by the late Dr.Sammuele Bacchiocchi PhD
CHAPTER VIII
SUN-WORSHIP AND THE ORIGIN OF SUNDAY
The choice of Sunday as the new day of Christian worship
cannot be explained solely on the ground of negative anti-Judaic
motivations. For instance, Christians could have achieved the
same objective by adopting Friday as a memorial of Christ's
passion. We might say that anti-Judaism created the necessity for
substituting a new day of worship for the Sabbath, but it did not
determine the specific choice Sunday. The reasons for the latter
must be found elsewhere.
Several significant studies have suggested that Christians
may have derived "a psychological orientation" toward Sunday from
the sectarian solar calendar used by Qumranites and similar
groups, where the annual omer day and day of Pentecost always
fell on Sunday.1 Though allowance must be made for such a
possibility, we are at a loss to find any explicit patristic
reference associating Easter-Sunday or weekly Sunday with this
sectarian solar calendar. 2 Moreover, if our thesis is correct
that Sunday observance originated in Rome by the beginning of the
second century, rather than in Jerusalem in the
......
1 See above p.119 fn.88.
2 J.V.Goudoever, "Biblical Calendars," 1959, pp.161-162, argues
for the influence on early Christianity of the old calendar of
Enoch and Jubilees, by referring to Anatolius (d. ca. A.D.282),
Bishop of Laodicea. The Bishop defends the celebration of the
Quartodeciman Passover after the vernal equinox by appealing to
Jewish authorities such as Philo, Josephus and "the teaching of
the Book of Enoch" (cited by Eusebius, HE 7, 32, 14-20). Note
however that Anatolius is not defending Easter-Sunday but the
Quartodeciman Passover. Moreover to justify the celebration of
the latter after the vernal equinox, the Bishop does not cite
only the Book of Enoch but also several Jewish writers such as
Philo, Josephus, Musaeus, Agathobuli who "explaining questions in
regard to the Exodus, say that all alike should sacrifice the
passover offerings after the vernal equinox, in the middle of the
first month" (Eusebius, HE 7, 32, 17). The fact that some of the
writers mentioned were not representatives of sectarian Judaism,
suggests that the insistence on the celebration of Passover after
the vernal equinox was common to both sectarian and normative
Judaism.
......
apostolic period, it seems most unlikely that Christians of pagan
background would have derived the date for their annual and/or
weekly Sunday festivities from a Jewish sectarian liturgical
calendar, especially at a time when new festivals were introduced
to evidence separation from Judaism.
The influence of Sun-worship with its "Sun-day," provides a
more plausible explanation, for the Christian choice of Sunday.
The chief objection against this possibility is of chronological
nature. W. Rordorf, for instance, argues that:
We can consider the possibility that the origin of the
Christian observance of Sunday was influenced by some
sun-cult only if a "day of the sun" existed before the
Christian observance of Sunday, that is to say if we can
prove the existence of the seven-day planetary week in
pre-Christian times. 3
He maintains however that "since the earliest evidence for
the existence of the planetary week [i.e. our present week, named
after seven planets] is to be dated toward the end of the first
century A.D.," at a time when "the Christians observance of
Sunday was a practice of long standing," any influence of Sun-
worship on the origin of Sunday is to be categorically excluded.
4
There is no question that the existence of the planetary
week with its Sun-day--"dies solis" is crucial for determining
any influence of Sun-worship on the Christian adoption of Sun
day observance, inasmuch as the Sun before the existence of a
weekly "Sun-day" was venerate "every" morning. 5 It is not
......
3 W. Rordorf, "Sunday," p.181; C.S.Mosna, "Storia della
domenica," p.33, shares the same view: "To be able to speak of
influence [of Sunworship] on Sunday, one should demonstrate that
the day dedicated to the Sun already existed in the earliest
times of the Christian community as a fixed day that recurred
regularly every week, and that it corresponded exactly to the day
after the Sabbath. For this, one should demonstrate the existence
of the planetary week before Sunday."
4 W.Rordorf, "Sunday," p.37; note Rordorf's categorical statement
"If the question is raised whether the origins of the Christian
observance of Sunday are in any way connected with the Sunday
observance of the Mithras cult, it must be answered with a
definite No" (loc. cit.). Regarding Sun-worship in India, Persia,
Syria and in the Greek and Roman world, see F.J.Dolger, "Sol
Salutis," 19252, pp.20f., 38f.; for Palestine see
"Realencyklopddie fur protestantische Theologie and Kirche," 1863
3, S.V. "Sonne, bei den Hebraem," by W. Baudissin; "Lexikon fur
Theologie and Kirche," 1964, S.V. "Sonne," by H. Baumann; F. J.
Hollis, "The Sun-cult and the Temple at Jerusalem," Myth and
Ritual, 1933, pp.87-110; that the Sun-cult was widespread before
Josiah's reform is well established by passages such as 2 King
23:11, "[Josiah] removed the horses that the kings of Judah had
dedicated to the sun, at the entrance to the house of the Lord
... and he burned the chariots of the sun with fire"; cf. also
Ezek.8:16 and Wisdom 16:28: "To make it known that we must rise
before the sun to give thee thanks and must pray to thee at the
dawning of the light." Philo, "De vita contemplativa" 3,27,
reports that the Therapeutae prayed at sunrise, seeking for
heavenly light.
......
indispensable however that the planetary week should have
originated in pre-Christian times, if Sunday-keeping was
introduced in the early part of the second century. In fact, if
it can be proved that the planetary week was in existence in the
Greco-Roman world already in the first century of our era and
that the Sun was venerated at that time on Sunday, then the
possibility exists that Christians - especially new pagan
converts - in their search for a new day of worship to
differentiate themselves from the Jews could have been favorably
predisposed toward the day of the Sun. The existence of a rich
Biblical tradition that associated God and Christ with the power
and splendor of the Sun could well have facilitated an
amalgamation of ideas. To verify the validity of this hypothesis
we shall briefly consider the following factors:
(1) Sun-worship and the planetary week prior to A.D.150.
(2) The reflexes of Sun-worship in Christianity.
(3) The day of the Sun and the origin of Sunday.
Sun-Worship and the Planetary Week Prior to A.D.150
Sun-worship.
Was Sun-worship known and practiced in ancient Rome in the
first century A.D., and if so, to what extent? Gaston H.
Halsberghe, in his recent monograph "The Cult of Sol Invictus"
(part of the series on "Oriental Religions in the Roman Empire"
edited by the living authority on the subject, M.J.Vermaseren),
presents persuasive texts and arguments indicating that
Sun-worship was "one of the oldest components of the Roman
religion." 6 According to his well-founded conclusions, the
Sun-cult in ancient Rome experienced two phases. Until the end of
the first century A.D., the Romans practiced what he calls an
"autochthonous [i.e. native or indigenous] Sun-cult," but
"starting in the second century A.D.,
......
6 Gaston H. Halsberghe, "The Cult of Sol Invictus," 1972, p.26.
This thesis was proposed earlier by A. von Domaszewski,
"Abhandlungen zur Romischen Religion," 1909, p.173.
......
the Eastern Sun-worship began to influence Rome and the rest of
the Empire." 7 A sampling of evidences will suffice to make us
aware of its existence and importance.
A calendar of the time of Augustus (the "Fasti" of
Philocalus dated before 27 B.C.) beside the date of August 9th
reads: "Soli indigiti in colle Quirinali - to the native Sun on
Quirinal hill." 8 Scholarly opinion differs on the interpretation
of the phrase "native Sun-Sol indiges" which occurs in few
ancient Roman texts, inasmuch as the Romans could well have
designated the Sun as their national god, though in actuality it
was an imported deity. 9 However, even granting that "Sol
indiges" was not really indigenous to the Romans, the fact
remains that it was regarded as a Roman god.
After the conquest of Egypt (31 B.C.) Augustus sent two
obelisks to Rome and had them "dedicated to the Sun - "Soli donum
dedit" 10 in the Circus Maximus and in Mars Field to
......
7 Gaston H. Halsberghe (fn. 6), pp.27 and 35.
8 "Fasti of Philocalus," CIL I, 2, 324 or "Fasti of Amiternum,"
CIL IX, 4192. F. Altheim, "Italien and Rom," 1941, II, pp. 24-25,
provides abundant evidences that "Sol Indiges" was worshipped in
Rome as early as the fourth century B.C. In the oldest calendar
the Sun-god is associated with Jupiter. Marcus Terentius Varro
(116-ca. 26 B.C.) "De re rustica" 1,1,5, reports that the Sun and
the Moon were usually invoked immediately after Jupiter and
Tellus. Tacitus (ca. A.D.55-120) mentions that in the Circus
there was an old temple dedicated to the Sun (Annales 15,74, 1;
cf. 15,41,1).
9 G. Wissowa, "Religion and kultus der Rommer," 19122, pp.315f.
argues that the expression "indigiti-native" could only have
designated the Suncult as native when the Eastern Sun-cults
arose.
10 CIL VI, 701; A. Piganiol, "Histoire de Rome," 19544, p.229,
holds that Augustus favored the worship of the Sun and "gave
priority to the gods of light"; Halsberghe (fn. 6), p.30, is of
the opinion that Augustus did not intend to import to Rome the
Egyptian solar god, but rather to give credit for the victory to
the ancient Roman Sol: "No single deity of the Roman pantheon
could more rightfully claim this glorious victory than the
ancient Roman Sol, since it was achieved through his special
intervention and protection. The two obelisks which were symbols
of the Sun god in Egypt, constitute additional support for this
interpretation." Anthony, before Augustus, portrayed the Sun god
on his coins and after marrying Cleopatra he renamed the two sons
of the queen as Helios and Selene (cf. A. Piganiol, op. cit., p.
239; H. Cohen, "Description historique des monnaies frappees sous
l'empire romain," I, p.44, fn. 73; W.W.Tarn, "The Cambridge
Ancient History," 2nd ed., X, p.68; cf. Dio Cassius, "Historia"
49,41 and 50,2,5,25. Cicero (106-43 B.C.) shows the high esteem
that cultured Romans had for Sun worship when he describes the
Sun as "the lord, chief, and ruler of the other lights, the mind
and guiding principle, of such magnitude that he reveals and
fills all things with his light" ("De republica" 6,17, LCL, p.
271).
......
thank the same god for the victory. Tertullian reports that in
his time (ca. A.D.150-230) "the huge Obelisk" in the circus was
still "set up in public to the Sun," and that the circus "was
chiefly consecrated to the Sun." 11
Several altars of the first century A.D. have been found
dedicated to "the Sun and the Moon-Solis et Lunae." 12 Nero (A.D.
