Who Will Save the World?

Soshyant in Zoroastrian intellectual history is not a static concept. What in the Gathas carries a broader meaning close to 'beneficial' and 'helpful' moves in later Avestan closer to an eschatological figure, and in the Pahlavi tradition takes on its more definitive form in connection with Soshyans and Frashgard. In this evolution, the image of the Soshyant gradually becomes tied to the end of history, the resurrection of the dead, and the renewal of creation; but resurrection is not the end of this path either, with

The religion and thought service of Ambassador Arjan of Iran (Ambassador Arjan); Religions and rituals have different attitudes about the apocalypse and the fate of man and the world, and in many of them, belief in a savior is seen. Ali Nikoyi, a researcher of the history and culture of ancient Iran, has explained this issue in the beliefs of the Zoroastrian religion in the following article;

Introduction: If the world is savior, who is the savior?

If the world was created in the beginning, is it destined to be destroyed or renewed? This question is the final link in the chain that follows the understanding of the world in Iranian thought from its creation to its end; In the previous notes of this collection, it was talked about how the world began and how the existence was organized, then the concept of time and its place in the Iranian conception of the world was examined, and then the issue of the entry of evil into the structure of creation and its conflict with the desired order of Ahura was considered. Now the natural question of the next stage is "If the world was created from the beginning for a good order and evil has created a state in it that is incompatible with this order, what will eventually become of this world? Does the creation have to end or can it return to its original state and even to a perfection beyond that?" This is where the concept of eschatology becomes important in Zoroastrian thought; The end of the world in this tradition, at least in its later formulations, is not simply an event for the end of history or the destruction of the material world, but rather a process during which the order of creation is freed from the damage of evil and the existence reaches its final and reformed state; From this point of view, the end of history should be considered not only "the end" but also a kind of cosmic renewal. In this perspective, Sushyant is at the center of one of the most important eschatological questions of the Iranian tradition, but to understand his position accurately, one should not simply equate Sushyant with "savior" in the common sense of other religions; Also, a distinction should be made between the role of Sushyant, Resurrection [ii] and Pershukrt, i.e. the final renewal of creation; Therefore, the main question of this note should be: What is the role of Sushyant in the final renewal of the world and what is his relationship with Rastakhiz and Farshukrt?

Sushyant before being a "savior".

Before we call Saošyant an apocalyptic savior, we must examine the word itself and its first uses in Avestan texts. The translation of Saošyant as savior, although it is very common in new researches, can convey the meaning that was formed for this term in later periods to older texts. Therefore, we must first distinguish between the meaning of the word in Gahan and its eschatological formulation in later texts. put In Iranian studies, this semantic evolution has been emphasized and it has been shown that "savior" is not always an accurate translation for the ancient uses of this word due to its specific meaning, especially compared to the concept of messiah in Abrahamic religions. The Avestan form Saošyant or Saušyant is linked to an Iranian root that is associated with benefiting, helping and improving, therefore in some scientific translations, equivalents such as benefiting, helping or helping are preferred over savior; This difference in translation is not just a lexical issue, but it has a direct impact on the understanding of Susyant's place in the history of Zoroastrian thought. If we translate this term as "Apocalyptic Savior" from the beginning, we may transfer the image that emerged from Sushyant to a time when such a specific personality had not yet been formed. The significance of the Gahan [hymns attributed to Zoroaster] is revealed precisely at this point, in these Saošyant texts it is not yet clearly the name of a single and definite figure who will appear at the end of history and save the world; The use of this term sometimes has a wider scope and in some cases it can refer to people or activists who play a role in the realization of good order and the spread of peace.

