# What does the Christian tradition, and other monotheistic religions, have to say about the Sun? **URL:** \ **Category:** Factual Questions\ **Created:** [April 3, 2018, 6:26pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-does-the-christian-tradition-and-other-monotheistic-religions-have-to-say-about-the-sun/811737 "2018-04-03T18:26:42Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![Walken\_After\_Midnight](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/b487fb/32.png) [@Walken\_After\_Midnight](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Walken_After_Midnight)\ **Post date:** [April 3, 2018, 6:26pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-does-the-christian-tradition-and-other-monotheistic-religions-have-to-say-about-the-sun/811737/1 "2018-04-03T18:26:42Z")
The Sun is pretty magical, and demonstrably so. It gives life to plants, something that ancient agriculturalists would presumably have understood when plants in shaded areas grew less well or not at all. It’s awesomely powerful and will blind those that gaze upon it. It’s therefore no surprise that it features prominently in the earliest religions, through solar deities and so on. What do more recent religions, such as Christianity and other monotheistic religions, have to say about the Sun (and Moon)? ---
**Author:** ![Nava](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/da6949/32.png) [@Nava](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Nava)\ **Post date:** [April 3, 2018, 6:45pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-does-the-christian-tradition-and-other-monotheistic-religions-have-to-say-about-the-sun/811737/2 "2018-04-03T18:45:14Z")
Those from the judeic tradition, that it’s a star. Back before astronomers figured out stars were very distant suns, that it was this big fire ball hanging in the sky. There are/have been monotheistic religions which considered the sun their god, but they’re completely different. For example, that was what Akenathen (spelling varies) tried to replace Egyptian polytheism with; note “tried”. ---
**Author:** ![Chronos](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/chronos/32/134_2.png) [@Chronos](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Chronos)\ **Post date:** [April 3, 2018, 6:45pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-does-the-christian-tradition-and-other-monotheistic-religions-have-to-say-about-the-sun/811737/3 "2018-04-03T18:45:17Z")
It’s a bright light in the sky created by God. No, really, that’s pretty much it. There are also a few passages to reinforce that God is superior to the Sun, and a few uses of the Sun in what are clearly metaphors. And obviously it makes some completely mundane appearances, just to establish times of day and the like. But nothing about its nature, or mystical significance, or anything like that. ---
**Author:** ![Shodan](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/9f8e36/32.png) [@Shodan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Shodan)\ **Post date:** [April 3, 2018, 6:45pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-does-the-christian-tradition-and-other-monotheistic-religions-have-to-say-about-the-sun/811737/4 "2018-04-03T18:45:18Z")
There is a passage in Job, chapter 31, verses 26-28, in which Job is talking about the sins he has not committed - > [@](#): > > if I have regarded the sun in its radiance > or the moon moving in splendor, > > so that my heart was secretly enticed > and my hand offered them a kiss of homage, > > then these also would be sins to be judged, > for I would have been unfaithful to God on high. So worship of the Sun and moon were big no-noes in the Jewish tradition. Christianity and Islam are the same - no worship of anything but God. There is some semi-speculation that the Arabic word for God - Allah - is derived from, or first applied to, an earlier moon god, but that is very far from saying that Muslims worship the moon. They don’t, any more than Christians worship the sun because some people think the cross is a solar symbol. The monotheistic religions, at least the Abrahamic ones, firmly distinguish between the sun as a creation of God, and God Himself. Regards, Shodan ---
