to the heathen worship many professing Christians. That is to say, he had used persecuting measures, and had succeeded in forcing some of the Cliristians to abandon their faith. He tells the methods he had used. "The method I have observed toward those who have been brought before me as Christians is this. I asked them whether they were Christians. If they admitted it, I repeated the question a second and a third time, and threatened them with punishment. If they persisted I ordered them to be punished. For I did not doubt, whatever the nature of that which they confessed might be, that a contumacious and inflexible obstinacy ought to be punished. There were others also, possessed with the same infatuation, whom, because they were Rom citizens, I ordered to be sent to Rome. But this crime spreading, as is usually the case, while it was actually under legal prosecution, several cases occurred. An anonymous information was laid before me, containing tlie names of many persons. Those who denied that they were Christians, or that they had ever been so, repeated after me an invocation of the gods, and offered prayer, with wine and incense, to your statue, which I had ordered to be brought in for this very purpose, along with the statues of the gods, and they even reviled the name of Chi'ist; whereas there is no forcing, it is said, those who are realljr Christians into any of these compliances; I thought it proper to discharge them. Otliers who were accused by a witness at first confessed themselves Christians, but afterward denied it. Some owned indeed that they had been Christians formerly, but had now, some for several years, and a few above 20 years ago, renounced it. They all worshipped your statue and the images of the gods I forbade the meeting of any assemblies, and therefore I judged it to be so much the more necessary to endeavor to extort the real truth by putting to the torture two female slaves, who were called deaconesses, yet I found nothing but an absurd and extravagant superstition."
Persecution was no accident, which chanced to happen, but which might not have occurred at all.
It was the necessary consequence of 18. Causes the principles embodied in the heathen of PerRom government, when these came secution into contact and into conflict with the essential principles of the Christian faith. The reasons for the persecution of the Christian church by the Rom empire were (1) political;
(2) on account of the claim which the Christian faith makes, and which it cannot help making, to the exclusive allegiance of the heart and of the life. That loyalty to Christ which the martyrs displayed was believed by the authorities in the state to be incompatible with the duties of a Rom citizen. Patriotism demanded that every citizen should unite in the worship of the emperor, but Christians refused to take part in this worship on any terms, and so they continually lived under the shadow of a great hatred, which always slumbered, and might break out at any time. The claim which the Christian faith made to the absolute and exclusive loyalty of all who obeyed Christ was such that it admitted of no compromise with heathenism. To receive Christ into the pantheon as another divinity, as one of several—this was not the Christian faith. To every loyal follower of Christ compromise with other faiths was an impossibility. An accommodated Christianity would itself have been false to the only true God and Jesus Christ whom He had sent, and would never have conquered the world. To the heathen there were lords many and gods many, but to the Christians there was but one God the Father and one Lord Jesus Christ, the Saviour of the world
In Trajan's reply to Pliny he writes, "They [the Christians] ought not to be searched for. If they are brought before you and convicted, they should be punished, but this should be done in such a way, that he who denies that he is a Christian, and when his statement is proved by his invoking our deities, such a person, although suspected for past conduct, must nevertheless be forgiven, because of his repentance."
These letters of Pliny and Trajan treat statepersecution as the standing procedure—and this not a generation after the death of the apostle John. The sufTerings and tribulation predicted in Rev 2
10, and in many other passages, had indeed come to pass. Some of the Christians had denied the name of Christ and had worshipped the images of the emperor and of the idols, but multitudes of them had been faithful unto death, and had received the martyr's crown of life.
(1 Cor 8 5.6). The essential absoluteness of the Christian faith was its strength, but this was also the cause of its being hated.
Speaking generally, persecution of greater or less severity was the normal method employed by the Rom empire against the Christian 16. 2d and church during the 2d and the 3d 3d Cencents. It may be said to have come turies to an end only about the end of the 3d or the beginning of the 4th cent., when the empire became nominally Christian.
"By a correct instinct paganisms of all sorts discerned in the infant church their only rival. So, while the new Hercules was yet in the cradle, they sent their snakes to kill him. But Hercules lived to cleanse out the Augean stables" (Workman, op. cit., 88). "For 200 years, to become a Christian meant the great renunciation, the joining a despised and persecuted sect, the swimming against the tide of popular prejudice, the coming under the ban of the Empire, the possibility at any moment of imprisonment and death under its
2327 THE INTERNATIONAL STANDARD BIBLE ENCYCLOPAEDIA Persecution
most fearful forms. For 200 years he that would follow Christ must count the cost, and be prepared to pay the
ment to Christianity, with persecution as the inevitable result.
same with his liberty and life, lor 200 19. 200 years the mere profession of Christianity
These results, hatred and persecution, were, in such circumstances, inevitable; they were " the outcome of the fundamental tenet of primitive Christianity, tiiat the Christian ceased to be his own master, ceased to have his old environment, ceased to hold his old connections with the state ; in everything he became the bond-servant of Jesus Clirist, in everything owing supreme allegiance and fealty to the new empire and the Crucified Head. 'We engage in these confiicts,' said Tertullian, 'as men whose very lives are not our own. We have no master but God' (Workman, 195). The persecution inaugurated by the emperor Decius in 250 AD was particularly severe. There was hardly a province in the empire 24. The where there were no martsTs; but Decian there were also many who abandoned Persecution their faith and rushed to the magistrates to obtain their libelli, or certificates that they had offered heathen sacrifice. When the days of persecution were over, these persons usually came with eagerness to seek readmission to the church. It was in the Decian persecution that the great theologian Origen, who was then in his 68th year, suffered the cruel torture of the rack; and from the effects of what he then suffered he died at Tyre in 254.
Ypflr<!nf ^*^ itself a crime. Christianus sum was icaisui almost the one plea for wlilch there was Persecution no forgiveness, in itself all that was necessary as a 'title' on the back of the condemned. He who made it was allowed neither to present apology, nor call in the aid of a pleader.
' Public hatred,' writes Tertullian, 'asks but one thing, and that not investigation into the crimes charged, but simply the confession of the Christian name.' For the name itself In periods of stress, not a few. meant the rack, the Ijlazing shirt of pitch, the lion, the panther, or in the case of maidens an infamy worse than death" (Workman, 103).
Service in the Rom army involved, for a Christian, increasing danger in the midst of an organized and
aggressive heathenism. Hence arose 20. Persethe persecution of the Christian soldier cution in who refused compliance with the idolathe Army trous ceremonies in which the army engaged, whether those ceremonies were concerned with the worship of the Rom deities or with that of Mithraism. "The invincible saviour," as Mithra was called, had become, at the time when Tertullian and Origen wrote, the special deity of soldiers. Shrines in honor of Mithra were erected through the entire breadth of the Rom empire, from Dacia and Pannonia to the Cheviot Hills in Britain. And woe to the soldier who refused compliance with the religious sacrifices to which the legions gave their adhesion! The Christians in the Rom legions formed no inconsiderable proportion of "the noble army of martjrrs," it being
Many libelli have been discovered in recent excavations in Egypt. In the Expos T for January, 1909, p. 185, Dr. George Milligan gives an ex9R / *A 77; ample, and prints the Gr text of one of ^o. L.ioeui these recently discovered Egyp libelli. These libelli are most interesting, illustrating as they do the account which Cyprian gives of the way in which some faint-hearted Christians during the Decian persecution obtained certificates—some of these certificates being true to fact, and others false to the effect that they had sacrificed in the heathen manner. The one which Dr. Milligan gives Is as follows "To those chosen to superintend the sacrifices at the village of Alexander Island, from Aurelius Diogenes, the son of Satabus, of the village of Alexander Island, being about 72 years old, a scar on the right eyebrow. Not only have I always continued sacrificing to the gods, but now also in your presence. In accordance with the decrees, I have sacrificed and poured libations and tasted the offerings, and I request you to countersign my statement. May good fortune attend you. I, AureUus Diogenes, have made this request."
easier for the persecuting authorities to detect a Christian in the ranks of the army than elsewhere.
