| Aren’t there some striking parallels between the Jesus and Tammuz stories? |
| Tammuz was a Sumerian/Babylonian deity worshipped around 3000 B.C. He
is believed to be an alternate version of the Akkadian farming god, Dumuzi.
He was the god of fertility and new life.
1. Was born of a virgin. There are references to his having a "virgin mother", but these post-date Christianity and, besides, they refer to the earth itself, not his actual mother. 2. At a sacred time of his "passion in Jerusalem", "wore a 'crown of thorns' made of myrrh." There is no tradition of his having been in Jerusalem or worn any crown of thorns made of myrrh. 3. Was annually sacrificed in the Temple in Jerusalem. There was no annual sacrifice anywhere, including Jerusalem. 4. Was called "only-begotten Son" and "Son of the Blood"; as well as Healer, Savior, Heavenly Shepherd, and Anointed One. Half of these are true. He was a healer, but he healed using medicines, not faith as Jesus did. He was also known as a savior, but offered salvation from starvation and physical death (not in the sense that he promised eternal life, but he rescued people from immediate danger, making him a 'savior' in the same sense as Robin Hood or Dudley Dooright). Tammuz did not offer salvation from the consequences of sin as Jesus did. Tammuz was also known as a shepherd. But unlike Jesus, this title was literal, not metaphorical. Tammuz actually WAS a shepherd. 5. He "tended the flocks of stars, which were considered souls of the dead in heaven." No record of this, and it's very uncharacteristic of him. He was associated with vegetation and fertility, very Earth-bound. 6. Was "representative of the spirit of the corn" and this connects with Bethlehem meaning "House of Bread" or "House of Corn." Even if true, any rational person can see how weak this one is. 7. Was born in the very cave in Bethlehem now considered the birthplace of Jesus. There's no evidence of such a claim. 8. Died and was resurrected This one appears to be true in some versions of the story, though the details don't match up to Jesus at all. The story is that Tammuz was guarding his sheep when he was slain by a flock of demons (or in an alternate version, the gods of thunder). He later returned, though exactly what brought him back to life isn't described. Apparently, he is supposed to have spent six months out of every year on earth and, presumably, the other six in the underworld. This is a metaphor for the fertility of crops. There is another version that a visitor told me about in Tammuz himself isn't killed, but is the reincarnation of his murdered father, Nimrod. Some critics also claim that Tammuz was the inspiration for the Apostle Thomas, though they don't say how Tammuz and Thomas compare (other than a similar name, of course). Acharya S credits this claim to Barbara Walker's "Women's Encyclopedia of Myths and Secrets", which makes this claim (and many others) without a shred of real evidence to back it up, nor any logical argument for how Thomas and Tammuz compare.
Links: |