By Lewis Loflin
Stephen Van Eck’s Western Thought Influenced by Zoroastrianism is a mess—an anti-Christian screed obsessed with dunking on Christianity. Sure, Zoroastrianism flavors Judaism and Christianity, but it’s not a straight line. I’m not here to spar with him or you—we’ve got bigger fish to fry: the sources are a wreck. Is Jesus a rehash of Zoroaster? Did Zoroastrianism seep into Christianity? No to the first, yes to the second, but good luck proving it with what’s left.
Here’s the Bible’s tale from www.catholic.com:
The New Testament books came decades after Jesus’ ascension. It took centuries for Christians to agree on the canon. You’ve never seen the originals—nobody has. The earliest copies we’ve got are centuries later. Like it or not, you trust the Catholic Church’s say-so that those copies are legit and that those 27 books are inspired. Protestants bank on that too—or your Bible wouldn’t match. The Holy Spirit guided the Church to settle the New and Old Testaments in 382 at the Council of Rome under Pope Damasus I, ratified at Hippo (393) and Carthage (397, 419). You accept Damasus’ list, no tweaks.
“Holy Spirit guided”? That’s a ghost story—unprovable fluff. Anyone can claim divine nudges; it’s meaningless without originals. The Old Testament, as is, guts Christian claims—read it straight, no spirit goggles. But the Church didn’t agree—they burned books and slit throats to force it. Those “earliest copies” from the 4th century? Post-purge relics after heresy hunters torched the rest.
Outside scraps, we’ve got the Dead Sea Scrolls—zero help for the New Testament—and the Nag Hammadi texts, Gnostic stuff from the 2nd-4th centuries, clashing with the official line. No originals, just the Church’s word. Trust that if you want. See my Gnosticism section.
Zoroastrianism’s worse off. Islam gutted it in the 7th-9th centuries—survivors fled to India, now under 300,000 (Encyclopaedia Iranica, 2025 estimate). Robert M. Seltzer’s Religions of Antiquity nails it: “considerable difficulties” plague Zoroastrian texts. The Avesta, written down in the 4th-6th centuries CE from oral roots, is half-lost—earlier stuff’s guesswork. Most other works? 9th-century leftovers, post-Islamic filter. No pristine record, just echoes.
I’ve scrounged opinions—fundamentalist to secular. My view: Zoroastrianism didn’t hit Christianity straight-on—it filtered through Judaism, maybe Gnosticism, sticking to end-times, apocalypses, and a beefed-up Devil. Pre-Exile, Satan’s God’s loyal lackey (Job 1:6-12), not the Serpent (Genesis 3). That’s a later twist.
Christianity’s real kicker? Paul’s Original Sin—absent from Judaism, Zoroastrianism, and the Bible itself. Jesus as a blood-sacrifice deity? Christians bicker over it, but it’s Paul’s brainchild, not Persian. Without him, you’d have a Jewish doomsday sect. Augustine’s spin—rejected by Eastern Orthodox—clashes with the Old Testament flat-out.
Acknowledgment: I’d like to thank Grok, an AI by xAI, for helping me draft and refine this article. The final edits and perspective are my own.
