Freethought Nation

Early Church Father Tertullian (160-220 C.E.), an "ex-Pagan" and Bishop of Carthage...

...ironically admits the true origins of the Christ story and of all other such godmen by stating in refutation of his critics, "You say we worship the sun; so do you."

- "Christ Conspiracy" 158

"...It should be kept in mind that the author had no assistance with this book, as she researched, wrote, typed, edited, proofread, typeset and did the illustrations and cover design and execution by herself. All of this work was done without any funding..."
http://www.truthbeknown.com/christconerrata.htm

"... Others, again, certainly with more information and greater verisimilitude, believe that the sun is our god. We shall be counted Persians perhaps, though we do not worship the orb of day painted on a piece of linen cloth, having himself everywhere in his own disk. The idea no doubt has originated from our being known to turn to the east in prayer. But you, many of you, also under pretence sometimes of worshipping the heavenly bodies, move your lips in the direction of the sunrise. In the same way, if we devote Sun-day to rejoicing, from a far different reason than Sun-worship, we have some resemblance to those of you who devote the day of Saturn to ease and luxury, though they too go far away from Jewish ways, of which indeed they are ignorant...."

- Catholic Enc. Tertullian
http://www.newadvent.org/fathers/0301.htm

"...in his Apology (16), Tertullian raises the subject of Roman gods in the shape of a cross or in cruciform: We have shown before that your deities are derived from shapes modelled from the cross. But you also worship victories, for in your trophies the cross is the heart of the trophy. The camp religion of the Romans is all through a worship of the standards, a setting the standards above all gods. Well, as those images decking out the standards are ornaments of crosses. All those hangings of your standards and banners are robes of crosses.3 Hence, Tertullian attested that the Romans bore images of not only a man but also gods on crosses, that they additionally possessed gods themselves in cruciform and that these images were objects of worship...."

"In its article on Tertullian, the Catholic Encyclopedia paraphrases the pertinent parts of the Church father's work thus:

"…your gods are images made on a cross framework, so you worship crosses. You say we worship the sun; so do you."

- Who Was Jesus? Fingerprints of The Christ (WWJ) (243-4)

"A few of the more refined of you think we worship the sun. Again, that is your practise[sic], not ours."

- Tertullian
http://www.tertullian.org/works/apologeticum.htm

Chapter XIII - The Charge of Worshipping the Sun Met by a Retort

"Others, with greater regard to good manners, it must be confessed, suppose that the sun is the god of the Christians, because it is a well-known fact that we pray towards the east, or because we make Sunday a day of festivity. What then? Do you do less than this? Do not many among you, with an affectation of sometimes worshipping the heavenly bodies likewise, move your lips in the direction of the sunrise? It is you, at all events, who have even admitted the sun into the calendar of the week; and you have selected its day,215 in preference to the preceding day216 as the most suitable in the week217 for either an entire abstinence from the bath, or for its postponement until the evening, or for taking rest and for banqueting. By resorting to these customs, you deliberately deviate from your own religious rites to those of strangers. For the Jewish feasts on the Sabbath and "the Purification,"218 and Jewish also are the ceremonies of the lamps,219 and the fasts of unleavened bread, and the "littoral prayers,"220 all which institutions and practices are of course foreign from your gods. Wherefore, that I may return from this digression, you who reproach us with the sun and Sunday should consider your proximity to us. We are not far off from your Saturn and your days of rest."
http://www.tertullian.org/anf/anf03/anf ... 457_561810

Moving on ...

Tertullian's Apology & Ad Nationes

A snippet of Ch. 16 of Tertullian's Apology:

There were some fathers of the church who have defended the mythological figure of the god Serapis, arriving to say that Serapis was none other than 'our' Joseph (the biblical character son of Jacob, sold by his brothers to egyptian merchants). Is it resulting all this to you?

Greetings

Littlejohn

Interesting. Would you happen to have a link for further reading on this?

I've never heard this particular link to Serapis, but ...

I have read the quote from the Emperor Hadrian(contemporary with the Apostolic Fathers), in which he said he witnessed Egyptian Christians worshipping Serapis and referred to him as the same as Christ, etc.

Right, well, I've read the quote out of the Historia, it is available on google books, or at least, it was when I read several months ago.

7 Saturninus17 was a Gaul by birth, one of a nation that is ever most restless and always desirous of creating either an emperor or an empire.18

2 To this man, above all the other generals, because it seemed certain that he was truly the greatest, Aurelian had p399given the command of the Eastern frontier, wisely charging him never to visit Egypt.19

3 For, as we see, this far-sighted man was well acquainted with the Gallic character and feared that if Saturninus visited this turbulent land he might be drawn by association with the inhabitants to a course toward which he was by nature inclined.

4 For the Egyptians, as you know well enough, are puffed up, madmen,20 boastful, doers of injury, and, in fact, liars and without restraint, always craving something new, even in their popular songs, writers of verse, makers of epigrams, astrologers, soothsayers, quacksalvers.

5 Among them, indeed, are Christians and Samaritans and those who are always ill-pleased by the present, though enjoying unbounded liberty.

6 But, lest any Egyptian be angry with me, thinking that what I have set forth in writing is solely my own, I will cite one of Hadrian's letters, taken from the works of his freedman Phlegon,21 which fully reveals the character of the Egyptians.

8 From Hadrian Augustus to Servianus22 the consul, greeting. The land of Egypt, the praises of which you have been recounting to me, my dear Servianus, I have found to be wholly light-minded, unstable, and blown about by every breath of rumour. 2 There those who worship Serapis are, in fact, Christians, and those who call themselves bishops of Christ are, in fact, devotees of Serapis. 3 There is no chief of the Jewish synagogue, no Samaritan, no Christian presbyter, who is not an astrologer, a soothsayer, or an anointer. 4 Even the Patriarch himself, when he comes to Egypt, is forced by some to worship Serapis, p401by others to worship Christ. 5 They are a folk most seditious, most deceitful, most given to injury; but their city is prosperous, rich, and fruitful, and in it no one is idle. 6 Some are blowers of glass, others makers of paper, all are at least weavers of linen23 or seem to belong to one craft or another; the lame have their occupations, the eunuchs have theirs, the blind have theirs, and not even those whose hands are crippled are idle. 7 Their only god is money, and this the Christians, the Jews, and, in fact, all nations adore. And would that this city had a better character, for indeed it is worthy by reason of its richness and by reason of its size to hold the chief place in the whole of Egypt. 8 I granted it every favour, I restored to it all its ancient rights and bestowed on it new ones besides, so that the people gave thanks to me while I was present among them. Then, no sooner had I departed thence than they said many things against my son Verus,24 and what they said about Antinous25 I believe you have learned. 9 I can only wish for them that they may live on their own chickens, which they breed in a fashion I am ashamed to describe.26 10 I am sending you over some cups, changing colour27 and variegated, presented to me by the priest of a temple and now dedicated particularly to you and my sister. I should like you to use them at banquets on feast-days. Take good care, however, that our dear Africanus28 does not use them too freely."

9 So then, holding such an opinion about the p403Egyptians Aurelian forbade Saturninus to visit Egypt, showing a wisdom that was truly divine. ...

However, I was not yet aware that it is considered a 4th century forgery. Well, that's a bit of a shame.

So since the objective of the rumor appears to be for the defamation of these particular Egyptian Christians, do you think there is any truth to the rumor at all, in spite of it not having originated with Hadrian?