In the 2d and 3d cents. Christians were to be found everywhere, for TertuUian, in an oftentimes quoted passage in his Apology, writes, "We live 21. Tertulbeside you in the world, making use of the
I'qti'o same forum, market, bath, shop, inn, and "^^ ^ all other places of trade. We sail with Apology you, fight shoulder to shoulder, till the
soil, and traffic with you"; yet the very existence of Christian faith, and its profession, continued to bring the greatest risks. "With the best will in the world, they remained a peculiar people, who must be prepared at any moment to meet the storm of hatred" (Workman, 189). For them it remained true that in one way or another, hatred on the part of the world inevitably fell to the lot of those who walked in the footsteps of the Master; "All that would Uve godly in Christ Jesus shall suffer persecution " (2 Tim 3 12). The strange title, "the third race," probably Invented by the heathen, but willingly accepted by the Christians
(2d Hand) "I, Aurelius Syrus, as a participant, have certified Diogenes as sacrificing along with us."
(1st Hand) "The first year of the Emperor Caesar Gains Messius Quintus Trajan Decius Pius Felix Augustus, Epiph. 2" (= June 25, 250 AD).
Under Valerian the persecution was again very severe, but his successor, Gallienus, issued an edict of toleration, in which he guaranteed freedom of worship to the Christians. Thus Christianity
without demur, showed with what a bitter 99 "TVip spirit the heathen regarded the faith of
!.• jtT ..Christ. " The first race " was indifferently Third Race" called the Roman, Greek, or Gentile. "The second race" was the Jews; while "the third race" was the Christian. The cry in the circus of Carthage was Usque quo genus tertiumf "How long must we endure this third race ? "
definitely became a religio licita, a lawful religion. This freedom from persecution continued until the reign of Diocletian.
The persecution of the Christian church by the empire of Rome came to an end in March, 313 AD,
But one of the most powerful causes of the hatred
when Constantine issued the document
entertained by the heathen against the Christians was, that though there were no citizens
26. The known as the "Edict of Milan," which Edict of assured to each individual freedom of Milan religious belief. This document marks an era of the utmost importance in the history of the world. Official Rom persecution had done its worst, and had failed; it was ended now; the Galilean had conquered.
23. Hatred so loyal as they, yet in every case in
against which the laws and customs of the
Christians empire came into conflict with the will
of God, their supreme rule was loy-
alty to Christ, they must obey God rather than man. To worship Caesar, to offer even one grain
The results of persecution were: (1) It raised up witnesses, true witnesses, for the Christian faith. Men and women and even children were among the 27 Results martyrs whom no cruelties, however re-
of incense on the shrine of Diana, no Christian would ever consent, not even when this minimum
of compliance would save life itself.
f'-D fined and protracted, could terrify into or reldenial of their Lord. It is to a large exsecution tent owing to persecution that the Christian church possesses the testimony of men like Quadratus and TertulUan and Origen and Cyprian and many others. While those who had adopted the Christian faith in an external and formal manner only generally went back from their profession, the true Christian, as even the Rom proconsul Pliny testifies, could not be made to do this. The same stroke which crushed the straw—such is a saying of Augustine's separated the pure grain which the Lord had chosen.
The Rom empire claimed to be a kingdom of
universal sway, not only over the bodies and the
property of all its subjects, but over their consciences and their souls. It demanded absolute obedience
to its supreme lord, that is, to Caesar. This obe-
dience the Christian could not render, for unlimited
obedience of body, soul and spirit is due to God
alone, the only Lord of the conscience. Hence it was that there arose the antagonism of the govern-
Persecution Persian Language THE INTERNATIONAL STANDARD BIBLE ENCYCLOPAEDIA 2328
PERSEPOLIS, per-scp'6-lis (3 Mace 9 2; Uepa-i-
(2) Persecution showed that the Christian faith is immortal even in this world. Of Christ's kingdom there shah be no end. "Hammer away, ye hostile bands, your hammers break, CJod's altar stands." Pagan Rome, Babylon the Great, as it is called by the apostle John in the Apocalypse, tried hard to destroy the church of Christ; Babylon was drunk with tire blood of the saints. God allowed this tyranny to exist for 300 years, and the blood of His cliildren was shed like water. Why was it necessary tliat the church should have so terrible and so prolonged an experience of suffering ? It was in order to convince the world that though the kings of the earth gather themselves against the Lord and against His Christ, yet all that they can do is vain. God is in the midst of Zion; He shaU help her, and that right early. The Christian church, as if suspended between heaven and earth, had no need of other help than that of the unseen but Divine hand, which at every moment held it up and kept it from falling. Never was the church more free, never stronger, never more flourishing, never more extensive in its growtli, than in the days of persecution.
. TToX.i.s, Persepolis, n€pa-aiiroX.is, Persaipolis, in Ptolemy Ilepo-diroXis, Persopolis; orig-
1. Location inal Pers name unknown; Pahlavi Stakhr, now Islakhr and Chihil Minar, "Forty Turrets") : The ruins of Persepolis lie about
3.5 miles N.E. of Shiraz and some 40 miles S. of the
ruins of Pasargadae.
The magnificent palace of which such striking remains are still visible (Takht i Jamshid) was built
by Darius and Xerxes of white marble
2. History and black stone. The city was captured, pillaged and burnt by Alexander in 324 BC, most of the inhabitants being massacred or enslaved. Much of the treasure of the Pers kings was found there. Curtius says the palace was never rebuilt. Antiochua Epiphanes
And wliat became of the great persecuting power, the Rom empire ? It fell before the barbarians. Rome is fallen in its ruins, and its idols are utterly abolished, while the barbarians who overwhelmed the empire have become the nominally Christian nations of modern Europe, and their descendants have carried the Christian faith to America and Austraha and Africa and all over the world.
