Editing Solar deity (section)

=== Christianity ===
The comparison of Christ with the astronomical [[Sun]] is common in ancient Christian writings.<ref>Hartmut Miethe, Hilde Heyduck-Huth, ''Jesus'' (Taylor & Francis), p. 104</ref> By "the sun of righteousness" in [[Malachi 4]]<ref>{{Bibleverse||Malachi|4:2|ESV}}</ref> "the [[Church Fathers|fathers]], from [[Justin Martyr|Justin]] downward, and nearly all the earlier commentators understand ''Christ'', who is supposed to be described as the rising sun".<ref>Carl Friedrich Keil, ''Biblical Commentary on the Old Testament'' (Eerdmans 1969), vol. 25, p. 468;</ref> The [[New Testament]] itself contains a hymn fragment in [[Ephesians 5]]: "Awake, O sleeper, and arise from the dead, and Christ will shine on you."<ref>{{Bibleverse||Ephesians|5:14|ESV}}</ref> [[Clement of Alexandria]] wrote of "the Sun of the Resurrection, he who was born before the dawn, whose beams give light".<ref>Clement of Alexandria, ''Protreptius'' 9:84, quoted in David R. Cartlidge, James Keith Elliott, ''The Art of Christian Legend'' (Routledge 2001 {{ISBN|978-0-41523392-7}}), p. 64</ref>

[[File:Horus Jesus.png|thumb|left|[[Horus]] left and Jesus right, both presented as "solar messiahs" in ''Zeitgeist: the Movie'']]

The pseudodocumentary ''[[Zeitgeist (film series)|Zeitgeist: The Movie]]'' (2007) asserts that [[Judas Iscariot]] is an [[allegory]] of [[Scorpius|Scorpio]] (with Jesus being a [[personification]] of the [[sun]] passing through the twelve constellations).<ref>{{cite journal |last=McKnight |first=Scot |authorlink=Scot McKnight |title=Jesus and the Twelve |journal=Bulletin for Biblical Research |volume=11 |number=2 |year=2001 |pages=203–231 |doi=10.2307/26422271 |jstor=26422271 |url=http://www.ibr-bbr.org/files/bbr/BBR_2001b_04_McKnight_JesusTwelve.pdf |access-date=11 September 2017 |archive-date=18 March 2016 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160318111227/https://www.ibr-bbr.org/files/bbr/BBR_2001b_04_McKnight_JesusTwelve.pdf |url-status=dead }}</ref> When the sun transits Scorpio, [[Judas]] schemes with the [[Sanhedrin]] to [[arrest of Jesus|arrest Jesus]] [[Kiss of Judas|by kissing him]].<ref>{{cite web |title=Gospel Zodiac |website=The Unspoken Bible |url=http://www.usbible.com/Astrology/gospel_zodiac.htm |accessdate=11 September 2017}}</ref> In the metaphorical sense, as the sun exited [[Libra (constellation)|Libra]] in late autumn it enters Scorpio to be "kissed" by its stinger, which signifies the sun getting weaker as winter approaches.<ref>{{cite web |author=Acharya S/D.M. Murdock |year=2011 |title=Origins of Christianity |publisher= Stellar House Publishing |url=http://www.stellarhousepublishing.com/originsofchristianity.pdf |accessdate=11 September 2017}}</ref><ref>Nicholas Campion, The Book of World Horoscopes, The Wessex Astrologer, 1999, p. 489 clearly refers to both conventions adopted by many astrologers basing the Ages on either the zodiacal constellations or the sidereal signs.</ref><ref>{{cite book |first=Jim |last=Tester |title=A History of Western Astrology |publisher=Boydell Press |location=Suffolk, UK |year=1999}}</ref> The three days after 21 December are the darkest as the sun is low in the sky, under [[Sagittarius (astrology)|Sagittarius]]'s arrow, and therefore it is allegorized that, at this time, Jesus (the sun) dies for three days.<ref>{{cite web |last=Elie |first=Benedict |title= Aquarius Pisces Age | publisher=Astro Software | url=http://www.astrosoftware.com/AquariusPiscesAge.htm | accessdate=11 September 2017}}</ref> After 25 December, the Sun moves 1 degree north, which indicate longer days or [[Resurrection of Jesus|Jesus's resurrection]].<ref>{{cite book |last=Declercq |first=Georges |title=Anno Domini: The Origins of the Christian Era |publisher=Turnhout |location=Belgium |year=2000 |series=Brepols Essays in European Culture |isbn=9782503510507}}</ref>

American theosophist [[Alvin Boyd Kuhn]] had postulated that Jesus or the [[Abrahamic God]] is a sun god, with other figures in the [[Old Testament]] such as [[Samson]] (whose name means "sun" in Hebrew), [[King David]], [[Solomon]], [[Saul]] (meaning soul, or sol, the sun), [[Abraham]], [[Moses]], [[Gideon]] and [[Jephtha]] also being solar allegories. To corroborate his argument about God being a solar deity, Kuhn cites the [[Book of Psalms|Psalm's]] verses such as, "Our God is a living fire," "Our God is a consuming fire", "The Lord God is a sun", in addition to Jesus's "Christ will shine upon thee!", "I am come to send fire on earth" and "I am the light of the world".<ref>{{cite web |last=Kuhn |first=Alvin Boyd |year=1996 |title=The Great Myth of the SUN-GODS |publisher=Mountain Man Graphics, Australia | url=http://www.mountainman.com.au/ab_kuhn.html| accessdate=11 September 2017}} This is a reprint; Kuhn died in 1963.</ref>

