PETER WAS RIGHT, I WAS WRONG | 2004-12-13
I never understood why it HURTS people so much to say something as simple as "He was right and I was wrong." Even people MY age have trouble with that.
Peter said that Zoroastrianis was the monotheization (?) of the Old Aryan religion of Mazdaism. Just as the Jews had their own God JHWH but took others for granted, Aryans had a chief god Mazda. Mazda became the Only God with the prophet Zoroaster about 1200 BC. JHWH became the Only God and the Good God of the Jews a great deal later.
In the meantime the Jews had a LOT of contact with Persia, including living there.
My mistake was in mixing up Mithraism with Mazdaism. Since I'm pretending to be able to handle all these big words and theological constructs, this should embarrass me greatly.
Sorry, I'm all embarrassed out. As I just pointed out below, you can't find out if you're wrong unless you SAY it. From Peter's explanation, I have learned yet more about the Mazda-JHWH connection.
And I wouldn't have learned that if I hadn't been wrong, and I wouldn't have learned that if I hadn't SAID it and then sat back and taken the heat.