Examining and criticizing the evidence of the Gathas on the prohibition of sacrifice

Articles in Press

Document Type : Research Paper

Authors

1 Iranian Religions, Non-Abrahamic Religions, University of Religions and Religions, Qom, Iran

2 assistant profesor of tehran university

3 Member of the academic faculty of the Organization of Records and the National Library of the Islamic Republic of Iran

10.22034/jrr.2024.444481.2166

Abstract

With the spread of Avesta studies and Orientalist translations of the Gathas, the belief became stronger that Zoroaster was against any kind of animal sacrifice, and if there is a sign of sacrifice in the post-gahan texts, it is in fact a return to the same beliefs of the pagan era. Zoroastrians, under the influence of this perception, went against the ancient tradition of sacrifice. However, there are those who disagree with this understanding of the Gathas and have pointed out the problems of Zarathustra's opposition to the sacrifice. However, so far the evidence has not been given the attention of researchers as much as it should be. With the aim of clarifying the issue of permissibility or impermissibility of sacrifice in Zoroastrianism, this research examines the occasional evidence and tries to answer the question of what is the ruling of animal sacrifice according to Zoroastrianism, and whether time and place conditions had an effect on this ruling. No? The present research is organized using linguistic analysis and library study. According to the findings of this research, the analysis of the clauses in question faces serious problems due to grammatical and lexical ambiguities, and the proof of this is the translation and different interpretations of Ostapzohan. It is also possible that the prohibition of the sacrifice arose from Zoroastrian's time and place conditions and not a general ruling for all times and places.

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Religious Research

Articles in Press, Accepted Manuscript
Available Online from 23 April 2024

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