From:
History of the Jews, Volume 1. Heinrich Graetz, Philipp Bloch:
Ch XX, pg 402-406. (The Sopheric Age: 420-300 B.C.E.)
Please excuse any typos, I am not the best typist.
The fundamental concept of the Diety, as one incorporeal perfect God, was so firmly implanted in the heart of every Judean, that no one would allow himself to be influenced by the concept of the Persian god of light, Ahura-Mazda (Ormuzd), however spiritual that conception might be. Their seers, full of penetration, speedily divined the error of the Iranian doctrine of acknowledging two great rival powers, the god of light and goodness, and the god of darkness and sin, Angro-Mainyus (Ahriman). They contrasted that doctrine with their own belief, that the God of Israel created light and darkness, good and evil. They denied that the world and mankind are being perpetually drawn in divergent directions by two rival powers, but are destined to live in peace and unity. The spiritual leaders of the Judeans in the Sopheric age expressed this belief in one of the morning prayers: God is Creator of light and of darkness, He has created peace and had made everything.
But although the Judean resisted any alteration in their conception of the Deity, still they could not prevent many of the ideas and customs of the Persians from gaining ground among the nation. They imagined that they were adding to the glory of God if, in imitation of the Iranians, they surrounded Him with myriads of obedient servants. The messengers of God, whom we read of in the Bible as executors of His will, became, after the pattern of Persian beliefs, heavenly creatures, endowed with peculiar characteristics and special individuality. The people pictured to themselves the divine throne, surrounded by a countless throng of heavenly beings, or angels, awaiting a sign to do the bidding of God. Thousand times thousands served Him. Like the Persians, the Judeans called the angels the holy watchers (Iran-Kadishin). The angels received special names: Michael, Gabriel, the strong, Raphael, the healer, Uriel or Suriel, Matatoron, and others.
As fancy had changed the Yazatas into angels, and given them a Hebrew character and Hebrew names, so also were the bad spirits, or Daevas, introduced among the Judeans.
Satan was a copy of Angro-Mainyus, but he was not placed in juxtaposition to the God of Israel, for this would have been a denial of the fundamental doctrine of the Judeans. He, the Holy One, high and mighty and all-powerful, could not be limited, or in any way interfered with by one of His own creatures. Still
the first step had been taken, and, in the course of time, Satan grew to be as strong and powerful as his Iranian prototype, and was endowed with a kingdom of darkness of his own, where he reigned as the supreme power of evil. Once created in the image of Angro-Mainyus, Satan had to be surrounded with a host of attendant demons or evil spirits (Shedim, Mazikim, Malache Chabalah). One demon, as an adaptation of the Iranian Daeva names, was called Ashnodai; another, by the name of Samael, was at the head of the troop of persecuting spirits. The angel of death (Malach-ham Maveth), lying in ambush, ready to seize upon mens lives, was endowed with a thousand eyes.
The creatures of the imagination soon took firm hold of the Jewish soul, and with them many usages resembling those of the Magi invaded the Jewish religion; and especially the laws of purification became more and more rigorous.
It was also at this time that a new doctrine of retribution was developed in Judaism. According to the Iranian doctrine, the universe was divided into two great kingdoms; that of light and that of darkness; the pure, or worshippers of Ahura-Mazda, were admitted into the region of light (Paradise), and the wicked, the followers of Angro-Mainyus, into the kingdom of darkness (Hell). After death, the soul remained during the three days near the body it had tenanted; then, according to its life upon earth, it was taken by the Yazatas to Paradise, or was drawn down by the Daevas into Hell. This idea of retribution after death was adopted by the Judeans. The Garden of Eden (Gan-Eden), where the story of the Creation placed the first human beings whilst they lived in a state of innocence, was transformed into Paradise, and the Valley of Hinnom (Ge-Hinnom), in which, since the days of Ahaz, sacrifices of children had been offered up, gave the name to the newly-created Hell. In what way could such new beliefs have crept into the Judean faith? That is as little capable of demonstration as is the way in which the pores of the skin become impregnated with a disease that has poisoned the atmosphere.
However, these views about angels and Satan with his attendant spirits, about Paradise and Hell, never obtained the dignity of fixed dogmas which it would be mortal sin to doubt, but on the contrary, during that time, and in all future time, their adoption or repudiation was left to the discretion of the individual. Only one belief emanating from the Iranean religion, that of the resurrection of the dead, became part of the spiritual life of the Judeans, until it grew at least to be a binding dogma. The Magi had taught and insisted upon this doctrine. They believed that the re-awakening of the dead would take place at a future day, when Ahura-Mazda will have conquered and destroyed his rival, when the god of darkness will have to give up the bodies of the pure men which he has stolen. The Judaism of the Sopheric age adopted this hopeful and inspiriting doctrine all the readily, as illusions to it existed in the Judaic writing. The prophets had constantly made reference to the day of the last judgment, and the scribes, inferring that the resurrection of the dead was meant, made it an article of faith amongst their people, and in the daily prayer, praise was rendered to God for awakening the dead to life.
At a later day, when the Judean nation was struggling with death, a seer, comforting the sufferers, said:--
Many of those who are sleeping in the dust shall awake, some to eternal life, and some to disgrace and everlasting abhorrence. (DANIEL xii.2.)
In this manner a peculiar doctrine of retaliation, with a brilliant picture of the future, or of the next world (Olam ha-Ba), was evolved. A magical world unfolded itself to the eye, intoxicating the believer. He saw the time come when all discords of life would vanish when the pious, the faithful, and the just, who had suffered so much upon earth, would rise from their graves and enter on eternal life in innocence and purity.
Even the sinners who had erred only from frivolity and weakness would be purified by penitence in Hell, and would enjoy the pleasures of eternal life. But how was this resurrection to take place, and how was this beautiful new world to be organized? Imagination could not find an answer to such a question. Fervent faith and enthusiastic hope do not indulge in subtle inquiries; they are contented with giving the pious the comforting assurance that a just recompense is in store for them, in the future life, and this assuaging the sorrows of an unhappy earthly existence. Although Judaism received the essence of this teaching from without, yet the power of enriching it, and of endowing it with the faculty of working immeasurable good came from within.
The foreign origin of this belief becoming finally obliterated, it was considered as an original Judean doctrine. Only the Samaritans objected, for a considerable time, to the belief in the resurrection and to the idea of a future life.
