O God,
the heathen are come into thine inheritance;
thy holy temple have they defiled...
Psalm 79:1
"The Feast of the Nativity of St. John is set down in the Papal
calendar for the 24th of June, or Midsummer-day.
The very same period was equally memorable in the Babylonian calendar as that of one of its most celebrated festivals. It was at Midsummer, or the summer solstice,
And so strong was the hold that this festival, with its peculiar rites, had taken of the minds of men.....this sacred season could not be allowed to pass without the due observance of some, at least, of its peculiar rites.
--To call it by its old name of Bel or Tammuz, at the early period when it seems to have been adopted, would have been too bold.
--To call it by the name of Christ was difficult, inasmuch as there was nothing special in His history at that period to commemorate.
But the subtlety of the agents of the Mystery of Iniquity was not to be baffled. If the name of Christ could not be conveniently tacked to it, what should hinder its being called by the name of His forerunner, John the Baptist?
John the Baptist was born six months before our Lord. When,
therefore, the Pagan festival of the winter solstice had once been consecrated as the birthday of the Savior, it followed, as a matter of course, that if His forerunner was to have a festival at all, his festival must be at this very season; for between the 24th of June and the 25th of December--that is, between the summer and the winter solstice--there are just six months.
Now, for the purposes of the Papacy, nothing could be more
opportune than this. One of the many sacred names by which Tammuz or Nimrod was called, when he reappeared in the Mysteries, after being slain, was Oannes.
The name of John the Baptist, on the other hand, in the sacred language adopted by the Roman Church, was Joannes.
To make the festival of the 24th of June, then, suit Christians and Pagans alike, all that was needful was just to call it the festival of Joannes;
--and thus the Christians would suppose that they were honoring John the Baptist,
--while the Pagans were still worshipping their old god Oannes, or Tammuz.
Thus, the very period at which the great summer festival of Tammuz was celebrated in ancient Babylon, is at this very hour observed in the Papal Church as the Feast of the Nativity of St. John.
And the fete of St. John begins exactly as the festal day began in Chaldea. It is well known that, in the East, the day began in the evening.
So, though the 24th be set down as the nativity, yet it is on St. John's EVE--that is, on the evening of the 23rd--that the festivities and solemnities of that period begin."
Two Babylons/Hislop
the heathen are come into thine inheritance;
thy holy temple have they defiled...
Psalm 79:1
"The Feast of the Nativity of St. John is set down in the Papal
The very same period was equally memorable in the Babylonian calendar as that of one of its most celebrated festivals. It was at Midsummer, or the summer solstice,
that the month called in Chaldea, Syria, and Phoenicia by the name of "Tammuz" began; and on the first day--that is, on or about the 24th of June--one of the grand original festivals of Tammuz was celebrated. *For different reasons, in different countries, other periods had been devoted to commemorate the death and reviving of the Babylonian god; but this, as may be inferred from the name of the month, appears to have been the real time when his festival was primitively observed in the land where idolatry had its birth.
* STANLEY'S Saboean Philosophy. In Egypt the month corresponding to Tammuz--viz., Epep--began June 25 (WILKINSON)
And so strong was the hold that this festival, with its peculiar rites, had taken of the minds of men.....this sacred season could not be allowed to pass without the due observance of some, at least, of its peculiar rites.
When the Papacy sent its emissaries over Europe, towardsBut still a question was to be determined, What was to be the name of this Pagan festival, when it was baptized, and admitted into the ritual of Roman Christianity?
the end of the sixth century,
to gather in the Pagans into its fold,
this festival was found in high favor in many countries.
What was to be done with it? Were they to wage war with it? No. This would have been contrary to the famous advice of Pope Gregory I, that, by all means they should meet the Pagans half-way, and so bring them into the Roman Church.
The Gregorian policy was carefully observed; and so Midsummer-day, that had been hallowed by Paganism to the worship of Tammuz, was incorporated as a sacred Christian festival in the Roman calendar.
--To call it by its old name of Bel or Tammuz, at the early period when it seems to have been adopted, would have been too bold.
--To call it by the name of Christ was difficult, inasmuch as there was nothing special in His history at that period to commemorate.
But the subtlety of the agents of the Mystery of Iniquity was not to be baffled. If the name of Christ could not be conveniently tacked to it, what should hinder its being called by the name of His forerunner, John the Baptist?
John the Baptist was born six months before our Lord. When,
Now, for the purposes of the Papacy, nothing could be more
The name of John the Baptist, on the other hand, in the sacred language adopted by the Roman Church, was Joannes.
To make the festival of the 24th of June, then, suit Christians and Pagans alike, all that was needful was just to call it the festival of Joannes;
--and thus the Christians would suppose that they were honoring John the Baptist,
--while the Pagans were still worshipping their old god Oannes, or Tammuz.
And the fete of St. John begins exactly as the festal day began in Chaldea. It is well known that, in the East, the day began in the evening.
So, though the 24th be set down as the nativity, yet it is on St. John's EVE--that is, on the evening of the 23rd--that the festivities and solemnities of that period begin."
Two Babylons/Hislop