In Yesna 48.9, Sushyant is mentioned in the context of realizing the desired order and confronting its opposing forces, in Yesna 45.11 it is also about the future in which Sushyants will face the forces of evil, in Yesna 48.13 it is also spoken about "Sushiants of the lands"; The totality of these usages shows that in the oldest textual layer Susyant cannot be equated with a "final savior" without explanation. From this point of view, Sushyant in Gahan is closer to a functional concept, "one who is beneficial for life and good order and plays a role in the fulfillment of Ahura Mazda's will and Ashe's victory over lies." Even if in some of these cases a futuristic trend can be observed, there is still a significant distance from the orderly and systematic image of Sushyant in late eschatology; Therefore, it is methodologically prudent to attribute all the details of the later narratives to Zoroaster and Gahan. In the later Avesta, this concept gradually enters into a more specific structure, the sushiants are connected more than before with the future of the world and the ultimate destiny of creation, and in texts such as Yasht 13 and especially Yasht 19, their character and function are placed in a more apocalyptic framework. At this stage, Sushyant is no longer just a title for a beneficial person, but it is related to personalities and activists who play a role in realizing the ultimate future of the world. In this process, the image of the ultimate Sushyant, Astvat̰ərəta, takes a clearer form; A character associated with the final victory over evil, the resurrection of the dead, and the renewal of creation.

This evolution takes a more coherent and systematic form in the Pahlavi tradition, in texts such as Zand and Homan Yasen and Dodastan Dinik, the future history of the world is imagined in the form of more specific periods, and three eschatological figures, Oshidar, Oshidarmah, and finally Sochians, are included in this structure. Socians appears at the end of this process and connects with Farshgerd [i.e. the final renewal of creation]; Therefore, the history of the concept of Susyant should be understood not as a sudden appearance of an apocalyptic savior, but as a gradual process in the history of Zoroastrian thought; What is sometimes a concept with a wider meaning of benefit and help, in the late Avesta it is gradually formulated in the form of a character with an apocalyptic function, and in the Pahlavi tradition, it becomes the ultimate face of the renewal of the world. It is this development that shows that in order to understand Susyant, the historical interlayers of the Zoroastrian tradition must be distinguished; Because Gahan's Soshyant, late Avesta Soshyant, and Pahlavi texts' Soshyant cannot be considered a single character with a fixed meaning regardless of their historical distance and conceptual evolution.

From a "beneficiary" to the savior of the end of history

If in Gahan Sushyant is still more than the name of a specific character, it is a title for someone who benefits life and good order. In the later layers of Avesta, this concept gradually acquires an epistemic meaning; Sushyant is now connected with the future of the world and the final destiny of creation, and next to him a clearer picture of the end of the battle between Aṣ̌a and lies is formed. Rather, it should be seen as the result of the gradual development and formulation of a concept that sometimes had its roots. William Malandra in the Encyclopaedia of Iranica also talks about the same evolution of the meaning of Sushyant from Gahan to the later layers of Avesta. At this stage, the relationship between Soshyant and Zoroaster also becomes important, in the later narratives, Zoroaster is no longer the ultimate savior of the world; He is the messenger and the initiator of the order whose full realization is postponed to the future.

In Yasht 19, the victorious Susyant has a direct link with the renewal of the world; He appears when the creation must be freed from aging, death, corruption and corruption and find its final and eternal state. The more important point is that Sushyant is not necessarily just a face in this late tradition! In Yasht 13, three names Uxšyaṱ-ərəta, Uxšyaṱ-nəmah and Astvaṱ-ərəta are mentioned next to Susyant. The first two names were later assimilated in the Pahlavi tradition to Ōšēdar and Ōšēdarmāh, and the third name, Astvaṱ.ərəta, was attached to the final Susyant. In the Pahlavi tradition, these three figures become more regular in the form of three metaphysical stages; Oshider and Oshidermah come before Susyans, and each of them brings revival and the predominance of good to the world for a period, but Susyans is the last face and is related to the realization of Farshgard and the resurrection of the dead. The image of Soshyant in the Zoroastrian tradition should be seen as the result of a historical development, what was sometimes a title for a sudarsan and an activist of good order, in the later Avesta became a character or characters with a futuristic and apocalyptic role, and in the Pahlavi tradition, it finally found a more coherent structure in the form of the triple system of Oshidar, Oshidarmah and Soshians; In the midst of this, Astovat Arete found a special place, because his image was tied to the last stage of cosmic history, the resurrection of the dead and the final renewal of creation. Therefore, the savior of the end of history in the Zoroastrian tradition cannot be considered a fixed concept from the beginning to the end, this image itself is a part of the history of the evolution of Zoroastrian eschatological thought.

