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Bible Encyclopedias
Calf, Golden
International Standard Bible Encyclopedia
or I. The Name
II. Ancient Calf Worship
1. Narrative of Aaron's Golden Calf
2. Jeroboam's Golden Calves
III. Attitude of Elijah to the Bull Symbols
IV. Attitude of Amos and Hosea to the Bull Symbols
Literature
I. The Name
The term עגל ,
II. Ancient Calf Worship
The origin of animal worship is hidden in obscurity, but reverence for the bull and cow is found widespread among the most ancient historic cults. Even in the prehistoric age the influence of the bull symbol was so powerful that it gave its name to one of the most important signs of the Zodiac, and from early historic times the horns of the bull were the familiar emblem of the rays of the sun, and solar gods were very commonly represented as bull-gods (Jensen, Kosmologie , 62-90; Winckler, Altorientalische Forschungen , 1901-5, passim; Jeremias, Das Alter der bah. Astronomie , 1909, passim ). The Egyptians, close neighbors of the Hebrews, in all eras from that of the Exodus onward, worshipped living bulls at Memphis (not Mendes, as EB) and Hellopolls as incarnations of Ptah and Ra, while one of the most elaborate rituals was connected with the life-size image of the Hathor-cow (Naville,
1. Narrative of Aaron's Golden Calf
The text of Ex 32 is certainly composite (see e.g. Bacon's "Exodus" in the place cited. and DB ), and some words and phrases are a verbal dupli care of the narrative of Jeroboam's calf worship (compare Exodus 32:4 with 1 Kings 12:28 , and see parallel columns in Driver's Deteronomy ). Some Bible critics so analyze the text as to make the entire calf story a later element, without ancient basis, added to some short original statement like Exodus 32:7-11 , for the sake of satirizing Jeroboam's bull worship and its non-Levitical priesthood (see e.g. Kuenen, Hexateuch ). Most recent critics have however accepted the incident as an ancient memory or historic fact attested by the oldest sources, and used Thus by the Deuteronomist (Dt 9), though the verbal form may have been affected by the later editor's scorn of the northern apostasy. It seems clearly unreasonable to suppose that a Hebrew writer at any era would so fiercely abuse his own ancestors, without any traditional basis for his statements, merely for the sake of adding a little more which cast reproach upon his northern neighbors, and it seems equally unlikely that any such baseless charges would have been accepted as true by the slandered nation. The old expositors, accepting the essential historicity of the account, generally followed Philo and the early Fathers in supposing this calf of gold was an image of the Apis or Mnevis bulls of Egypt, and this is occasionally yet advocated by some Egyptologists (e.g. Steindorf, Ancient Egypt (1903), 167; compare also Jeremias, Old Testament in Light of Ancient East (1911), II, 138). The objections made to this view by the skeptics of the 18th century, based on the supposed impossibility of such chemical and mechanical skill being possessed at that era, have mostly been made obsolete by recent discovery. The common modern objection that this could not have been Apis worship because the Apis was a living bull, is by no means conclusive, since images of Apis are not uncommon and were probably worshipped in the temple itself. It may be added that a renaissance of this worship occurred at this very era. So Erman, Handbook of Egyptian Rel . (1907), 23-79. Modern Bible scholars, however, are practically unanimous in the opinion that the Golden Calf, if worshipped at all, must have been a representation of a Semitic, not an Egyptian, deity. In favor of this it may be suggested: (1) It was an era when each deity was considered as the god of a particular country and it would seem impossible that a native Egyptian god should be thought of as joining with Egypt's enemies and assisting them to reach a land over which he had no control. (2) The Israelite religion shows little influence from Egypt, but was immensely influenced from Canaan and Babylon, Apis only being mentioned once (Jeremiah 46:20 (translated "heifer"); compare Ezekiel 20:7 , Ezekiel 20:8 , and see Brugsch, Steininschrift und Bibelwort , passim , and Robertson, Early Religion of Israel , 217). (3) The bull and cow are now known to have been ordinary symbols for the most popular deities which were worshipped by all the race-relatives of the Hebrews and nowhere more devoutly than in Canaan and in the adjoining districts (see above). (4) Some of the chief gods of the pasture land of Goshen, where the Hebrews had resided for centuries (Genesis 47:6; Genesis 50:8 ), were Semitic gods which were worshipped not only by the Edomitic Bedouin and other foreigners living there by the "pools of Pithom" (compare Exodus 1:11 ) but by the native Egyptians, Ramses