**Author:** ![Darren\_Garrison](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/darren_garrison/32/92_2.png) [@Darren\_Garrison](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Darren_Garrison)\ **Post date:** [April 3, 2018, 6:48pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-does-the-christian-tradition-and-other-monotheistic-religions-have-to-say-about-the-sun/811737/5 "2018-04-03T18:48:19Z")
As far as I recall, the sun is barely mentioned in Christian tradition (and by “Christian tradition” I mean the Old Testament.) [Genesis 1:16](http://biblehub.com/genesis/1-16.htm) and [Joshua 10:13](http://biblehub.com/joshua/10-13.htm) come to mind. And there being [no new thing under it](http://biblehub.com/ecclesiastes/1-9.htm). ---
**Author:** ![dtilque](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/d6d6ee/32.png) [@dtilque](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/dtilque)\ **Post date:** [April 3, 2018, 6:48pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-does-the-christian-tradition-and-other-monotheistic-religions-have-to-say-about-the-sun/811737/6 "2018-04-03T18:48:27Z")
It’s a huge ball of gas in the centre of the solar system, but that’s not important. (someone was going to say this, so it may have well have been me.) ---
**Author:** ![DavidwithanR](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/3bc359/32.png) [@DavidwithanR](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DavidwithanR)\ **Post date:** [April 3, 2018, 6:48pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-does-the-christian-tradition-and-other-monotheistic-religions-have-to-say-about-the-sun/811737/7 "2018-04-03T18:48:34Z")
It can be hard to tell what exactly Christianity **originally** had to say about the sun, if anything at all. There are some mentions in the Bible and much more in later tradition, but none of them quote Jesus as far as I can remember. And it seems likely that some of what’s been added regarding the sun was put there specifically to comfort former sun-worshippers who had converted. ---
**Author:** ![kenobi\_65](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/kenobi_65/32/13178_2.png) [@kenobi\_65](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/kenobi_65)\ **Post date:** [April 3, 2018, 7:01pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-does-the-christian-tradition-and-other-monotheistic-religions-have-to-say-about-the-sun/811737/8 "2018-04-03T19:01:31Z")
> [@Darren\_Garrison](#): > > As far as I recall, the sun is barely mentioned in Christian tradition (and by “Christian tradition” I mean the Old Testament.) [Genesis 1:16](http://biblehub.com/genesis/1-16.htm) and [Joshua 10:13](http://biblehub.com/joshua/10-13.htm) come to mind. Genesis 1:16 is, of course, from the creation story – God creates the Sun and the Moon on the fourth day. I always found it interesting that, in the story, God created light, and the separation of light (day) from darkness (night) on the first day, but didn’t create the Sun (which, in 1:15, along with the Moon, is said to be there “to give light on the earth”) until the fourth day. Also, note that, in [Genesis 1:14](http://biblehub.com/genesis/1-14.htm), when He creates the Sun and the Moon, God says: “Let there be lights in the vault of the sky to separate the day from the night, and let them serve as signs to mark sacred times, and days and years” So, it’s set out that the Sun (and the Moon) are intended to help with maintaining a calendar. But, again, not as objects of worship. ---
**Author:** ![Darren\_Garrison](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/darren_garrison/32/92_2.png) [@Darren\_Garrison](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Darren_Garrison)\ **Post date:** [April 3, 2018, 7:07pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-does-the-christian-tradition-and-other-monotheistic-religions-have-to-say-about-the-sun/811737/9 "2018-04-03T19:07:18Z")
Nitpicking, but I believe that the lights in Genesis 14 refer to the stars and planets (other than the sun and moon.) ---
**Author:** ![Chronos](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/chronos/32/134_2.png) [@Chronos](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Chronos)\ **Post date:** [April 3, 2018, 7:07pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-does-the-christian-tradition-and-other-monotheistic-religions-have-to-say-about-the-sun/811737/10 "2018-04-03T19:07:55Z")
Yeah, Joshua 10:13 is one of the passages I was thinking of as demonstrating God’s superiority to the Sun, since He can order it around. It’s likely that many of the Israelites’ neighbors worshipped the Sun, maybe even as their primary god, so passages like this would be a way of saying “Our god is better than your god!”. EDIT: **Darren Garrison** , that passage is immediately followed by > [@](#): > > God made two great lights—the greater light to govern the day and the lesser light to govern the night. He also made the stars. which makes it pretty clear that the two “great lights” are the Sun and the Moon. ---
