The SUN and the SON
a Biblical Comparison.
"The heavens are telling the glory of GOD..."
Psalms 19:1

"...For Without Me you can do nothing."
John 15:5

That verse holds true for both Jesus Christ who said it, and for the sun, for without the sun, there would be no life on earth.
Everything alive owes its existence to the sun and ultimately to the Son (John 14:6).

GOD is a Trinity, the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit.
They are three persons in one GOD. They are distinct but not separate.

The sun can be likened to a trinity also, with the Father as being analogous to the sun, the Son proceeding from the sun (Father) as the light that we see, and the Holy Spirit proceeding from both the sun and the light (Father and the Son) as the heat that we feel. There again, we have a trio of the sun, light, and heat, with each being distinct from the others but not separate.

Holy Scripture is replete with verses depicting GOD as analogous to the sun...
In the Holy Spirit we find fire, and from fire comes heat:

"When he came to Lehi, the Philistines met him with shouts of triumph. But the LORD'S Spirit came over him. The ropes on his arms became like strings burned in a fire, and those on his hands snapped."
Judges 15:14

"Bless the Lord, fire and heat, sing praise to him and highly exalt him for ever."
Daniel 3:67

"The Spirit lifted me up and took me away, and I went in bitterness in the heat of my spirit, the hand of the LORD being strong upon me;"
Ezekiel 3:14

"For a burning place has long been prepared; yea, for the king it is made ready, its pyre made deep and wide, with fire and wood in abundance; the breath of the LORD, like a stream of brimstone, kindles it."
Isaiah 30:33
The "breath" of the Lord is what GOD breathed into the body of Adam and which brought him to life in Genesis 2:7.

"The wind blows where it wills, and you hear the sound of it, but you do not know whence it comes or whither it goes; so it is with every one who is born of the Spirit."
John 3:8
Since the word "Spirit" means breath, it is depicted as wind also.
From the sun we have the hot solar wind which blows out over the solar system.

A hot and burning wind:
"And when the sun was risen, the Lord commanded a hot and burning wind: and the sun beat upon the head of Jonas, and he broiled with the heat: and he desired for his soul that he might die, and said: It is better for me to die than to live."
Jonas 4:8

A mighty wind ushers in tongues as of fire:
"When the day of Pentecost had come, they were all together in one place.
And suddenly a sound came from heaven like the rush of a mighty wind, and it filled all the house where they were sitting.
And there appeared to them tongues as of fire, distributed and resting on each one of them.
And they were all filled with the Holy Spirit and began to speak in other tongues, as the Spirit gave them utterance."
Acts 2:1-4

"I baptize you with water for repentance, but he who is coming after me is mightier than I, whose sandals I am not worthy to carry; he will baptize you with the Holy Spirit and with fire."
Matthew 3:11

"Extinguish not the spirit."
1Thessalonians 5:19


In the Son we find light:

"The Son is the radiance of God's glory and the exact representation of his being, sustaining all things by his powerful word." Hebrews 1:3

"And he was transfigured before them, and his face shone like the sun, and his garments became white as light."
Matthew 17:2

"In his right hand he held seven stars, from his mouth issued a sharp two-edged sword, and his face was like the sun shining in full strength."
Revelation 1:16

"But for you who fear my name the Sun of righteousness shall rise, with healing in its wings."
Malachi 4:2
Did you notice that the word, Sun, is capitalized?
For what purpose is it capitalized other than to connect the Sun with the Son?
Malachi 4:2 is a direct Biblical connection between the sun and the Son, for it is the Son, the second person of the Holy Trinity who is the righteous one:
"My little children, I am writing this to you so that you may not sin; but if any one does sin, we have an advocate with the Father, Jesus Christ the righteous;"
1John 2:1
"But the path of the righteous is like the light of dawn, which shines brighter and brighter until full day."
Proverbs 4:18

"The people that walked in darkness, have seen a great light. To them that dwelt in the region of the shadow of death, light is risen."
Isaiah 9:2

"So they shall fear the name of the Lord from the west, and his glory from the rising of the sun; for he will come like a rushing stream, which the wind of the Lord drives. "And he will come to Zion as Redeemer, to those in Jacob who turn from transgression, says the Lord."
Isaiah 59:19-20

"Arise, shine; for your light has come, and the glory of the LORD has risen upon you.
For behold, darkness shall cover the earth, and thick darkness the peoples; but the LORD will arise upon you, and his glory will be seen upon you.
And nations shall come to your light, and kings to the brightness of your rising."
Isaiah 60:1-3

"And a star shall come forth out of Jacob, and a scepter shall rise out of Israel..."
Numbers 24:17
"I Jesus have sent my angel to you with this testimony for the churches. I am the root and the offspring of David, the bright morning star."
Revelation 22:16
And just what is the "Bright Morning Star"? The sun is a star, and it rises in the morning, and it certainly is bright.

