Tammuz was a popular Syrian saviour-God who pre-existed Jesus
Christ yet shared a number of similarities:
* Tammuz was born of a virgin
* Tammuz was killed and rose again every spring.
* Wherever Tammuz was worshipped, he was celebrated with a
human victim in royal robes who was killed and eaten. This was so
the sacrifice, his body and blood might bring salvation to the
community
* One of the chief centres of Tammuz worship was Bethlehem,
said to have been the birthplace of Jesus
* Tammuz was called 'the Carpenter', a title related to the
'Architect' of the universe. Jesus too was called the 'son of the
carpenter'
* Tammuz was said to have entered Jerusalem riding two asses,
because this represented the passage of the sun at the summer
solstice through the sign of Cancer (two asses star-sign)
* In the gospel of Matthew (21:5), Jesus enters Jerusalem on two animals.