Three Sushyants and the architecture of the future

If we understand Susyant only in the form of a savior, the presence of three apocalyptic figures in the late Zoroastrian tradition may seem redundant. If someone is going to save the world at the end of history, why isn't a savior enough? The answer to this question should be sought not in the proliferation of savior figures, but in the image that the Zoroastrian tradition presents of the future time and the gradualness of the world's reformation; In this perspective, the world does not reach its final perfection all at once from the current state, but the process of ending the rule of evil also has stages and transitions. In the Pahlavi tradition of Oshidar, Oshidarmah and Sochians appear at certain intervals from the future date. The importance of this triad is that each one represents a part of the movement of the world towards the final state, so salvation here is more than a single event, it is a historical and cosmic process during which the power of evil is reduced and good order gradually dominates the world. Sociance is the last link of this process, not the first and only factor.

This structure also shows that time in Zoroastrian eschatology is not just repeating endless cycles, the world moves in a directed path; Creation begins, goes through a period of mixing and conflict between good and evil, and finally reaches its final state. Although cosmic elements and periods of time exist in this system, history eventually returns to a point where another cycle of destruction and renewal does not begin. Therefore, the three Soshyants can be considered a part of the architecture of the future; A structure in which the world approaches the end of history not with a sudden jump, but through successive stages. This understanding opens the way for the final stage of the discussion; If consciousness is the last factor of this process, what will finally change in the world? The answer to this question leads us from the character of Sushyant to the resurrection of the dead and the final renewal of creation.

The appearance of Sushyant in the Zoroastrian tradition should be seen as the beginning of a stage in which the world moves from a state mixed with evil to its final and reformed state, however, the apocalyptic narrative should not be recounted in such a unified way as if all its components - the appearance of Sushyant, the final battle, the defeat of demonic forces, the resurrection of the dead, judgment and the cleansing of the world - were compiled in a single text and in a historical period in the same way; What we know today as "Zoroastrian Zoroastrianism" is the result of the accumulation and systematization of traditions that have found different forms in different Avesta and Pahlavi layers. In the later Avesta texts, especially Yasht 19, the final Sushyant has a direct connection with the future of creation and its renewal. Also, in this narrative collection, the image of the return of the dead and the final victory over death and destruction is formed, so in the Avesta layer, Sushyant should be understood in a broader context of the final victory of good order and the reformation of creation, not just as a character who appears at the end of history. The side texts make these scattered elements much wider and more regular. In Bandheshan, Dinkord, Minoy Khard and Zand and Homan Yesen, the future of the world is described in the form of more specific periods and a series of interconnected events. In this tradition, Susyans is placed at the end of a process that has continued with the appearance of the previous saviors, the gradual reduction of the power of evil and the approach of the world to Farshgerd. In the final stage, the resurrection of the dead occurs and people come back to life again. Judgment and destiny are also placed in this framework; But the ultimate goal is not only to separate the good from the evil, but also to eliminate the possibility of the continuation of evil in creation. Finally, it reaches its final state with the carpet of the world; Death, destruction and the influence of demonic forces will no longer have a place in the order of existence. The appearance of Sushyant in the strict historical sense is not the name of a single incident, but the entry point to the last stage of the end. A stage that in the late Zoroastrian formulations finally passes through history and leads to the complete renewal of creation.

resurrection; Saving people or saving the world?

In Zoroastrian eschatology, resurrection cannot be seen simply as the return of the dead to life, its deeper meaning is revealed when we place resurrection in relation to the fate of the entire creation; In Zoroastrian thought, man is a part of Ahura's creation, and death, even though a person's temporary fate in the world is mixed with evil, cannot remain his last state; From this point of view, restoring the bodies of the dead is not only the salvation of man, it is a part of restoring the material creation to its perfect state. In the Pahlavi tradition, Rastakhiz is therefore considered a prelude to the final stages of the world's renewal. This point also helps to distinguish between two types of judgment that are sometimes mixed up in public narratives. First of all, the Chinood Bridge is related to the fate of the soul after death, the soul after death and passing the post-death period is judged in relation to its actions, and then it crosses the Chinood Bridge; The good go to the place of good and the wicked go to the realm of darkness.

