Bible Myths and their Parallels in other Religions by T. W. Doane

Resurrections from the dead, and ascensions into heaven, are generally acknowledged to be _solar_ features, as the history of many solar heroes agree in this particular. At the _winter solstice_ the ancients wept and mourned for _Tammuz_, the fair Adonis, and other Sun-gods, done to death by the boar, or crucified--slain by the thorn of winter--and on the _third day_ they rejoiced at the resurrection of their "Lord of Light."[495:4] With her usual policy, the Church endeavored to give a Christian significance to the rites which they borrowed from heathenism, and in this case, the mourning for Tammuz, the fair Adonis, became the mourning for Christ Jesus, and joy at the rising of the natural Sun became joy at the rising of the "Sun of Righteousness"--at the resurrection of Christ Jesus from the grave. This festival of the Resurrection was generally held by the ancients on the 25th of March, when the awakening of _Spring_ may be said to be the result of the return of the Sun from the lower or far-off regions to which he had departed. At the equinox--say, the vernal--at _Easter_, the Sun has been below the equator, and suddenly rises above it. It has been, as it were, dead to us, but now it exhibits a resurrection.[496:1] The Saviour rises triumphant over the powers of darkness, to life and immortality, on the 25th of March, when the Sun rises in Aries. Throughout all the ancient world, _the resurrection of the god Sol_, under different names, was celebrated on March 25th, with great rejoicings.[496:2] In the words of the Rev. Geo. W. Cox: "The wailing of the Hebrew women at the death of Tammuz, the crucifixion and resurrection of Osiris, the adoration of the Babylonian Mylitta, the Sacti ministers of Hindu temples, the cross and crescent of Isis, the rites of the Jewish altar of Baal-Peor, wholly preclude all doubt of the real nature of the great _festivals_ and _mysteries_ of Phenicians, Jews, Assyrians, Egyptians, and Hindus."[496:3] All this was _Sun_ and Nature worship, symbolized by the _Linga_ and _Yoni_. As Mr. Bonwick says: "The philosophic theist who reflects upon the story, known from the walls of China, across Asia and Europe, to the plateau of Mexico, cannot resist the impression that no _materialistic_ theory of it can be satisfactory."[496:4] _Allegory_ alone explains it. "The Church, at an early date, selected the heathen festivals of _Sun worship_ for its own, ordering the _birth at Christmas_, a fixed time, and the _resurrection at Easter_, a varying time, as in all Pagan religions; since, though the Sun rose directly after the vernal equinox, the festival, to be correct in a _heathen_ point of view, had to be associated with the new moon."[496:5] The Christian, then, may well say: "When thou hadst overcome the sharpness of winter, thou didst open the kingdom of heaven (_i. e._, bring on the reign of summer), to all believers."