54-68) attributed to the Sun the merit for the discovery of the
plot against him and erected the famous "Colossus Neronis at the
highest point of the velia, representing the Sun, with the
features of Nero and with seven long rays around his head." 13
Hadrian (A.D.117-138), who identified himself with the Sun in his
coins, according to Elius Spartianus (ca. A.D.300) "dedicated to
the Sun" the Colossus Neronis after removing the features of
Nero. 14 Tacitus (ca. A.D.55-120) also reports that Vespasian's
(A.D.69-79) third legion "according to the Syrian custom, greeted
the rising sun." 15
Halsberghe maintains that from the beginning of the second
century the Eastern cult of "Sol Invictus-Invincible Sun"
penetrated in Rome in two different fashions: privately, through
the cult of "Sol Invictus Mithra" and publicly through that of
"Sol Invictus Elagabal." 16 While we disagree with the author on
the date of the diffusion of Mithraism, since there are
significant indications that it had reached Rome already in the
first century A.D., 17 the differentiation between the two cults
is per-
......
11 Tertullian, "De spectaculis" 8, ANF III, p.83; Tacitus (fn. 8)
confirms the existence of the temple dedicated to the Sun in the
circus.
12 Cf. CIL I, 327; XIV, 4089; V, 3917; VI, 3719; these texts are
discussed by Halsberghe (fn. 6), p.33.
13 H. Mattingly, "Coins of the Roman Empire in the British
Museum," 1940 I, pp.134 and 171; cf. Tacitus, "Annales" 15,74.
14 Elius Spartianus, "Hadrianus" 19, LCL "Scriptores Historiae
Augustae" I, p.61; cf. A. Piganiol (fn.10), pp.288,332-333,
explains that Hadrian associated himself with the Sun "whose
image appears on the last coins"; cf. H. Cohen (fn. 10), II, p.
38, n. 187,188.
15 Tacitus, "Historiae" 3,24.
16 Gaston H. Halsberghe (fn. 6), p.35; cf. A. von Domaszewski
(fn. 6), p.173.
17 According to Plutarch (A.D.46-125), "Vita Pompeii" 24, Mithra
was introduced into Rome by the Cilician pirates taken captives
by Pompey in 67 B.C. Papinius Statius (d. ca. A.D.96) in a verse
of the "Thebaid" speaks of "Mithra, that beneath the rocky
Persean cave strains at the reluctant-following horns" (Thebaid
I, 718-720, LCL I, p.393). Turchi NicoLa "Religione di Roma
Antica, 1939, p. 273: "The Mithraic religion was made known
through the pirates ... but its influence was particularly felt
beginning with the first century after Christ"; the same view is
expressed by Franz Cumont, "The Mysteries of Mithra," 1956, p.
37; "Textes et Monuments," 1896-1899, I, p.338: "The propagation
of the two religions [i.e., Mithraism and Christianity] was
approximately contemporaneous"; cf. "Enciclopedia Cattolica,"
1952, S.V. "Mithra e Mithraismo," by M. J. Vermaseren: "Mithra
entered Rome (67 B.C.) with the prisoners of Cilicia ... Its
diffusion increased under the Flavii and even more under the
Antoninii and Severii."
......
suasively demonstrated. Mithraism primarily was a private cult,
though it numbered among its adherents magistrates and emperors.
"Sol Invictus Elagabal," on the other hand, was a popular cult
with grandiose temples and during the rule of the young Emperor
Elagabalus (A.D.218-222) was made the official cult of the whole
empire.
These diversified forms of Sun-worship, resulting from the
penetration of Eastern Sun-cults, substantiate Halsberghe's
conclusion that "from the early part of the second century A.D.
the cult of "Sol Invictus" was dominant in Rome and in other
parts of the Empire." 18 The identification and worship of the
Emperor as Sun-god, encouraged by the Eastern theology of the
"King-Sun," and by political considerations, undoubtedly
contributed to the diffusion of a public Sun-cult.
Planetary week.
Since the expansion of the Sun-cult is contemporaneous with
the origin of Sunday, is it possible that the former influenced
the latter? A causal relationship between the two is conceivable
only if the planetary week with its "dies solis-day of the Sun"
already existed in the first century A.D. in the Greco-Roman
world. Only in this case the predominant Sun-cult could have
enhanced the day of the Sun and consequently influenced
Christians to adopt it for their weekly worship after
reinterpreting its symbolism in the light of the Christian
message.
Scholarly opinion differs on the question of the origin of
the planetary week. Some view it as a pagan interpretation of the
Jewish week while others regard it as a strict pagan
astrological invention. 20 D. Waterhouse argues persuasively in
......
18 Gaston H. Halsberghe (fn. 6), p.44.
19 This point is well expressed by Franz Cumont, "The Mysteries
of Mithra," 1956, p.101.
20 E. Schurer, "Die siebentagige Woche im Gebrauch der
christlichen Kirche der ersten Jahrhunderte," "Zeitschrift fur
die neutestamentliche Wissenschaft" 6 (1905): 18f., advocates
that the planetary week developed independently of the Jewish
week, primarily as a result of belief in the seven planets. W.
Rordorf, "Sunday," p.33, argues persuasively "that the planetary
week as a whole developed in association with the Jewish week."
The diffusion of the Jewish Sabbath in the Greco-Roman world
would have attracted astrological belief in the evil influence of
the planet Saturn. Subsequently the other planets were attached
to the remaining days of the week. F. H. Colson, "The Week,"
1926, p.42, maintains that the planetary week is not "a pagan
interpretation of the Jewish week" since the order of the planets
is not the real one, but an astrological invention developed by
the belief that each individual hour of the day was under the
control of a planet. This explanation is given by Dio Cassius
(ca. A.D.220) in his "Historia" 37,18-19. Distributing the 168
hours of the week to each of the planets according to their
scientific order, the first hour of Saturday stands under the
protection of Saturn, who assumes the control over the day. The
first hour of the second day falls to the Sun, the first hour of
the third day to the Moon and so forth. In other words, the
planet which controlled the first hour became the protector of
the day, dedicated to it. The same explanation is found in the
chronographer of A.D.354 (Chronica minora: Monumenta Germaniae
Hist., auctores antiquissimi, IX, 1892); F. Boll, "Hebdomas,"
"Pauly-Wissowa" VII 2, col. 2556f. gives detailed proof that the
planetary week did not originate in Babylon.
......
favor of an amalgamation of Babylonian, Greek, Egyptian and
Jewish ingredients. 21 For the puropse of our research the
"time" of its penetration is more important than the causes of
its origin.
The existence and common use of the planetary week already
in the first century A.D. are well attested by several tes-
timonies. In the present study we need refer only to few of
them. Roman historian Dio Cassius, who wrote his "Roman History"
between A.D.200-220, reports that Jerusalem was captured both by
Pompey in 63 B.C. and by Gaius Sosius in 37 B.C. "on the day even
then called the day of Saturn." 22 That the praxis of naming the
days of the week after the planetary deities was already in use
before Christ is further corroborated by the contemporary
references of Horace (ca. 35 B.C.) to "dies
......
21 S.D.Waterhouse, "The Introduction of the Planetary Week into
the West," "The Sabbath in Scripture and History" (to be
published by Review and Herald): "Thus it came about that the
ingredients for the planetary week were brought together; the
concept of planetary gods being taken from the Babylonians, the
mathematics having been supplied by the Greeks, and the dekans or
hours, adopted from the Egyptians. Alexandria, possessing a
large, indigenous, and influential Jewish population, was well
suited for bringing in a final ingredient, that of the Hebrew
weekly cycle."
22 Dio Cassius, "Historia" 49,22, LCL 5, p.389; cf. "Historia"
37,16 and 37,17; Josephus, "Wars of the Jews" 1,7,3 and
"Antiquities of the Jews" 14, 4, confirms Dio Cassius' account,
saying that the Romans succeeded in capturing the city because
they understood that Jews on the Sabbath only acted defensively.
......
Jovis--Thursday" 23 and of Tibullus (ca. B.C.29-30) to "dies
Saturni-Saturday." 24 Dio Cassius himself speaks of the
planetary week as "prevailing everywhere" in his time to the
extent that among the Romans it was "already an ancestral
custom." 25
Two Sabine calendars found in central Italy in 1795 and a
third one which came to light at Cimitele, near Nola in southern
Italy, in 1956 (all three dated no later than the time of
Tiberius (A.D.1437), 26 present in the right column the eight
letters from
......
23 Horace, "Satirae" 2,3,288-290, LCL p.177, represents a
superstitious mother as making this vow: "'O Jupiter, who givest
and takest away sore affliction,' cries the mother of a child
that for five long months has been ill abed, 'if the quartan
chills leave my child, then on the morning of the day on which
thou appointest a fast, he shall stand naked in the Tiber.'" The
translator H.R.Fairelough explains: "This would be dies Jovis
[the day of Jupiter], corresponding to our Thursday" (loc. cit.);
cf. J. Hastings' "Encyclopedia of Religion and Ethics," 1928,
S.V. "Sunday"; Ovid (43 B.C. - A.D.18) refers several times to
the seven-day week: "You may begin on the day ... less fit for
business, whereon returns the seventh-day feast that the Syrian
of Palestine observe" ("Ars Amatoria" 1, 413-416; cf. 1,75-80;
"Remedia Amoris" 217-220).
24 In one of his poems, Tibullus explains what excuses he could
have found for staying in Rome with his beloved Delia: "Either
birds or words of evil omen were my pretexts or that the sacred
day of Saturn had held one back" (Carmina 1,3,15-18). The day of
Saturn was regarded as an unlucky day (dies nefastus) for
undertaking important business. Sextus Propertius, a contemporary
of Tibullus, speaks, for instance, of "the sign of Saturn that
brings woe to one and to all" (Elegies 4,1,81-86).
25 Dio Cassius, "Historia" 37,18, LCL p.130: "The dedication of
the days to the seven stars which are called planets was
established by Egyptians, and it spread also to all men not so
very long ago, to state it briefly how it began. At any rate the
ancient Greeks knew it in no way, as it appears to me at least.
But since it also prevails everywhere among all the others and
the Romans themselves ... is already to them an ancestral
custom." W.Rordorf, "Sunday," pp.27 and 37, takes Dio Cassius'
statement that the planetary week had come into use "not so very
long ago," to mean that it did not exist before "the end of the
first century A.D." This conclusion, however, is invalidated
first by Dio's own comment that the planetary week was prevailing
everywhere and that the Romans regarded it as an ancestral custom
(a new time cycle does not become widespread and ancestral
overnight); secondly, by Dio's mention that already back in 37
B.C., when Jerusalem was captured by Sosius and Herod the Great,
the Sabbath "even then was called day of Saturn" ("Historia"
49,22). Moreover note that Dio makes the Greeks, not the Romans,
the "terminus ante quem" the planetary week was unknown. We would
therefore agree with C.S.Mosna that "the planetary week must have
originated already in the first century B.C." ("Storia della
domenica," p.69).
26 The Sabine calendars have been dated by T. Mommsen between 19
B.C. and A.D.14, see CIL 1/2, 220; this date is supported by
Attilio Degrassi, "Un Nuovo frammento di calendario Romano e la
settimana planetaria dei sette giorni," "Atti del Terzo Congresso
Internationale de Epigra f is Greca e Latina," Rome, 1957, p.
103; the article is included by the author in his "Scritti vari
di antichita," 1962, pp.681-691; Degrassi is of the opinion that
even the newly found calendar of Nola "is not later than the time
of Tiberius" (p.101).
......
