Evil in the World

At a significant point in the religious evolution of the ancient Near East, God gained an enemy in the Devil. A major value of the concept of the Devil is its ability to explain evil in the world.

Persians Conquer Babylon

During the Exile, when Babylon which had once again conquered the Israelites and exiled the upper classes to Mesopotamia, the Persians conquered Babylon. The Persians were a thoroughly foreign, Indo-European culture that brought a wholly new understanding of the divine to the Semitic Israelites.

Zoroastrianism

Zoroastrians had been present in Persian culture hundreds of years before Persia expanded into Mesopotamia. The basic position of Zoroastrianism was that God was opposed by a near equal but opposite being, the Devil. One early form of that theological dualism claimed that at the beginning there was but the One, the single God alone who contained all there is — all opposites, all things good and evil. This one God then emanated two roots, the Holy Spirit and the Devil, who were destined to fight each other for a predetermined number of ages until the battle was won.

---

The River of God
Gregory Riley