Very few people seem to know of the significance of Zoroastrianism to the development of the Abrahamic religions. In this post I will try and explain the extent of the 'borrowing' and also how it came to be. I will try and keep it as short as possible.
The fact is Christianity and Islam are nothing less than corrupted versions of Zoroastrianism. Judaism, remaining more an 'ethnic identity' than is less concerned with belief so somewhat less defined by its influence from Zoroastrianism. The religions of Jesus and Muhammed resemble far more closely the religion of Zoroaster than that of Abraham
Let us start by defining what the Abrahamic faiths are, namely Judaism, Christianity and Islam. What do they all have in common?
Strict Monotheism (Only one true God, all others are False Gods)
Universalism
Duality (Good vs Evil, God and Satan etc)
Heaven and Hell
End of the World/The Final Battle between Good and Evil led by the Messiah
Resurrection and Judgement
In short, the religions pretty much state there is one god, that believing in that god is important and it is a sin to believe in others, that good and bad deeds are accounted for. One will be judged in the hereafter and receive reward or punishment as per their 'deed-book'.
As far as I knw no other religion believes in those things even though some others can be considered monotheistic. Except for Zoroastrianism. The above are main beliefs of the Abrahamic faiths and what receive all the attention. Abraham and Moses are comparatively unimportant in Islam and Christianity.
The above belief system finds its way into Judaism around 500BC. Around that time the Jews had been captured from Isreal by the Babylonians and held in captivity. They spent some time there until the Acheamenid Persians took Babylon and freed the Jews. Cyrus set the Jews free and also decreed the building of the second temple. Cyrus paid for the second temple. It is at this point, under the influence of the Persian elite and their state religion of Zoroastrianism, that the religion of Judaism as we know it is born.
Prior to this, Judaism doesnt really exist as a singular and cohesive belief system. It is not really monotheistic, although worship of Yahweh is common amongst them. There is animal sacrifice and polytheism. A rather ill-defined mish-mash of practices resembling very little of the above, though probably held together by the Covenant of Abraham and Yahweh.
Cyrus allowed the Jews to run their country, but required that they produce a Law to which all Jews would be held accountable to. This Law came into being as the Torah and was compiled at that point. Ezra and Nehemia were the two most important law givers of the time, and both were working for the Persian administration at high levels. The Law given at that time by Ezra was called the Law of Moses. It was said the Law had been found in documents at the old temple and so was from the time of Moses, but had been lost and now was being re-instated. Sounds dubious.
It is around this time, post Exhile, at the compilation of the Torah, that strict monotheism becomes established. Over time, as the Torah takes shape, the religion begins to resemble more and more what we know of it. However, there is one more thing that makes the Persian subversion complete.
The Pharisees were a faction of 'progressive' jews open to new ideas. The Sadducees were the more conservative ones who did not accept the innovations of resurrection, heaven/hell, angels etc and they were the majority by far. However, only Pharisee Judaism survived the fal of Jerusalem to Rome in 70AD, and all modern Judaism descends from Pharisee Judaism. Wikipedie gives the etymology of Pharisee as deriving from Hebrew 'Parush' (set apart) but I reckon it can just as easily be Pharisee -> Parsi as in Persian.
From Judaism we get Christianity and Islam. But even those religions have their independant borrowings. For instance, when Jesus is born he is visited by three wise men from the East, the Magi. The Magi are Zoroastrian priests. This is significant as it establishes the pre-eminence of the Magi regarding the prophecy of a coming messiah. Islam also has its fair share of borrowings, for instance the five daily prayers with timings and names for them are very much Zoroastrian.
For sure, Islam and Christianity look more like Zoroastrianism than the 'Judaism' of Abraham and Moses.
However, these are very much corrupted forms as the Middle Eastern cultures had not (it seems) developed the same type of high values created by the Aryans further East. This explains some of the differences such as a lack of regard for nature (Zoroastrians take great care not to pollute the Earth) and reliance on using fear rather than reason in getting the message across.
Zoroastrianism itself is an innovation on Vedic (the ancient religion of Pakistan/Northern India) and the two are extremely similar in concepts, language and rituals. It arose during hostilities between the North Indians and their neighbours the Iranians further North and West. The Avesta, the holy book of Zoroastrians, is a written in a language so similar to Vedic Sanksrit that they are considered mutually intelligible and more akin to dialects. Vedic Pagans prayed at sunrise, noon, and sunset, the Zoroasatrians added two more, and so we get the 5 daily prayers of Islam.
Apologies for the length of this post.
Some links:
http://www.cais-soas.com/CAIS/Religions/iranian/Zarathushtrian/secrets_of_zoroastrianism.htmhttp://www.cais-soas.com/CAIS/Religions/iranian/Zarathushtrian/zoroastrianism_influence.htmLoads more stuff online