A Quotation in All Things Made New
Source of the Quotation in All Things Made New
Authenticity of Zoroastrian Scripture
Attachment
MEMORANDUM
To: Universal House of Justice
From: Research Department
A Quotation in All Things Made New
The Research Department has studied
the email message of 7 January 1999 to the Universal House of Justice from
Mr. xxxx. Mr. xxxx states that he recently found on a Bahá'í
Web site a quotation from the Hand of the Cause of God John Ferraby's
All
Things Made New.1 The
source of the quotation is given as "
Dínkird", which he takes
to be the same as "Denkard" or "Dinkard", that is, a "Zoroastrian encyclopedia
of the 9th century, A.D., rather than a work of Zoroaster". He has
tried to find this quotation in a Web version of the 1896 translation of
the
Denkard but has not found anything resembling it. He asks
whether the Research Department is aware of "any Zoroastrian text identical
to or similar to" the quotation in question. As he has been unable
to gain access to a copy of Mr. Ferraby's book, he also asks whether the
quotation appears in all of the editions.
Source of the Quotation in All Things Made New
The text in question is the following:
When a thousand two hundred and some years have passed from
the inception of the religion of the Arabian and the overthrow of the Kingdom
of Irán and the degradation of the followers of My religion, a descendant
of the Iranian kings will be raised up as a prophet.2
As Mr. xxxx is aware, the only source provided for this quotation in
All Things Made New is "
Dinkird",3
which is translated as "Acts of the Religion". He is correct that
the
Denkard is a 9th century compilation of the preserved Zoroastrian
scriptural materials, and summaries and commentaries on the contents of
the Avesta. It is written in Middle Persian using the Pahlavi script.
With regard to his comment that, in the Web version, the first 65 chapters
of Book III were missing, we note that according to the
Encyclopedia
Iranica, the
Denkard was originally divided into nine volumes
of unequal importance, but the first two and the beginning of the third
have been lost.
4
The Research Department has neither the time nor the resources to attempt
to identify the specific text in the
Denkard which is the source
of the quotation in question. This is a project for future Bahá'í
scholars. However, it is interesting to note that in Mu
hammad
Ná
tiq's
Al-Munázarátu'd-Díníyyah,
there are quoted two passages which, if combined, appear to provide a similar
text.
5 These two
passages are referenced to the Denkard, but unfortunately no additional
identifying information is provided (see photocopy of the relevant page
attached).
Regarding whether the quotation in question
appears in all of the editions of Mr. Ferraby's book, it does appear in
each of the three editions, as follows:
First Edition, 1957, page 171.
Revised Edition, 1975, page 171.
Second Revised Edition, 1987, page 174.
Authenticity of Zoroastrian Scripture
As Mr. xxxx suggests, we do not consider
authoritative the Zoroastrian scripture to which we have access today.
In a letter dated 22 June 1943, written on behalf of the Guardian to an
individual, we read:
In the Bahá'í teachings it states that all the
Prophets have foretold a Promised One Who is Bahá'u'lláh.
We cannot be sure of the authenticity, word for word, of any of the past
Holy Scriptures except the Qur'án, as they were either not written
down during the Prophet's lifetime or have been changed in the course of
time and the originals lost; what we can be sure of is that when Bahá'u'lláh
or the Master stated that Zoroaster foretold a Promised One's coming, it
is correct. The Zoroastrians have no way of contradicting this assertion,
as they themselves know their scriptures are not in the original form,
and therefore not absolutely authentic.
According to scholars of the subject, of all the
Zoroastrian scripture presently known, only the Gathas, 17 hymns which
have been preserved in the ancient language spoken by Zoroaster, are attributable
to Him.
Attachment [see photocopies below]
- All Things
Made New: A Comprehensive Outline of the Bahá'í Faith, 2nd.
Rev. Edition (London: Bahá'í Publishing Trust, 1987).
- Ibid., p.
174.
- Other spellings
of this word are Denkard, Dînkard, and Denkart.
- Encyclopedia
Iranica, vol. VII (Costa Mesa: Mazda Publishers, 1996), p. 285.
- (Cairo: Faaju'lláh
Dhakí Al-Kurdí, 1342 AH), p. 37.
[The following photocopied pages were included in the letter; the marks
in the
margin indicate the passages in question. Click on images for larger versions.]