(166 BC) tried but failed to plunder the temple
(of Anaitis, Anahita?) there (2 Mace 9 2; perhaps this is the incident referred to in 1 Maco 6 Iff, and Polyb. xxxi.ll). At Persepolis were the sepulchers of the Achaemenian kings (except Cyrus) . Long and important inscriptions of Darius and Xerxes are found at Persepolis and the neighboring Naqsh i Rustam, in cuneiform characters and m the Achaemenian Pers, Assyr andneoSusian tongues (published by Spiegel, Rawlinson and Weisbach). Clitarchus first among Europeans mentions the city. The writer of this article visited
(3) Persecution became, to a large extent, an important means of preserving the true doctrines of the person and of the work of Christ. It was in the ages of persecution that Gnosticism died, though it died slowly. It was in the ages of persecution that Arianism was overthrown. At the Council of Nicea in 32.5 AD, among those who were present and took part in the discussion and in the decision of the council, there were those who "bore in their bodies the branding-marks of Jesus," who had suffered pain and loss for Chi'ist's sake.
it in 1892. Not now inhabited. LiTBR.\TUEE.—Inscriptions (as above), Arrian, Curtius, Polybius, Pliny, Diod. Siculus, mediaeval and modern travelers.
Persecution was followed by these important results, for God in His wisdom had seen fit to permit these evils to happen, in order to change them into permanent good; and thus the wrath of man was overruled to praise God, and to effect more ultimate good, than if the persecutions had not taken place at all. What, in a word, could be more Divine than to curb and restrain and overrule evil itself and change it into good ? God lets iniquity do what it pleases, according to its own designs: but in permitting it to move on one side, rather tlian on another. He overrules it and makes it enter into the order of His providence. So He lets this fury against the Cliristian faith be kindled in the hearts of persecutors, so that they afflict the saints of the Most High, But the church remains safe, for persecution can work nothing but ultimate good in the hand of God, "The blood of the martyrs is the seed of the chiu'ch." So said TertuUian, and what he said is true.
W. St. Clair Tisdall PERSEUS, pftr'siis, pur's5-us (Ilcpa-tvis, Perseus)
In 1 Mace 8 5 the conquest of "Perseus, king of the Citims" (RV "king of Chittim") was part of the "fame of the Romans" which reached the ears of Judas. This Perseus, the son and successor of Philip III of Macedonia, came to the throne in 178 BC and was the last king of Macedonia. In 171 BC began the war with Rome which ended in his disastrous defeat and capture at Pydna, 168 BC
(to which 1 Maco 8 5 refers), by L. Aemilius Pau-
lus. Macedonia soon became a Rom province. Perseus was led to Rome to grace the triumph of his conqueror, by whose clemency he was spared, and died in captivity at Rome (Polyb. xxix.l7; Livyxliv.40ff).
Persecution has permanently enriched the history of the church. It has given us the noble heritage of the testimony and the suffering of those whose lives would otherwise have been unrecorded. Their very names as well as their careers would have been unknown had not persecution "dragged them into fame and chased them up to heaven."
Kittim or Chittim, properly of the people of the town of Citium in Cyprus, then signifying Cyprians, and extended by Jewish writers (Gen 10 4; Nu 24 24; Isa 23 1; Jer 2 10; Ezk 27 6; Dnl 11 30; Jos, Anl, I, vi) to include the coasts of Greece generally, is here applied to Macedonia. In 1 Mace 1 1 Macedonia (or Greece) is called "the land of Chittim."
Persecution made Christ very near and very precious to those who suffered. Many of the martyrs bore witness, even when in the midst of the most cruel torments, that they felt no pain, but that Christ was with them. Instances to this effect could be multiplied. Persecution made them feel how true Christ's words were, that even as He was not of the world, so they also were not of it. If they had been of the world, the world would love
S. Angus PERSEVERANCE, pur-s5-ver'ans: The word occurs only once in AV (Eph 6 18), where it refers quite simply to persistence in prayer. In theology (esp. in the phrase "final perseverance") the word has come to denote a special persistency, the undying continuance of the new life (manifested in faith and holiness) given by the Spirit of God to man. It ia questioned whether such imparted life is (by its nature, or by the law of its impartation) necessarily permanent, indestructible, so that the once regenerate and believing man has the prospect of final glory infallibly assured. This is not the place to trace the history of a great and complex debate. It is more fitting here to point to the problem as connected with that supreme class of truths in which, because of our necessary mental limits, the entire truth can only be apprehended as the unrevealed but certain harmony of seeming contradictions. Scripture on the one hand abounds with assurances of "perseverance" as a fact, and largely intimates that an exulting anticipation of it is the intended experience of the believer (see Jn 10 28 above all,
its own, but because Christ had chosen them out of the world, therefore the world hated them. They were not greater than their Lord. If men had persecuted Jesus, they would also persecute His true
disciples. But though they were persecuted, they were of good cheer, Christ had overcome the world; He was with them ; He enabled them to be faithful unto death. He had promised them the crown of
life.
Browning's beautiful lines describe what was a common experience of tlie martyrs, how Christ "in them" and "with them," "quenched the power of fire," and made them more than conquerors
"I was some time in being burned.
But at the close a Hand came through The fire above my head, and drew My soul to Christ, whom now I see, Sergius, a brother, writes for me This testimony on the wall For me, I have forgot it all,"
John Ruthebfued
2329 THE INTERNATIONAL STANDARD BIBLE ENCYCLOPAEDIA Persecution Persian Language
and cf among other passages Rom 8 31-37; 1 Pet 1 8.9). On the other hand, we find frequent and urgent warnings and cautions (see e.g. 1 Cor 8 11; 9 27). The teacher dealing with actual cases, as in pastoral work, should be ready to adopt both classes of utterances, each with its proper application; applying the first, e.g., to the true but timid disciple, the latter to the self-confident. Meanwhile Scriptm-e on the whole, by the manner and weight of its positive statements, favors a humble belief of the permanence, in the plan of God, of the once-given new life. It is as if it laid down "perseverance" as the Divine rule for the Christian, while the negative passages came in to caution the man not to deceive himself with appearances, nor to let any belief whatever palliate the guilt and minimize the danger of sin. In the biographies of Scripture, it is noteworthy that no person appears who, at one time certainly a saint, was later certainly a castaway. The awful words of He 6 4-6; 10 26.27 appear to deal with cases (such as Balaam's) of much light but no loving life, and so are not precisely in point. Upon the whole sub-
Armenian. Most of its roots are to be found also in Slavonic, Gr, Lat and other tongues of the same stock.
There were two main dialects in the ancient language of Iran (Airyanem), (1) that of the Persians proper, and (2) that of the Medes. Dialects The former is known to us from the inscriptions of the Achaemenian kings, the latter from the Avesta, and a few Median words preserved for us by Herodotus and other Gr writers.
//. Old Persian Inscriptions.—These fall between
5.50 and 330 BC, and contain about 1,000 lines and 400 words. They are carved upon the rocks in
ject, it is important to make "the Perseverance of the Saviour" our watchword rather than "the Perseverance of the saint." Handley Dtjnelm
PERSIA, pur'sha, -zha (D'^S , -paras; Ilepo-Cs,
Pers'is; in Assjt Parsu, Parsua; in Achaemenian Pers Parsa, modern FCirs) : In the Bible (2 Ch 36 20.22.23; Ezr 1 1.8; Est 1 3.14.18; 10 2; Ezk 27 10; 38 5; Dnl 8 20; 10 1; 11 2) this name denotes properly the modern province of Ears, not the whole Pers empire. The lajter was by its people called Airyana, the present Iran (from the Skt. word Ctrya, "noble"); and even now the Persians never call
their country anything but Iran, never "Persia." The province of Persis lay to the E. of Elam (Susiana), and stretched from the Pers Gulf to the Great Salt Desert, having Carmania on the S.E. Its
chief cities were Persepolis and Pasargadae. Along the Pers Gulf the land is low, hot and unhealthy,
Ijut it soon begins to ri^e as one travels inland. Most of the province consists of high and steep mountains and plateaus, with fertile valleys. The
table-lands in which lie the modern city of Shiraz and the ruins of Persepolis and Pasargadae are well watered and productive. Nearer the desert, how-
Part ot Rods of Behistan.
a cuneiform character, simplified from that of the neo-Susian, which again comes from the neoBab syllabary. In Old Pers inscriptioris only 44 characters are employed, of which 7 are ideographs or contractions. The remaining 37 phonetic signs
ever, cultivation grows scanty for want of water.