This arbitration system is basically an individual arbitration, and in the Zoroastrian tradition, it makes sense much earlier than the final end of the world; Paul Chinod himself also has a history in Gahan, so it should not be equated with the "final judgment" at the end of history. At the end of history, the issue is no longer the fate of an individual soul, all human beings face the ultimate fate of creation. In the later narratives, after the resurrection of the dead, there comes a stage of final judgment and test, the most important image of which is a river or flood of molten metal. The metals inside the earth are melted and their flow covers the entire world. All humans must pass through it, but their experience is not the same; For the righteous, it is like a bath of warm milk, while for the wicked, it will be burning and painful. The importance of this image is revealed in this difference, molten metal is not just a tool of punishment; In eschatological logic, it is a test that removes evil from creation and prepares the world for the final state. Even in the Pahlavi tradition, the fate of hell is depicted as temporary, and with this final refinement of hell and the effects of evil, the resurrection goes beyond the level of saving a person; The human body will be restored, the final justice will be realized, evil will be purified and the world itself will be prepared for Farshgard. In this belief, it may be more accurate to ask "is the resurrection ultimately for the salvation of man or for the salvation of the world?" The answer of the Zoroastrian tradition, especially in its later formulations, does not separate the two from each other; The salvation of man is not complete without the restoration of creation, and the renewal of the world is not realized without the return of man to life and his liberation from death; Therefore, the resurrection is the link that connects the destiny of man to the destiny of the universe and opens the way for Farshgard, which means the final renewal and the irreversible defeat of evil.

fresh fruit When the world is rebuilt

If we consider Susyant to be the beginning of the last stage of apocalypse, and resurrection is the return of man from death, the main question remains, what will be the fate of the world itself? The answer to this question is revealed in the concept of Farshukart and in its side, Farshkord. This term refers to the renewal or final perfection of creation, a process in which the world is removed from the state of being mixed with evil and reaches such a state that it is no longer possible for death, corruption, and the domination of demonic forces to continue in it. The importance of Farshukrat lies in the fact that the ultimate goal of Zoroastrian eschatology is not to free man from the material world, in some religious traditions, salvation can be defined by leaving the physical world and entering another realm; But in the Zoroastrian formulation of the end of the world, the material creation itself is part of the Ahura plan and therefore must be corrected and completed. For this reason, the human body will return to life again in the resurrection, the material world is not something that is discarded at the end; Rather, it is something that must be cleansed from the harm of evil.

In this final state, death no longer has a place in the structure of existence, and humans are freed from the limiting condition they experience in the current world with old age, disease, and death. Demonic forces are no longer able to affect and harm; In later narratives, this process is completed with the destruction of Hell, the final refinement of creation and the establishment of its eternal state. Therefore, Farshukret is not only the end of a historical period, it is the end of the possibility of evil returning to the world; For this reason, one should not consider Farshukret as merely equivalent to "life after death". The afterlife is only part of the way, the resurrection brings man back to life, the judgment determines man's moral standing in the afterlife, and the final refinement of creation prepares for the perfect state. Preshukret is the stage in which these scattered components result in a cosmic transformation; Man is renewed and the world is renewed along with him. From this point of view, the final answer to the problem of this note becomes clearer; In Zoroastrian eschatology, salvation is not leaving the world, but renewing the world. Sushyant in this system is not the one who takes man out of the creation, but is one of the factors in the realization of the process at the end of which the creation itself is freed from evil, death and destruction; Therefore, the savior is not simply the savior of man, his role is defined in a larger plan whose ultimate goal is to save and renew the world itself.

Suchiant and his relationship with the Messiah; Similarity or commonality?

Putting Susyant next to the Messiah is one of the most fascinating and at the same time difficult comparisons in the history of religions, both concepts appear in traditions that care about the future of the world, the victory of good over evil and the realization of the final order; But this functional similarity alone does not mean that Sushyant is the same Messiah or that one arose directly from the other. The term Saošyant itself [as we saw earlier] sometimes has a broader meaning than "savior" and only in the later layers of the Avesta does it become more clearly an apocalyptic character; In terms of functional similarity, the comparison is significant.

