Tammuz

Manetho apud Plutarc. de Iside & Oside.TAMMUZ, or Thamus, a Pagan Deity, which is thought to be the same as Adonis. It is mentioned in Ezekiel¹; Mulieres plangentes Adonidem; the Hebrew says, plangentes Tammuz. The Rabbi David Kimchi says, that Thammuz was an Idol of Brass, whose Eyes the Pagans used to fill with Lead; then making a Fire in the hollow parts of the Idol, the Lead would melt, and the Image seem to shed Tears. Other Rabbins think that Tammuz was an idolatrous Prophet, who had made an Image of the Sun, all of Gold, which was suspended between Heaven and Earth: And that the King of Babylon having put this Prophet to death, all the Idols of the Country assembled themselves together to bewail his Death, before this Image of the Sun now mentioned; which gave occasion to the observation of a Feast, which was kept at the beginning of the Month Thammus, on which they lamented the Death of the Prophet of this Name. Other Jews say that Thammuz was an Animal, to which the Heathens paid divine Honours. All these are mere Inventions, produced by the fruitful Imaginations of the Rabbins.

St. Jerom has render’d Tammuz by Adonis; and there is great probability that this is the true Signification of it. The Word Ammuz, which is the same as Tammuz, signifies abstruse or concealed. The manner of Construction of the Hebrew Text of Ezekiel gives reason to judge, that Tammuz is put in an appellative Sense. But nothing can agree better with Adonis than the Epithet secret, or hidden, whether we consider that Secresy and Obscurity in which his Mysteries were involved, or the Condition in which he was represented during his Festival. He was put into a Coffin, and lamented over as if dead. Moses in some places calls him The Dead, by way of Levit. xix. 27, 28. Deut. xiv. 1. See also Psal. cvi. 28.Derision. Lastly, the Circumstance of Women bewailing Tammuz has determined the greatest part of Commentators to explain these Passages of Ezekiel by the Feasts of Adonis. See his Title.

‘Tis thought that the Israelitish Women who bewailed Tammuz in Ezek. viii. 15. had for the Object of their false Worship the same Sun as was adored by the Men in the same place of Ezek. ver. 15, 16. Thou shalt see greater abominations than these. And he brought me into the inner Court of the Lords house, and behold, at the door of the temple of the Lord, between the porch and the altar, were about five and twenty Men, with their backs toward the temple of the Lord, and their faces toward the east, and they worshipped the Sun toward the east.

This is not at all inconsistent with their Opinion who take Tammuz for Adonis, because in the Pagan Theology Adonis was the Sun also.

Those learned Men who have most studied profane Antiquity, as it has any relation to Scripture, think they can trace out in Tammuz the Patriarchs Ham, Joseph, and Moses. They that would have Tammuz and Ham to be the same Person, found their Opinion upon a Similitude of Names, and upon the Worship that was common to Ham and Tammuz in Egypt. Those that maintain Tammuz to be Joseph, observe that Tammuz or Adonis is a Symbol of the Sun as well as Apis and Osiris; and as Apis represented the Patriarch Joseph, Adonis, or Tammuz, might also represent him. But these are weak Reasons, and idle Conjectures. See Vossius de Idolat. l. 1. c. 29. p. 112.

Huetius Demonst. Evang. propos. 4. c. 3, 4.Mr. Huet, the ancient Bishop of Auranch, thinks that Tammuz was Moses. He supposes that the King of Egypt, under whom Moses was born, was called Tammuz or Thermosis; that his Daughter Thermuthis, when she preserved Moses, gave him her Father’s Name, and called him Tammuz. He goes on with the pretended Characters of Resemblance between Moses and Adonis: But all this is so little certain, that it deserves no Consideration. The Pagan Religion was the Result of the Fancy and Imagination, of the Disorders and Irregularities of the Heart of Man; ‘tis only imposing upon ourselves to seek for any rational System in it. The Systems of the Pagan Theology were invented to serve a Turn afterward, and very late; and to endeavour to hide the Shame, the Vanity, and the Extravagance of it.

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