Persis was douljtless in early times included in Elam, and its population was then either Semitic or allied
to the Accadians, who founded more than one state
in the Bab plain. The Aryan Persians seem to have occupied the coimtry in the 8th or 9th cent. BC. W. St. Clair Tisdall
are syllabic, each consisting of an open syllable and not merely of a single letter, except in case of separate vowels. The syllabary, though much simpler than any other cuneiform system, does not quite attain
PERSIAN, pAr'shan, -zhan, LANGUAGE AND LITERATURE (ANCIENT)
therefore to being an alphabet. It was written from
left to right, like the other cuneiform syllabaries. Of Cyrus the Great only one Pers sentence has been found: Adam Kurush Kkshayathiya Hakhamani-
I. Language (Introductory) Dialects II. Old Persian Inscriptions III. Medic Dialect
shiya, "1 am Cyrus the King, the Achaemenian." Darius I has left us long inscriptions, at Behistan
1. Ordinary Avestic
(Besitiin), Mt. Alvand, Persepolis, Naqsh i Rustam,
2. Gatliic IV. Zoroaster 1. His Date, etc
etc, and one at Suez, the latter mentioning his conquest of Egypt and the construction of the first (?) Suez canal:
2. Date ot Avesta
3. Divisions of tlie Present Avesta
(1) Ttie Yasna
Adam niyashtdyam imam yuviijam kahianaiy kacd Pirdva ndma rauta tya Mudrdyaiy danauvaiiy abiy daraya tya hacd Pdrsd aiti.
(2) Tlie Vispered
(3) Tlie Vendiddd
(4) Tlie Yashts
(" I commanded to dig this canal from the river named the Nile, which flows through Egypt, to the sea which comes from Persia.")
(5) The Khorda Avesta V. PahlavI
1. Literature 2. Comparison Literature
We have also inscriptions of Xerxes at Persepolis and many short ones of Artaxerxes I, Axtaxerxes Mnemon, and Artaxerxes Ochus. From them all taken together we learn much concerning the his-
/. Language (Introductory).—The Pers language,
ancient and modern alike, is an Aryan tongue. In
its ancient forms it is more closely connected with
tory and the religion of the Achaemenian period.
Vedic Sanskrit than with any other language except
Persian Language Persian Religion THE INTERNATIONAL STANDARD BIBLE ENCYCLOPAEDIA 2330
The first Gdthd is composed of strophes of 3 lines each (as above). Each line contains 16 syllables, with a caesura after the 7th foot.
It is from Achaemenian or Old Pers, and not from the Medic or Avestic, tliat modern Pers lias sprung through Pahlavi and Darl as intermediate stages. This is probably due to the political supremacy which the Persians under the Achaemenides gained over the Medes. The few words in the inscriptions which might otherwise be doubtful can be understood through comparison with Armenian and even with the modern Pers, e.g. yuviya in the above inscription is the modern vulgar Pers jHh.
IV. Zoroaster.—Many of the Gathas are generally ascribed to Zoroaster himself, the rest to his
earliest disciples. They compose the
1. His most ancient part of the Avesta. It Date, etc is now becoming a matter of very great probability that Zoroaster lived at earliest in the middle of the 7th cent. BC, more probably a century later. The Arta Virdf Namak says that his religion remained pure for 300 years, and connects its corruption with the alleged destruction of much of the Avesta in the palace burned by Alexander at Persepolis, 324 BC. This traditional indication of date is confirmed by other evidence. Zoroaster's prince Vishtaspa (in Or Hustdspes) bears the same name as the father of Darius
III. Medic Dialect.—The Medio dialect is represented in literature by the Avesta or sacred books
of the Zoroastrians (Parsis). The 1. Ordiword Avesta does not occur in the nary
_ book itself and is of uncertain meaning Avestic and signification. It is probably the Ahashta of Beh. Inscr., IV, 64, and means either (1) an interview, meeting (Skt. avashta, "appearance before a judge"; Av. ava-sta, "to stand near"), or (2) a petition (Pahl. apastan, "petition"; Axm. apastan, "refuge," "asylum"), in either case deriving its name from Zoroaster's drawing near to Ahura Mazda in worship.
I, and was probably the same person. Vishtaspa's queen Hutaosa, who also protected and favored Zoroaster, bears the same name (in Gr Atossa) as Cambyses' sister who afterward married Darius, and probably belonged to the same family. Zoroastrianism comes to the fore under Darius, whereas Cyrus in his inscriptions speaks as a decided polytheist. Hence we conclude that the earliest part of the Avesta belongs to o 550 BC. Of Zoroaster himself we learn much from the Avesta, which traces his genealogy back for 10 generations. It mentions his wife's name (Hv5vi), and tells of his 3 sons and 3 daughters. His first disciple was Frashaostra, his wife's natural uncle. His own name means "Owner of the yellow camel," and has none of the higher meanings sometimes assigned to it by those who would deny his existence. Tradition says he was born at Ragha (Raga, Rai), about 5i miles S. of the present Tehran, though BOme_ think hia native place was Western Atropatene (A^arbaijan). Rejected by his own tribe, the Magi, he went to Vishtaspa's court in Bactria. The faith which he taught spread to the Pera court (very naturally, if Vishtaspa was identical with Darius' father) and thence throughout the country. Tradition ( Yasht XIX, 2, etc) says that the Avesta was revealed to Zoroaster on Mt. Ushi-darena ("intellect-holding") in Sistan. But it is not the composition of one man or of one age.
Biw»-'"»v>i55iica"i-'^'!;^E-jij.»; ' _,'..;i.,ji— '^-vt"^-^-"
'^!^"
Yezdikhast.
