Zoroastrianism arose in ancient Iran and helped shape a religious atmosphere in which the later Abrahamic traditions could articulate their own visions of God, the world, and the destiny of the soul. At its heart stands a single supreme deity, Ahura Mazda, set against the destructive spirit Angra Mainyu, and surrounded by hosts of beneficent and malevolent spiritual beings. This clear moral and cosmic dualism, together with a structured angelic and demonic hierarchy, resonates strongly with the later development of angels, demons, and a more sharply defined Satan in post-exilic Judaism, and through it in Christianity and Islam. Earlier Israelite texts portray a more limited role for Satan and a less elaborate angelology; after sustained contact with Persian imperial culture, Jewish thought begins to speak more fully of cosmic conflict, spiritual intermediaries, and an adversarial power opposing God’s purposes.

Equally significant is Zoroastrianism’s linear vision of history and its rich eschatology. The tradition teaches that time moves toward a final renovation (Frashokereti), when the dead are raised, a last judgment occurs, evil is definitively defeated, and creation is purified. This pattern closely parallels later Jewish expectations of a “day of the Lord,” the emergence of explicit resurrection beliefs, and a climactic judgment, themes that become central to Christian and Islamic understandings of the end of days. Both Christianity and Islam elaborate detailed doctrines of resurrection, heaven and hell, and the ultimate overthrow of evil, standing within an apocalyptic worldview that had already absorbed Iranian motifs of final reckoning and cosmic renewal.

Zoroastrian teaching about the soul’s journey after death also finds echoes in the Abrahamic traditions. The image of the Chinvat Bridge, over which each soul must pass and where deeds are effectively weighed, offers a powerful symbol of moral accountability: good thoughts, words, and deeds lead toward paradise, while evil inclines the soul toward a hellish state. Later Jewish writings, and then Christian and Islamic teachings, speak with increasing clarity of post-mortem reward and punishment, of heaven and hell, and, in Islam especially, of the weighing of deeds and a bridge of judgment, all within a moral universe where each choice participates in a larger cosmic drama.

Finally, Zoroastrianism’s expectation of a future savior, the Saoshyant, who will raise the dead and help bring about the final restoration, provides a suggestive parallel to Jewish messianic hope and to the central role of the Messiah in Christianity. Islamic eschatology, too, includes figures such as Jesus and, in some currents, a hidden restorer of justice before the final judgment, functioning in ways reminiscent of a Saoshyant-like role. Underlying these shared patterns is a strong emphasis on ethical decision and human freedom: Zoroastrianism calls each person to side with truth against the lie, and Judaism, Christianity, and Islam similarly portray history as a battleground of obedience and rebellion, where human moral choices bear weight in the unfolding of a divinely guided story.