In the late Zoroastrian tradition, Sushyant is associated with the final victory over evil, the resurrection of the dead, and the renewal of creation; In some later Jewish forms, the Messiah is also a figure related to the fulfillment of the divine promise and the organization of the future of the nation and the world, but the structure of these two traditions is not the same; Sushyant is ultimately a part of the process of cosmic renewal, while the concept of the Messiah in historical Judaism has various forms, and a single model cannot be attributed to all periods and Jewish texts. The issue of historical influence is more complicated, Jews lived for centuries in the territories under the rule of Iran, especially in Babylon, and the cultural contact between the Jewish community and the Iranian world is a historical fact, Iranian studies have also identified similarities between some elements of late Jewish eschatology and the Zoroastrian tradition, including the resurrection of the dead and the final judgment.

Perhaps he even considered the profound influence of Zoroastrian thought on Jewish and then Christian eschatology as probable; However, he also emphasizes that it is difficult to prove the exact route of transmission; Because the Pahlavi sources that have recorded the full form of many of these ideas are later than a number of Jewish texts containing eschatological ideas. Therefore, the third possibility, i.e. independent transformation, should also be taken seriously; When different religions are faced with the problem of evil, death, injustice and the future of the world, they may reach answers close to each other, without necessarily one being the source of the other; Therefore, it is better not to talk about "sameness" or "certain origin" about the relationship between Sushyant and Messiah, what can be said with more certainty is the existence of functional similarities in addition to the possibility of historical contact and influence. Determining whether we are dealing with borrowing, co-evolution or independent emergence in any particular case requires a careful examination of the history of each text, the time of its compilation and the actual routes of cultural contact. This is the caution that turns the comparison between Sushyant and the Messiah from a simple "savior to savior" comparison into a serious issue in the history of religions.

After walking the path of creation, the emergence of evil, Sushyant, Resurrection, and First Shukrt, we can now return to the initial question; "Who Will Save the World?" The answer of Zoroastrian metaphysics cannot be summed up in the name of a character; Although Sushyant has a pivotal position at the end of history in the late Zoroastrian tradition, he is not the "savior of the world" alone in the strict sense of the word! He is the initiator and agent of a stage of a wider process that ultimately leads to the complete renewal of creation, in this structure Susyant is connected with the resurrection of the dead, the resurrection leads to the final judgment and refinement, and this refinement provides the basis for the realization of Prashukrat; Therefore, salvation should not be seen as an isolated event, but as a process in which man and the material world pass through their current state at the same time.

The goal is not simply to transfer the human soul to another world; Rather, it is to restore creation to a state in which death, destruction, and the damaging power of evil are no longer possible. From this point of view, Sushyant is more than the end of the process, it is the beginning of its last stage; What saves the world is a series of interconnected actions; The emergence of the final factor of renewal, the resurrection of humans, the realization of justice, the refinement of creation, and the end of Purshukrat; Therefore, the answer to the title of the article can be formulated as follows; "In Zoroastrian thought, the world is not saved by a single person; the savior is the initiator of the process that finally renews the creation itself, here the savior is not a substitute for the world, but the agent of the transition of the world to its final state.

Conclusion: Salvation is not return; It is a renovation

Susyant is not a static concept in the history of Zoroastrian thought, what sometimes has a broader meaning and is close to "beneficial" and "helpful", in the later Avesta it becomes closer to an apocalyptic figure, and in the Pahlavi tradition it finds a more final form in connection with Susyans and Farshgerd. But the resurrection is not the end of this path either, the return of man from death is only one of the stages of the process that connects the fate of man with the fate of the whole creation. After the resurrection and final judgment and refinement, the world must also be transformed, the final destination of this process is Purshukrat; A state in which evil no longer has the power to harm and death and destruction are removed from the ultimate structure of existence. So the answer to the initial question of the article - who will save the world? - It is not summed up in the name of a person; Sushyant initiates the last stage of the process that ultimately renews the world itself. In Zoroastrian thought, the world is not saved by running away from it, but by renewing it.

Ali Nikoyi wrote: Susyant is not a static concept in the history of Zoroastrian thought, what sometimes has a broader meaning and is close to "beneficial" and "helpful", in the later Avesta it becomes closer to an apocalyptic figure and in the Pahlavi tradition, in connection with Susyans and Farshgerd, it finds a more final form. Creation is tied; But the resurrection is not the end of this path either, the return of man from death is only one of the stages of the process that connects the fate of man with the fate of the whole creation.

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