There are many religions in the world. Some are created later, and some are not. Learning about them will be interesting when the person is more involved in learning about history and want to do research on those topics.
Two religions will make the evolution interesting, and they are Jews and the other one is Zoroastrians.
Key Takeaways
- Judaism originates from the Middle East and is based on the teachings of the Torah, while Zoroastrianism originates from ancient Persia and is founded on the teachings of Prophet Zoroaster.
- Jews believe in one God, Yahweh, while Zoroastrians believe in Ahura Mazda, the supreme deity in a dualistic cosmology.
- Jewish rituals include prayer, dietary laws, and observing the Sabbath, whereas Zoroastrian rituals encompass prayer, fire ceremonies, and the observance of purity laws.
Jews vs Zoroastrians
Jews are people who believe in a single God and follow a religion called Judaism. Jews pray three times a day, and a child is a Jew when their parents are both Jews. Zoroastrians are people who practice Zoroastrianism and strictly follow certain rules, and they are mostly Muslims who pray five times a day.
Jews are people who believe in a single God. They follow this religion called Judaism which is divided further into Tannaitic and Contemporary.
To consider a child, whether it is Jewish or not, the child’s parents will be considered. If both are Jewish, then the child will be Jewish. If one parent is Jewish and the other is not, the child will not come under Jewish.
Zoroastrians are the religion, and the people in them are Muslims. In Zoroastrianism, certain things are prohibited from wearing and that are followed strictly among themselves.
Zoroastrianism was founded by Zoroaster. They shaped the Persian empire. They have a special symbol called faravahar. They also have another symbol called fire, which represents light and warmth and has some purifying powers.
Comparison Table
| Parameters of Comparison | Jews | Zoroastrians |
|---|---|---|
| Origin | Levant | Persia |
| Prayer practices | They used to pray 3 times a day | They used to pray 5 times a day |
| Pictures and Statues | They don’t use any pictures and statues to pray | They use some symbolic images of God |
| Followed by | They are followed by Jews | They are followed by Zoroastrians |
| Evolution | 1300 BC | 2000 BC |
What are Jews?
Jews were initially called Hebrews, and they were also known as Israelites. Their history has a record of 5750 years. They evolved out of a common religion. They have their customs, ethical systems, and religions developed by them.
This helped them to identify themselves as Jews, which gave them their own new identity in society regardless of other individual religions. There were ancient Jews where they were both conquerors and conquered.
They also adopted some local customs and culture as Jewish people. This is a great subject which can be studied more in-depth in history. Their history students will get a chance to explore further in this topic.
Based on that, they can do their research as well. They can get to know the places they live. For this, they should choose history topics in their higher studies so that they can get a better idea of them.
To understand more about them, we should first know who are the jews people.
That will make us more engaged in this topic. That is the basic idea behind this concept. They follow the religion of Judaism. They all believe in one God. In some other religions, you can see people believing in many gods.
But here, the concept is entirely different, and they believe in a single god. They also have their Jewish calendar. Jew will be a basic question that will be asked when people talk about Judaism.
What are Zoroastrians?
Zoroastrians follow the religion of Zoroastrianism. It is one of the anciently followed religions in Iran. Zoroastrians follow the god, and they even have statues and pictures of God. Their god is Ahura Mazda.
They are called the pre-Islamic religion of Iran. They used to survive in isolated areas in Iran. But they live more prosperously in India. The immigrants of Zoroastrians are known as Parsis and Parsees.
They used to pray several times a day. The maximum that they pray in a day will be 5. But they can exceed that number sometimes. They have more faith in their god. According to them, their god is everything to them.
They used to wear kusti which will have three knots tied. This will remind them of good words, thoughts, and deeds. Nowadays, they live in many parts of the world and not in one single place called Iran.
They follow a sacred book called Avesta. This book is also called Zend-Avesta. Many Zoroastrians used to convert their religion to Islam, and it does not matter what kind of religion they are in.
In the Persian empire, Zoroastrianism was considered one of the world’s largest religions. Zoroastrians are allowed to drink alcohol. And they even make their alcohol in their home.
Main Differences Between Jews and Zoroastrians
- The origin of Jews is from the Levant. On the other hand, the origin of Zoroastrians is from Persia.
- The prayer practice followed by Jews is 3 times a day. On the other hand, the prayer practice followed by Zoroastrians is 5 times a day.
- Jews don’t use any pictures or statues while praying. They pray without any idols or forms. On the other hand, Zoroastrians used to have some symbolic images of God while praying.
- The Jewish religion is followed only by Jews. On the other hand, the Zoroastrian religion is followed only by Zoroastrians.
- Jews’ evolution came in 1300 BC. On the other hand, Zoroastrians’ evolution came from 2000 BC.
- https://www.jstor.org/stable/1464919
- https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1080/00210862.2014.948753
Last Updated : 13 July, 2023
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Chara Yadav holds MBA in Finance. Her goal is to simplify finance-related topics. She has worked in finance for about 25 years. She has held multiple finance and banking classes for business schools and communities. Read more at her bio page.
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