1.2: The Coming of Saoshyant
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Reading Two: The Coming of Saoshyant (Denkard Book 7, Ch. 10 Verses 15-19, Book 7, Ch. 11, Verses 4-5)
This passage discusses the events that will occur at the end of the current age, when the conquering of Angra Mainyu will begin to take place. Zoroastrians believe that an individual, called the “Saoshyant,” will usher in this era and lead the battle against Angra Mainyu. The Saoshyant is a savior-figure who will be born of a virgin, which the text calls “Gobakabu”. The text talks about her lineage and how she is a descendant of certain individuals. This is important for Zoroastrians because they believe that the Saoshyant will be a descendant of Zarathustra, the original prophet of Zoroastrianism. This text tells the story of how she will bathe in a lake and become impregnated with the seed of Zarathustra, which has been kept intact for thousands of years by angels. Then she will give birth to the Saoshyant.
The text continues to talk about the greatness of the Saoshyant, his goodness, his strength, and his abilities.
Then the text continues with discussing what will happen when the Saoshyant grows up, how he will destroy all the evil in the world and lead the true Mazda Worshippers to defeat Angra Mainyu and usher in the future existence. When he is 30 years old there will be a cosmic sign in the sky announcing his identity and then when he is 57 years old he will vanquish all evil from the world. Humanity will be released from evil and temptation, which is shown in the changing diet of humanity – the passage states that humans will become vegetarian, then drink only water, and then eat only “spiritual food.” Zoroastrians are not vegetarians, but these diet changes symbolize the bettering of humanity – they will no longer need the things of this world as they grow closer to God.
Scholars have often pointed to the similarities between the idea of Saoshyant and that of the “Mashiach” or Messiah in Judaism, which strongly influenced the beliefs surrounding Jesus in Christianity. Furthermore, the idea of the final battle between Saoshyant and Agra Mainyu has been compared to the final battle between the Messiah Jesus and the Anti-Christ from both Christianity and Islam.
The Saoshyant
And when thirty winters of the tenth century are unelapsed, that maiden, who is Gobakabu (translates to ‘having a testifying father’), walks up to the water; she that is the mother of that testifying Saoshyant who is the guide to conveying away the opposition of the destroyer, and her former lineage is from Vohurokoi Frahanyan in the family of Isadvastar, the son of Zaratust that is brought forth by Arang.
That maiden whose title is all-overpowerer is thus all-overpowering, because through giving birth she brings forth him who overpowers all, both the affliction owing to demons, and also that owing to mankind.
Then she sits in that water, when she is fifteen years old, and it introduces into the girl him ‘whose name is the Triumphant Benefiter, and his title is the Bodymaker; such a benefiter as benefits the whole embodied existence, and such a bodymaker, alike possessing body and possessing life, as petitions about the disturbance of the embodied existences and mankind.
Not before that has she associated with men; nor yet afterwards, when she becomes pregnant, has she done so before the time when she gives birth. When that man becomes thirty years old, the sun stands still in the zenith of the sky for the duration of thirty days and nights, and it arrives again at that place where it was appointed by allotment.
[Then when Saoshyant is] fifty-seven years old there occur the annihilation of the fiendishness of the two-legged race and others, and the subjugation of disease and decrepitude, of death and persecution, and of the original evil of tyranny, apostasy, and depravity; there arise a perpetual verdant growth of vegetation and the primitive gift of joyfulness; and there are seventeen years of vegetable-eating, thirty years of water-drinking, and ten years of spiritual food.
And all the splendour, glory, and power, which have arisen in all those possessing splendour, glory, and power, are in him on whom they arrive together and for those who are his, when many inferior human beings are aroused splendid and powerful; and through their power and glory all the troops of the fiend are smitten. And all mankind remain of one accord in the religion of Ahura Mazda, owing to the will of the creator, the command of that apostle, and the resources of his companions.
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