Original Research

Jesus and Mehr recognition according to oriental sources

Amir A. Rokhzadi, Kaivan Shafei
HTS Teologiese Studies / Theological Studies | Vol 74, No 1 | a4825 | DOI: https://doi.org/10.4102/hts.v74i1.4825 | © 2018 | This work is licensed under CC Attribution 4.0
Submitted: 29 September 2017 | Published: 22 March 2018

About the author(s)

Amir A. Rokhzadi, Department of History, Faculty of Humanities, Sanandaj Branch, Islamic Azad University, Sanandaj, Iran and Department of Science of Religion and Missiology, Faculty of Theology and Religion, University of Pretoria, South Africa
Kaivan Shafei, Department of History, Faculty of Humanities, Sanandaj Branch, Islamic Azad University, Sanandaj, Iran and Department of Science of Religion and Missiology, Faculty of Theology and Religion, University of Pretoria, South Africa

Abstract

Early oriental historians have used two series of sources about ancient history of Iran, including Iranian and non-Iranian sources. As these sources are independent of each other, two different chronologies about these ancient periods have arisen. Naturally, this duality has led to different and contradictory results about dating important events of this period. One of them is the contradictory reports about two separate religious personalities – Messiah Mehr and Jesus of Nazareth. Despite the fact that these historians have taken the identity and time of appearance of Messiah Mehr and Jesus from the abovementioned two sources, they unknowingly considered the two characters as one and the same person. Al-Mas’udi is one of the earlier oriental historians who made remarkable reports and points regarding the alterations of political and religious history of the Ashkanian dynasty by the earlier Sasanians. These alterations caused the reality of Messiah Mehr to be concealed. This article tries to explain briefly the reasons for this topic through the viewpoints of oriental historians with emphasis on Al-Mas’udi’s reports.

Keywords

Jesus; Al-Mas’udi; Mehr; Messiah; Oriental historians

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