**Author:** ![Darren\_Garrison](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/darren_garrison/32/92_2.png) [@Darren\_Garrison](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Darren_Garrison)\ **Post date:** [April 3, 2018, 7:09pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-does-the-christian-tradition-and-other-monotheistic-religions-have-to-say-about-the-sun/811737/11 "2018-04-03T19:09:31Z")
Oh, and there is a damn good chance that the story of Samson is a remnant of a solar myth. Also maybe the story of Jonah and the whale. ---
**Author:** ![harmonicamoon](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/65b543/32.png) [@harmonicamoon](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/harmonicamoon)\ **Post date:** [April 3, 2018, 7:23pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-does-the-christian-tradition-and-other-monotheistic-religions-have-to-say-about-the-sun/811737/12 "2018-04-03T19:23:11Z")
For the Maya, the sun is revered. Common greeting is “good sun” Money, literal translation is sun excrement. I realize the OP is asking about monotheistic religions, and the Maya have dozens of gods. But, I find their reverence of the sun quite remarkable. ---
**Author:** ![Arkcon](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/96bed5/32.png) [@Arkcon](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Arkcon)\ **Post date:** [April 3, 2018, 7:44pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-does-the-christian-tradition-and-other-monotheistic-religions-have-to-say-about-the-sun/811737/13 "2018-04-03T19:44:19Z")
I’m wonder what exactly, the O.P. was missing in the Abramic religions mentions of the sun. Its important – as important as water, or bread, but the real reason, mortals are here, is to worship God. Whose behavior and characteristics are unlike Zeus or Apollo. That’s the thing – look at what’s nearby, and see how biblical accounts work with them. **Other people** worship the Sun God. \*\* For u\*\*s, its a big light in God’s hands. Hey, those other people have step pyramids, why doesn’t Yahweh want some? Uh, we tried that first, and God scrambled our languages as punishment. Yeah. yeah. That’s the ticket. The Egyptians had pyramids of vast size and cultural and technological significance. Not mentioned in the Old Testament. The Cat Goddess, patron of all cats, important for grain safety – cats are not mentioned in the Christian Bible at all. See, what you leave out of you holy books has meaning too. ---
**Author:** ![Biffster](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/biffster/32/339_2.png) [@Biffster](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Biffster)\ **Post date:** [April 3, 2018, 7:59pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-does-the-christian-tradition-and-other-monotheistic-religions-have-to-say-about-the-sun/811737/14 "2018-04-03T19:59:19Z")
> [@Chronos](#): > > It’s a bright light in the sky created by God. > > No, really, that’s pretty much it. > > There are also a few passages to reinforce that God is superior to the Sun, and a few uses of the Sun in what are clearly metaphors. And obviously it makes some completely mundane appearances, just to establish times of day and the like. But nothing about its nature, or mystical significance, or anything like that. Apart from the son/sun of God, you mean. ---
**Author:** ![Biffster](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/biffster/32/339_2.png) [@Biffster](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Biffster)\ **Post date:** [April 3, 2018, 8:04pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-does-the-christian-tradition-and-other-monotheistic-religions-have-to-say-about-the-sun/811737/15 "2018-04-03T20:04:16Z")
> [@Darren\_Garrison](#): > > Nitpicking, but I believe that the lights in Genesis 14 refer to the stars and planets (other than the sun and moon.) He says “Let there be light,” but identifies not that from which source the light cameth. Which begs the question: how did He in His infinite wisdom measure days until the fourth day? ---