A to H of the eight-day Roman "nundinum" market week and in the
left column the seven letters from A to G, representing the
seven-day planetary week. 27 In addition to these calendars
should be considered also several so-called "indices nundinarii"
(some of them dated in the early empire). 28 These give the name
of the towns and the corresponding days of the planetary week
(which always starts with Saturday - dies Saturni) on which the
market was to be held. In the light of these and other
indications, the archeologist Attilio Degrassi at the Third
International Congress of Greek and Roman Epigraphy (1957)
stated:
I wish to insist on my conviction that this planetary week
... did not become known and commonly used, as generally
believed, only in the first half of the first century A.D.,
but already in the first years o f the Augustan era [27
B.C.A.D.14] ... This is a conclusion that appears inevitable
after the discovery of the calendar of Nola. 29
......
27 That the letters from A to G stand for the seven days of the
planetary week, as stated by A. Degrassi (fn. 26), p.99, "has
been recognized long ago." This is proven by the fact that they
occur "for the whole year in the manuscript Philocalian Calendar
of A.D.354" (loc. cit.). Herbert Thurston explains the Sabine
calendars, saying: "when the Oriental seven-day period, or week,
was introduced, in the time of Augustus, the first seven letters
of the alphabet were employed in the same way as done for the
nundinae, to indicate the days of this new division of time. In
fact, fragmentary calendars on marble still survive in which both
a cycle of eight letters - A to H - indicating nundinae, and a
cycle of seven letters - A to G - indicating weeks, are used side
by side (see "Corpus Inscriptionum Latinarum," 2nd ed., I, 220.
The same peculiarity occurs in the Philocalian Calendar of A.D.
356, ibid., p.256). This device was imitated by the Christians,
and in their calendars the days of the year from 1 January to 31
December were marked with a continuous recurring cycle of seven
letters: A, B, C, D, E, F, G" ("The Catholic Encyclopedia," 1911,
S.V. "Dominical Letter").
28 A. Degrassi (fn. 26) pp.103-104; cf. CIL 12, 218; one has been
found in Pompeii and therefore it is prior to A.D.79, CIL IV,
8863; these calendars are also reproduced by A. Degrassi in his
recent edition of "Inscriptiones Italiae," 1963, XIII, ns. 49,
52,53,55,56.
29 A. Degrassi (fn. 26), p.104, (emphasis supplied).
......
Subsequent indications of the widespread use of the planet-
ary week in the first century AD. are impressive. A brief listing
of them will suffice for our purpose. A stone calendar found in
Puteoli (dated first century A.D.) contains the date and name of
three planetary days; "[ Mercu]ri--[Wednesday], Jovis
-[Thursday], Veneris-[Friday]" 30 Apollonius of Tyana, a
renowned wonder-worker, according to his biographer Philostratus
(ca. A.D.170-245) in a trip he took to India between A.D.40-60,
received from Iarchas, an Indian sage, seven rings each named
after the "seven stars" and he wore them "in turn on the day of
the week which bore its name." 31
Petronius, a Roman satirist (died ca. A.D.66) in his novel
"The Banquet of Trimalchio" describes a stick calendar which
Trimalchio had affixed on the doorpost with the number of the
days on the side and "the likeness of the seven stars" on the
other side. A knob was inserted in the respective holes to
indicate the date and the day. 32 Sextus Julius Frontinus (ca.
A.D.35-103), a Roman soldier and writer, in his work "The
Stratagems," referring to the fall of Jerusalem of A.D.70, writes
that Vespasian "attacked the Jews on the day of Saturn, on which
it is forbidden for them to do anything serious and defeated
them." 33
In Pompeii and Herculaneum there have been uncovered not
only two series of mural pictures of the seven planetary gods in
an excellent state of preservation 34 but also numerous
wall-inscriptions and graffiti either listing explicitly the
planetary gods of the week or giving the planetary name of the
day of a particular date. 35 A two-line mural inscription for
instance
......
30 CIL X, part I, 199 (No. 1605).
31 Philostratus, "Life o f Apollonius of Tyana" 3, 41, LCL I, pp.
321, 323.
32 Petronius, "Satyricon" 30, LCL, p.45.
33 Frontinus, "Strategemata" 2, 1, 17, LCL, p.98; Dio Cassius'
account is strikingly similar: "Thus was Jerusalem destroyed on
the very day of Saturn, the day which even now the Jews reverence
most" (Historia 65, 7, LCL, p.271.
34 For a good reproduction of the Pompeiian painting of the
planetary gods see Erasmo Pistolesi, "Real Museo Borbonico,"
1836, VII, pp.116-130, plate 27; cf. "Le Pitture Antiche
d'Ercolano," "Real Accademia de Archeo logia," III, pp.257-263;
H. Roux Aine, "Herculanum et Pompei: recueil general des
peintures, bronzes, mosaiques," 1862, pp. 106-109; cf. J.
Hastings, "Encyclopaedia of Religion and Ethics," 1928, S.V.
"Sunday."
35 CIL I, part 1, 342; CIL IV, part 2, 515, no. 4182; at
Herculaneum was found inscribed in Greek upon a wall a list
entitled "Day of the Gods" followed by the names of the seven
planetary deities in the genitive form, CIL IV, part 2, 582, no.
5202; cf. CIL IV, 712, no. 6779; see E. Schurer (fn. 20), pp.
27f.; R. L. Odom, "Sunday in Roman Paganism", 1944, pp.88-94.
......
reads: "the 9th day before the Kalends of June [May 24] the
Emperor . . . it was the day of the Sun." 36 Such evidence
erases all doubt of the widespread use of the planetary week
before A.D.79, the date of the destruction of Pompeii by the
eruption of Mt.Vesuvius.
A pictorial calendar found on the wall of the ruins of the
baths of Titus (A.D.79-81) deserves mention on account of its
originality. In a square frame there appear in the upper row the
pictures of the seven planetary gods. In the center are the
twelve signs of the zodiac representing the months and on the two
sides appear the numbers of the days, on the right the days I to
XV, and the left, the days XVI to XXX. Beside each of these there
are holes where knobs were inserted to indicate the month, the
number of the day and the protecting planetary god. Its location
in such a public building is indicative of its popular use.
Plutarch (ca. A.D.46 - after 119) the celebrated Greek
biographer, in a treatise entitled "Symposia," written in
question-and-answer form between A.D.100-125, poses the question:
"Why are not the days which have the names of the planets
arranged according to the order of the planets but the contrary?"
38 Unfortunately, only the title of this dialogue has been
preserved. However, the question per se implies not only that the
planetary week was commonly used by the end of the first century,
but also that apparently by then most people could not even
account for the differences between the current astronomical
order of the planets and that of the planetary week. 39
Numerous testimonies could be cited in support of the wide
use of the planetary week in subsequent centuries, but these
......
36 CIL IV, part 2, 717, no. 6338.
37 Attilio Degrassi, "Inscriptiones Italiae," 1963, XIII, pp.
308-309, plate 56; Troianus Marulli, "Sopra un'antica cappella
cristiana, scoperta di fresco in Roma nelle terme di Tito," 1813;
I. A. Guattani, "Memorie enciclope diche per il 1816, pp. 153f.
table 22; Antonius De Romanis, "Le Antiche camere esquiline,"
1822, pp.21, 59f.
38 "Plutarch's Complete Works," III, p.230.
39 According to the geocentric system of astronomy of that
period, the order of the planets was as follows: Saturn
(farthest), Jupiter, Mars, Sun, Venus, Mercury, and Moon
(nearest). In the planetary week, however, the days are named
after the planets in this sequence: Saturn, Sun, Moon, Mars,
Mercury, Jupiter, and Venus; for a discussion, see R. L. Odom
(fn. 35), pp.11-17.
......
would be too late to be relevant to our research. 40 The above
brief listing of evidence shows conclusively that the planetary
week was known and used in ancient Rome at least since the
beginning of our Christian era. 41
The enhancement of the day of the Sun.
The contemporaneous existence of Sun worship and of the
planetary week suggests the possibility that with the development
of the former, the day dedicated to the Sun took on greater
importance. 42 This is corroborated by the process whereby the
primacy and prestige of the day of Saturn was transferred to that
of the Sun. In fact, initially the day of the Sun "had nothing to
distinguish it from the other days" 43 since it was the second
day of the week following Saturn-day which was the first. In
time, however, the day of the Sun came to occupy the first and
"most venerable" position.
The process which led to the enhancement of Sun-day at
......
40 R.L.Odom (fn.35), pp.54-124, surveys the evidences for the
planetary week till the third century A.D.
41 This conclusion is shared by several scholars; see F. H.
Colson (fn. 20), p.36: "Reviewing the evidence discussed above,
we see that the planetary week was known in some sense in the
Empire as early as the destruction of Pompeii and most people
will think a century earlier"; B. Botte, "Les Denominations du
dimanche dans la tradition chretienne," "Le Dimanche," Lex Orandi
39, 1965, p.16: "When Tibullus wrote his 'Elegy,' the use of the
planetary week had already entered the customs. But, considering,
on the one hand, the absence of any allusion prior to this date
and, on the other hand, the abundance of indications beginning
from the second century, we clearly see that the change took
place toward the beginning of the Christian era"; cf. H. Dumaine,
"Dimanche," DACL IV, 911.
42 F.H. Colson (fn. 41), p.75, rightly notes: "A religion in
which the supreme object of adoration was so closely connected if
not identified with the Sun, could hardly fail to pay special
reverence to what even non-Mithraists hailed as the Sun's-day."
43 W. Rordorf, "Sunday," p.35; note that initially the day of the
Sun was the second day of the planetary week, following the day
of Saturn which was first. This is clearly proved, for instance,
by several stone calendars (so-called indices nundinarii) where
the days of the week are given horizontally, starting with the
day of Saturn; see above fn. 28. In a mural inscription found in
Herculaneum the "Days of the Gods" are given in capital Greek
letters, starting with "kronou [of Saturn], Heliou [of Sun] ..."
(CIL IV, part 2, 582, no. 5202). A similar list was found in
Pompeii written in Latin and beginning with "Saturni [of Saturn]"
(CIL IV, part 2, 712, no. 6779). W. Rordorf, "Sunday," p.35,
rightly stresses this point: "It must, however, be emphasized
straight away that in the planetary week Sunday always occupied
only the second place in the sequence of days."
......
the expense of Saturn-day is difficult to trace because of the
lack of explicit information regarding what religious customs, if
any, were associated with either day. This may be due, partly at
least, to the Roman concept of religion as being social,
political and external. Religion was viewed, as V. Monachino
explains, "as a contract between the State and the gods" rather
than as a personal devotion expressed by participation in weekly
worship services. 44 The significant official religious
ceremonies were attended primarily by aristocrats and dignitaries
who displayed their religiosity merely by fulfilling external
rituals.
