The New Oxford Annotated Bible with Apocrypha: New Revised Standard Version

by Pheme Perkins

Tammuz,

'The “women weeping for Tammuz” at the north gate of the Jewish temple (Ezekiel 8: 14) we now know were weeping because Inanna had condemned him to Hell, after herself being crucified and resurrected. Some Christians knew of the cult, too. The Apostolic Constitutions (c. 250 A.D.) mention the cult of Tammuz and Astarte (a common transliteration of Ishtar) as among the heresies of the early Jews. Origen and Hippolytus give important testimonies around the same time (c. 225 A.D.). Origen discusses Tammuz (whom he associates with Adonis) in his Comments on Ezekiel (Selecta in Ezechielem), noting that “they say that for a long time certain rites of initiation are conducted : first, that they weep for him, since he has died; second, that they rejoice for him because he has risen from the dead (apo nekrôn anastanti).” Although the Sumerian records are incomplete, and thus do not preserve an account of the resurrection of Tammuz. Even so, my point is not that the Christians got the idea of a crucified god from early Inanna cult. There may have been some direct or indirect influence we cannot trace. We can’t rule that out— the idea of worshipping a crucified deity did predate Christianity and had entered Jewish society in pre-Christian Palestine. But we don’t know any more than that. ' Richard Carrier Phd