Whoever has the leprosy or scrofula is not permitted to stay within a town, nor have communication with other Persians; and it is supposed that the infliction is caused by some offence against the deity (sun god). Herodotus, book I., chaps. 131,138.
The eldest son of the Persian king was instructed during youth in the learning of the Magi according to Zoroaster the son of Oromazes—by this learning is meant the worship of the gods—and likewise in the art of kingly government. Plato, in Alcibiades.
The Hebrews sacrificed on high places for a long period. Sacrifice in an enclosed place seems to have been adopted from the Phoenicians by David and Solomon, but not to have been popular for some centuries.
The Jewish people sacrificed to sun, moon, and some planets—had a sacred fire in the temple, and regarded clouds and wind as the ministers of God. The God that answered by fire was the one adopted by Elyah. The so-called orthodox Jews only acknowledged one God, and subsequently one devil.
The Jews neither offered invocation nor prayer at their sacrifices, and prophets and kings offered victims without priestly assistance. In later times every sacrifice was offered by a priest.
The Hebrews regarded a large family as a gift from Jehovah.
The Hebrews had the same practice; and, as we learn in the book of Job, and Deuter. xxviii, notably in the 27th verse, they deemed that botch, scab, itch, and emerods were punishments sent by Jehovah.
The royal families of Judah received no instruction, either in political matters or in religion, and were allowed to grow up and do much as they liked in regard to worship. The only power which influenced them was that assumed by some man who professed to be divinely inspired.
In a chapter of ancient faiths and notice an allegation which has that Parseeism or Zoroastriamsm has been borrowed from Jews and Christians. To this we wholly demur. Nowhere in the Avesta do we find a reference to the imminent destruction of the world, the resurrection of a dead man, his subjugating all the powers of evil, and reigning for a thousand years with his followers as kings and saints. Nowhere in the Avesta do we discover such immoral notions of God as prevailed amongst the ancient Jewish writers. Take these away from Judaism and Christianity, and then the two resemble the religions which are held everywhere by the thoughtful and the good. If there has really been any copying at all, we do not see the imitators in Central Asia but on the shores of the Mediterranean. The Jews copied from Tyre, Babylon, and Greece—Christians have taken as models Egyptians, Grecians, Romans, and even barbarians, and they have denied a once pure faith by covering it over with the ordures of heathenism. Yet we talk of others imitating us!
I propose now to examine at some length into such of the developments as have taken place in certain religious systems, for by so doing we shall be better able to judge what are those doctrines which Christians hold, in common with what they call Pagan nations, and how far those matters which are regarded as fundamental points of doctrine are in reality trustworthy. We must ever bear in mind that if we find the same set of ideas entertained amongst peoples who by no possibility can have had any communication with each other, it is only rational to believe that each race possesses those notions in virtue of their being human. Or, if desirous of avoiding this admission, the orthodox declares that every asserted fact is a copy of a precedent one, then we ask them to reconcile the legend of Hercules being begotten by Jupiter, and Jesus by the Holy Ghost, for unquestionably the story of Alcmena's son preceded that told of Mary's.