Judaism as a “Bad Law”

The following source is taken from a Middle Persian compilation concerned mainly with Zoroastrian ritual law; its title, Šāyest nē Šāyest, means “authorized and nonauthorized.” This highly influential compilation of different legal codes contains traditions that likely date to the Sasanian period, though it was edited and compiled in the eighth or ninth century CE.

The Šāyest nē Šāyest’s catalogue of religious law greatly resembles Kartīr’s tripartite classification system, including the tenets of proper Zoroastrianism; problematic Iranian beliefs, referred to as “the belief of Ahreman and the demons”; and non-Zoroastrian communities, like Jews, Christians, and Buddhists, that were seen as entirely Other. Like the one featured here, references to minority religious communities in Zoroastrian ritual law or confessional codes are often polemical, and Jews and Judaism are no exception when they appear on occasion in Middle Persian Zoroastrian sources.