This dialect represents a much greater decadence In grammar and vocabiilary than does the Old Pers. Many of its consonants and most of its vowels are weakened. Its verbs have almost entirely lost the augment; its declensional system shows extreme confusion. It stands to Old Pers grammatically somewhat as Eng. does to Ger. Its alphabet, consisting of 43 letters, is derived from the Syr (probably the Estrangela), and is written from right to left. As a specimen of the language of most of the Avesta we give the following extract ( Yasna LXIV, 1.5[B11):
Herodotus makes no mention of Zoroaster, but speaks of the Magi (whom he calls a Median tribe
[i.lOl]) as already performing priestly 2. Date of functions. His description of their Avesta repetition of charms and theological compositions (i.l32) would agree very well with recitation of the Gathas and Yasna. Mention of controversies with Gautama, Buddha's disciples (Yasht XIII, 16) who probably reached Persia in the 2d cent. BC, is another indication of date. The fact that in both the Yasna and the Vendldad heretics (zanda) are mentioned who preferred the comm. (zand) on the Avesta to the Avesta itself, is a sign of late date. Names of certain persons found in the Avesta (e.g. Atare-pata, a Dastur who lived under Hormuzd I, 273 AD, and RaStare-Yagheiiti, whom the Dlnkart identifies with the chief Mobed of Sapor II, 309-379 AD Aderpad Marespand, and who, accordmg to the Patet, §28, "purified'' the revelation made to Zoroaster, i.e. revised the text of the earlier parts of the Avesta) enable us to prove that certain portions of the work as we now have it were composed as late as near the end of the 4th cent, of our era. It is said that the text was in confusion in the time of Vologases I (51-78 [?] AD). A recension was then begun, and continued with much zeal by Ardashir Papakan, 226-40 AD. Accordmg to Geldner (Prolegomena, xlvi) the final recension took place some considerable time after Yezdigird III (overthrown 642 AD). In the times
Daidi moi, yk g3m tasho a-pasca urvarojsca Amereidtd, haitrvdtd. Spini^td Maint/u Mazda, Tivlshi, utayuiii, Manahhd Vohu, s6hhe. ("Give me, O thou who didst make the bull [earth], and the waters and the plants, immortalitv, health—
most Bountiful Spirit, Mazda—strength, might, through Vohu Mano, I say") There is a sub-dialect of Medic (Avestic) known as the Gatha-dialect, from the fact that the Gdthds. or " Hymns "
(Yasna XXVIII-XXXIV, XLII-L; LII) 2 GathiC ^^'^ ^'^° "'^ prayers (Yathd Ahu Vairyo, Ashem Vohu, Airyamd Ishyo, and originally Yehhe Hdidm. and a few scattered passages elsewhere) are composed in it. This represents speaking generally, an older form of the Avestic. It is probably the old language of Bactria or of Margiana. Gdthd I, 2, runs thus: Yi vp, Mazda Ahura, pairijasai Vohu Manahhd, Maibyo ddvdi ahvut (asivatasca hyatca manahhd) Ayaptd Ashdt hacd, ydig rapeiUo daidit hvdthre. ("To me, O Ahurji Mazda, who approach you two through Vohu Mano, grant the benefits from Asha [those] of both worlds, both of the material [world] and of that which is of the spirit, through which [benefits] may [Asha] place in glory those who please him.")
The meter of the Gdthds, like that of the other Avestic poems, is based on the number of syllables in a line, with due regard to the caesura. But the condition of the text is such that there is great difficulty in recovering the original reading with sufficient accuracy to enable us to lay down rules on the subject with any certainty
2331 THE INTERNATIONAL STANDARD BIBLE ENCYCLOPAEDIA Persian Language Persian Religion
of the Siisanides there were, it is said, 21 Naskas or volumes of the Avesta, and the names of these are given in the Dlnkart (Book IX). Of these we now possess only one entire Naska, the Vendidad, and portions of three others.
The present Avesta is divided into 5 parts: (1) The Yasna (V yaz, Skt. yaj, "to invoke," "to praise") contains 72 chapters of hymns
3. Divisions of the Present Avesta radha, "a lord ) is divided into 24 chapters in Geldner's edition; it is supplementary to the Yasna. (3) The Vendlddd {va7i+daeva-\-ddta, "law for vanquishing the demons") contains 22 chapters. The first chapter contains the Iranian myth about the order in which the provinces of the Iranian world were created by Ahura Mazda. It tells how the Evil Spirit, Aiiro Mainyus, created plagues, sins and death, to destroy the good creatures of the Good Spirit. The greater part of the book contains ceremonial laws and formulae, some of them loathsome and all rather petty and superstitious in character. (4) The Yashts, 21 in all, are hymns, telling many mythological talcs about Mithra, Tishtriya, etc.
for use at sacrifices, etc, including the "Older Yasna" or Gathas. (2) The Vispered [vlspa, "every," "all," and
(.5) The Khorda Avesta ("Little Avesta") consists of a number of short compositions, hymns, etc, compiled by the Aderpad Marespand (Adharpadh IMahraspand, Atarobat Mansarspendan) already mentioned, in Sapor II's reign.
Much of the Avesta is said to have been destroyed by the Khalifah 'Umar's orders when Persia was conquered by the Arabs after the battle of Nahavand (642 AD). Certainly 'Umar ordered the destruction of Pers libraries, as we learn from the Kashfu'z Zunun (p. 341).
V. Pahlavi.—Under ancient Pers literature may be classed the Pahlavi (a) inscriptions of Sapor at Hdjidhdd and elsewlicre, {b) legends on Sasanian
1 T itpTfl coins, (r) translations of certain parts of J.. jyiLcia- ^jjg Avesta, made under the Sasanidos ture for the most part, (d) such books as the Arid Virdf Ndmak, the Zdd Sparam, Din-
kart. Ormazd Yasht. Palet, Bundihlshnih, etc. These are mostly of religious import. The ArtdVirdf Namakgivesz, description of the visitof the young da.siur Arta Viraf, to the Zoroastrian heaven. The Bundihlshnih ("creation")
tells how Ormazd and Ahrlman came into being, and treats of the 9,000 years' struggle between them. Pahlavi. as written (the so-called Huzvaresh), contains^ an immense number of Aram, words, but the Pers terminations attached to these show that they were read as Pers: thus yehahunl-ano is written, and ddt-ano ("to give") is read. Pahlavi works that are no longer extant are the sources of the Via o Rdmin, Zardtusht Ndmah, Shdhndmah, etc.
In order to understand the relation in which the Pers dialects and stages in the history of the lan-
guage stand to one another, it may be
2. Comwell to sub.ioin a list of words in Old parison Pers, Avestic, Pahlavi and modern Pers. It \vill be seen that Avestic is not the source of the Aryan part of the present tongue.
Meaning
Persian Religion THE INTERNATIONAL STANDARD BIBLE ENCYCLOPAEDIA 2332
(1) Darius and Xerxes.— Darius mentions the "clan-gods," but does not name any of them. He and Xerxes ascribe the creation of heaven and earth
Veda is Aie daughter of Tvashtri, the "Creator," The use of gomez (bovis urina) for purification is common to both India and Persia. Though the so?na-plant is not now the same as the haoma, the words are the same, and no doubt they at one time denoted one and the same plant. Many of the myths of the Avesta have a great resemblance to those of the Rig-Veda. This comparison might be extended almost indefinitely.
to Auramazda, and say that the latter, "Who made
this earth, who made yon sky, who made man, who made happiness for man," has appointed each of them king. It is "by the grace of Auramazda" (vashna Auramazddha) that Darius conquers his enemies. _But both Ajtaxerxes Mnemon and Artaxerxes Ochus couple Mithra and Anahata (Ana-
In another respect also there is an important agi-eement between the two. Though some 33 deities are adored in the Vedio Hymns, yet, in spite of polytheism and low ideas of the Divine, traces of something higher may be found. Varuna, for instance, represents a very lofty conception. In the
hita) with Auramazda (Ahura Mazda) in praying
for the protection of the empire.
