Difference between revisions of "Tammuz"

<p> From '''''Tamzuwz''''' , "melted down," referring to the river [[Adonis]] fed by the melted snows of Lebanon, also to the sun's decreasing heat in winter, and to Venus' melting lamentations for Adonis. [[Tammuz]] was the [[Syrian]] Adonis (Jerome), Venus' paramour, killed by a wild boar, and according to mythology permitted to spend half the year on earth and obliged to spend the other half in the lower world. An annual feast was kept to him in June (Tammuz in the [[Jewish]] calendar) at Byblos, when the Syrian women tore off their hair in wild grief, and yielded their persons to prostitution, consecrating the hire of their infamy to Venus; next followed days of rejoicing for his return to the earth. The idea fabled was spring's beauties and the river's waters destroyed by summer heat ''(The River Adonis Or Nahr Ibrahim In Spring Becomes Discolored With The [[Heavy]] Rains [[Swelling]] The Streams From Lebanon, Which Discoloration [[Superstition]] [[Attributed]] To Tammuz' Blood)'' ; or else the earth clothed with beauty in the half year while the sun is in the upper hemisphere, and losing it when he descends to the lower (&nbsp;Ezekiel 8:14). </p> <p> Instead of" weeping for Tammuz," the idol of beauty and licentiousness, the women ought to have wept for the national sins. [[Christian]] women, instead of weeping over fictitious tales of morbid love and carnal sorrows, ought to consecrate their fine sensibilities to the active promotion of the glory of Him who is altogether lovely, and whose bitter and unmerited sufferings should call forth our tears of grateful and glowing love. [[Imitate]] Mary who, when all others were gone, stood at the crucified Lord's sepulchre weeping, and so had her tears dried up by the risen [[Saviour]] Himself (&nbsp;John 20:11-16). Isis' relation to [[Osiris]] in Egypt was the same as that of [[Venus]] to Adonis. Adoni means my lord, like Baali. [[Constantine]] suppressed the worship for its profligacy. </p>

<p> <strong> TAMMUZ </strong> (&nbsp; Ezekiel 8:14 ) was a [[Babylonian]] god whose worship spread into PhÅ“nicia. The name appears to be Sumerian, <em> Dumuzi, Tamuzu </em> , and may mean ‘son of life.’ He was a form of the Sun-god and bridegroom of Ishtar. He was celebrated as a shepherd, cut off in early life or slain by the boar (winter). [[Ishtar]] descended to [[Hades]] to bring him back to life. He was mourned on the second of the month Tammuz (June). His [[Canaanite]] name <em> [[Adonai]] </em> gave rise to the Greek <strong> Adonis </strong> , and he was later identified with the [[Egyptian]] Osiris. In &nbsp; Amos 8:10 and &nbsp; Zechariah 12:10 the mourning for ‘the only son’ may be a reference to this annual mourning, and the words of the refrain, ‘Ah me, ah me l’ (&nbsp; Jeremiah 22:18 ) may be recalled. </p> <p> C. H. W. Johns. </p>

<p> '''Tam'muz.''' ''(Sprout Of Life).'' Properly "the Tammuz," the article indicating that, at some time or other, the word had been regarded as an appellative. &nbsp;Ezekiel 8:14. [[Jerome]] identifies Tammuz with Adonis, of [[Grecian]] mythology, who was fabled to have lost his wife while hunting, by a wound from the tusk of a wild boar. </p> <p> He was greatly beloved by the goddess Venus, who was inconsolable at his loss. His blood, according to Ovid, produced the anemone, but, according to others, the adonium, while the anemone sprang from the tears of Venus. A festival in honor of Adonis was celebrated at [[Byblus]] in Phoenicia, and in most of the Grecian cities, and even by the Jews, when they degenerated into idolatry. It took place in July, and was accompanied by obscene rites. </p>

<p> A Syrian idol, mentioned in &nbsp;Ezekiel 8:14 , where the women are represented as weeping for it. It is generally supposed that Tammuz was the same deity as the Phoenician Adonis, and perhaps the Egyptian Osiris. The fabled death and restoration of Adonis, supposed to symbolize the departure and return of the sun, were celebrated at the summer solstice first with lamentation, and then with rejoicing and obscene revels. </p>

