ABSTRACT
James Barr has commented how Biblical scholars have remained 'aloof' from the study of Iranian language and religion even though he believes it would not be surprising, at least in theory, if there were Iranian influence on Jewish doctrines, such as angels, dualism, eschatology and the resurrection of the body. The recent flurry of studies of Inter-testamental and Apocryphal materials and the long-awaited publication of the Dead Sea Scrolls have considerably reinforced what was previously noted but is now much more fully appreciated, namely the extremely variegated nature of Jewish religion in the first centuries before and after Christ. The general trend of New Testament scholarship has commonly been to emphasise the continuity of beliefs between the New testament and the Hebrew Bible. The subject of eschatology is an extremely complex one, and not one that can be at all adequately entered into in a short article.