This is not to belittle the preference the day of the Sun
received for social and religious purposes. Constantine in his
two constitutions of March 3 and July 3 A.D.321, by describing
the day of the Sun as "venerable-venerabilis" and as "famous for
its veneration--veneratione sui celebrem," 45 shows, as aptly
noted by Arthur Weigall, "that he was thinking of it as a
traditional sun-festival." 46 The veneration of the Sun,
however, seemingly did not require pagans to participate on
Sunday in special public Sun-worship services. 47 This matter is
illuminated by a statement of Tertullian found in his apology "To
the Pagans" (written in A.D.197). Replying to the taunt that
Christians were Sun-worshiper because "they prayed toward the
east" and "made Sunday, a day of festivity," he writes:
......
44 V. Monachino, "De persecutionibus in imperio Romano saec. I-IV
et de polemica pagano-christiana saec." II-III, Gregorian
University, 1962, p,147.
45 The text of the first law of March 3, 321 is found in "Codex
Justinianus" 111,12,3 and that of July 3, 321, in "Codex
Theodosianus" 11,8,1. Considering the fact that the necessity to
legislate on a social custom such as a day of rest, arises when
this endangers public welfare (as suggested by the exception made
for farmers), it is plausible to suppose that the veneration of
the day of the Sun was already a well-rooted tradition.
46 Arthur Weigall, "The Paganism in Our Christianity," 1928, p.
236.
47 According to Eusebius, "The Life of Constantine" 4,18 and 20,
Constantine recommended that Christians, including the soldiers,
"attend the services of the Church of God." For the pagan
soldiers the Emperor prescribed a generic prayer to be recited on
Sunday in an open field. (cf. Sozomen, HE 1, 8,12). This imperial
injunction cannot be taken as an example of traditional pagan
Sunday worship, since the motivation of the legislation is
clearly Christian: "in memory ... of what the Saviour of mankind
is recorded to have achieved" (NPNF 2nd, 1, p.544). Moreover it
should be noted that the Constantinian law did not prohibit
agricultural or private activities but only public. This shows
that even at the time of Constantine the pagan observance of
Sunday was quite different from the Jewish keeping of the
Sabbath.
......
What then? Do you do less than this? Do not many among you,
with an affectation of sometimes worshiping the heavenly
bodies likewise, move your lips in the direction of the
sunrise? It is you, at all events, who have even admitted
the sun into the calendar of the week; and you have selected
its day [Sunday] in preference of the preceding day
[Saturday] as the most suitable in the week for either an
entire abstinence from bath, or for its postponement until
the evening, or for taking rest and for banqueting. 48
This statement provides significant information: (1) it
indicates that at that time both Christians and pagans shared the
custom of praying toward the east and of spending Sunday as a
feast day; (2) it suggests that the Romans not only had adopted
the planetary week, but had also already selected Sunday in the
place of Saturn-day as their day of rest and feasting; (3) it
mentions the nature of the pagan Sunday-keeping, that is, a
social festival marked primarily by abstention from bathing,
idleness and banqueting.
When did the day of the Sun come to acquire such a festal
character in ancient Rome? No certain indications are available
to pinpoint the time. Pliny the Elder (died A.D.79) in his
Natural History writes that "in the midst of these planetary gods
moves the Sun, whose magnitude and power are the greatest . . .
he is glorious and preeminent, all-seeing and all-hearing." 49
Several "Mithraea" or sanctuaries of the pagan Sungod Mithra
have been found where the Sun occupies a dominant place in the
sequence of the planetary gods. In the "Mithraea" of the Seven
Portals and of the Seven Spheres (both excavated at Ostia, the
ancient port city of Rome) 50 as well as in the
......
48 Tertullian, "Ad Nationes" 1, 13, ANF III, p.123. W. Rordorf,
"Sunday," p.37, argues that Tertullian does not allude to the day
of the Sun but to that of Saturn, since he later speaks of Jewish
customs such as the Sabbath which pagans had adopted.
Unfortunately Rordorf fails to recognize that Tertullian responds
to the charge that Christians are Sunworshipers, first, by making
the pagans themselves guilty of having adopted the day and the
veneration of the Sun; and secondly, by showing them how they had
deviated from their tradition by adopting even Jewish customs
such as the Sabbath. For an analysis of the passage, see my
Italian dissertation, pp.446-449; F.A.Regan, "Dies Dominica," p.
35, recognizes that Tertullian refers to Sunday.
49 Pliny the Elder, "Naturalis historia" 2, 4, LCL, p.177.
50 Samuel Laechli, "Mithraism in Ostia," 1967, p.11,13,14,38-45,
72-73. The "Mithraeum" of the Seven Doors is dated A.D.160-170
while that of the Seven Spheres is dated late in the second
century. In the former, the Sun's "door" is the tallest and
widest; in the letter, the Sun's sphere is presumably the last;
see Leroy A. Campbell, "Mithraic Iconography and Ideology," 1968,
pp.300-307, figs. 19 and 20.
......
Bononia relief," the Sun occupies either the first or the last or
the highest place among the planetary gods. The Epicurean Celsus
(ca. A.D.140-180) similarly describes the famous Mithraic ladder
of the seven gates to be ascended by regenerated souls by
starting with Saturn and ending with the dominant Sun. 52 This
pre-eminence assigned to the "dies Solis"--Sunday, as F. Cumont
notes, "certainly contributed to the general recognition of
Sunday as a holiday." 53
That the day of the Sun enjoyed preeminence already by the
middle of the second century is clearly indicated by the famous
astrologer Vettius Valens. In his "Anthology" composed between
A.D.154 and 174; 54 in explaining how to find the day of the
week of any given birth date he explicitly states: "And this is
the sequence of the planetary stars in relation to the days
......
51 On the Bononia relief the planetary gods are placed on the
face of the tauroctone arch and they run counter clockwise from
Luna (Monday) at the right, followed by Mars (Tursday) and so on,
closing with Sol (Sunday) at the left; see F. Cumont, "Textes et
Monuments," 1886-1889, II, p.261 and I, p.119; cf. L. A. Campbell
(fn. 50), p.342.
52 In Origen, "Contra Celsum" 6,21-22. Celsus lists the planets
in the reverse order (Saturn, Venus, Jupiter, Mercury, Mars,
Moon, Sun) enabling the Sun to occupy a significant seventh
position. Note that though the arrangement of the gods of the
week-days may vary in Mithraic iconography, the sequential order
of the planetary deities is not disrupted and the Sun usually
occupies a preeminent position. Priscillian (ca. A.D.370)
provides a slightly different list but always with the Sun at the
top (Tractatus 1,15). In the Brigetio relief, however, the
planetary gods follow the regular sequence of the planetary week
from Saturn to Venus; see L. A. Campbell (fn. 50) plate XXXIII.
53 F. Cumont, "Astrology and Religion Among the Greeks and
Romans," 1912, p.163; Cumont also comments: "Each day of the
week, the Planet to which the day was sacred was invoked in a
fixed spot in the crypt; and Sunday, over, which the Sun
presided, was especially holy" ("The Mysteries of Mithra," 1956,
p.167); cf. Textes (fn. 51) I, p.119: "The dies Solis was
evidently the most sacred of the week for the faithful of Mithra
and, like the Christians, they had to keep holy Sunday and not
the Sabbath" (cf. also p.325). A statement from Isidore of
Seville (ca. A.D.560-636) best summarizes the priority Sun
worship accorded to the day of the Sun: "The gods have arranged
the days of the week, whose names the Romans dedicated to certain
stars. The first day they called day of the Sun because it is the
ruler of all stars" ("Etymologiae" 5, 30 PL 82, 216).
54 The date is established by Otto Neugebauer and Henry B. Van
Hoesen, "Greek Horoscopes," 1959, p.177.
......
of the week: Sun, Moon, Mars, Mercury, Jupiter, Venus, Saturn. 55
The preeminence of Sunday is also implied in Justin Martyr's
threefold reference to it in his I "Apology" 67. Why in his brief
exposition of the Christian worship did he mention three times
"the day of the Sun"? Why did he present the creation of light on
the first day as the first reason for the Christian Sunday
gathering? Apparently because the day was venerated by the
Romans. By associating Christian worship with both the day and
the symbolism of the pagan Sun, Justin, as we suggested earlier,
aimed at gaining from the Emperor a favorable appraisal of
Christianity.
Though not sufficiently explicit to establish the exact time
when the day of the Sun emerged as the first and most important
day of the week, these few indications do reveal however that it
occurred in concomitance with the development of Sun-worship
which became widespread beginning from the early part of the
second cebtury.
If the day of the Sun, enhanced by the prevailing Sun-cult,
did supplant the day of Saturn in the Roman world by the
beginning of the second century, one may ask, did Christians, as
well expressed by B. Botte, "adapt the day of the Sun to the
Christian Sunday as they adapted the natalis invicti [December
25] making it the symbol of the birth of Christ Sun of
righteousness"?" In other words, could not the Christian adoption
of Sunday observance in place of the Sabbath be contemporaneous
and related to the emergence of the day of the Sun over that of
Saturn in the Roman world? We shall attempt to answer this
question first by briefly considering some general reflexes of
the Sun-cult in Christian thought and practice and then by
focusing on the specific influence of the pagan day of the Sun on
the Christian adoption of that day.
......
55 Vettius Valens, "Anthologiarum" 5, 10, ed. G. Kroll, p.26.
Robert L. Odom, "Vettius Valens and the Planetary Week," AUSS 3
(1965): 110-137 provides a penetrating analysis of the
calendations used by Vettius Valens and shows convincingly that
"Vettius Valens, who undoubtedly was a pagan, used the week of
seven days, [and] reckoned the seven-day week as beginning with
the day of the Sun (Sunday) and ending with 'the sabbatical day'
(Sabbath day)" (p.134); H. Dumaine "Dimanche" DACL IV, 912
defends the same view on the basis of different evidences; cf. W.
H. Roscher, "Planeten," "Allgemeines Lexikon der griech. and rom.
Mythologie," 1909, col. 2538.
56 B. Botte (fn. 41), p.21.
...........................
To be continued
Sun Worship and Christianity!The Move to Sunday and December 25th
by the late Samuele Bacchiocchi PhD
Reflexes of Sun-Worship on Christianity
Christians resented and denied the accusation of being Sun-
worshipers (and even suffered horrible martyrdoms rather than
offer a pinch of incense on the imperial altars), yet as
Jacquetta Hawkes well puts it, "with the malicious irony so often
apparent in history, even while they fought heroically on one
front, their position was inflitrated from another." 57
For instance, while on the one hand, Tertullian strongly
refuted the pagan charge that the Christians were Sun-worsgipers,
58 on the other hand he chides the Christians at length for
celebrating pagan festivals within their own communities. 59
That Christians were not immune to the popular veneration of the
Sun and astrological practices is attested by the frequent
condemnation of these by the Fathers. 60
......
57 Jacquetta Hawkes, "Man and the Sun," 1462, p.199.
58 Tertullian strongly rejected the pagan accusation that the
Christians' rejoicing on Sunday was motivated by the worship of
the Sun (see Apology 16, 1 and "Ad Nationes" 1, 13,1-5, ANF III,
p.31 and p.122). Similarly Origen regarded Celsus' likening of
Christianity to pagan mystery religions, Mithraism included, as
absurd and unworthy of either refutation or repetition (see
"Against Celsus" 1,9 and 6,22, ANF IV, p.399-400 p.583).