^?pi?li§
closest connection with him stands Asura, who is a being of great_ eminence, and whose sons are the
gods, esp. the Adityas.
Tvashtri again is creator of heaven and earth and of all beings, though his worship was ultimately in
Vedio times displaced by that of_Indra.
3. The It is clear then that the Indian Aryans Creator were worshippers of the Creator and that they knew something of Him long before they sank into polytheism. In the Avesta and in the Pers cuneiform inscriptions alike, Ahura Mazda occupies much the same position as Varuna, Asura (the same word as Ahura), or Tvashtri in the Rig-Veda, or rather in the ancient belief of which traces are retained in the latter work. Hence, as the Avesta teaches, Zoroaster was not for the first time preaching the existence of Ahura Mazda, but he was rather endeavoring to recall his people to the belief of their ancestors, the doctrine which Ahura Mazda had taught Yima in primeval time
iJ!!L''.ll.ia:KV.v,v';,_.(|||ii..:"
Ahura Mazda.
(2) Ahura Mazda.—In the Avesta, Ahura Mazda
is one of the seven Amesha Speritas or "Bountiful Immortajs." He is the father of one of them, Spefita Armaiti, who is also his spouse. He is primus inter pares among them, their chief, but by no means the only god. Monotheism is distinctly taught in later Zoroastrian works, for instance, in the Zardtusht-Nmnah, composed 1278 AD, but it
in his first revelation (Vendiddd II, 1-16,42). The great truth of the existence of the Creator, testified to by tradition, reason and conscience, undoubtedly contributed largely to Zoroaster's success, just as a similar proclamation of the God Most High (Allah
is due to Christian and Islamic influence.
The modern Zoroastrian view, clearly stated in the Dasdtlr i Asmdnl and elsewhere, that all the good creatures of Ormazd (Ahura Mazda)
Ta'ala'), worshipped by their ancestors, helped the thoughtful among the Arabs in later years to accept Muhammad's teaching. The consciousness in each case that the doctrine was not new but very ancient, materially helped men to believe it true.
3. Objects are entitled to adoration, undoubtedly of Worship rests upon the Avesta. There we find, in the first place, the Amesha SpeMas, who occupy in regard to Mazda the same position as do the Vedio Adityas toward Varuna, though not one of the Adityas is identical with any of the Amesha Spentas.
//. ZoToastrianism.—The reformation wrought by Zoroaster was a great one. He recognized—as Euripides in Greece did later—that
1. Leading "if the gods do aught shameful, they Principle are not gods." Hence he perceived that many of the deities worshipped
The names ot these are: (1) Ahura Mazda (otherwise called Spefito Mainyu.s or "Bountiful Mind") ; (2) Vohu Mauo ("Good Mind"); (3) Asha Vahista ("Best Righteousness")^ (4) Khshathra Vairya ("Excellent Ruler");
in Iran were unworthy of adoration, being evil
in character, hostile to all good and therefore to the "All-Wise" Spirit (Ahura Mazda) and to men. Hence his system of dualism, dividing all beings, spiritual or material, into two classes, the creatures of Ahura Mazda and those of the "Destroying Mind" (Anro Mainyus). So many of the popular
(5) Spefita Armaiti ("Bounteous Piety ")
; (6) Haurvatat ("Health"); (7) Ameretat (" Immortality "). Each has a special province: thus Armaiti is the general spirit of earth and presides over its fruitfulness. She is the patroness of virtuous matrons. Khshathra is the guardian of metals. Vohu Mano guards sheep and cattle and introduces to Ahura Mazda the spirits of the just. Next in rank come the Yazatas ("Worshipful Ones"), of whom there are a large number. Three of them, Mithra, Rashnu and Sraosha, preside at the judgment of the dead on the 4th day from death. Rashnu holds the scales in which a man's deeds are weighed. Sraosha guards the soul during the first three nights after death. Airyaman Ishya ("the longed-for comrade") is the protector of mankind, the bestower of peace and happiness. On one occasion {Vend., Farg. XXII, 23-29) Ahura Mazda sends his messenger Nairyo Sahha ("male instructor") to ask his aid against overwhelming odds, Raman IJvastra, the bosom friend of Mithra, presides over the atmosphere and also gives its taste to food, Mithra is tlie genius of truth, possessed of 1,000 ears, and riding in a single-wheeled chariot (the sun), while darling golden darts and driving fiery steeds. Tishtrya, identified with the dog-star Sirius, sends rain and is by Ahura Mazda endowed with his own power and dignity (Yasht VIII, 52 fl). This is true of Mithra also (Yasht X, 1), itar ("Fire"), Vayu ("Air"), Vata ("Wind"), Verethraglma ("Mars"), Saoka ("Prosperity") Ar5tat (genius of Justice), Vazista ("Lightning"), Fradatfshu (the guardian of cattle), Berejya (genius of corn).
deities were evil that Zoroaster used the word daeva
(the same as deva, deus, and Aram, di) to denote henceforth an evil spirit, just as Christianity turned the Gr daimones and daimonia (words used in a good sense in classical authors) into "demons." Instead of this now degraded word daeva, he employed baga (Old Pers; Av. bagha, Vedic bhaga, "distribution," "patron," "lord") for "God."
But it must be remembered that Zoroaster did not teach monotheism. Darius says that "Auramazda and the other gods that there
2. Not are" brought him aid {Beh. Inscr., IV, Mono60-63), and both he and Xerxes speak
theistic of Auramazda as "the greatest of the gods," So, even in the first Gdthd, Zoroaster himself invokes Asha, Vohu-Mano, Ar-
maiti, Sraosha, and even Geus-urvan ("the Soul of the Bull"), as well as Ahura Mazda.
2333 THE INTERNATIONAL STANDARD BIBLE ENCYCLOPAEDIA Persian Religion
Fertility.—Ahura Mazda and his assistants promote life. fertiUty in man, beast and plant, agriculture, increase; while Anro MainyuS and his creatures cause destruction and death. Atar ("Fire"), also styled Apam Nap/It ("Offspring of the Waters"), is the_ vital flame and the male energy in the world; Aredhvi Sura Anahita is the female. As a river the latter flows from Mt. Hukairya, a peak in the Elburz Range {Yasna LXIV), int® the Caspian Sea (Vourukasha) in the midst of which grows the tree Hvdpa ("well watered"), which bears the seeds of all plants. Andhila means "undeflled," but it is applied to purity of water (to deflle any of the four "elements" was, for later Zoroastrians, a grievous sin) and not to any moral purity in the goddess. Her association with Mithra was close, even in Herodotus' time, for he falls into the mistake of saying (1.131) that the Persians called Aphrodite Mithra, when he should have said Anaitis (Anahita). Though god of truth and righteousness Mithra is not associated with moral purity (chastity). On the contrary, he was said to fertilize the earth with his rays, as sun-god, and Anahita as goddess of frultfulness represented the female principle in conjunction with him. The vileness which led to the identiflcation of Anahita with the Bab Mylitta was doubtless of later date than Zoroaster's time, yet there was little or nothing in Zoroastrianism to check it. Something similar asserts itself in Armenia, as well as in Iran, and in fact in all Nature-worship everywhere. Associated with this was the form of incest known as next-of-kin marriage (Av. ^vaetva-datha, Pahl. Khvetukdas), which permitted and encouraged marriages between brothers and sisters.
