Zoroaster, Date of

Dear Bahá'í Friend,

The Universal House of Justice has asked us to convey the following in reply to your letter of April 6 [1979].

1. Regarding the beginning of the Zoroastrian era, in one of His Tablets 'Abdu'l-Bahá states that Zoroaster lived about 750 years after Moses. In a letter to an individual believer the Guardian's secretary wrote on his behalf: "Zoroaster lived about a thousand years before Christ. There is no exact date in the teachings regarding the beginning of His Dispensation."

2. Concerning your second question referring to a purported Tablet of the Bab stating that there were thirty Zoroasters, the Research Department states that no text from the Bab has been found on this subject. However, Mirza Abu'l-Fadl has stated in his writings that there appeared in Iran many prophets prior to the Dispensation of Zoroaster.

With loving Bahá'í greetings,
...
For Department of the Secretariat