I've heard that Judaism later borrowed the concept of heaven and hell from Zorastrianism (Edit: no it did not. Check the link below anyway. Sorry for the confusion).
(Please correct me if I'm wrong)
Click here and look at Julia D's res ponce: http://answers.yahoo.com/question/index;_ylt=ApWma2fFzLIsvHdMdTUoEOfsy6IX;_ylv=3?qid =20080412152945AAFpL5t&show=7#profile-info-f46afc19225740381eba79f3cfa37c28aa
Not exactly, but some of the ideas like monotheism, hell, Satan, and judgment day all came from Zoroastrianism, and I'm sure there are some other overlaps.
Zoroastrianism was most likely NOT the basis for Judaism although it most likely did have a strong influence on it during the period when Judea was under Babylonian and Persian rule.
Historically there are strong similarities between some of the early Semitic practices and those found in Classical Greece and Ancient Egypt (for example the emphasis on ritual purity)as well as the sacrificial practices common between the God of Israel and the Gods of the Phoenicians/Canaanites
Nope. Zoroastianism is dualistic with a good God in contention against a God of evil, good vs chaos and evil. Judaism is strictly monotheistic, there is no hell, no devil, no supernatural forces able to content with God.
Aside from the vast differences in theology between the two, Judaism predates Zorostianism by anything from 500 to 800 years- meaning that if there was any influencing done- it would have been from Judaism to Arianism, not the other way around!
Relation to other religions and cultures
Zoroastrianism is uniquely important in the history of religion because of its possible formative links to both Western and Eastern religious traditions. As "the oldest of the revealed cradle religions", Zoroastrianism "probably had more influence on mankind directly or indirectly than any other faith".
It has been asserted that key concepts of Zoroastrian eschatology and demonology had influence on the Abrahamic religions. However, Boyce and other Iranists also note that Zoroastrianism itself inherited ideas from other belief systems and, like other practiced religions, accommodates some degree of synergism. For example, one of the popular strains within Zoroastrianism considers (the representation of) evil to have been one of God's creations (that subsequently turned from God). This idea of a unity of a creative principle is a relatively recent development and directly attributed to influence from Christianity, specifically, the impact of Protestant missionaries on the Indian subcontinent during the 19Th century (see Angra Mainyu in present-day Zoroastrianism for details).
Many traits of Zoroastrianism can be traced back to the culture and beliefs of the prehistorical Indo-Iranian period, that is, to the time before the migrations that led to the (North-)Indians and Iranians becoming distinct peoples. Zoroastrianism consequently shares elements with the historical Vedic religion that also has its origins in that era. However, Zoroastrianism was also strongly affected by the later culture of the Iranian Heroic Age (1500 BCE onwards), an influence that the Indic religions were not subject to. Moreover, the other culture groups that the respective peoples came to interact with were different, for instance in 6th-4th century BCE Western Iran with Fertile Crescent culture, with each side absorbing ideas from the other. Such inter-cultural influences notwithstanding, Zoroastrian scripture is essentially a product of (Indo)Iranian culture, and?representing the oldest and largest corpus pre-Islamic Iranian ideology?is considered a reflection of that culture. Then, together with the Vedas, which represent the oldest texts of the Indian branch of Indo-Iranian culture, it is possible to reconstruct some facets of prototypical Indo-Iranian beliefs. Since these two groups of sources also represent the oldest non-fragmentary evidence of Indo-European languages, the analysis of them also motivated attempts to characterise an even earlier Proto-Indo-European religion, and in turn influenced various unifying hypotheses like those of Carl Gustav Jung or James George Frazer. Although these unifying notions deeply influenced the modernists of the late 19th- and early 20th century, they have not fared well under the scrutiny of more recent interdisciplinary peer review. The study of pre-Islamic Iran has itself undergone a radical change in direction since the 1950s, and the field is today disinclined to speculation.
Zoroastrianism is often compared with the Manichaeism, which is nominally an Iranian religion but has its origins in the Middle-Eastern Gnosticism. Superficially, such a comparison may be apt as both are uncompromisingly dualistic and Manichaeism nominally adopted many of the Yazatas for its own pantheon. As religious types they are however poles apart:[13] Manichaeism equated evil with matter and good with spirit, and was therefore particularly suitable as a doctrinal basis for every form of asceticism and many forms of mysticism. Zoroastrianism on the other hand rejects every form of asceticism, has no dualism of matter and spirit (only of good and evil), and sees the spiritual world as not very different from the natural one and the word "paradise" (via Latin and Greek from Avestan pairi.daeza, literally "stone-bounded enclosure") applies equally to both. Manichaeism's basic doctrine was that the world and all corporeal bodies were constructed from the substance of Satan, an idea that is fundamentally at odds with the Zoroastrian notion of a world that was created by God and that is all good, and any corruption of it is an effect of the bad. From what may be inferred from many Manichean texts and a few Zoroastrian sources, the adherents of the two religions (or at least their respective priesthoods) despised each other intensely.
Many aspects of Zoroastrianism are present in the culture and mythologies of the peoples of the Greater Iran, not least because Zoroastrianism, was a dominant influence on the people of the cultural continent for a thousand years. Even after the rise of Islam and the loss of direct influence Zoroastrianism remained part of the cultural heritage of the Iranian language-speaking world, in part as festivals and customs, but also because Ferdowsi incorporated a number of the figures and stories from the Avesta in his epic Sh?hn?me, which in turn is pivotal to Iranian identity.
Was Zoroastrianism the basis of Judaism?
