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[Grusseldorf]

Zoroastrianism predates Abrahamic religions and has many similar beliefs and ideas

Monotheism, Messianism, Judgment after death, heaven and hell, free will. What is your take on this? Did the Abrahamic religions simply copy these ideas from Zoroastrianism? Or something more along the lines of Zoroastrianism was on the right track of objective reality and they merely refined it?

[jimwalton]

My take on this is that similarity doesn't necessarily suggest derivation, let alone guarantee it.

> Zoroastrianism predates Abrahamic religions

Zoroastrianism isn't written until about 600-500 BC, though there are speculations about its existence before then. Judaistic monotheism appears as early as 2000 BC (Gn. 12.1), and starts to appear in writing as early as 1300 BC.

> Did the Abrahamic religions simply copy these ideas from Zoroastrianism?

There's no evidence of this. Similarity of ideas doesn't mean one copied from another. You and I may have similar ideas about politics, but that doesn't mean we copied from each other.

> Or something more along the lines of Zoroastrianism was on the right track of objective reality and they merely refined it?

Actually most of Zoroastrianism is quite different from Judaism and Christianity. Just because there are a few possible places of overlap doesn't mean much of anything.