59 Tertullian, "On Idolatry" 14 ANF III, p.70: "How ... wicked to
celebrate them [i.e., pagan festivals] among brethren! ... The
Saturnalia and New-year and Midwinter's festivals and Matonalia
are frequented - presents come and go - New-year's gifts-games
join their noise-banquets join their din! Oh, better fidelity of
the nations to their own sect, which claims no solemnity of the
Christians for itself!"
60 Jack Lindsay, "Origin of Astrology," 1972, provides in chapter
20 "Pagan and Christians" (pp.373-400) a valuable and concise
survey of the influence of astrological beliefs on early
Christianity. Origen complains that many Christians believed that
nothing could happen unless it had been decreed by the stars
("Philocalia," 23). H. Dumaine and De Rossi point out that the
names of the planetary week used in Christian funerary
inscriptions reflect the prevailing superstition, according to
which the day mentioned belonged to the protecting star
("Dimanche" DACL IV, 872-875; cf. E. Schurer (fn. 20), pp.
35-39). The Fathers protested against such beliefs. Philaster,
Bishop of Brescia (d. ca. A.D.397) condemns as heresy the
prevailing belief that "the name of the days of the Sun, of the
Moon ... had been established by God at the creation of the world
... The pagans, that is, the Greeks have set up such names and
with the names also the notion that mankind depends from the
seven stars" (Liber de haeresibus 113, PL 12, 1257). In a
document attributed to Priscillian (ca. A.D.340-385) anathema is
pronounced against those Christians who "in their sacred
ceremonies, venerate and acknowledge as gods the Sun, Moon ...
and all the heavenly host, which are detestable idols worthy of
the Gehenna" ("Tractatus undecim," CSEL 18, p.14); cf. Martin of
Braga, "De correctione rusticorum" ed. C.W.Barlow, 1950, p.189;
Augustin, "In Psalmos" 61, 23, CCL 39, p.792.
......
Three significant reflexes of Sun-worship in the Christian
liturgy can be seen in the theme of Christ-the-Sun, in the
orientation toward the east and in the date of Christmas. These
we shall briefly examine, since they shed some light on the
possible causal relationship between Sun-worship and the origin
of Sunday observance.
Christ-the-Sun.
In numerous pagan pictorial representations which have come
down to us, the Sun or Mithra is portrayed as a man with a disk
at the back of his head. 61 It is a known fact that this image
of the Sun was used in early Christian art and literature to
represent Christ, the true "Sun of righteousness."
In the earliest known Christian mosaic (dated ca. A.D.240)
found in the Vatican necropolis below the altar of St.Peter (in
the small mausoleum M. or the Iulii), Christ is portrayed as the
Sun (Helios) ascending on the quadriga chariot with a flying
cloak and a nimbus behind his head from which irradiate seven
rays in the form of a T (allusion to the cross?). 62
Thousands of hours have been devoted to drawing the sun-disk
with the equal-armed cross behind the head of Christ and (from
the fifth century) the heads of other important persons.
The motif of the Sun was used not only by Christian artists
to portray Christ but also by Christian teachers to proclaim Him
to the pagan masses who were well acquainted with the rich
Sun-symbology. Numerous Fathers abstractedd and reinterpreted the
pagan symbols and beliefs about the Sun and used them
apologetically to teach the Christian message 63
Does not the fact that Christ was early associated in iconography
and in literature (if not in actual worship) with the "Sol
invictus" - Invincible Sun, suggest the possibility that even the
day of the Sun could readily have been adopted for worshiping
Christ, the "Sol iustittae" -- the Sun of Justice? It would
require only a short step to worship Christ-the-Sun, on the day
specifically dedicated to the Sun.
......
61 A number of examples can be seen in F.Cumont, "Textes et
monuments" 11, p.202, no. 29; p.210, no. 38; p.241, no. 73; p.
290, no. 145; p.311, no. 169; p.350, no. 248; p.434, no. 379.
62 See E. Kirschbaum, "The Tomb of St. Peter and St. Paul," 1959,
pp. 35f.; P.Testini, "Archaelogia Cristiana," 1959, p.167. The
mosaic came to light during the recent excavations (1953-1957)
under the altar of St.Peter's basilica; cf. an artistic
reproduction of Christ portrayed as "Sol Invictus" in F.Cumont
(fn. 61), I, p.123, table no. 6.
63 Justin, "Dialogue" 121, ANF 1, p.109 contrasts the devotion
of Sun-worshipers with that of the Christians, who on account of
the word of Christ who "is more blazing and bright than the might
of the sun ... have suffered and still suffer, all kinds of
torments rather than deny their faith in Him." In a document
attributed to Melito, Bishop of Sardis (d. ca. A.D.190) a
striking parallelism is established between Christ and the sun:
"But if the sun with the stars and the moon wash in the ocean,
why should not Christ also wash in the Jordan? The king of the
heavens and the leader of creation, the sun of the east who both
appeared to the dead in Hades and to the living in the world, and
this only Sun rose from Heaven" ("On Baptism," ed. J.B.Pitra,
"Analecta Sacra Spicilegio Solesmensi," 1884, 2,5). Clement of
Alexandria (ca. A.D.150-215) elaborates diffusely on the symbol
of Christ as true Light and true Sun and applies to Christ a
common pagan designation for a heavenly god "The Greek is
given--the one who looks down on all." Clement skillfully urges
the pagans to abandon their rites of divination and be initiated
instead into Christ the true Sun and Light (see Protrepticus II,
114, 1, GCS 1,80,16; Stromateis 7, 3, 21, 6, GCS 3,15,28;
Paedagogus 3, 8, 44, 1, GCS 1, 262,7). Origen (ca. A.D.185-254)
manifests the same predilection for the denomination "Sun of
Justice": "Christ is the Sun of Justice; if the moon is united,
which is the Church, it will be filled by His light" ("In Numeros
homilia" 23, 5, GCS 7,217,24; cf. "In Leviticum homilia" 9, GCS
6, 438, 19). Cyprian (d. A.D.258) Bishop of Carthage exhorts
believers "to pray at sunrise to commemorate the resurrection ...
and to pray at the setting of the sun ... for the advent of
Christ" ("De oratione" 35, CSEL 3, 292). Ambrose (A.D.339-397),
Bishop of Milan, to counteract the widespread Sun-cult,
frequently contrasts Christ "lumen verum et Sol iustitiae - true
light and Sun of justice" with the "Sol iniquitatis - Sun of
iniquity" ("In Psalmos" 118, "sermo" 19,6 CSEL 62, 425,4f). A.J.
Vermeulen, "The Semantic Development of Gloria in Early Christian
Latin," 1956, p.170, comments that Christians did not adopt an
exclusive apologetic attitude, but "they took a much easier view
of certain pagan customs, conventions and images and saw no
objection, after ridding them of their pagan content, to adapting
them to Christian thought." J. Danielou, "Bible and Liturgy," p.
299, offers a similar observation. Eusebius of Alexandria (ca.
A.D.500) writes: "I know many who worship and pray to the Sun.
For at the time the sun is rising they pray and say, 'Have mercy
upon us,' and not only sun-worshipers and heretics do this, but
also Christians, departing from the faith, mingle with heretics"
(PG 86, 453). That the problem assumed alarming proportions is
indicated by the vigorous attack of Pope Leo the Great (d. A.D.
461) against the veneration of the Sun by many Christians
("Sermon" 27, "In Nativitate Domini," PL 54, 218). F.J.Dolger,
"Sol Salutis." "Gebet and Gesang in christlichen Altertum. Mit
besonderer Riicksicht auf die Ostung in Gebet and Liturgie,"
1925, provides especially in chapters 20 and 21 an extensive
documentation of the influence of Sun-worship on the Christian
liturgy.
......
Eastward Orientation
The Christian adoption of the East in place of Jerusalem as
the new orientation for prayer provides an additional significant
indication of the influenece of the Sun cult on early Christian
worship. The Jews (as indicated by Daniel's custom and by
Solomon's prayer at the dedication of the temple) 64 considered
praying toward Jerusalem to be an obligation which determined the
very validity of their prayers. That primitive Christians
continued to adhere to such a practice is evidenced by the
Judaeo-Christian sect of the Ebionites who, as reported by
Irenaeus, "prayed toward Jerusalem as if it were the house of
God." 65
The Fathers advance several reasons for the adoption of the
eastward position for prayer. Clement of Alexandria ca. A.D.
150-215) explains that "prayers are offered while looking toward
sunrise in the East" because the Orient represents the birth of
light that "dispels the darkness of the night" and because of the
orientation of "the ancient temples." 66 For Origen (ca. A.D.
185-254) the East symbolizes the soul that looks to the source of
light. 67 Others urged Christians to pray looking toward the
East to remind themselves of God's paradise and/or of Christ's
coming. 68
Christians who had previously venerated the Sun, facing the
necessity of dissociating themselves from the Jews, apparently
not only abandoned Jerusalem as the orientation for prayer, but
also reverted, unconsciously perhaps, to the direc-
......
64 Dan. 6:11; 2 Chron. 6:34f; cf. "Jewish Encyclopedia" 1907,
S.V. "Prayer."
65 Irenaeus, "Adversus haereses" 1, 26, ANF I, p.352.
66 Clement of Alexandria, "Stromateis" 7, 7, 43, GCS 3,32.
67 Origen, "De oratione" 32, GCS 2, 400, 23.
68 "Apostolic Constitutions" 2, 57, 2 and 14, specific
instructions are given to ensure that both the church building
and the congregation face the orient. Moreover believers are
urged to "pray to God eastward, who ascended to the heaven of
heavens to the east; remembering also the ancient situation of
paradise in the east..." (ANF VII, p.42); cf. "Didascalia"
2,57,3; Hippolytus, "De Antichristo" 59, GCS 1,2,39-40; Cyril,
Bishop of Jerusalem (A.D.315-386) instructed his baptismal
candidates to face first the West, the devil's domain, and facing
that direction, they were to say: "I renounce you Satan" and then
after "severing all ancient bonds with hell, the Paradise of God,
which is planted in the East is open to you" ("Catechesibus" 1,
9, "Monumenta eucharistica," ed. J. Quasten, 2,79). An early
Christian Syrian author tells us: "The Apostles therefore
established that you should pray toward the east, because 'as the
lightning which lighteneth from the east is seen even to the
west, so shall the coming of the Son of Man be,' that by this we
may know and understand that He will appear suddenly from the
east" ("Didascalie d'Addai" 2, 1, see F.Dolger (fn. 5) p.72, n.
3); cf. also Basil, "De Spiritu Sancto" 27, 64, PG 32, 189;
Gregory of Nyssa, "De oratione Domini" 5, PG 44, 1184; Augustine,
"De sermone Domini in morte" 2, 5,18, PL 34, 1277.
......
tion of sunrise, reinterpreting its meaning in the light of the
Christian message. One wonders, was the change of direction for
prayer from the Jewish temple to sunrise interrelated also with
the change of the worship day from the "Jewish" Sabbath to the
day of the Sun? While prayer per se is not a weekly (at least it
ought not to be) but a daily religious practice, could not the
daily praying toward the Sun have encouraged Christians to
worship also weekly on the day of the Sun? Moreover, could not
the fact that Christ and His resurrection were associated with
the rising sun have easily predisposed Christians to worship the
rising "Sun of Justice" on the day of the Sun?)
