Jews Encounter Zoroastrianism in Exile

During the Babylonian exile, Jewish communities live alongside Persians who follow the teachings of Zoroaster. Zoroastrianism features a single supreme deity, a cosmic struggle between good and evil, angels and demons as spiritual beings, and a future resurrection of the dead. Scholars debate how much direct influence occurred, but the parallels are striking — and many of these ideas appear in Jewish texts written during and after the exile.