BIBLE
Out of context: Reply #120
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Kes. other "religions" existed prior to Zorastrianism. (Of course, when we assert our claim that "Adam" had the oldest religion, which incidently is consistently passed down through the Hebrew scripture, we understand this needs to be supported by good biblical apologetics; both external and internal supporting evidence).
When folks speak of "the oldest religion," they are usually speaking of the oldest for which they have written records. I know of no records that predate the flood. Zoroastrianism cannot possibly "predate Judaism by 1000 years" because Zoroaster (Zarathustra) was thought to have been born about 628 BC). If you define Judaism as that which came out of Babylon then his religion could only predate it by a few years and if you define "Judaism" as what existed prior to the Babylonian exile then Judaism predates Zoroastrianism by at least 900 years. The definitions I can find say that Judaism is "The religious doctrines and rites of the Jews as enjoined in the laws of Moses. --J. S. Mill." making Judaism the oldest recorded monotheistic religion.
Rough Timeline: 2,085 BC = Judaism, 1,500 BC = Hinduism, 560 BC = Buddhism, 550 BC = Taoism, 628 BC = Zoroastrianism, 599 BC = Jainism, 30 AD = Christianity, 50-100 AD = Gnosticism, 150-250 AD = Modalism (Monarchianism)–Sabellius, Praxeus, Noetus, Paul of Samosata, 325 AD. -After being persecuted for almost 200 years Constantine made Christianity a legal religion, compromise enters, 590 AD = Roman Catholicism -Developed after Constantine, 610 AD = Islam -original manuscript was burned up.
Now, Cosmos Chaos and the world to Come by Norman Cohn says "According to a Zoroastrian tradition the prophet lived 258 years before Alexander, which would place him in the middle of the sixth cent B.C. and this has been accepted by some eminent scholars. However the tradition in question has been shown to derive from a late calculation based on a greek fiction*. For more than a hundred years linguistic and archeological evidence has been accumulating in favour of the alternate view-which is that Zoroaster lived in a far earlier period, some time between 1500 and 1200 B.C., when the Iranains were still settled pastoralists rather than farmers*. Zoroasters own liturgical hymns,the Gathas abound in references to the instsitutions, customs technology and ways of thought of the traditional pastoral society-where as not a single similie is drawn from agriculture."
*Norman Cohn provides references in the bibliography.
So if the Cohn is correct you have to move Zoroasterism up to between 1500 and 1200 BC.