"Again Jesus spoke to them, saying, "I am the light of the world; he who follows me will not walk in darkness, but will have the light of life"."
John 8:12
The sun is the light of the earthly world, for without it, the earth would be in total darkness.

"I have come as light into the world, that whoever believes in me may not remain in darkness."
John 12:46
Just as the physical sun casts off physical darkness, so does the spiritual Son cast off spiritual darkness, for He is "the Light of the World".

"It was now about the sixth hour, and there was darkness over the whole land until the ninth hour, while the sun's light failed; and the curtain of the temple was torn in two. Then Jesus, crying with a loud voice, said, "Father, into thy hands I commit my spirit!" And having said this he breathed his last."
Luke 23:44-46
Did you see the message here? The "sun's light failed"...The SON, the light of the world failed as He had given up His Spirit.

"And very early on the first day of the week they went to the tomb when the sun had risen."
Mark 16:2
In this verse is yet another connection which many miss. The "sun had risen", and on Sunday, "the first day of the week".
The SON had also risen, and on the same Sunday.

From the parallels which I have shown in the above verses, it looks as if the spelling of Sunday could also be SONday.

"At midday, O king, I saw on the way a light from heaven, brighter than the sun, shining round me and those who journeyed with me."
Acts 26:13

"The sun shall be no more your light by day, nor for brightness shall the moon give light to you by night; but the Lord will be your everlasting light, and your God will be your glory. Your sun shall no more go down, nor your moon withdraw itself; for the Lord will be your everlasting light, and your days of mourning shall be ended."
Isaiah 60:19-20
The light of the sun prefigures the light of the Son.


The birthplace of Jesus in the Church of the Nativity in Bethlehem:


Notice that the exact spot where Jesus the Christ was born is marked as a sunburst, or a star, of which the sun is!

As the Sun rules over all the earth...
"And God made the two great lights, the greater light to rule the day, and the lesser light to rule the night; he made the stars also. And God set them in the firmament of the heavens to give light upon the earth, to rule over the day and over the night, and to separate the light from the darkness. And God saw that it was good."
Genesis 1:16-18
"...to him who made the great lights, for his steadfast love endures for ever; the sun to rule over the day, for his steadfast love endures for ever;"
Psalms 136:7-8

So does the Son rule over all the earth...
"For he that made thee shall rule over thee, the Lord of hosts is his name: and thy Redeemer, the Holy One of Israel, shall be called the God of all the earth."
Isaiah 54:5
"And when the angel had come to her he said, "Hail, full of grace, the Lord is with thee. Blessed art thou among women." When she had heard him she was troubled at his word, and kept pondering what manner of greeting this might be. And the angel said to her, "Do not be afraid, Mary, for thou hast found grace with God. Behold thou shalt conceive in thy womb and shalt bring forth a son; and thou shalt call his name Jesus. He shall be great and shall be called the Son of the Most High; and the Lord God will give him the throne of David his father, and he shall be king over the house of Jacob forever. And of his kingdom there shall be no end."
Luke 1:28-33

In the Father we find the sun:

"For the Lord GOD is a sun and shield, he bestows favor and honor. No good thing does the Lord withhold from those who walk uprightly."
Psalms 84:11
This is another direct Biblical analogous connection between the sun and GOD.

"So perish all thine enemies, O Lord! But thy friends be like the sun as he rises in his might."
Judges 5:31
The sun is a "he". The Father is likewise addressed as "He".

"Thus says the Lord, who gives the sun for light by day and the fixed order of the moon and the stars for light by night, who stirs up the sea so that its waves roar— the Lord of hosts is his name..."
Jeremiah 31:35

"Once for all I have sworn by my holiness; I will not lie to David. His line shall endure for ever, his throne as long as the sun before me."
Psalms 89:35-36

"Then the righteous will shine like the sun in the kingdom of their Father. He who has ears, let him hear."
Matthew 13:43

"Bless the Lord, sun and moon, sing praise to him and highly exalt him for ever."
Daniel 3:63

"Bless the Lord, stars of heaven, sing praise to him and highly exalt him for ever."
Dan 3:64

"And I saw no temple in the city, for its temple is the Lord God the Almighty and the Lamb. And the city has no need of sun or moon to shine upon it, for the glory of God is its light, and its lamp is the Lamb. By its light shall the nations walk; and the kings of the earth shall bring their glory into it."
Revelation 21:22-24

"And night shall be no more; they need no light of lamp or sun, for the Lord God will be their light, and they shall reign for ever and ever."
Revelation 22:5

GOD and the sun compared:

The Sun:

GOD:

Is a trinity* with the body, light, and heat.

Matthew 28:19, The Father, The Son and The Holy Spirit.

