Chapter XCVIII

Pahlavi Texts, Part III (SBE24), E.W. West, tr. [1885], at sacred-texts.com

CHAPTER XCVIII.

1. The ninety-eighth subject is this, that it is necessary for all those of the good religion, that they learn the Avesta characters in the presence of

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priests and teachers, so as to read, and that no error may continue in the Nyâyises and Yasts.

2. And it is still more expedient for priests and teachers, that they teach the Avesta characters to all those of the good religion ¹: and if a priest, while teaching, shows incompetence (taqʓîr), it is a great sin for him. 3. For Hôrmazd, the good and propitious, spoke to Zaratust thus: 'As to every priest and teacher who commits a blunder in teaching ² those of the good religion, I make him just as far from heaven as the width of the earth ³.'

Footnotes

360:1 B29 omits these seven words.

360:2 Lp, B29 insert 'the Avesta to.'

360:3 Compare Chap. XXVIII, 3.