My apologies if this topic has been discussed, I’m new. I watched a debate between Prof Ehrman and Bob Price on the historocity of Jesus. Zoroastianism (hereafter referred to as “Z”) came up a bit and I had the impression that either prof Ehrman either didn’t know much about it or didn’t want to talk about it. I am just a lay historian and offer no real expertise, but I feel like Z had a profound impact of both judaism and christianity. First you have the great corroborating story of the old testament babylonian exile and rescue by Cyrus the great which is beautifully corroborated by Heroditus, from whom  we learn a little about the religion of the persians-Z. Remember this? He sets the Jews free and gives them money to rebuild the temple. Wow! That has to leave a mark. Then we come to Christ’s birth. There are 3 Magi Z-priests who follow probably a large space probe from Tehran to Bethlehem on Camels. Timing it just perfect so as to arrive on time. We know how predictable childbirth is. Exactly 9-months. They are just there. Amazing. Why are they there? I think it is profound. I don’t think they are random wisemen from the east of some obscure faith. They are likely priests of the religion of Cyrus, which was Z.  Now, Im no expert on Z. I know they used to kill a lot of snakes and harmful creatures, but from what I do read Z is very similar in many respects to the form of Christianity as it unfolds in the new testament. Christians like to refute this, and atheists like to make the similarities greater. The presence of these priests seems to serve as a passing of the torch type of event, does it not? I mean it obviously didn’t happen, but why come up with the idea and put it in there? I think the census and the magi were in the same story right? I mean if you’re re-stating the same basic religious idea, with a twist, you put these guys in there.  Any thoughts?