what was wrong with weeping for Tammuz?
Tammuz, also called Dumuzi, was a Sumerian, Babylonian, and Assyrian god of fertile crops. In Sumerian mythology, his wife, Inanna had him dragged off to Hell. (Its a long story that we do not need to go into here.) Anyway, in some versions, he returns to earth every spring and departs for Hell every fall. A religious rite was for the women to weep at the season when he allegedly died, and to rejoice when he was revived. Q: In Ezek 8:14, does the Christian practice of Good Friday and Easter Sunday owe something to the rite of Tammuz, as the skeptical Asimov’s Guide to the Bible p.586 claims? A: Asimov has no basis for this assertion. Jesus voluntarily choosing to die, and being raised from the dead, no more to die, is very different from Tammuz being taken to Hell against His will, and repeating the process every year. Q: In Ezek 8:17, what does “putting the branch to their nose” mean? A: The Hebrew we have today says “branch to their nose”. However some Jewish commentators said this w
