Suffering or Testing? Footprints of the Job Story in the Zoroastrian Texts

Document Type : Research

Author

History Department, Mashhad University

Abstract

In all religions, testing humans through suffering and difficulties is a way to measure their faith and their trust on God. More patient person is more faithful. Who or what is the source of these sufferings has different answers in different religions. But the more important subject is the knowledge that the goal of the devilish forces is the human life destroyer and those who can keep their soul pure through these hardships, will win the test. 
This theme is in the story of Job in the Old Testament text. The story of Job is a typical example of religious narratives in which the faith of a true believer is measured by suffering and disaster, and he comes out of this test on the basis of trust in God. This article tries to search for this subject in the religious Zoroastrian literature and, comparing it with the text of the Old Testament, seeks to ascertain whether this worldview to the mankind and his testing is a familiar and repeatable category in Zoroastrian believes? In the context of the Zoroastrian worldview, has such an approach been used for human suffering? 

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