Cista and Daena ("Knowledge" and "Keligion"), who are others of the Yazatas. All these are entitled to worship at the hands of the true adorer of Mazda (Mazdayasna, opposed to Daevayasna, or worshipper of the demons)
In opposition to the creatures of Ahura Mazda are those of Ariro Mainyu§, who is the source of all
moral and material evil. The first
4. Anro chapter of the Vendldad tells how he Mainyui created something bad in opposition and His to everything good made by Ahura Creatures Mazda.
A demon is the adversary of each Amesha Speflta: Aka Mano ("Evil Mind") that of Vohu Mano, and so in order: Indra (or Andra, "demon of untruthfulness"). Saiu'va ("evil government"), NShhaithya ("discontent"), Tauru ("who poisons water") and Zairi
("poison"), being antagonistic to the other Bountiful Immortals. Aeshma-Daeva (" Demon of Wrath")—the Asmodeus of Tob 3 S—is the special foe of Sraosha, the genius of obedience. Apaosha,_demon of drought, is the enemy of Tishtrya. Buiti (or Buidhj) teaches men to worship idols, and also causes death. _Bushyasta is the demon of sloth. Vidhatus or AstuvidhotuS causes death by destrojang the body. Other evil beings, Drujes, Pairikas, Jainis, Yatus, are so numerous in the later parts of the Avesta that a pious Zoroastrian must have lived in continual dread of their assaults. He had even to conceal the parings of his nails, lest they should be used as darts to his injury by these his spiritual foes.
According to later Zoroastrian belief, the contest between Ormazd (Ahura Mazda) and Ahriman (Anro Mainyus), after continuing for
6. Contest 9,000 years, is to be decided in favor between of the former only through his possessOrmazd ing foreknowledge and Ahriman's and lacking it (BwTid., I). Both came into Ahriman existence independently in limitless time (Av. Zrvana Akarana; Vend., Farg. XIX, 13; Pahl. Daman i Akanarakhomand, Bund., I), which, personified in the Vendldad, is called "Self-created," and is there by Ahura Mazda's command invoked by Zoroaster in conjunction with Vayu, the Air, the Winds, "the bountiful, beauteous daughter of Ahura Mazda" (Armaiti), the Earth, and other objects of worship
(loc. cit.). No creature of Ahrinian is to be worshipped; hence Indra, though in later Vedic times rising in India to a leading position in the Pantheon,
is in the Avesta accounted a fiend, the very impersonation of the Lie which the Avesta so firmly denounces and which Darius mentions as the cause of all the rebellions, which produced so much bloodshed in his time. No virtue was valued so highly as truth in ancient Iran, as Herodotus agrees with the Avesta in testifying.
Avestic morality encourages the destruction of
all hurtful things, as being of Anro Mainyu§' creation, and the propagation of every-
7. Ethics thing good. Hence agriculture is esp. commended, together with the rearing of cattle and sheep. Somewhat later the whole duty of man was said to consist in good thoughts, good words, good deeds. Fierce opposition to every other religion was enjoined as a religious duty, and, under the Sasanides esp., this led to fearful and repeated persecutions of Christians throughout the empire.
Combat between King and Evil Spirit.
Holiness does not enter into Zoroaster's concep-
The Sacred Thread (Av. Aiwyuhhana; Skt. UpavUam, etc, now by the Parsis styled the Kushti)
tion of the Divine nature. This is a point to which attention has not yet been properly
6. Producdirected, though its importance can
plays as important a part in Zoroas-
tion V. hardly De exaggerated. The epithet Destruction Spenta,^ often applied to Ahura Mazda
8. Sacred trianism as in Hindiiism. So do Thread charms, maihras (Skt. mantras), consisting in repetitions of the verses of the Avesta. The latter is even adored. The first thing created by Ahura Mazda was a Bull, which may represent the earth, and reminds
and mistranslated "Holy," is by the Zoroastriang themselves^ in Pahlavl rendered
afzunik, i.e. "that causes increase." Its V span or spen = Skt. svi, "to swell," "to grow," "to increase." The opposite to this is the term ahro {angro, from
us of the Cow Audhumla in the Edda
9. Early {Gylfaginning VI). This was killed Traditions by Anro Mainyus (in a later version, by Mithra). His spirit (Geus Urvan) went to heaven and became the guardian of cattle.
j/ aiigh; cf Ger. eng, "narrow") applied to the Evil
Spirit, and denoting "narrowing," "decreasing," "destroying." Hence, as the Destroyer, he is
styled poiirumahrka, "full of death."
Persian Religion Persians THE INTERNATIONAL STANDARD BIBLE ENCYCLOPAEDIA 2334
Zoroastrianism permits no idol-worship and no
The first man was Gaya-maretan ("Mortal Life"); lience the phrase Haca Gaydt Marethnat a Saoshyantdt, "from Gaya-maretan [Gayomard, Kayomartli] to Saoshyant" (Yasna XXVI, 10; Yasht XIII, 145), means "from the beginning to the end of the world." From the Airyanem Vaejd ("Aryan germ"), the first home of the Iranians, men were compelled to migrate because Anro Mainyus so altered the climate that the winter became ten months long and the summer only two. Yima Khshaeta ("Yima the Brilliant," Pers Jamahid), son of Vivahhat, though he twice refused Ahura Mazda's commission to guard his creatures, and though by three lies he
temples, fire-altars only being used. These were served by Alharvans or fire-priests,
13. Worship who fed the fire with costly wood and poured into it libations of haoma-
juice, taking care to cover their mouths with a cloth
lost the "Royal Light" {Hvareno Kavacm) which he originally possessed, was yet directed to prepare a very extensive inclosure (Vara), in which he preserved "the seeds of sheep and cattle, of men, of dogs, of birds, and of red, glowing fires" from some terribly severe winters which came upon the earth
S:s;it4gaiLatt^
(Vendlddd II; Yasht XIX). The BUndihishnih
tale of a flood differs from this, preserving an independent narrative. Ahura Mazda's law was preached to men within Yima's inclosure.
Fire Altars.
(paiti-dhdna) to keep the sacred fire from being pol-
The earth consists of seven divisions, called Karshvares (cf the Skt. doipas). Only one of these, Hvaniratha, is inhabited by men; the
luted by their breath. Sacrifices were often offered on the tops of the highest mountains under the open sky (Herod. i.l32; Xen. Cyrop. viii).
10. The others are separated from it by imEarth passable abysses. Sun, moon, and stars revolve round Mt. Taera, a peak
The Magi doubtless owed their monopoly of
priestly functions to their being Zoroaster's own
tribe. They are not mentioned as
in the Elburz Mountains (Demavend?). A later legend says that the Elburz Range surrounds the earth.
