Siva and Vishnu

[Stephen Hodge]

N. Ganesan wrote:
> Laato, Antti.
> The servant of YHWH and Cyrus : a reinterpretation of the exilic
I am sure the book you have found will explain things but as you
probably already know, the book of Isaiah is recognized by scholars to
comprise three layers:  the "original" Isaiah (01-39), Deutero-Isaiah
(40-55) and Trito-Isaiah (56-66).  My understanding is that the first
part was written after the Northern Kingdom of Israel had been wiped
out by the Assyrians, while the other two layers are post-exilic and
thus open to Zoroastrian influence.  I have alos found this useful URL
that has a lot of background info that may help you find your bearings
if you so need.
http://www.infidels.org/library/modern/gerald_larue/otll/

Venkatraman Iyer wrote:
> >A propos of this, there are some fragments from Qumran of
physiognomy
> >texts to divine the nature of prospective candidates to the
Community
> >(See Vermes "Complete Dead Sea Scrolls in English" p357-59).
>
> Aren't these of post-dispersal period ?
The dating of the Qumran "library" is subject to much controversy and
ill-feeling in the field [sounds familiar ;)] but the consensus is
that they were composed somewhere between approx 300 BCE and 50CE but
note some scholars (J. Murphy-O'Connor et al)  think that the Essenes,
the putative authors of the sectarian elements of the corpus, came
into being among the Judaean exiles in Babylon who did not leave with
the first waves of returnees.  My impression is also that the
overwhelming consensus of scholars believe that there are strong
Zoroastrian influences in the sectarian obsession with apocalpses,
eschatology, messianism, the Light-Dark duality and also to a lesser
degree in redaction of the Torah etc which was not done until after
the return to Judaea,  around the 430s BCE or even later.  As above,
one must remember that there were many waves of returnees over at
least a 150 year period after they were told they could leave by the
Persians.

Best wishes,
Stephen Hodge