Life After Death_ A History of the Afterlife in Western Religion - Alan Segal [112]
Thus, we can frame a hypothesis to be tested as we move into this period: The notion of resurrection, by comparison to immortality of the soul, tends to valorize and validate fully functioning sexual life in this and the next world, while immortality of the soul will valorize and validate intellectual life at the expense of sexuality. Our sexual lives are important and fulfilling to the Zoroastrians in ways that impressed Greek philosophers as decadent and distracting to intellectual life. We shall have to keep this in mind as we look at the various choices for afterlife in Jewish, Christian, and Muslim religious life.
The reward of the good person is transcendent because it will be with Ahura Mazda in the “House of Good Thought” (Y 32:15), whereas the deceitful will in the end come to the “House of the Lie” (Y 51:14) or even the “House of Worst Thought” (Y 32:13). To arrive in paradise, the truthful cross a famous bridge, the Chinvat bridge (Avestan: cinnuuato peretush, Y 46:10, lit. “the Account-Keeper’s Bridge” also called “the Bridge of the Judge,” or “the Bridge of the Mason.”) The souls of the deceitful will be repulsed when they reach the bridge, from which they will be dispatched to the “House of the Lie” forever (Y 46:10-11):
Whosoever, Lord, man, or woman, will grant me those things Thou knowest best for life-recompense for truth, power with good purpose-and those whom I shall bring to your worship, with all these shall I cross over the Chinvat Bridge. Karapans and Kavis by their powers yoke mankind with evil acts to destroy life. But their own soul and Inner Self tormented them when they reached the Chinvat Bridge-guests for ever in the House of the Lie!
An ordeal waiting to prove the righteous is hinted at in Yasna 51:9:20
What reward Thou hast appointed to the two parties, O Wise One, through Thy bright fire and through the molten metal. Give a sign of it to the souls of men, to bring hurt to the wicked, benefit to the righteous.
Zarathushtra submits himself in advance and will survive the ordeal unharmed. However, not so those who are wicked. Furthermore, anyone who tries to destroy him will himself be destroyed.
The Yashts and the Younger Avesta
THE YASHTS are usually regarded as slightly younger than the Yasnas and of various ages but their date is hard to fix because they remained in constant flux; some may even be older than the Gathas, but many are considerably later than the Gathas. They were not canonized to the same degree as the Gathas so, over time, they evolved into a mixture of Avestan and Pahlavi. Other than noting the language glosses, it is hard to tell how many new notions from later times crept into the text. In this respect, they are quite like the Rabbinic literature of the Midrash, some of which developed under Persian auspices.
Yasht 19 gives a detailed description of resurrection. It says: “When the dead will rise, the one who restores life, the Undying (i.e., the Saoshyant) will come.” Later in the same Yasht, we find: “When the dead rise, the Living Incorruptible One (the Saoshyant) will come and life will be transfigured” (19.11). Note that the process is described very simply, with the verb “arise,” which is parallel to the terminology which will come into use in the Jewish case as well.
The moral aspect of a person not only lives afterwards, it can be depicted in quite vivid terms, as a woman psychopomp (“leader of the soul”). In another part of the Younger Avestan writings, the Videvdat or Vendidad 19 (“Against the Demons”), we get a longer description of the daena, (lit. vision but, in context, the personification of conscience) of the just man. First, we see the same consistent story that the dead stay near the body until the dawn of the third day when, with the help