Cultured and well-meaning pagans, according to Tertullian,
correlated the Christian praying toward the East with their
Sunday observance,. presenting both customs as one basic evidence
of Christians' Sun-worship. Tertullian denied the charge,
attributing to the pagans the very same customs. Note, however,
that both the accusers and the refuter interrelate the two
customs, presenting them as one basic indication of Sun-worship.
69
This close nexus between the two customs, admitted even by
the pagans, suggests the possibility that Christians could well
have adopted them contemporaneously because of the same factors
discussed above. This is the conclusion which also F.A. Regan
reaches after an extensive analysis of patristic references
dealing with the orientation towards the East. He writes:
A suitable, single example of the pagan influence may be had
from an investigation of the Christian custom of turning
toward the East, the land of the rising sun, while offering
their prayers.... For in the transition from the observance
of the Sabbath to the celebration of the Lord's day, the
primitive Christians not only substituted the first day of
the week for the seventh, but they went even further and
changed the traditional Jewish practice of facing toward
Jerusalem during their daily period of prayer. 70
The strong attraction exerted by the solar cults on the
Christians suggests the possibility therefore that these
influenced not only the adoption of the eastward direction for
daily prayers but also of the day of the Sun for weekly worship.
......
69 See above fn. 48.
70 F.A.Regan, "Dies Dominica," p.196,
......
The date of Christmas
The adoption of the 25th of December for
for the celebration of Christmas is perhaps the most ex-
plicit example of Sun-worship's influence on the Christian
liturgical calendar. It is a known fact that the pagan feast of
the "dies natalis Solis Invicti" - the birthday of the Invincible
Sun, was held on that date. 71
Do Christian sources openly admit the borrowing of the date
of such a pagan festivity? Obviously not. 72
To admit borrowing a pagan festival, even after due
reinterpretation of its meaning, would be tantamount to an open
betrayal of the faith. This the Fathers were anxious to
......
71 In the Philocalian calendar (A.D.354) the 25th of December is
designated as "N[atalis] Invicti - The birthday of the invincible
one" (CIL I, part 2, p.236); Julian the Apostate, a nephew of
Constantine and a devotee of Mithra, says regarding this pagan
festival: "Before the beginning of the year, at the end of the
month which is called after Saturn [December], we celebrate in
honor of Helios [the Sun] the most splendid games, and we
dedicate the festival to the Invincible Sun.... That festival may
the ruling gods grant me to praise and to celebrate with
sacrifice! And above all the others may Helios [the Sun] himself,
the king of all, grant me this" (Julian, "The Orations of Julian,
Hymn to King Helios" 155, LCL p.429); Franz Cumont, "Astrology
and Religion Among Greeks and Romans," 1960, p.89: "A very
general observance required that on the 25th of December the
birth of the 'new Sun' should be celebrated, when after the
winter solstice the days began to lengthen and the 'invincible'
star triumphed again over darkness"; for texts on the Mithraic
celebration of Dec.25th see CIL I, p.140; Gordon J.Laing,
"Survivals of Roman Religion," 1931, pp.58-65, argues
persuasively that many of the customs of the ancient Roman
Saturnalia (Dec.17-23) were transferred to the Christmas season.
G. Brumer, "Jahrbuch fur Liturgiewissenschaft," 1935, p.178f and
K. Prumm, "Stimmen der Zeit," 1939, p.215, date the festival of
December 25 back to the Emperor Aurelian (A.D.270-275), whose
fondness for the worship of the Sun is well known. The hypothesis
rests on Augustine's censure of the Donatists (PL 38, 1033) for
failing to observe January 6th. This, however, hardly implies
that Christians celebrated Christ's birthday on December 25th
already at that time.
72 An exception is the comment of an unknown Syrian writer who
wrote in the margin of the "Expositio in Evangelia of
Bar-salibaeus" (d. A.D.1171) as follows: "Therefore the reason
why the aforesaid solemnity was transferred by the Fathers from
the 6th of January to the 25th of December, they explain to have
been as follows: It was a solemn rite among the pagans to
celebrate the festival of the rising of the sun on this very day,
December 25th: Furthermore, to augment the solemnity of the day,
they were accustomed to kindle fires, to which rites they were
accustomed to invite and admit even Christian people. When
therefore the Teachers observed that Christians were inclined to
this custom, they contrived a council and established on this day
the festival of the true Rising" (J.S.Assemanus, "Bibliotheca
orientalis" 2, 164, trans. by P.Cotton, "From Sabbath to Sunday,"
1933, pp.144-145).
......
avoid. Augustine and Leo the Great, for instance, strongly
reprimanded those Christians who at Christmas worshiped the
Sun rather than the birth of Christ. 73 Therefore, it is well to
keep in mind that in the investigation of the influence of the
Sun-cults on the Christian liturgy, the most we can hope to find
are not direct but indirect indications. This warning applies not
only for the date of Christmas but for that of Sunday as well.
Few scholars maintain that the date of the 25th of December
was derived from astronomical-allegorical observations. It was
the opinion of some Fathers that both the conception and passion
of Christ occurred at the time of the vernal equinox on the 25th
of March. 74
Reckoning from that to that date the nine months of
pregnancy of Mary, the date of the birth of Christ was computed
be the 25th of December. O.Cullmann rightly observes however that
these computations "can scarcely have given the initiative." 75
They seem to represent rather an "a po-
......
73 Augustine, "Sermo in Nativitate Domini" 7, PL 38, 1007 and
1032, enjoins Christians to worship at Christmas not the sun
but its Creator; Leo the Great rebukes those Christians who at
Christimas celebrate the birth of the sun rather than that of
Christ.
74 L.Duchesne, "Christian Worship: Us Origin and Evolution,"
1919, pp.260f., presents this hypotthesis as a possibility.
M. Righetti; "Manuale di Storia Liturgica," 1955, 11, pp.68-69,
explains that the date of March 25th "though historically
unfounded, was based on astronomical-allegorical considerations,
namely that on the day of the vernal equinox the world was
created:" According to this theory, on the same date of March 25
creation began and, Christ, as Augustine says, was
"conceived and crucified" - ("De trinitate" 4, 5, PL 42, 894);
cf. Hippolytus, "In Danielem commentarius" 4, 23; for a similar
view.
75 0.Cullmann, "The Early Church," 1956, p.29. Cullmann maintains
that two factors contributed "to the separation of the festival
of Christ's birth from Epiphany, and to the transference of the
former to December 25th," namely, "the dogmatic development of
christology at the beginning of the fourth century" and the
influence of the pagan festival held in honor of the Sun-god on
December 25. Theologically, Cullmann argues, it became necessary,
after the condemnation at the Council of Nicaea of the doctrine
that God the Son did not become incarnate at his birth, to
dissociate the festival of the birth from that of the Epiphany.
Both festivals were celebrated, especially in the East, on
January 5th-6th (as birth-baptism), and this must have been
objectionable, since the birth of Christ commemorated under the
common theme of "Epiphany = appearing," could easily be
misinterpreted heretically. This theological explanation, though
very ingenious, hardly justifies the adoption of December 25,
especially in the West. In fact, to be able to speak of
separation of the two festivities, it is necessary to prove first
of all that in Rome, Christians had previously celebrated
Christmas on January 6, a fact that we have not found.
......
steriori" rationale advanced to justify an already existing date
and practice. To the majority of scholars, as stated by J.A.
Jungman, "It has become progressively clear that the real
reason for the choice of the 25th of December was the pagan feast
of the "dies natalis Solis Invicti" which was celebrated in those
days with great splendor." 76
Gaston H. Halsberghe in his recent monograph "The Cult
of Sol Invictus," already cited, similarity concludes:
The authors whom we consulted on this point are unammous in
admitting the influence of the pagan celebration held in
honor of Deus Sol Invictus on the 25th of December, the
"Natalis Invicti," on the Christian celebration of
Christmas. This influence is held to be responsible for the
shifting to the 25th of December of the birth of Christ,
which had until then been held on the day of the Epiphany,
the 6th of January. The celebration of the birth of the
Sun god, which was accompanied by a profusion of light and
torches and the decoration of branches and small trees, had
captivated the followers of the cult to such a degree that
even after they had been converted to Christianity they
continued to celebrate the feast of the birth of the Sun
god. 77
Let us note that the Church of Rome (as in the case of
Easter-Sunday so in the question of the celebration of Christ-
......
76 Joseph A. Jungmann, "The Early Liturgy to the Time of Gregory
the Great," 1962, p.147; L. Duchesne (fn. 74), p.26, also
recognizes this as a more plausible explanation: "A better
explanation is that based on the festival of 'Natalis Invicti,'
which appears in the pagan calendar of the Philocalian collection
under the 25th of December ... One is inclined to believe that
the Roman Catholic Church made the choice of the 25th of December
in order to enter into rivalry with Mitbraism"; John Ferguson,
"The Religions of the Roman Empire," 1970, p.239, defends the
same view; cf. Franz Cumont (fn. 71), p.89 and (fn. 51), I, p.
342: "It appears certain that the commemoration of the nativity
was placed on December 25, because on the winter solstice was
celebrated the rebirth of the invincible god. By adopting this
date ... the ecclesiastical authorities purified somehow some
pagan customs which they could not suppress."
77 Gaston H. Halsberghe (fn. 6), p.174; O.Cullmann (fn.
75), p.35, explicitly states: "The choice of the dates
themselves, both January 6th and December 25th was determined by
the fact that both these days were pagan festivals whose meaning
provided a starting point for the specifically Christian
conception of Christmas"; the same view is emphatically expressed
by B.Botte, "Les Origines de la Noel et de l'Epiphanie," 1932,
p.14; cf. C.Mohrmann, 'Epiphania,' "Revue des Sciences
Philosophiques" (1937): 672.
......
(mas) pioneered and promoted the adoption of the new date. In
fact the first explicit indication that on the 25th of December
Christians celebrated Christ's birthday is found in a Roman
document known as "Chronograph of 354" (a calendar attributed
to Fuzious Dionysius Philocalus), were it says: "VIII Kal. Jan.
natus Christus in Betleem Judaeae--On the eighth calends of
January [i.e., December 25th] Jesus was born in Bethlehem of
Judea." 78
That the Church of Rome introduced and championed this
new date, is accepted by most scholars. For instance, Mario
Righetti, a renowned Catholic liturgist, writes:
After the peace the Church of Rome, to facilitate the
acceptance of the faith by the pagan masses, found it
convenient to institute the 25th of December as the feast of
the temporal birth of Christ, to divert them from the pagan
feast, celebrated on the same day in honor of the
"Invincible Sun" Mithras, the conqueror of darkness. 79
In the Orient, however, the birth and the baptism of Jesus
were celebrated respectively on January 5 and 6. B.Botte, a
Belgian Benedictine scholar, in a significant study concludes
that this date also evoloved from an original pagan feast, named
"Epiphany," which commemorated the birth and growth of light. 80
It was not an easy task for the Church of Rome to get the
Eastern churches to accept the new date of December 25th, since
many of them "firmly adhered to the practice of observing the
festival of Christ's birth in its old form as an Ppiphany
festival on January 5th-6th." 81
It would take us beyond our immediate scope to trace the
process of adoption by the various Christian communities of the
Roman Christmas date. It will be sufficient to notice that the
adoption of the date of December 25th for the celebration
......
