A Zervanite Apocalypse I

Extract

Of all our Iranian sources for that form of Zoroastrianism which recognized Zurvān as the prime principle of the cosmos, the Selections of Zātspram are undoubtedly the most important. We have seen (BSOS., IX, p. 573) that in his first chapter Zātspram assigns to Zurvān a decisive rôle in the creative process not found elsewhere; for it was he who handed to Ahriman that “black and ashen garment”, “that weapon, like unto fire … that containeth the very essence of Āz”. In so doing he was making no idle gesture; he was presenting Ahriman with one who was to be at once his most powerful ally and his eventual destroyer. The results of this action are related in the thirty-fourth chapter, an edition of which is offered here. Though our text is at some points exasperatingly corrupt, our chapter does seem to throw additional light on the mysterious figure of Jēh, the Primal Whore, and to support the theory advanced by Professor Benveniste that woman belonged, in the Zervanite system, to the evil creation. We hope in the near future to be able to offer an interpretation of this fascinating chapter: in this article we have confined ourselves to the text and, in the next number of this Bulletin, we will add a first translation which we hope will be of use to such students of religion as are unfamiliar with Pahlavi.