The Amesha Spentas are not a late priestly invention; six of the seven are already grouped in the Gathas, the oldest Avestan hymns attributed to Zoroaster himself.
Imported citation, not independently checked: Gathas; Yasna 30, 45, 47, 51
religion · Shared topic · Revision 0
What Are the Amesha Spentas?
What Are the Amesha Spentas?
The current answer
Seven facets of one God, and why they rhyme with archangels.
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The Amesha Spentas are simultaneously divine persons and abstract qualities, and in the Gathas they are also qualities a human being is meant to internalize.
Imported citation, not independently checked: M. Boyce, Zoroastrians (1979)
Vohu Manah is "Good Mind," and the worshipper who thinks well participates in Vohu Manah; Asha is the cosmic Right Order, and the one who lives truthfully embodies Asha (Yasna 30; Yasna 51).
Imported citation, not independently checked: Yasna 30; Yasna 51
Heiser independently traces the Hebrew "divine council" as the native soil these ranks grew from (Heiser, The Unseen Realm, 2015).
Imported citation, not independently checked: M. S. Heiser, The Unseen Realm (2015)
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