The Scriptures of Zoroastrianism Zoroastrianism, like Judaism,
Christianity, and Islam, is a "religion of a book" or rather a
religion of texts. From the beginning, Zarathushtra's prophecies
were embodied in words, though they were not written down until
more than a millennium later. Zoroastrians have three thousand
years of words in their heritage. The Avesta is the analogue of
the Bible for Zoroastrians. Like the Bible, it is a collection
of many texts from many eras, in different languages. The texts
come from times that may be as early as 1700 BC and as late as
400 A.D. Until recently, the Avesta was known in the West as the
"Zend-Avesta." This is a misnomer and was caused by the
misinterpretation of the word "Zend." This means "commentary" in
middle Persian (Pazand). The word "Avesta" is mysterious in
origin. The German scholars of the late 19th century (Geldner,
Bartholomae, etc.) say that it is from the ancient Iranian word
upasta meaning "shelter" or "support." The Avesta scholar Dr.
Ali Jafarey has a