Quote:They tied religious significance to the sun for the obvious reasons that life on the planet requires the sun.
Not really.
They used the sun's annual, and daily, cycle of day/night, summer/winter, to show how life goes through periods of growth, life and joy, and periods of stagnation, inertia, decay and death. But everyday as the sun rises, life returns. Every year, on the winter solstice, in springtime, on Easter, the sun is revived, life begins anew.
As a newborn infant grows into adulthood, then inertia kicks in, and the individual begins the slow process of decay and eventual death. Perhaps too, the sun will rise up again for the individual.
The moon's monthly cycle is also used in this manner, going through periods of waxing and waning and waxing again. The symbol of the new moon, exactly like that of the rising sun, is employed to symbolize the victory of life over death. This symbol is the crescent moon, the Muslims symbol of choice.
The moon, also being tied to the female menstrual cycle, also carries extra symbolic meaning, as the blossoming of life in spring adds extra power to the symbolic sun.
In Egypt, where the summer is a scorching, dry, barren period, and the winter is the lush period of growth (due to the flooding of the Nile at this point), they used the daily solar cycle almost exclusively. In Northern European cultures such as Ireland and Scandinavia, where, let me tell you, the difference in heat and cold between night and day is not so marked, they used the annual solar cycle.
In the cosmopolitan Islamic cities, where the people do not rely as much on the sun for their livleihoods as agriculturalists would, and are sheltered somewhat by the weather, they used the lunar cycle. Mesopotamia also shared similar conditions to the Egyptians with regards to the sun, in that the flooding of the two rivers occuring in the Autumn/Winter period rendered the use of the annual solar cycle as a metaphor somewhat useless.
Of course, this why Jesus rose from the grave, at Sunrise, on a Sunday, in Spring. For those who have ears to hear, the message which is being made as obvious as possible here is, Life overcomes Death.
The use of parable to convey spiritual truths has a very long history, and to understand Jesus, and his use of parables, and even his becoming a parable himself, one must understand the contextual framework with which his, and many, many others', teaching is delivered.
Using what we know (the Sun) to communicate what we don't know (Resurrection).
