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Pahlavi Texts, Part II (SBE18), E.W. West, tr. [1882], at sacred-texts.com
1. First you ask thus: Why is a righteous man created better than the stars and moon and sun and fire of Aûharmazd, and is called in revelation greater and better than the spiritual creation, and also than that which is worldly?
2. The reply is this, that the greatness and goodness of advance in wisdom and just judgment over the creatures arise from proficiency (hûnar). 3. Justice is the one good proficiency over the creatures, the means of wisdom are great, and praise bestowed is the most effectual performance
of what is desirable (kâmisn-karîh). 4. For all three are mutually connected together; since the manifestation of justice is through wisdom, and its advantage is the performance of what is desirable for the creator; wisdom is the performance of what is desirable for the requirements of the creator, and its weapon (zênô) is justice; and the desire of the creator, which is progress, is in wisdom with justice. 5. All three are great among the creatures, and their lodgment in the superior beings and righteous men is spiritual, in the spirit which is the pure guardian angel 1, in the understanding for encountering, averting, smiting, and prostrating (khvâpâk) the fiend, in the army of angels, and in the sovereignty of the far-seeing (dûr-vênâko) 2 spirit, Aûharmazd; and, materially, in the worldly equipment and mutual connection of body and life. 6. And their appliances are the wisdom and worldly efficacy of treatises on the wise adoption of good thoughts, good words, and good deeds, and the relinquishment and discontinuance of evil thoughts, evil words, and evil deeds. 7. And their acquirer is the worldly ruler who is providing for Aûharmazd, and approving and stimulating the pure religion, a praiser of the good and pure creator, and a director of persistence in destruction of the fiend. 8. And in the promulgation
[paragraph continues] (rûbâkŏ-dahisnîh) of the good and religious liturgy (mânsar), the coming of the good cause of the resurrection, and the production of the renovation of the universe 1 are his cŏoperation and his own thanksgiving; and over the creatures of this prior world he is a guardian, defender, and manager.
9. And such rulers are great and pre-eminent; yet every man is not for that greatness, but it is mentioned as to superior beings and concerning righteous men, in whom it has arisen, and the best are the three who are the beginning, middle, and end of the creation. 10. One is the pure man, Gâyômard, who was its first rational praiser; he in whose keeping was the whole creation of the sacred beings, from its beginning and immaturity unto the final completion of the worldly creatures, over which was the exercise of goodness of his well-destined progeny, such as Hôshâng, Tâkhmôrup, Yim, and Frêdûn 2, such as the apostles of the religion, like Zaratûst, Hûshêdar, and Hûshêdar-mâh 3, and the producers of the renovation of the universe, like Sôshâns 4, Rôshanô-kashm, and
[paragraph continues] Khûr-kashm 1. 11. The approver 2 of the enterprises (rûbâk-dahisnîhâ) of cŏoperators, the purely-praising and just worshipper of the sacred beings through the strength of the spirit, the disabler of the worldly activity of the fiend as regards worldly bodies, and the one of pure religion--which is his charge (spôr) 3, the revelation of the place of the beneficent spirit and of the destruction of the depravity of the evil spirit 4, the subjugation (khvâpisnŏ) of the fiend, the completion of the triumph of the creator, and the unlimited progress of the creatures--is the upholder of Mazda-worship. 12. And likewise through the goodness of Gâyômard, which is the begetting of Zaratûst, he is also just; likewise through the goodness of Sôshâns, by which he is the progeny of Zaratûst, he is also progressive in every good thought, good word, and good deed, more than the creatures which are produced with a hope of the religion, and equally thankful. 13. And one is the producer of bodies 5,
the renovator (frashagar) Sôshâns, who is the putter down, with complete subjugation from the world, of the glorification of fiends and demons, and of the contention with angels in apostasy and heterodoxy of various kinds and unatoned for; and the completer of the renovation through the full continuance of the glorification of the angels, and the perfect continuance of the pure religion.
14. And through that excellent, unblemished, brotherly work 1 such a ruler may be seen above the sun with swift horses, the primeval luminaries, and all removal of darkness, the advance of illumination which is the display (tôgisnŏ) of the days and nights of the world 2. 15. Regarding the same completion of the renovation of the universe it is said in the revelation of the Mazda-worshippers, that this great light is the vesture of the like righteous men.
12:1 The fravâhar or fravashi, which is the prototype or spiritual counterpart supposed to have been created in the beginning for each good creature and creation afterwards produced, whether material or immaterial, and whose duty is to represent the creature and watch over its interests in the spiritual world.
12:2 This word is badly written in K35, so that it has become zôrînâk in later MSS., which might perhaps mean 'strength--exerting.'
13:1 Which is expected to take place about the time of the resurrection (see Bd. XXX, 32).
13:2 The first four rulers of the world (omitting the usurper Dahâk) after Gâyômard (see Bd. XXXI, 1-3, 7). The five names of these primeval sovereigns are corruptions of the Avesta names, Gaya-maretan, Haoshyangha, Takhmô-urupa, Yima, and Thraêtaona. The third name is always written Tâkhmôrîdŏ in Dd.
13:3 Corruptions of Av. Zarathustra, Ukhshyad-ereta, and Ukhshyad-nemangh. The last two are future apostles still expected by the Parsis to restore their religion to its original purity, in preparation for the resurrection (see Bd. XXXII, 2-10, Byt. III, 13, 43-48, 52, 53).
13:4 Av. Saoshyãs. The last of the future apostles, in whose p. 14 time the universe is expected to be renovated and the resurrection to take place (see Bd. XXX, 4-27, XXXII, 8, Byt. III, 62).
14:1 These two names, which mean 'bright-eyed' and 'sunny-eyed,' are the Av. Raokas-kaêshman and Hvare-kaêshman of Fravardîn Yt. 128 (see also Chap. XXXVI, 4).
14:2 This is Zaratûst (see § 12), the righteous apostle of the middle portion of the history of creation referred to in § 9.
14:3 Or 'which is wholly his.'
14:4 These two spirits are supposed to be the authors of all the good and evil, respectively, that exists in creation. They appear, originally, to have been both supposed to spring from Aûharmazd, who speaks of 'the more beneficent of my two spirits' in Yas. XIX, 21; but in later times, and throughout the Pahlavi literature, the beneficent spirit is identified with Aûharmazd, and the origin of the evil spirit is left in obscurity.
14:5 The renovated bodies of the future existence which are prepared for mankind at the resurrection (see Bd. XXX, 4, 7, 25-27).