Zoroastrian and Manichaen eschatology

 Zoroastrian Eschatology

It appears that in the Zoroastrian tradition different views about the final fate of the wicked were present:

"Accounts in the Pahlavi Books. In Pahlavi accounts (Indian Bundahišn 30; Iranian Bundahišn 34, cf. Messina, pp. 269-79; Dādistān ī dēnīg 36; Pahlavi Rivayat 48; Zādspram 34-35; Dēnkard 7.11, ed. Madan, 674.22-676.14; cf. Molé, 1967, 102-5) a continuous evolution towards rehabilitation (paywandišn ī ō frašegird; Zaehner, p. 308; Boyce, Zoroastrianism I, p. 233) takes place, initiated by the revelation of the Good Religion to Zarathushtra and its subsequent dissemination. In three stages, each characterized by the appearance of a Sōšāns, the entire creation draws nearer to frašegird. Completion of the latter will finally be achieved by the victorious Sōšāns (sōšāns ī pērōzgar; Zādspram 35.20), helped by his companions. That the Pahlavi texts are the works of diverse theologians and commentators working on Zarathushtra’s vision and teachings emerges from the fact that there is diversity in details. For example, the number of Sōšān’s collaborators varies: six (Zādspram 35.14. 20; Dādistān ī dēnīg 35), 15 of both righteous men and maidens (Iranian Bundahišn 34.16), or 1000 companions (Dēnkard 7.11.8). He raises the dead in fifty-seven years (Iranian Bundahišn 34.9; Dādistān ī dēnīg 35; Pahlavi Rivayat 48.3; Dēnkard 7.11.4; Zādspram 34.46; Boyce, Zoroastrianism I, p. 291). All raised human beings are judged in the Assembly of Isadvāstar, and receive three days and nights reward or punishment in Paradise (garōdmān) or Hell (dušox) according to their deeds (Iranian Bundahišn 34.10-15; in Pahlavi Rivayat 48.97 the assembly of Isadvāstar takes place after the ordeal of molten metal). As to the ultimate fate of the deceitful ones, Pahlavi texts exhibit divergent views whose interpretation has recently been debated between Shaul Shaked (1994, p. 39) and Mary Boyce (1996, pp. 23-24). According to Pahlavi Rivayat (36.4), the wicked ones are damned for eternity, and the souls of those who yielded to Ahriman and demons are annihilated (Pahlavi Rivayat 32.5; Williams, II, pp. 186 f.). In contrast, other sources relate that the decitful ones are, with much pain, cleansed of their sins and purified in the stream of molten metal, which all human beings have to cross. After having been purified, they, too, become able to praise Ohrmazd and the Amahrspands (Iranian Bundahišn 34.19-20; Pahlavi Rivayat 48.70-72). However, there seems to be a sense of grievance about the righteous and decietful ones being treated alike. Hence, presumably, the increasing of end-of-time affliction on sinners (Pahlavi Rivayat 48.68). Sōšāns and his helpers slay the ox Haδayanš and perform a sacrifice. From the oxen’s fat and the white hōm they prepare the immortal food, which they give to the resurrected mortals to eat and thus render them immortal (Iranian Bundahišn 34.22-23). At the creator’s command, Sōšāns apportions reward and retribution, and the righteous ones are taken into garōdmān (q.v.) to be with Ohrmazd (Iranian Bundahišn 34.25)." (Encyclopedia Iranica, article on Frashokereti ; source: https://www.iranicaonline.org/articles/frasokrti/ - see also this text in Spanish: https://acrobat.adobe.com/id/urn:aaid:sc:EU:ef513fa6-a814-4151-807a-485dc1f5a3e5?viewer%21megaVerb=group-discover)

Manichaen Eschatology

It seems that in the Manichean tradition, the founder Mani (fl. 3rd century) believed in a final separation between the good and the wicked and this implies a partial victory of the light over the darkness as some elements of light will be forever trapped inside unrepentant souls. In later times, it appears that there were different views as some Manichaean believed that all elements of light will be saved:

"The special significance of this doctrine, however, rests on the conviction that the victory of light is ultimately an imperfect one, for a certain part of it, trapped in souls, imprisoned in the world, cannot be released because it has been irredeemably corrupted by wickedness. It will be enclosed in the Bōlos with the powers of darkness and so condemned to eternal damnation (Puech, p. 85 and n. 356). The fate of these souls is also called the “second death,” an image borrowed from the Revelation of John (20:14, 21:8; Polotsky and Böhlig, p. 104). In itself the idea of the unredeemability of the damned is nothing unusual. In the Manichean view, however, it takes on unique weight because the light in the cosmos is the suffering part of the substance of God Himself. This Manichean rejection of universal redemption at the end of time had the scandalous implication that God Himself is and will remain imperfect; Augustine threw this implication in the teeth of the Manicheans (Contra Secundinum 20; cf. Böhlig, p. 27; Adam, p. 92: par. 7 of the great Latin abjuration formula). It appears, furthermore, that in Manichean teaching it later developed into one of the few dogmatic controversies to divide the community. For example, Alexander of Lycopolis (ca. 300) ascribed to the Manicheans the “total” (akribós) separation of godly power from the darkness at the end of the world (ed. Brinkmann, p. 8; ed. Villey, p. 61). Mani’s own view, so far as it has been preserved in the Šābuhragān, was upheld by only a minority of the community, while the majority accepted the final complete redemption of the light. In the 10th-century Fehrest (Ebn al-Nadīm, ed. Flügel, p. 331) the minority is called al-māsīa, who maintained that “a piece of the light remains in the darkness” (Böhlig and Asmussen, p. 149). The Shiʿite theologian Mismaʿ b. ʿAbd-al-Malek Mismaʿī ascribed the same teaching to the Meqlāsīya faction (Monnot, p. 169), which is not, however, confirmed in the Fehrest. The importance of this teaching was minimized in the Parthian text M 2 (II): At the end of the world the gods “will not be distressed because of the bit of light that is mixed with the darkness and cannot be separated from it; sorrow is not appropriate” (Mir. Man. III, p. 851)." (Encyclopedia Iranica, article on Manichean Eschatology; source: https://www.iranicaonline.org/articles/eschatology-ii/)

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