Sol Invictus: The pagan Sun god that helped Christianity convert the Roman Empire. Before Constantine received his history-defining vision, a pagan Sun god paved the way for Jesus Christ’s triumphal entry into the Eternal City.
Sun worship was everywhere in the Roman Empire.
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Italian traditions mingled with those of Africa and Asia Minor, and Sol Indiges combined with an eastern Sun deity to become Sol Invictus, the “Unconquered Sun.” During the third century AD, this second Sol gradually evolved from a god into the god of Rome. The emperor Elagabalus, who was raised in Syria, placed every god worshipped within Rome, including Jupiter, under the umbrella of the Sun god - one of many provocations that would anger the Roman elites and eventually led to his assassination at the hands of the Praetorian Guard.
In 1953, researchers began digging underneath St. Peter’s Basilica, built under Constantine, in hope of finding its namesake’s tomb. Although they didn’t find St. Peter, they did stumble across the bodies of various pagans and Christians. In particular, one Christian tomb was decorated with a mosaic that portrayed Christ as Sol Invictus encircled by a rayed nimbus and riding a chariot. Identification with the Sun god may also be preserved in Biblical passages describing Christ and God in relation to light and fire.
Historians link the advent of Christianity to Sol Invictus partly because December 25 marked the so-called Feast of the Unconquered Sun before it became officially recognized as the birthday of Christ. The cult of Sol originally started holding the Feast on December 25 because it coincided with the winter solstice, the time of year when daylight starts to lengthen again.
Sol Invictus and Christmas
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It was not until 323 AD, more than a decade after he received word from God, that he publicly renounced the Unconquered Sun in favor of the crucified Son. The same year that the Sun disappeared from the emperor’s life, solar symbols disappeared from Roman coins. From this point on, Constantine began donating substantial amounts of capital to the Church.
In the first and second centuries, most people in the Roman Empire worshiped multiple gods at once. When they heard about Christianity, they didn’t necessarily think that worshiping Jesus Christ meant they had to stop worshiping their other gods, like Jupiter, Apollo and Venus. Rather, many adopted Christianity by adding Jesus to the group of gods they already worshiped.
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Officially he continued with the ceremonies of paganism, sacrificing to Apollo (the Sun) before the campaign on the Rhine (par. 66), and consulting the haruspices before expedition into Italy. Pagan panegyrists speak also of secret communications made him by Apollo in Gaul.
The Easter date was purposely chosen by Constantine to replace the Passover instituted by the Old Testament
Along with it being associated with the Western tradition, Constantine specifically uses the fact that the Jews celebrate Passover on the Vernal Equinox as a reason to change it to the following Sunday.
"We ought not, therefore, to have anything in common with the Jews, for the Savior has shown us another way; our worship follows a more legitimate and more convenient course; and consequently, in unanimously adopting this mode, we desire, dearest brethren, to separate ourselves from the detestable company of the Jews, for it is truly shameful for us to hear them boast that without their direction we could not keep this feast. How can they be in the right, they who, after the death of the Savior, have no longer been led by reason but by wild violence, as their delusion may urge them?… As, on the one hand, it is our duty not to have anything in common with the murderers of our Lord"
www.ccel.org/ccel/schaff/npnf...
lost-history.com/sol_invictus...
Constantine set up this statue in AD 330 which depicts himself in the likeness of Apollo, wearing a sun crown. The column had pagan images covering it, also with some Christian symbolism.
What is more interesting is the likeness of Jesus to that of the Sun God.