<p> '''(1):''' ''' (''' n.) A deity among the ancient Syrians, in honor of whom the [[Hebrew]] idolatresses held an annual lamentation. This deity has been conjectured to be the same with the Phoenician Adon, or Adonis. </p> <p> '''(2):''' ''' (''' n.) The fourth month of the Jewish ecclesiastical year, - supposed to correspond nearly with our month of July. </p>

<p> A Phoenician idol, supposed by some to be the same as the Greek <i> Adonis, </i> as in the Vulgate. The prophet saw women weeping for 'the Tammuz,' who according to tradition had been slain. &nbsp;Ezekiel 8:14 . </p>

<p> ''''' tam´uz ''''' , ''''' tam´mōōz ''''' ( תּמּוּז , <i> ''''' tammūz ''''' </i> ; Θαμμούζ , <i> ''''' Thammoúz ''''' </i> ): </p> <p> (1) The name of a Phoenician deity, the Adonis of the Greeks. He was originally a Sumerian or Babylonian sun-god, called Dumuzu, the husband of Ishtar, who corresponds to Aphrodite of the Greeks. The worship of these deities was introduced into Syria in very early times under the designation of Tammuz and Astarte, and appears among the [[Greeks]] in the myth of Adonis and Aphrodite, who are identified with Osiris and [[Isis]] of the Egyptian pantheon, showing how widespread the cult became. The Babylonian myth represents Dumuzu, or Tammuz, as a beautiful shepherd slain by a wild boar, the symbol of winter. Ishtar long mourned for him and descended into the underworld to deliver him from the embrace of death (Frazer, <i> Adonis, Attis and Osiris </i> ). This mourning for Tammuz was celebrated in [[Babylonia]] by women on the 2nd day of the 4th month, which thus acquired the name of Tammuz (see [[Calendar]] ). This custom of weeping for Tammuz is referred to in the Bible in the only passage where the name occurs (&nbsp;Ezekiel 8:14 ). The chief seat of the cult in Syria was [[Gebal]] (modern <i> ''''' Gebail ''''' </i> , Greek <i> ''''' Bublos ''''' </i> ) in Phoenicia, to the South of which the river Adonis ( <i> ''''' Nahr ''''' </i> <i> ''''' Ibrahı̂m ''''' </i> ) has its mouth, and its source is the magnificent fountain of Apheca (modern <i> ''''' ‛Afḳa ''''' </i> ), where was the celebrated temple of Venus or Aphrodite, the ruins of which still exist. The women of Gebal used to repair to this temple in midsummer to celebrate the death of Adonis or Tammuz, and there arose in connection with this celebration those licentious rites which rendered the cult so infamous that it was suppressed by Constantine the Great. </p> <p> The name Adonis, by which this deity was known to the Greeks, is none other than the Phoenician אדון , <i> ''''' 'Ādhōn ''''' </i> , which is the same in Hebrew. His death is supposed to typify the long, dry summer of Syria and Palestine, when vegetation perishes, and his return to life the rainy season when the parched earth is revivified and is covered with luxuriant vegetation, or his death symbolizes the cold, rough winter, the boar of the myth, and his return the verdant spring. </p> <p> [[Considering]] the disgraceful and licentious rites with which the cult was celebrated, it is no wonder that Ezekiel should have taken the vision of the women weeping for Tammuz in the temple as one of the greatest abominations that could defile the Holy House. See Adonis . </p> <p> (2) The fourth month of the Jewish year, corresponding to July. The name is derived from that of a Syrian god, identified with Adonis (&nbsp;Ezekiel 8:14 ). See above, and [[Calendar]] . </p>

<p> A god mentioned in Ezekiel, generally identified with the Greek Adonis ( <i> q. v </i> .), the memory of whose fall was annually celebrated with expressions first of mourning and then of joy all over Asia Minor. Adonis appears to have been a symbol of the sun, departing in winter and returning as youthful as ever in spring, and the worship of him a combined expression of gloom, connected with the presence of winter, and of joy, associated with the approach of summer. </p>

<p> See, in addition to the above literature, and that cited under ADONIS, Simonis, De Significatione [[Thammuz]] (Hal. 1744); Meursii Adonia, in Gronov. Thesaur. 7:208 sq.; Mercersb. Review, Jan. 1860; Christian Remembrancer, April, 1861. </p>