Appears to be on fire but is not consumed.

Exodus 3:2, "...the bush, though on fire was not consumed."

Is the light of the world.

John 8:12, "I am the light of the world."

Has great power as a result of nuclear fusion.

Hebrews 1:3, "..upholding all things by the word of His power."

Holds the planets in their orbits.

Job 38:37, "Who can declare the order of the heavens..."

Is the source of all life on Earth.

Genesis 1-2, GOD created everything out of nothing.

Has a breath which is called the solar wind.

John 20:22, GOD has a breath and He is called the Holy Spirit.


*The sun is a trinity in more ways than one:
In its makeup of three main parts, it has a core, a radiative zone, and a convective zone.
It has an atmosphere consisting of three parts, a photosphere, a chromosphere, and a corona.
It has three unusual surface features, sunspots, solar prominences, and solar flares.

From which direction does the sun rise? It rises from the east.

The Sunrise.
Picture taken on September 29, 2007

From which direction does the Son rise? He also rises from the east.
"For as the lightning comes forth from the east and shines even to the west, so also will the coming of the Son of Man be."
Matthew 24:27

"Who hath raised up the just one from the east, hath called him to follow him? he shall give the nations in his sight, and he shall rule over kings: he shall give them as the dust to his sword, as stubble driven by the wind, to his bow."
Isaiah 41:2

The East, the direction of the sunrise, has great significance in Scripture...

"And he brought me into the inner court of the house of the Lord; and behold, at the door of the temple of the Lord, between the porch and the altar, were about twenty-five men, with their backs to the temple of the Lord, and their faces toward the east, worshiping the sun toward the east."
Ezekiel 8:16
Worshiping the sun is a form of idol worship and is forbidden by Holy Scripture. See 2Kings 23:5 and Jeremiah 8:2.
We worship the Son, and not the sun.
However, Ezekiel 8:16 is a type of the coming of "Son" worship which would be announced in the New Testament.

"For from the rising of the sun even to the going down, my name is great among the Gentiles, and in every place there is sacrifice, and there is offered to my name a clean oblation, for my name is great among the Gentiles, says the Lord of hosts."
Malachi 1:11
Even for the prefigurement of the Holy Eucharist and the daily Mass, the sun plays a prominent role.

"Afterward he brought me to the gate, the gate facing east. And behold, the glory of the God of Israel came from the east; and the sound of his coming was like the sound of many waters; and the earth shone with his glory. And the vision I saw was like the vision which I had seen when he came to destroy the city, and like the vision which I had seen by the river Chebar; and I fell upon my face. As the glory of the Lord entered the temple by the gate facing east, the Spirit lifted me up, and brought me into the inner court; and behold, the glory of the Lord filled the temple."
Ezekiel 43:1-5

"Hear, O Jesus thou high priest, thou and thy friends that dwell before thee, for they are portending men: for behold, I Will bring my servant the Orient."
Zechariah 3:8 (DRB) 
Christ is called 'My Servant the Orient', who according to His humanity, is the servant of GOD, and is called 'The Orient', from His rising like the sun in the east to enlighten the world: Zechariah 3:8,12, Luke 1:78

"And those to encamp before the tabernacle on the east, before the tent of meeting toward the sunrise, were Moses and Aaron and his sons, having charge of the rites within the sanctuary, whatever had to be done for the people of Israel; and any one else who came near was to be put to death."
Numbers 3:38. See also Isaiah 41:2, 43:5, and Ezekiel 11:23,46:12.

"Where is he who has been born king of the Jews? For we have seen his star in the East, and have come to worship him... When they had heard the king they went their way; and lo, the star which they had seen in the East went before them, till it came to rest over the place where the child was."
Matthew 2:2,9

"And you, child, will be called prophet of the Most High, for you will go before the Lord to prepare his ways, to give his people knowledge of salvation through the forgiveness of their sins, because of the tender mercy of our God by which the daybreak from on high will visit us to shine on those who sit in darkness and death’s shadow, to guide our feet into the path of peace."
Luke 1:76-79

The Monstrance...


A Monstrance is the sacred vessel which holds the consecrated Host when it is exposed, and when it is carried in procession.
Many Monstrances have a radiating pattern for all 360 degrees around the center, and they are a reminder of a sunburst with radiating rays, and for a very good reason. In the center of the sunburst is the "SON" in glory and brightness, the Holy Eucharist.

Light...

"This is the message we have heard from him and proclaim to you, that God is light and in him is no darkness at all."
1John 1:5

There are four kinds of light:
A. Physical light, the light by which we are able to see with our eyes.
B. The light of knowledge, intellectual light.
C. Teaching, or prophetic light. It comes through wisdom and common sense.
D. To know. The light of GOD which makes all things clear. It comes through
    the theological virtues of faith, hope, and love.