**Author:** ![Shodan](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/9f8e36/32.png) [@Shodan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Shodan)\ **Post date:** [April 3, 2018, 8:05pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-does-the-christian-tradition-and-other-monotheistic-religions-have-to-say-about-the-sun/811737/16 "2018-04-03T20:05:08Z")
> [@Biffster](#): > > Apart from the son/sun of God, you mean. That pun doesn’t exist in Greek or Hebrew. Regards, Shodan ---
**Author:** ![kenobi\_65](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/kenobi_65/32/13178_2.png) [@kenobi\_65](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/kenobi_65)\ **Post date:** [April 3, 2018, 8:08pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-does-the-christian-tradition-and-other-monotheistic-religions-have-to-say-about-the-sun/811737/17 "2018-04-03T20:08:35Z")
> [@Shodan](#): > > That pun doesn’t exist in Greek or Hebrew. And I had a feeling that it’d come up in this thread sooner rather than later. ---
**Author:** ![Walken\_After\_Midnight](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/b487fb/32.png) [@Walken\_After\_Midnight](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Walken_After_Midnight)\ **Post date:** [April 3, 2018, 8:30pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-does-the-christian-tradition-and-other-monotheistic-religions-have-to-say-about-the-sun/811737/18 "2018-04-03T20:30:48Z")
Thanks for the interesting answers, everyone. > [@harmonicamoon](#): > > For the Maya, the sun is revered. > > … > > Money, literal translation is sun excrement. That sounds like a great fact to impress people with at dinner parties. I had a look around for some cites, and found a couple [here](https://books.google.com/books?id=f4RlY-0ajkgC&pg=PA182&lpg=PA182&dq=mayan+money+sun+excrement&source=bl&ots=bvyp5ZhL06&sig=Z-NvIMiW7O7o6BeOwZi-eop40hg&hl=en&sa=X&ved=0ahUKEwiou8_p8p7aAhWCF8AKHUQ7ACcQ6AEITDAI#v=onepage&q=mayan%20money%20sun%20excrement&f=false) and [here](https://books.google.com/books?id=GAEtcqHhvl0C&pg=PA79&lpg=PA79&dq=maYA+takin&source=bl&ots=96JmzAsZyu&sig=qy5qfHOA2aV7opvI2gDBiHAyJCQ&hl=en&sa=X&ved=0ahUKEwi44cWo857aAhXnJ8AKHcd3Atw4ChDoAQg2MAM#v=onepage&q=maYA%20takin&f=false). The “sun shit” appears to refer to gold itself: > [@](#): > > For the Indians gold was the metal of the gods, the excrement of the sun, or _takin_, as the Maya called it… It was a sign of divine power. > [@Biffster](#): > > Which begs the question: how did He in His infinite wisdom measure days until the fourth day? Since He’s God and can create the Universe, it should be well within His capabilities to create [a watch](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Watchmaker_analogy). > [@](#): > > Sir Isaac Newton, among other leaders in the scientific revolution, including René Descartes, upheld “that the physical laws he had uncovered revealed the mechanical perfection of the workings of the universe to be akin to a watchmaker, wherein the watchmaker is God.” ---
**Author:** ![Darren\_Garrison](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/darren_garrison/32/92_2.png) [@Darren\_Garrison](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Darren_Garrison)\ **Post date:** [April 3, 2018, 8:48pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-does-the-christian-tradition-and-other-monotheistic-religions-have-to-say-about-the-sun/811737/19 "2018-04-03T20:48:24Z")
> [@Walken\_After\_Midnight](#): > > Since He’s God and can create the Universe, it should be well within His capabilities to create [a watch](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Watchmaker_analogy). But that leads to the question “Can God create a digital clock so unintuitive that he can’t make it stop flashing 12:00?” ---
**Author:** ![TSBG](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/77aa72/32.png) [@TSBG](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/TSBG)\ **Post date:** [April 4, 2018, 1:03am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-does-the-christian-tradition-and-other-monotheistic-religions-have-to-say-about-the-sun/811737/20 "2018-04-04T01:03:28Z")
> [@Darren\_Garrison](#): > > But that leads to the question “Can God create a digital clock so unintuitive that he can’t make it stop flashing 12:00?” I’ve often enjoyed your posts for one reason or another but this one made me Laugh Overly Loudly (do I have that right? It’s a young people thing). [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-does-the-christian-tradition-and-other-monotheistic-religions-have-to-say-about-the-sun/811737.md?page=2)