Where Did Jesus Die? — Page 112
? 112 had been killed by an accidental blow. His three days’ festival was held each year in spring or early summer. On the first day he was mourned as dead; on the second day his resurrection was celebrated with great rejoicings; and on the third day, it seems, that his ascension was commemorated, the sculptures at his tomb showing him ascending to heaven, with his virgin sister, in the company of angels or goddesses. 1 5. Then again, there was the worship of Attis. Attis was the Good Shepherd, the son of Cybele, the Great Mother, alternatively, of the virgin Nana, who conceived him without union with mortal man, as in the story of the Virgin Mary; but in the prime of his manhood he mutilated himself and bled to death at the foot of his sacred pine tree. In Rome the festival of the death and resurrection was annually held from March 22nd to 25th. At this festival a pine tree was felled on March 22nd and to its trunk an effigy of the god was fastened. Attis thus being ‘slain and hanged on a tree’, in the Biblical phrase. This effigy was later buried in a tomb. March 24th was the Day of Blood, whereon the High Priest, who himself impersonated Attis, drew blood of a human sacrifice, thus, as it were, sacrific- ing himself. It recalls to mind the words in the Epistles of the Hebrews: ‘Christ being come an High Priest. . . neither by the blood of goats and calves, but by his own blood. . . obtained eter- nal redemption for us. ’ 1. do. p. 155