All four kinds of light are represented by the letters A-D, in Psalms 19:1-7...

Psalms 19:1, "The heavens declare the glory of GOD; and the firmament showeth His handiwork."
For those who have eyes to see His Glory and His handiwork, they are those who have wisdom and common sense (C).

Psalms 19:2, "Day unto day uttereth speech, and night unto night showeth knowledge."
This verse gives us physical light of day (A) in the first part, and the light of knowledge (B) in the second part.

Psalms 19:3, "There is no speech nor language, where their voice is not heard."

Psalms 19:4, "Their line is gone out through all the earth, and their words to the end of the world."

Psalms 19:5, "In them he has set a tabernacle for the sun, which is as a bridegroom coming out of his chamber and rejoiceth as a strong man to run a race."

Psalms 19:6 "His going forth is from the end of the heaven, and his circuit unto the ends of it: and there is nothing hid from the heat thereof."

Psalms 19:7, "The law of the Lord is perfect, converting the soul: the testimony of the Lord is sure, making wise the simple."
This verse is an example of the light of GOD (D) making all things clear.

These seven verses of Psalms 19 also present to us an abundance of images for which we should not let pass without gleaning the full richness of them.

(vs1) The first verse again relates the glory of GOD to the heavens and thereby to the sun which exists in the heavens.

(vs2) The second verse relates to the sun again as "day unto day".

(vs3-4) The third and fourth verses are a description of the Catholic Church, a prefigurement of Matthew 28:19-20 and Acts 1:8, where all that we have been taught is spread to all nations for all time until the end of the world. The three "ALLS" for all teaching, for all nations, and for all time is the definition of the word Catholic.

(vs5) The tabernacle (Sirach 24:12, Hebrews 9:1-11) for the sun, is another direct connection between the sun and the Son, for the tabernacle is the dwelling place of GOD in the Holy Eucharist even to this day in the Catholic Church.
Notice too that the sun is as a bridegroom, again prefiguring Jesus Christ (John 3:29).

(vs6) The sixth verse makes reference to heat, and from what we have previously learned by association, to the Holy Spirit.
Notice that there is a double "his" in this verse, a human male term for the sun.

(vs7) The seventh verse shows that GOD is a perfect being and therefore His Word is perfect and everlasting. GOD is the same yesterday, today, and tomorrow. Therefore, how could a perfect being become even more perfect? He could not. It is impossible because change implies that imperfection existed in the first place.

The City of the Sun...

"In that day there will be five cities in the land of Egypt which speak the language of Canaan and swear allegiance to the Lord of hosts. One of these will be called the City of the Sun. In that day there will be an altar to the Lord in the midst of the land of Egypt, and a pillar to the Lord at its border. It will be a sign and a witness to the Lord of hosts in the land of Egypt; when they cry to the Lord because of oppressors he will send them a savior, and will defend and deliver them."
Isaiah 19:18-20
The "City of the Sun" in Egypt was Heliopolis, located north of modern Cairo. Helios is the Greek word for sun. Heliopolis was the center of worship for the Egyptian sun god Ra, until about 2100 B.C..
Alexandria, a very important city in Egypt at the time, lies about 100 miles northwest of Heliopolis. It was, no doubt, another one of the "five cities in the land of Egypt" mentioned by Isaiah since at one time it was the second greatest city in the world, with Rome being the greatest. In Alexandria, Christianity rose to great heights through the efforts of Saint Mark. Alexandria spawned theologians Clement of Alexandria, and Origen. The Church in Alexandria was governed by several Catholic Bishops, notably Saints Athanasius and Cyril, both of whom are Doctors of the Church.
The Son (sun) of Christianity had displaced the pagan sun god, Ra.


A final note: The woman clothed with the sun...

"And a great sign appeared in heaven: a woman clothed with the sun, and the moon was under her feet, and upon her head a crown of twelve stars."
Revelation 12:1

"Therefore the Lord himself shall give you a sign. Behold a virgin shall conceive, and bear a son and his name shall be called Emmanuel."
Isaiah 7:14

"And she brought forth a man child, who was to rule all nations with an iron rod. And her son was taken up to God and to his throne."
Revelation 12:5
1Jn 1:5

From what I have presented in this writing regarding the analogies between GOD and the sun, it should be easy for you to reason out the meaning of "a woman clothed with the sun".
Here is an additional hint:

"Bless the LORD, O my soul! O LORD my God, thou art very great! Thou art clothed with honor and majesty, who coverest thyself with light as with a garment, who hast stretched out the heavens like a tent..."
Psalms 104:1-2

"Mary's role is to make her Son Shine".
Pope John Paul II

©
Written by Bob Stanley, November 22, 2003
Updated December 30, 2003
Updated September 30, 2007

Back to Home Page...
 Back to The Image...