Christ in John i. 4, 5 (cf. xii. 41), and that there is a confusion in their minds between the first of these passages and Gen. i. 3. At the same time it will be seen from the passages which we now proceed to quote that the details, though with marvellous exaggeration and invention, are, in their main outline, borrowed from Zoroastrian legend.

In the Pahlavi Minukhirad, which was composed in the days of the early Sasanian kings of Persia, we read that Ormazd created this world and all His creatures, and the archangels, and the Heavenly Reason, out of His own special light, with the praise of Zarvan i Akarana or "Endless Time." But in a work far more ancient than this the fable of the light is found existent in Persia. In the Avesta it is mentioned in connexion with the great Yima Khshaeta or Yima "the Brilliant," who from its possession derived his name, afterwards corrupted into the modern Persian Jamshid. He is identical with the Sanskrit Yama, who in the Rig Veda is spoken of as the first of men, as in vain tempted to sin by his twin sister Yami, and as after death ruling the shades of the dead. Yima, in Persian tradition on the other hand, is the founder of Persian civilization. His father's name, Vivanhvat ¹, is the same as the Vivasvat of the Indian legend, who is the Sun, and is father

of Yama. On Yima's brow shone the Kavaem Hvareno or "Royal Brightness," an emanation from the Divine glory, until through sin he lost it. Of this the following description is given in the ¹ Avesta:—

"The mighty Royal Brightness for a long time adhered to Jamshid, master of the good herd, while he reigned on the seven-climed earth, over divs and men, magicians and Paris, evil spirits and soothsayers and wizards. ... Then, when he conceived in mind that false and worthless word, the visible brightness departed from him in the form of a bird. ... He who is Jamshid, master of the good herd, Jam, no longer seeing that brightness, became sorrowful; and he, having become troubled, engaged in working hostility upon earth. The first time that brightness departed, that brightness [departed] from Jamshid, that brightness departed from Jam, son of Vivanhvat, like ² a fluttering bird. ... Mithra took that brightness. When the second time that brightness departed from Jamshid, that brightness (departed) from Jam, son of Vivanhvat, it went away like a fluttering bird: Faridun, offspring of the Athwiyani tribe, the brave tribe, took that brightness, since he was the most victorious man among victorious men. ... When the third time that brightness departed from Jamshid, that brightness departed from Jam,