Where Did Jesus Die? — Page 113
Chapter Nine—Paganism and Paul 113 That night the priests went to the tomb and found it illuminated from within, and it was then discovered to be empty the god having risen on the third day from the dead, and on the 25th the resurrection was celebrated with great rejoicings, a sacramental meal of some kind being taken, and initiates being baptised with blood whereby their sins were washed away and they were said to be born again. 1 6. The central idea in the worship of Adonis was the death and resurrection of this god: he was killed by a boar, but the boar was an incarnation of himself, and thus the god was both exe- cutioner and victim, an idea propounded in the Epistle to the Hebrews wherein Christ is described as high Priest, who to put away sin, sacrificed Himself. Similarly Mithra sacrificed a bull, but this bull, again, was himself; a goat and a bull were sacrificed to Dionysos, but they were themselves aspects of that god; a bear was sacrificed to Artemis, but this bear, like- wise was Artemis herself; and so forth. Thus the idea of a god atoning to himself for the sins of mankind by his own sacri- fice was widespread; and human sacrifices in general directly or indirectly symbolising the beneficial deaths of gods, were matters of ordinary thought and conversation. Tertullian says that children were sacrificed to Saturn as late as the procon- sulship of Tiberius. Dion Cassius speaks of the sacrifice of the two soldiers to Mars in the time of Julius Caesar, and other 1. do. p. 116–117