it helps to think visually

You know that silly story in the bible where Jesus dies and it goes dark for quite a while.

Well when the sun dies I guess it would make sense for things go dark.

But if you read it literally you just wonder why no one writing at the time bothers to mention it.

But many will impatiently rise to expostulate with us, and ask why, if this was the universal fundamentum of the old religions, the Bible itself does not categorically carry this message and state this central fact. Wait a moment! Who that knows this primary datum has searched the Bible to see if it has nothing to say on the point? We, too, believed the Bible was remiss in expressing this conception, until we searched with a more watchful eye. And now let us hear what the Bible says as to our solar constitution, and determine for ourselves whether it is silent on the groundwork of religion or not. Let us hear first the Psalms. "Our God is a living fire," say they; and "Our God is a consuming fire." "The Lord God is a sun," avers the same book. "I am come to send fire on earth," says Jesus, meaning he came to scatter the separated sparks of solar essence amongst mankind, a spark to each soul. In Revelation the angels scatter the fire and the incense of their seven censers over the earth, among the inhabitants. Then says John the Baptist: "I indeed baptize you with water, but he that cometh after me will baptize you with the Holy Spirit and with fire!" Jesus says: "I beheld Satan as lightning fall from heaven." (Satan was the descending Lucifer, or Light-bringer, before he was lifted up and divinized.) The fire that falls on Jeremiah's altar and many another in the Bible narrative types the deity coming to dwell with mortals. Says Jesus: "When I am in the world I am the light of the world." Again he said: "Ye are the light of the world," and "Let your light so shine that others may . . . glory your father which is in heaven." The Lord, say the Psalms, "made his angels messengers and his ministers a flame of fire." The New Testament Jesus, following the well-known Egyptian diagram of the Ankh, the solar disk with the spread wings, is described as "the sun of righteousness, risen with healing in his wings." John has Jesus saying that the condemnation of the world lay in that it rejected the light when it was sent into the world. Says Job: "Yea, the light of the wicked shall be put out, and the spark of his fire shall not shine. The light shall be dark in his tabernacle and his candle shall be put out with him." Isaiah writes: "Behold all ye that kindle a fire, that compass yourselves about with sparks; walk in the light of your fire and in the sparks that ye have kindled." We are adjured to "Rise, shine, for thy light is come." "The Lord is my light," reiterates the Psalms. And again: "In thy light shall we see light." "Light is sown for the righteous." "We wait for light," cry the souls in the darkness of incarnation, far from their original fount of light. John declares that the Christos "was the true light" which was to come Messianically for the redemption of our lower nature. And again he declares that with the Christos "light is come into the world." No cry echoes with more resounding intensity down to this age than Paul's exhortation to our souls buried in lethal darkness: "Awake, thou that sleepest, and arise from the dead, and Christ will shine upon thee!" And in Revelation there are those mighty pronouncements: in the spiritual resurrection "there shall be no more need of the sun to shine by day nor the moon by night, for the glory of the Lord did lighten it." And there is no more heartening assurance anywhere in the Bible than Jesus's statement: "Ye have light in yourselves."

And these are only a gleaning from the great score of similar passages with which the Bible teems. And still folks will say they find no warrant for the Sun-god idea in the Bible!

and why does he have to rise on the third day

why does he have to be 3 like jonah

bible wrote:for, as Jonah was in the belly of the fish three days and three nights, so shall the Son of Man be in the heart of the earth three days and three nights.

why not 2 days or 4 days

why 3 days

like the sun at winter solstice?

Winter solstice is an astronomical phenomenon marking the shortest day and the longest night of the year. In the Northern Hemisphere this is the December solstice and in the Southern Hemisphere this is the June solstice.

the longest night

Well to those who agree there is astromythology in the bible and also to those who disagree I say

Jehovah cause His face to shine upon thee, and favour thee;

tat tvam asi wrote:"He who comes after me is greater than me, because he was before me."

Pisces comes after Aquarius annually, but Pisces comes "before" Aquarius during the "Greater" Year of precession. These references in John tend to jump out at you when you pick up the context the writer(s) was aiming for...

thanks tat, i just thought i'd steal that for the astrotheology thread, cheers m8

This diagram of the fit between the four living creatures and the cardinal signs of the zodiac throws yet another constellation into the mix, suggesting that Ophiuchus, between Aquila and Scorpio, is the eagle of mythical lore.