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CHAPTER 1, 21-26.
and impotent as to the harm he caused the creatures of Adharmazd, and he remained three thousand years in confusion"}
23. Adharmazd created his creatures in the confusion of Aharman; first he produced Vohaman ('good thought'), by whom the progress of the creatures of Adharmazd was advanced.
24. The evil spirit first created a Mítôkht ("falsehood'), and then Akôman (evil thought ').
25. The first of Adharmazd's creatures of the world was the sky, and his good thought (Vohdman), by good procedures, produced the light of the world, along with which was the good religion of the Mazdayasnians; this was because the renovation (frashakard) * which happens to the creatures was known to him. 26. Afterwards arose Ardava
1 This is the first third of the gooo years appointed in s§ 18, 20, and the second 3000 years mentioned in Chap. XXXIV, 1.
? It is usual to consider dådan (Huz. yehabûntan), when traceable to Av. dâ=Sans. dhâ, as meaning 'to create,' but it can hardly be proved that it means to create out of nothing, any more than any other of the Avesta verbs which it is sometimes convenient to translate by 'create.' Before basing any argument upon the use of this word it will, therefore, be safer to substitute the word 'produce' in all cases.
Or it may be translated, and from it Vohuman, by good procedure,' &c. The position here ascribed to Vohûman, or the good thought of Adharmazd, bears some resemblance to that of the Word in John i. 1-5, but with this essential difference, that Vohûman is merely a creature of Adharmazd, not identified with him; for the latter idea would be considered, by a Parsi, as rather inconsistent with strict monotheism. The light of the world' now created must be distinguished from the endless light' already existing with Adharmazd in $ 2.
• The word frashakard, 'what is made durable, perpetuation,' is applied to the renovation of the universe which is to take place about the time of the resurrection, as a preparation for eternity.
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