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Sun: In the history of "greater light," of the creation the sun is described as "greater light," in contradistinction to the moon, the "lesser light," in conjunction with which it was to serve "for signs and for seasons, and for days, and for years," while its special office was "to rule the day." Ge 1:14-16 The "signs" referred to were probably such extraordinary phenomena as eclipses, which were regarded as conveying premonitions of coming events. Jer 10:2; Mt 24:29 with Luke 21:25
The joint influence assigned to the sun and moon in deciding the "seasons," both for agricultural operations and for religious festivals, and also in regulating the length and subdivisions of the years "correctly describes the combination of the lunar and solar year which prevailed at all events subsequent to the Mosaic period. Sunrise and sunset are the only defined points of time in the absence of artificial contrivances for telling the hour of the day. Between these two points the Jews recognized three periods, viz., when the sun became hot, about 9 A.M. 1Sa 11:9; Ne 7:3 the double light, or noon. Ge 43:16 2Sa 4:5 and "the cool of the day," shortly before sunset. Ge 3:8 The sun also served to fix the quarters of the hemisphere, east, west north and south, which were represented respectively by the rising sun, the setting sun, Isa 45:6; Ps 50:1 the dark quarter, Ge 13:14; Joe 2:20 and the brilliant quarter, De 33:23 Job 37:17; Eze 40:24 or otherwise by their position relative to a person facing the rising sun--before, behind, on the left hand and on the right hand. Job 23:8,9 The worship of the sun, as the most prominent and powerful agent in the kingdom of nature, was widely diffused throughout the countries adjacent to Palestine. The Arabians appear to have paid direct worship to it without the intervention of any statue or symbol, Job 31:26,27 and this simple style of worship was probably familiar to the ancestors of the Jews in Chaldaea and Mesopotamia. The Hebrews must have been well acquainted with the idolatrous worship of the sun during the captivity in Egypt, both from the contiguity of On, the chief seat of the worship of the sun, as implied in the name itself (On being the equivalent of the Hebrew Bethshemesh, "house of the sun") Jer 43:13 and also from the connection between Joseph and Potipherah("he who belongs to Ela") the priest of On, Ge 41:45 After their removal to Canaan, the Hebrews came in contact with various forms of idolatry which originated in the worship of the sun; such as the Baal of the Phoenicians, the Molech or Milcom of the Ammonites, and the Hadad of the Syrians. The importance attached to the worship of the sun by the Jewish kings may be inferred from the fact that the horses sacred to the sun were stalled within the precincts of the temple. 2Ki 23:11 In the metaphorical language of Scripture the sun is emblematic of the law of God, Ps 19:7 of the cheering presence of God, Ps 84:11 of the person of the Saviour, Joh 1:9; Mal 4:2 and of the glory and purity of heavenly beings. Re 1:16; 10:1
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