Jacob and Esau and the Myth of Zurvan

[Stephan Huller]

I stumbled across the Iranian myth of Zurvan at the Encyclopaedia Iranica http://www.iranicaonline.org/articles/zurvanism and couldn't help but see parallels between the Biblical story of Jacob and Esau. Has anyone else noticed this:

We are left, therefore, with a very specific and amply attested fact: the myth of Zurvan, which is an alternative version of the Zoroastrian myth of creation known from Greek, Syriac, Armenian, and Arabic sources (texts given synoptically in Zaehner, 1955 and Rezania, 2010). In this myth, which is surprisingly uniform in the various sources, the two spirits (Ohrmazd [see AHURA MAZDĀ] and Ahreman [see AHRIMAN]) are presented as the twin offspring of a pre-existing god Zurvan. The difference among versions of the myth is largely restricted to the origin of the two spirits: the myth presents Zurvan as sacrificing for a period of a thousand years, in order to beget a son. Zurvan experienced a moment of doubt; as a result, Ohrmazd came into being because of the sacrifices and Ahreman out of Zurvan’s doubt. When Zurvan realized that two children had been formed in his womb, he promised to give dominion to his first-born, intending it to be Ohrmazd, but Ahreman pierced the womb and presented himself as the first-born. It is here that the stories vary, but in general it is from the birth of the two spirits onwards that the narration of the cosmogony follows the customary lines known from “standard” Zoroastrianism. The myth of Zurvan is thus some sort of a “prequel” to the ordinary story of creation, and there are very few (if any) indications that this prequel was considered as imposing by any contemporary Zoroastrian, as it has seemed to modern Western scholars.

[Stephan Huller]

Good ideas usually get confirmed by subsequent research. Researchers have noted the parallel in the version of the story cited by Eznik in the 5th century:

http://books.google.com/books?id=VKS_C4 ... an&f=false

When, they saw, there was nothing at all,108 neither heaven nor earth nor any creatures that are in heaven or earth, there was a certain one named Zruan, which is translated fate or glory.109 He performed sacrifice"0 for one thousand years, so that there might be a son to him, whose name is Ormszd, who might make heaven and earth and everything that is in them. And after a thousand years of performing sacrifice he began to ponder in his mind, and said, 'Will this sacrifice I am performing be of any help, and will there be to me a son Ormizd, if I strive in vain?' And while he was meditating on this, Ormizd and Arhmn were engendered"1 in the womb of their mother: Ormazd, from the performance of sacrifice; and Arhmn, from the doubting. Then, when Zruan found out, he said, 'There are two sons there in the womb: the one of them who reaches me first, him I will make king.' And when Ormizd recognized the thoughts of his father, he declared them to Arhmn, saying, 'Zruan our father had the thought that the one of us who goes to him first, him will he make king.' And when Arhmn heard this he punctured the womb, went out and stood before his father. And Zruan, seeing him, did not know who this might be, and asked, 'Who are you?' And he said, T am your son.' Zruan said to him, 'You are not my son, my son is sweet-smelling and luminous, and you are dark and foul- smelling.'"- And while they were speaking these things to each other, Ormizd being born in his own hour, came and stood before Zruan. And when Zruan saw him, he knew that this was Ormazd his son, for whose sake he had been sacrificing. And, taking up the bundle of twigs"3 with which he had been performing the sacrifice, he gave it to Ormizd, saying, 'Up till now I performed sacrifice for your sake, hereafter you will do it for mine.' And as Zruan gave the bundle of twigs to Ormgzd and blessed him, Arhmn, coming up to Zruan, said to him, 'Did you not promise"4 this: Whichever of my two sons reaches me first, I will make him king?' And Zruan, in order not to break his promise, said to Arhmn, 'O false one and malefactor! Let the kingdom be given to you for nine thousand years, my having appointed Ormazd king over you, and after nine thousand years Ormszd shall reign, and what he will then to do, he shall do it.' Then began Ormizd and Arhmn to make the creations; and everything that Ormizd made was good and straight [ulil], and whatever Arhmn worked was evil and warped [t'iwr]." (Eznik of Kolb, De Deo (Maries and Mercier 1960, pp. 460- 461), tr. by J. R. Russell