Note 3 — Chapter XIII · Epistle to the Hebrews (A Sequel to Sophia Solomontos).

This Epistle is the nursery of the titles of Christ; he is Apostle, Son of God, Son of Man, Great Shepherd, Captain of Salvation, Mediator, Great High Priest; and here alone is found the now familiar endearing phrase “Our Lord.” These titles represent the functions of different beings in the Avesta. The conception of the work of Jesus on earth is largely Zoroastrian. The Majesty on high has a colony and a people on earth, which otherwise is under the supremacy of the Evil One. As we have seen the Avestan definitions of Ahuramazda and Angra Mainyu, “the Living and the Not Living,” are reflected in the phrases of this Epistle,—the “Power of Imperishable Life” (vii. 16) and the “Power of Death” (ii. 14). Ahuramazda, when his “habitable earth” was prepared, brought into it his “first-born,” Yima, and wished him to propagate the divine law which should destroy the power of Angra Mainyu on earth and confine him in the underworld. Yima replied, “I was not born, I was not taught, to be the preacher and the bearer of thy law.” He engaged, however, to enlarge and nourish the garden of God on earth, of which he was king, and entitled “the good shepherd.” He obtained from the Holy Spirit, Anâhita, the powers thus enumerated in Abân Yast 26: “He begged of her a boon, saying, ‘Grant me this, O good, most beneficent Ardvi Sûra Anâhita, that I may become the sovereign lord of all countries, of the dævas [devils] and men, of the Yâtus [sorcerers] and Pairkas [seducing nymphs], of the oppressors [who afflict] the blind and the deaf; and that I may take from the dævas [devils] both riches and welfare, both fatness and flocks, both weal and glory” [hvarenô, “the glory from above which makes the king an earthly god”].3 This “firstborn” reigned a thousand years, but then, having ascribed his “glory” to the demons from whom he obtained wealth and material benefits, his “glory” was lost, and secured by the Devil, who reigned in his place a thousand years, blighting the world, when Zoroaster was born to undertake the establishment of the divine Law on earth. Yima was ultimately developed into the Jamshid of Persian mythology, whose power over demons, fabulous wealth, and ultimate fall (through declaring himself a god, according to Firdusi) invested the legend of Solomon.