78 T.Mommsen, "Chronography of Philocalus of the Year" 354, 1850,
p.631; L.Duchesne, "Bulletin critique," 1890, p.41, has
established that the calendar goes back to 336, because the
"Depositio martyrum" is preceded in the Philocalian by the
"Depositium episcoporum" of Rome, which lists Sylvester (d. A.D.
335) as the last pope.
79 M.Righetti (fn. 74), 11, p.67; this view is widely held: see
L.Duchesne above fn. 76; O.Cullmann (fn. 75), p.30: "The Roman
Church intentionally opposed to this pagan nature cult its own
festival of light, the festival of the birth of Christ."
80 B.Botte (fn. 41), pp.14f; see above fn. 75.
81 O.Cullmann (fn. 75), p.32; for a concise account of the
diffusion of and opposition to the Roman Christmas, see M.
Righetti (fn. 74), II, pp.70f.
......
of Christ's birth provides an additional example not only of the
influence of the Sun-cult, but also of the primacy exerted by
Rome in promoting liturgical innovations.
The three examples we have briefly considered
(Christ-the-Sun, the eastward oriientation, and the Christmas
date} evidence sufficiently the influence of Sun-cult on
Christian thought and liturgy. J.A.Jungmann summarizes it well
when he writes that: "Christianity absorbed and made its own what
could be salvaged from pagan antiquity, not destroying it but
converting it, Christianizing what could be turned to good." 82
These conclusions justify a more direct investigation of the
influence of the pagan veneration of the day of the Sun on the
Christian adoption of the very same day.
The Day of the Sun and the origin of Sunday
The association between the Christian Sunday and the pagan
veneration of the day of the Sun is not explicit before the time
of Eusebius (ca. A.D.260-340. Though Christ is often referred to
by earlier Fathers as "True Light" and "Sun of Justice," 83 no
deliberate attempt was made prior to Eusebius to justify Sunday
observance by means of the symbology of the day of the Sun. On
the other hand Eusebius several times refers explicitly to the
motifs of the light, of the sun and of the day of the Sun, to
explain the substitution of the Christian Sunday for the Jewish
Sabbath. For example, in his "Commentary on Psalm 91" he writes:
The Logos has transferred by the New Alliance the
celebration of the Sabbath to the rising of the light. He
has given us a type of the true rest in the saving day of
the Lord, the first day of light ... In this day of light,
first day and true day of the sun, when we gather after the
interval of six days, we celebrate the holy and spiritual
Sabbaths.... All things whatsoever that were prescribed for
the Sabbath, we have transferred them to the Lord's day, as
being more authoritative and more highly regarded and first
in rank, and more honorable than the Jewish Sabbath. In
fact, it is on this day of the creation of the world that
God said: "Let there be light and there was light." It is
also on this day that the Sun of Justice has risen for our
souls. 84
......
82 Joseph A. Jungmann (fn. 76), p.151.
83 See above fn. 63.
84 Eusebius, "Cominentaria in Psalmos 91," PG 23, 1169-1172; cf.
below fn. 112.
......
............................
To be continued
The Day of the Sun and SundayThe Symbols were in place to adopt Sunday
by the late Samuele Bacchiocchi PhD
The Day of the Sun - the Origin of Sunday
The association between the Christian Sunday and the pagan
veneration of the Sun is not explicit before the time of Eusebius
(ca. A.D.260-340). Though Christ is often referred by earlier
Fathers as "True Light" and "Sun of Justice," 83 no deliberate
attempt was made for to Eusebius to justify Sunday observance by
means of symbology of the day of the sun. On the other hand
Eusebius several times refers explicitly to the motifs of the
light, of the sun and of the day of the Sun, to explain the
substitution of the Christian Sunday for the Jewish Sabbath.
For example, in his Commentary on Psalm 91 he writes:
The Logos has transferred by the New Alliance the
celebration of the Sabbath to the rising of the light. He
has given us a type of the true rest in the saving day of
the Lord, the first day of light ... In this day of light,
first day and true day of the sun, when we gather after the
interval of six days, we celebrate the holy and spiritual
Sabbaths ... All things whatsoever that were prescribed for
the Sabbath, we have transferred them to the Lord's day, as
being more authoritative and more highly regarded and first
in rank, and more honorable than the Jewish Sabbath. In
fact, it is on this day of the creation of the world that
God said: "Let there be light and there was light." It is
also on this day that the Sun of Justice has risen for our
souls. 84
......
82 Joseph A. Jungmann (fn. 76), p.151.
83 See above fn. 63.
84 Eusebius, "Commentaria in Psalmos" 91, PG 23, 1169-1172; cf.
below fn. 112.
......
Eusebius' two basic reasons for the observance of Sunday,
namely, the commemoration of the creation of light and of the
resurrection of the Sun of Justice, 85 are reiterated almost
verbatim by Jerome (ca. A.D.342-420), when he explains: "If it is
called day by the pagans, we most willingly acknowledge it as
such, since it is on this day that the light o f the world has
appeared and on this day the Sun of Justice has risen." 86
In a sermon attributed to Maximus of Turin (d. ca. A.D.
400-423) we find an extreme development. The very designation
"day of the Sun" is viewed as a proleptic announcement of the
resurrection of Christ:
We hold the day of the Lord to be venerable and solemn,
because on it the Savior, like the rising sun conquered the
darkness of the underworld and gleamed in the glory of the
resurrection. This is why the same day was called day of the
Sun by the pagans, because the Sun of Justice once risen
would have illuminated it. 87
These and similar texts where the meaning of and the
motivation for Sunday observance are explicitly interrelated to
the symbology of the day of the Sun, come to us from a later
period when Sunday was already well established. Since these
statements represent later admissions, can they be legitimately
utilized to ascertain the influence of the day of the Sun on the
origin of Sunday observance? We shall answer this ques-
......
85 Note that Justin Martyr, long before Eusebius, alludes to the
same two motivations (though not so explicitly) in his "I Apology
67," see above p.230 and below p.265.
86 Jerome, "In die dominica Paschae homilia" CCL 78, 550, 1, 52;
the same in Augustine, "Contra Faustum" 18,5; in "Sermo" 226, PL
38, 1099, Augustine explains that Sunday is the day of light
because on the first day of creation "God said, 'Let there be
light! And there was light. And God separated the light from
darkness. And God called the light day and the darkness night"
(Gen.1:2-5).
87 Maximus of Turin, "Homilia" 61, PL 57, 371; Gaudentius, Bishop
of Brescia (ca. A.D.400), "Sermo 9, De evangelica lectione" 2, PL
20, 916 and "De Exodo sermo" 1, PL 20, 845, explains that the
Lord's day became first in relationship to the Sabbath, because
on that day the Sun of righteousness has appeared, dispelling the
darkness of the Jews, melting the ice of the pagans and restoring
the world to its primordial order; Eusebius, "Life of
Constantine" 4, 18, NPNF 2nd, 1, p.544, explicitly states: "The
Savior's day which derives its name from light and from the sun";
cf. Hilary of Po"Expositio in Psalmos" 67, 34, PG 27, 303;
Ambrose, "Hexaemeron" 4,2,7; and "Epistula" 44, PL 16, 1138.
......
tion by raising another, namely, is it not possible, as remarked
by F.H.Colson, that "what the Christians of a later epoch wrote
may well have been said and thought by them of the earlier, even
if it was not written"? 88
Let us not forget that prior to the Edict of Milan (A.D.
313) Christians were an illegal minority forced to defend their
beliefs and practices from pagan accusations and influences. Ter-
tullian, we noticed, though he speaks of the day of the Sun which
both Christians and pagans celebrated, avoids using the
sun-symbology to justify the Christian Sunday seemingly for two
reasons: firstly because that would have supported the pagan
accusation that Christians were Sun-worshipers (a charge he
strongly resented); secondly, because he was cognizant of the
influence which pagan festivals still had on the Christians. 89
In his treatise "On Idolatry," for instance, he exclaims:
"How wicked to celebrate them [i.e. pagan feasts] among
brethren." 90
Therefore, any attempt to associate the day of the Sun with
the Christian Sunday, at a time when the latter was still a young
institution, could have been readily misinterpreted by Christians
still susceptible to pagan influences. Besides, this would have
sanctioned existing pagan accusations. A century later, however,
when Sunday observance became well established, the Fathers, at
least some, did not hesitate to designate the Christian Sun as
"the true day of the Sun." 91
This denomination should not be regarded as "a new
apologetic technique," but rather an explicit admission of what
had been an implicit recognition. 92
Is it possible that even the Biblical notion of the sun and
of light predisposed Christians favorably toward the day and the
symbolism of the sun? It is a fact that there existed in Judaism
and in primitive Christianity a rich and long-standing
......
88 F.H.Colson (fn. 20), p.94.
89 See above fns. 48, 58 and 60.
90 Tertullian, "On Idolatry" 14, ANF III, p.70; Martin of Braga,
"De correctione rusticorum," ed. C.W.Barlow, 1950, p.189,
forcefully rebukes Christians, saying: "What madness it is
therefore, that one who has been baptized in the faith of Christ
should not worship on the Lord's day, the day on which Christ
rose from the dead, but says rather that he worships the day of
Jupiter and Mercury ... These have no day but were adulterers and
magicians ... and died in evil."
91 We found this to be true also in the case of Christmas. Only
later were Christians willing to explicitly admit the borrowing
of a pagan festival; see above fn. 72.
92 This point is well made by F.A.Regan, "Dies Dominica," p.157.
......
tradition which viewed the Deity as the True Light and the Sun of
Righteousness. 93 Malachi, for example, predicted that "the Sun
of Righteousness shall arise with healing in his wings" (4:2). 94
Zechariah, the father of John the Baptist, announced the coming
of Christ, saying "the sunrising (Greek) from on high has visited
us, to give light to them that sit in darkness" (Luke 1:78-79).
John, both in his Gospel and in Revelation, repeatedly describes
Christ as "the light of men," "the light shining in darkness," 95
"the true light," 96 "a burning and shining lamp." 97 Even
Christ defined Himself as "the light of the world" 98 and urged
His followers to "believe in the light" in order "to become sons
of light." 99 The book of Revelation closes with the assurance
that in the new earth there will be no need of the sun because
"God will be their light." 100
The existence of two distinct traditions, one
Judaeo-Christian which associated the Deity with the Light and
the Sun, and the other pagan which venerated the Sun, especially
on Sun-day, could well have produced an amalgamation of ideas
within the Christian community. This process could have predis-
osed those Christians who had previously venerated the Sun and
who now needed to differentiate themselves from the Jewish
Sabbath, to adopt the day of the Sun for their weekly worship,
sine its symbology well exprpessed existing Christian views. Such
considerations were possibly encouraged by the valoriza-
......
