Why the Midrash Has Abraham Thrown into Nimrod’s Furnace

“Zoroaster” is the name generally known in the West for the prophet of ancient Iran, whose teachings inaugurated a movement that eventually became the dominant religion in Iran up until the Islamic conquest. There is an ongoing controversy in scholarship concerning the date of Zoroaster and whether or not he actually existed.

While this story may reflect a late Zoroastrian tradition from the Islamic period, which was created in connection with the rabbinic-Islamic tradition about Abraham/Ibrāhīm, it must be kept in mind that the Zoroastrian traditions collected in the Middle Persian and New Persian works reflect a combination of novel traditions composed in the Islamic period along with oral traditions produced in much earlier periods. Although the earlier traditions cannot always be distinguished from later elements, in the case of Zoroaster’s fiery adventures, the existence of Greek parallels seems to point to an earlier Iranian version, upon which the extant Greek versions depend.

Eusebius was the fourth-century CE Christian bishop of Caesarea. He makes a point of placing Abraham and Zoroaster at the same time: “The city known as Ninveh among the Hebrews was named after Ninus (a Babylonian figure remembered in Greek historiography though unattested by this name in ancient Babylonian sources), in whose time Zoroaster the Magus was king of the Bactrians. Semiramis was the consort of Ninus and succeeded him on the throne. Hence, Abraham was contemporary with them.” (Preparation for the Gospel 10.9.10) 

Another source from roughly the same period (Epiphanius of Salamis, Panarion 3:2-3) also identifies Nimrod (or one of his forefathers, Cush or Ham) with Zoroaster. Zoroaster is also identified in some Christian sources with the king of the Bactrians – an ancient Iranian kingdom located in today’s Northern Afghanistan – who is said to have been defeated in battle and slain by the Babylonian king, Ninus