The psychological side of animism has already been dealt with; almost equally important in primitive creeds is the eschatological aspect.
This reason lay in the dominant attitude of Christians, which was what we call " eschatological."
But, as the fatal struggle with Rome became more and more imminent, the eschatological hopes which increasingly absorbed the Hebrew mind all group themselves round the person of the Messiah.
The contents of the Gathas are essentially eschatological.
The most remarkable part of the book is the eschatological picture with which it closes; and the way in which the plague of locusts appears to be taken as foreshadowing the final judgment - the great day or assize of Yahweh, in which Israel's enemies are destroyed - is so unique as greatly to complicate the exegetical problem.