93 For instance, Justin Martyr, "Dialogue" 121, ANF 1, p.260,
associates Christ with the Sun on the basis of Scriptural texts:
"The word of His truth and wisdom is more ardent and more
light-giving than the rays of the sun ... Hence also the
Scripture said, 'His name shall rise above the sun.' And again
Zechariah says, 'His name is the East.'"
94 Psalm 84:11 applies the title sun to God Himself: "For the
Lord God is a sun and a shield"; Psalm 72:17, alluding to the
Messiah, says "May his name endure forever, his fame continue as
long as the sun"; cf. Isaiah 9:2; 60:1-3, 19-20; Zechariah 3:8.
95 John 1:4-5.
96 John 1:9.
97 John 5:35.
98 John 8:12; cf. 9:4-5.
99 John 12:34.
100 Rev.22:4. In the inaugural vision John describes Christ's
face "like the sun shining in full strength" (Rev.1:16). Note
also that when Christ was transfigured before Peter, James and
John, it is said: "his face shone like the sun, and his garments
became white as light" (Matt.17:2). See F.A.Regan, "Die
Dominica," pp.157-163 for further texts and discussion.
......
tion in the Roman society of the day of the Sun in place of the
prededing day of Saturn. 101
It should be clearly stated, however, that by adopting the
day of the Sun, Christians did not intend to sanction and/or to
encourage the worship of the pagan "Sol invictus" (an insinua-
tion that Tertullian emphatically repudiates), 102 but rather to
commemorate on that day such divine acts as the creation of light
and the resurrection of the Sun of Righteousness. Both events,
they noticed, not only occurred on the day of the Sun, but could
also be effectively proclaimed through the rich symbology of the
sun.
Eusebius well exemplifies this in the passage we cited
earlier, where referring to the day of the Sun he writes, "It is
on this day of the creation of the world that God said. 'Let
there be light and there was light.' It is also on this day that
the Sun of Justice has risen for our souls." 103
In associating the creation of light and the resurrection of
Christ with the day of the Sun, Eusebius was expressing
explicitly what had been implicitly understood by many Christians
for a long time. We notice, for instance, that almost two
centuries earlier, Justin Martyr placed in juxtaposition the
creation of light and the resurrection of Christ with the day of
the Sum. 104 Why? Presumably because all three (creation of
light, resurrection of Christ and the day of the Sun) shared a
common denominator, namely, association with the Sun-Light of the
first day.
How did Christ's resurrection come to be associated with
sunrising? Apparently because, as we noted earlier, there existed
a Judaeo-Christian tradition which described the Deity by means
of the symbolism of the sun. Justin in his "Dialogue with Trypho"
cites several Old Testament passages to prove that Christ is
"more ardent and more light-giving than the rays of the sun." 105
This theme was undoubtedly encouraged by pre-
......
101 E. Lohse, "Greek" TDNT VII, p.29, fn. 228, admits this
possibility: "A contributory factor was undoubtedly the fact that
from the first century B.C., the seven-day week named after the
planets had been increasingly adopted in the Hellenistic-Roman
world. The day of Saturn was generally regarded as an unlucky
day, while Sunday which followed it was a particularly good day."
102 See above fn. 58.
103 Eusebius, "Commentaria in Psalmos" 91, PG 23, 1169-1172.
104 Justin, "I Apology" 67; the passage is quoted and discussed
above, pp.230-231.
105 Justin, "Dialogue" 121, see fn. 93.
......
vailing solar beliefs which Christians found to supply an
effective symbology to proclaim the Christian message. Melito of
Sardis (d. ca. A.D.190), for example, utilizes the common belief
of the daily baptism of the sun and stars in the ocean and of
their daily rising to disperse darkness, 106 to explain the
baptism and resurrection of Christ:
If the sun washes itself with the stars and the moon in the
ocean, why should not Christ have washed himself in the
Jordan? He, the king of the heavens and the chief of
creation, the Sun of the orient, who appeared both to the
dead in Hades and to the mortals in the world! He, the only
Sun who rose from heaven. 107
An earlier indication of the viewing of Christ's
resurrection as the rising of the sun, is provided by Ignatius
(ca.A.D.110) in his "Epistle to the Magnesians." Referring to
what we have concluded to be the Lord's life, he adds, "on [or
by] which also our life arose through him and his death" (9:1).
It has been noted that the Bishop here "uses a verb which is
regularly applied to the rising of the heavenly bodies [Greek]
and not that which is commonly used of the resurrection from the
dead [Greek]." 108 Should we regard this as purely coincidental?
B.Botte replies emphatically that "it is impossible." He then
raises a significant question: "If the resurrection of Christ is
presented by the image of a rising star, is it rash to think that
S.Ignatius intended to allude discreetly to the designation of
the day of the sun which had been given to Sunday?" 109
To conclude that Ignatius was referring to the day of the
Sun when he employed the verb commonly used for sunrising to
describe the resurrection is hazardous. The subject of the
immediate context, as we noticed, is the prophets who obviously
did not observe the day of the Sun. The fact however that
......
106 Macrobius, "Saturnal" 1, 9,9 speaks of the sun as "opening
the day in the orient and closing it in the occident"; Juvenal,
"Satirae" 14,280: "Herculeus heard the roaring sun in the bottom
of the sea" and "The sun roars when it rises as when a red hot
iron is immersed in water."
107 Melito of Sardis, "Fragment" VIIIb, 4, SC 123, p.233; Zeno of
Verona frequently uses solar metaphors to explain Christian
teachings. He compares the baptism of the neophytes to immersion
of the sun in the ocean and the rising of the sun to the immortal
glory promised to the believers (Liber II, 46, PL 11, 503A and
504).
108 F.H.Colson (fn. 20), p.92.
109 B.Botte (fn. 41), p.21.
......
Ignatius views the resurrection of Christ as the sunrising,
suggests the possibility of an early amalgamation of ideas. In
other words, since Sunday was the day of the Sun and since
Christ's resurrection was viewed as the rising of the "Sun of
Justice," it would only take a short step for Christians to
associate the two. In fact, in their search for a day of worship
distinct from that of the Jews, Christians could well have viewed
the day of the Sun as a providential and valid substitution. Its
symbology fittingly coincided with two divine acts which occurred
on that day: the first creation of light and the rising of "the
Sun of the second creation." F.H.Colson rightly points out that
this coincidence could well have been regarded as
a proof that in this pagan institution the Divine Spirit had
been preparing the world for something better. In fact, the
devout convert might well rejoice to be able to put a
Christian construction on what had been a treasured
association of his pagan past. 110
These feelings we noticed are explicitly expressed at a
later date. Maximus of Turin views the pagan day of the Sun as
the prefiguration of the "Sun of Justice" who "once risen would
have illuminated it." 111 Eusebius similarly clearly states that
"the Savior's day ... derives its name from light, and from the
sun." 112 It is true that such bold admissions are not found in
earlier sources, but the earlier unwillingness of the Fathers to
acknowledge explicitly the adoption of the day of the Sun and/or
of its symbology can be satisfactorily explained, as we said
above, by the existing necessity to safeguard a recently
introduced institution. Today, for instance, Christians generally
do not fear to admit that their Christmas celebration (date,
lights, trees, gifts, etc.) derives from the pagan festivity of
the "Natalis Solis Invicti." Why? Undoubtedly because such an
admission would hardly tempt any Christian to commemorate the
birth of the Sun-god rather than that of Christ. For early
Christian converts from paganism however, the situation was
altogether different. Any explicit acknowledgment that pagan
dates and symbols had been borrowed to commemorate Christ's birth
and resurrection could readily have encouraged many Christians to
relapse (as actually happened) into their recently abandoned
......
110 F.H.Colson (fn. 20), p.93.
111 Maximus of Turin, "Homilia" 61, PL 57, 371.
112 Eusebius, "Life of Constantine" 4, 18, NPNF 2nd, I, p.544.
......
pagan practices. It was therefore this danger of "paganizing" a
recently "Christianized" pagan festivity that led the Fathers,
initially at least, to avoid, as a precautionary measure,
establishing an explicit interdependence between the Christian
Sunday and the pagan day of the Sun.
Conclusion.
In this chapter we have found that all the necessary ing-
redients for the day of the Sun to influence the origin of Sunday
observance were already present when the latter made its
appearance.
Various Sun-cults were predominant in ancient Rome by the
early part of the second century. That these attracted the
imagination and interest of Christian converts from paganism, we
found evidenced by the development of the theme of Christ-
the-Sun, and by the adoption of the eastward orientation for
prayer and of the date of the 25th of December. The existence of
a rich Biblical tradition which associated the deity with the Sun
and Light seemingly facilitated, if it did not encourage such an
amalgamation of ideas.
The valorization of the day of the Sun over that of Saturn,
as a result of the diffusion of the Sun-cults, possibly oriented
Christians (who desired to differentiate themselves from the
Sabbath of the Jews) toward such a day. 113 This choice how
ever, it must be stated again, was not motivated by their desire
to venerate the Sun-god on his day, but rather by the fact that
its symbology could fittingly commemorate two important events of
the history of salvation - creation and resurrection "it is on
this day that the Light of the World has appeared and on this day
that the Sun of Justice has risen." 114 Moreover,
......
113 Several scholars support this conclusion: Franz Cumont (fn.
53), p.163, affirms: "The preeminence assigned to the "dies
solis" also certainly contributed to the general recognition of
Sunday as a holiday"; P.Cotton (fn. 72), p.130, similarly notes:
"It cannot be denied that the pagan use of Sun-day has had an
appreciable effect upon Christianity in bringing the Christian
Sun-day into preeminence in the Church as the sole day of
worship"; cf. F.H.Colson (fn. 20), p. VI; O.Cullman (fn. 75)
acknowledges the association between the resurrection and the day
of the Sun by the middle of the second century - "From the middle
of the second century the term 'Sunday' occurs for the former
'Lord's Day' This means that the Christians' thought about the
redemptive act of the resurrection of Christ ... had already
become associated with the symbolism of the sun." Cullmann,
however, fails to prove that the designation "Lord's day" is
prior to that of "Sunday."
114 Jerome, "In die dominica Paschae homilia," CCL 78, 550, 1,
52.
......
the day of the Sun enabled Christians to explain also the
Biblical mysteries to the pagan world by means of an effective
symbology that was very familiar to them.
Our investigation into the origin of Sunday observance has
so far focused on two maior contributory factors.
The first, anti-Judaism, which appears to have caused a
widespread devaluation and repudiation of the Sabbath, thereby
creating the exigency of a new day of worship.
The second, the development of Sun-cults with the consequent
enhancement of the day of the Sun over that of Saturn a
contingency which apparently oriented Christians toward such a
day, since it provided an adequate symbolism to commemorate
significant divine acts. However, no adequate consideration has
yet been given to the theological motivations or Sunday
observance presented in the early Christian literature. Since
these provide additional insights into this complex question of
the origin of Sunday we shall now direct our attention to them
before drawing a final conclusion.
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