14. The priests in the Pers cuneiform inscripMagi tions. Only once does the word "Magus" occur in the Avesta, and then in composition (Moghu-tbish, a Magus-hater,
Each god and man possesses a fravashi, which has been compared to a guardian spirit and seems to differ from the soul (urvan). After
Yasna LXV, 7). It is not necessary to trace to Bab influence the decay of Zoroastrianism and its degradation in late Achaemenian times. This was at least in large measure due to a revival of the ideas and practices forbidden by Zoroaster, which
11. Heaven judgment by Mithra, Rashnu and and Hell Sraosha, the souls of the. dead must cross the Chinvat-hridge ("Bridge of the Judge"), which is guarded by two dogs and is narrow and difficult for the unjust, but wide and easy for the just. The righteous man then advances through three Paradises, those of Good Thoughts, Good Words and Good Works (Humala, Hukhla, HvarUa: Yasht XVI; Arta Viraf Namak, VIIIX), until, led by Sraosha, Atar, and Vohu Mano, he finally reaches Ahura Mazda's abode of light and
reassert themselves in some parts of the Avesta, and which afterward gave rise to Mithraism.
"The Avesta states that, 1,000 years after Zoro-
aster's death, a prophet named Ukhshyat-ereta
will arise from his seed to restore his
15. Eschareligion. After another 1,000 years tology another, Ukhshyat-ncmahh, will appear for the same purpose. The end of the world will come 1,000 years later. Then a third prophet, Saoshyaiit, will be born, and will usher in the Restoration (frashd-kereti) of the world to its primitive happiness and freedom from the evil creatures of Aiiro Mainyus. This process will be completed in 57 years, during which 6 other proph-
glory, Garo-nmdna (in Gdthas, Gdro-demdna; Pahl. Garotman), where Ahura Mazda himself receives him with the words: "Greeting to thee; well hast thou come; from that mortal world hast thou come
to this pure, bright place" ( A. V. Ndmak, XI, 8, 9). But the soul of the wicked man, passing through regions of Evil Thoughts, Evil Words and Evil Deeds, finally reaches a dark and gloomy Hell (Duzhaiih). In later times it was believed that those not yet fit for heaven waited in Misvdno Gdlu's, an intermediate place where the extra merits of
ets will perform in the other 6 Karshvares the work which will here be accomplished by Saoshyaiit. But mention of this Restoration occurs only in very
late parts of the Avesta (e.g. Vend., Farg. XVIII,
51). It does not mean Resurrection, as De Harlez has shown. Later still, something of the kind was believed, and in the Bundihishnih (ch v) and the Palet (§ 28) we have the word rJstdkMz (from Av.
the just were stored up for the benefit of the less fortunate (Vend., Farg. XIX). A later name was Hamistakan. But De Harlez is of the opinion that
this idea was borrowed from mediaeval Christianity.
irista, "departed," and hvis, "to rise"), which does mean "rising of the dead." But it can hardly be doubted that the doctrine is due to Heb and Chris-
In primeval times the Persians buried or burned
their dead. Zoroastrianism may have introduced the dakhma (Vendiddd,^ passim) or
tian influence, esp. when we consider 16. Hebrew the late and uncertain date of the and Chrisbooks in which the idea occurs. Israeltian Inites settled in Media in large numbers fluence in or about 730-728 BC under Sargon
12. InterTower of Silence, on which bodies are ment exposed to be eaten by vultures. Those of which the ruins have been discovered at Al Hibbah are very ancient. But in Herodotus' time it was usual, after permitting the
(2 K 17 6), long before Zoroaster's birth. It is possible that his reformation may have owed much therefore to Heb influence. Sec, further, ZOBOASTRIANISM.
flesh to be devoured by dogs and birds, to cover the bones with wax and bury them (Herod. i.l40). This was done to prevent them from coming in
contact with and so polluting the earth. The cu,stom of burial is proved by the tombs of the Aehacmenian kings near Persepolis, and that of Cyrus, a
The idea of virgin loirth has been asserted to occur in Zoroastrianism, botli witti reference to Zoroaster himself and to the last three great prophets of wliom mention has been made. Tiiis is an error. The Avesta and all later Zoroastrian books speali of Zoroaster's birth as
stone chamber raised high above the ground, at
Pasargadae.
2335 THE INTERNATIONAL STANDARD BIBLE ENCYCLOPAEDIA Persian Religion Persians
quite natural, his father being Pourushaspa. Nor is virgin birth referred to in the case of Saoshyaat and the rest. {Mater cuiusque ex iis. sese in 17. No lacu quodam lavans, Zoroastris semine illic ^7:«>m« 'D:.-4.t. Teposiio gravida facta filium pariet: Vend., Virgin airtJl parg. XIX. 4-6; Yasht XIII. 128, 142; Band., XXXII, 8, 9.) Virginity is not higUy esteemed in the Avesta, though fornication is condemned.
Literature.—Geldner's ed of text of Avesta; De Harlez, Avesta; Achaemenian Inscriptions; Sacred Books of the East, vo\s IV, XXIII, XXXI ; Grassmann, Wnrterbuch zum Rig Veda; Haug and West, Artd Vlrdf Ndmak; Spiegel, Einleitung in die trad. Schriften der Parsen; Eranische Aitertumskunde; Darmesteter, ffjtudcs iraniennes; Haug, Essays on ... . Religion of Pdrsis; De Harlez, Manuel du Pehlavi; Cook, Origins of Religion and Language. See also Zoroastbianism.
W. St. Clair Tisdall PERSIANS, ptlr'shanz, -zhanz (D"]S
, para!), also = Persia,Persis [q.v.]; adj. "'P"1S, par.??:, Heb, and "^Pli, parlay, Aram.; Il^pcrai, Persai, adj. only in Neh 12 22; Dnl 6 28; Achaem. Pcrs Parsa, name of both country and people ; does not occur in Avesta)
Persians Person THE INTERNATIONAL STANDARD BIBLE ENCYCLOPAEDIA 2336
(1) The king was an arbitrary ruler with unlimited power, the council of seven princes who stood nearest to the throne (Est 1 14 ; cf Herod, iii. 70-84) having no sliare in the government.
tuaries, and this doubtless led to permission being given to the Jews to return to Jerus, taking with them their sacred vessels, and to rebuild their temple. Cyrus was killed in battle against some
(2) The army.—As soldiers, the Persians were famous as archers and javelin-throwers; they
frontier tribe (accounts differ where) in 529 BC. His tomb at Murghab, near the ruins of Pasargadae,
is still standing.
C3''rus' son and successor, Cambyses, invaded Egypt and conquered it after a great battle near Pelusium (525 BC). During his absence, a Magian, Gaumata, who pretended to be Smerdis (Bardiya), Cambyses' murdered brother, seized Marching against him, Cambyses committed suicide. After a reign of 7 months, the usurper was overthrown and slain by Darius and his 6 brother-nobles
3. Cambyses
the throne.
4. Pseudo Smerdis
(their names in Herod, iii, 70 are confirmed with one exception in Darius' BesitOn Inscription^ col. iv, 80-86). Darius became king as the heir of Cambyses (521 BC). But in nearly every part of the empire
Persian Warriors.