==== Christianization of ''Natalis Invicti'' ====
{{main|Christmas#History of religions hypothesis}}
[[File:ChristAsSol.jpg|thumb|Mosaic of Christ as [[Sun|Sol]] or [[Helios|Apollo-Helios]] in Mausoleum M in the [[Vatican Necropolis|pre-4th-century necropolis]] beneath<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.saintpetersbasilica.org/Necropolis/Scavi.htm|title=The Vatican Necropolis - Scavi Tomb of St Peter|website=www.saintpetersbasilica.org|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20071109120942/http://www.saintpetersbasilica.org/Necropolis/Scavi.htm |archive-date=9 November 2007 |url-status=usurped}}</ref> [[St Peter's Basilica|St. Peter's in the Vatican]], which some interpret as representing Christ.]]
According to one hypothesis about Christmas, the date was set to 25 December because it was the date of the festival of [[Sol Invictus]]. The idea became popular especially in the 18th<ref>Sir [[Edward Burnett Tylor]], ''Researches Into the Development of Mythology, Philosophy, Religion, Art, and Custom, Volume 2'', p. 270; John Murray, London, 1871; revised edition 1889.</ref><ref>Philip Schaff, ''History of the Christian Church, Volume 3,'' 1885, T and T Clark, Edinburgh, page 396; see also Volume 4 in the 3rd edition, 1910 (Charles Scribner's Sons, NY).</ref> and 19th centuries.<ref>{{cite web |url=https://melkite.org/tag/feast-of-the-annunciation |title=The Day God Took Flesh |date=25 March 2012 |website=Melkite Eparchy of Newton of the Melkite Greek Catholic Church}}</ref><ref>{{cite Catholic Encyclopedia|last=Martindale |first=Cyril |wstitle=Christmas }}</ref>

The [[Chronography of 354|Philocalian calendar]] of AD 354 marks a festival of ''[[Sol Invictus#Festival of Dies Natalis Solis Invicti|Natalis Invicti]]'' on 25 December. There is limited evidence that the festival was celebrated at around the time before the mid-4th century.<ref>Wallraff 2001: 174–177. Hoey (1939: 480) writes: "An inscription of unique interest from the reign of Licinius embodies the official prescription for the annual celebration by his army of a festival of Sol Invictus on December 19". The inscription (Dessau, ''[[Inscriptiones Latinae Selectae]]'' 8940) actually prescribes an annual offering to Sol on ''November'' 18 (die XIV Kal(endis) Decemb(ribus), i.e. on the fourteenth day before the Kalends of December).</ref><ref>Text at [http://www.tertullian.org/fathers/index.htm#Chronography_of_354] Parts 6 and 12 respectively.</ref>

The earliest-known example of the idea that Christians chose to celebrate the birth of [[Jesus]] on 25 December because it was the date of an already existing festival of the Sol Invictus was expressed in an annotation to a manuscript of a work by 12th-century Syrian bishop [[Jacob Bar-Salibi]]. The scribe who added it wrote: "It was a custom of the Pagans to celebrate on the same 25 December the birthday of the Sun, at which they kindled lights in token of festivity. In these solemnities and revelries the Christians also took part. Accordingly when the doctors of the Church perceived that the Christians had a leaning to this festival, they took counsel and resolved that the true Nativity should be solemnized on that day."<ref>(cited in ''Christianity and Paganism in the Fourth to Eighth Centuries'', [[Ramsay MacMullen]]. Yale:1997, p. 155)</ref><ref>{{cite web|url=https://melkite.org/tag/feast-of-the-annunciation|title=» Feast of the Annunciation|website=melkite.org}}</ref><ref>[http://www.newadvent.org/cathen/03724b.htm 1908 Catholic Encyclopedia: Christmas]: ''Natalis Invicti''</ref>

==== Christian iconography ====
The charioteer in the [[mosaic]] of Mausoleum M has been interpreted by some as Christ by those who argue that Christians adopted the image of the Sun ([[Helios]] or Sol Invictus) to represent Christ. In this portrayal, he is a beardless figure with a flowing cloak in a chariot drawn by four white horses, as in the mosaic in Mausoleum M discovered under [[Saint Peter's Basilica]] and in an early-4th-century catacomb fresco.<ref name="Weitzmann-1979">{{cite book |first=Kurt |last=Weitzmann |title=Age of Spirituality |url=https://archive.org/details/agespiritualityl00artm |url-access=limited |location=Metropolitan Museum of Art |date=1979 |isbn= 978-0-87099179-0 |page=[https://archive.org/details/agespiritualityl00artm/page/n570 522]}}</ref> The [[Halo (religious iconography)|nimbus]] of the figure under Saint Peter's Basilica is rayed, as in traditional pre-Christian representations.<ref name="Weitzmann-1979"/> [[Clement of Alexandria]] had spoken of Christ driving his chariot across the sky.<ref>{{cite book |first=Matilda |last=Webb |title=The Churches and Catacombs of Early Christian Rome |publisher=Sussex Academic Press |year=2001 |isbn=978-1-90221058-2 |page=18}}</ref> This interpretation is doubted by others: "Only the ''cross-shaped'' nimbus makes the Christian significance apparent".<ref>{{cite book |first=Martin |last=Kemp |title=The Oxford History of Western Art |publisher=Oxford University Press |year=2000 |isbn=978-0-19860012-1 |page=70}}, emphasis added</ref> and the figure is seen by some simply as a representation of the sun with no explicit religious reference whatever, [[Paganism|pagan]] or Christian.{{sfn|Hijmans|2009|p=567-578}}