led the Jews for 40 years.
According to the Dead Sea Scroll the Jews were expecting a prophet at the close of the millennium but nothing had happened. Then they were introduced to the solar calendar, which had more days in a year and so the millennium was extended and the time was made ripe for the advent of Jesus Christ.i Today the fact that the Magi’s the Wise Men who took gifts for Baby Jesus were Persians is played down and the meaning of the gifts (Vohu-Mana, Asha-Vahista and Khash-Atra-Vairyu.ii) misinterpreted although the real meaning is available in the Bible by way of the three questions put to Jesus by the devil in the wilderness. Another important fact is about Simon Magus (Hebrew for Magi) being the head of the church in the days of Christ. This too is not widely discussed.iii
Jesus introduces the God of Zarathushtra in the New Testament but the SEMITIC GOD of the Old Testament was firmly established in the human mind and became the ruling God. Although he is shown as a confused and feeble God, who creates the heaven and earth in seven days but then looses control of it. He repents and destroys his creation saving only Noah and a pair each from the rest of his creation. The next generation of Noah also does not live up to the wishes of this God who than sends Prophets to intervene. Powerless defenseless Prophets who are stoned and crucified.
In search of never waning rules Zarvanism once again becomes active. The son of light and darkness is discussed in the Dead Sea Scrollsiv. In Iran at the beginning of the Sasanian dynasty Zarvanism reaches its height and later becomes the bases of the religion of Mani and Mazdak. The Sasanian mobeds ban Zarvanism, Mani and Mazdakism but their theories creep into Zoroastrianism Ahura Mazda becomes the creator of all that is good and Ahriman the creator of all that is bad. Unfortunately modern scholars while translating the Gathas have it at the back of their mind and have made the Gathas look dualistic with Zarathushtra professing the existence of two paths and the freedom to choose the evil path.
Zarvan or Zurvan means Time, and time is an important factor in the universe. Zarvanism or Zurvanism has no prophet know to us by name. It was a belief that was discussed among philosophers who were discussing the origin of God. It could have started around 438 BCE when Persian philosophers and their Roman counterparts discussed the nature of God. The Romans had many gods while the Persian had only one whom they called Ahura Mazda. Roman gods were more of a super human type with all the human attributes. There were stories about their birth and life, they had failings and virtues, and they had a love life and also had enemies against whom they went to war. When it came to Ahura Mazda there were no such stories. Zarathushtra was more concerned with the real world and with how humans should progress and have a better life without going against the environment and nature.
To fill in the void someone somewhere must have come up with the explanation that before God came into being there had to be Time and Space into which God could come into being. They called it “Zarvan Akarneh” the Eternal Time. Then they wanted to examine the failing of Ahura Mazda and they saw that Zarathushtra had said that it is the human mind that creates happiness and pain. (Gatha 30.11) That it is the human mind that has to find ways to protect itself against the furies of nature. (Gatha 28.9) Since Ahura Mazda was not like the Roman gods and was all virtue and had no failings, they in their weakness of mind could not grasp and explain the phenomena so they came up with a counterpart and called it Ahri-Mana. It is important to note that the word Ahri-Mana or Zarvan does not appear in the Gathas at all.
The story of Zarvan giving birth to twins, is in the narrative style of the stories of Roman gods. The story goes that Zarvan was childless and that space was void. He then performs Yasht (prayers) to conceive a child who would create the universe. He prays for a year with no results and just when his prayers 