2. Jeroboam's Golden Calves
Though this passage (1 Kings 12:26-33; compare 2 Chronicles 10:14 , 2 Chronicles 10:15 ) may have been reëdited later, "there is no reason to infer that any detail of fact is underived from the olden time" (Burney, Hebrew Text of Kings (1902), and DB ). These calves which Jeroboam set up were doubtless bulls (1 Kings 12:28 , Hebrew ) but at least as early as Hosea's time it seems probable (see above) that the more licentious worship of the feminine principle had been added to the official worship (Hosea 10:5; Hosea 13:2 , Hebrew). This which else here naturally and universally accompanied the bull worship could most truly be called "the sin of Samaria" (Amos 8:14 ) and be classed as the "sin of Jeroboam" (1 Kings 14:9 , 1 Kings 14:16; 1 Kings 16:26; 2 Kings 10:29 ). There is no sufficient reason for explaining the term "molten" in any other an its most natural and usual sense (Exodus 32:8 , Exodus 32:24; 2 Kings 17:16; Deuteronomy 9:16 ), for molded metal idols were common in all eras in Palestine and the surrounding countries, though the core of the image might be molten or graven of some inferior metal overlaid with gold (Isaiah 30:22; Isaiah 40:19 , Hebrew; Deuteronomy 7:25; Exodus 32:4 ). These bull images were undoubtedly intended to represent Yahweh (yet compare Robertson, op. cit., and Orr, Problem of Old Testament (1906), 145). The text explicitly identifies these images with Aaron's calf ( 1 Kings 12:28 ), so that nearly all the reasons given above to prove that Aaron's image represented not an Egyptian but an ancient Semitic deity are equally valid here. To these various other arguments may be added: (1) The text itself states that it is Yahweh who brought them from Egypt (Hosea 2:15; Hosea 12:13; Hosea 13:4 ), whom they call "My lord," and to whom they swear (Hosea 2:16 , King James Version margin; Hosea 4:15 ); and to whom they present their wine offerings, sacrifices and feasts (Hosea 8:13; Hosea 9:4 , Hosea 9:5 , Hebrew; compare Amos 5:8 ). (2) Jehu, though he destroyed all Baal idols, never touched these bulls (2 Kings 10:28 , 2 Kings 10:29 ). (3) The ritual, though freer, was essentially that of the Jerusalem temple (1 Kings 12:32; Hosea 5:6; Amos 4:5; Amos 5:22 , Amos 5:23; see, Oettli, Greifswalder Studien (1895), quoted in DB , I, 342). (4) Even the southern prophets recognized that it was Yahweh who had given Jeroboam the kingdom (1 Kings 11:31; 1 Kings 12:15 , 1 Kings 12:24 ) and only Yahweh worship could have realized Jeroboam's purpose of attaching to the throne by this cult such devout citizens as would otherwise be drawn to Jerusalem to worship. It was to guard against this appeal which the national sanctuary made to devout souls that this counter worship had been established. As Budde says, "A foreign cult would only have driven the devout Ephraimites the more surely over to Jerusalem" (Rel. of Israel (1899), 113). Jeroboam was not attempting to shock the conscience of his religious adherents by making heathenism the state religion, but rather to win these pious worshippers of Yahweh to his cause. (5) The places selected for the bull worship were places already sacred to Yahweh. This was preëminently true of Bethel which, centuries before Jerusalem had been captured from the Jebusites, had been identified with special revelations of Yahweh's presence ( Genesis 13:3 , Genesis 13:4; Genesis 28:19; Genesis 31:13; Genesis 35:15; 1 Samuel 7:16; Hosea 12:4 ). (6) The story shows that the allegiance of his most pious subjects was retained (1 Kings 12:20 ) and that not even Elijah fled to the Southern, supposing that the Northern Kingdom had accepted the worship of heathen gods as its state religion. Instead of this, Elijah, though the boldest opponent of the worship of Baal, is never reported as uttering one word against the bull worship at Dan and Bethel.
III. Attitude of Elijah to the Bull Symbols
This surprising silence is variously explained. A few scholars, though without any historic or textual evidence for the charge, are sure that the Bible narratives (though written by southern men) are fundamentally defective at this point, otherwise they would report Elijah's antagonism to this cult. Other few, equally without evidence, are comfortably sure that he fully approved the ancient ancestral calf cult. Others, with more probability, explain his position on the ground that, though he may not have favored the bull symbol - which was never used by the Patriarchs so far as known, and certainly was not used as a symbol of Yahweh in the Southern Kingdom, or Hosea the northern prophet would have spoken of it - yet being himself a northern man of old ideals and simple habits, Elijah may have believed that, even with this handicap, the freer and more democratic worship carried on al the ancient holy places in the North was less dangerous than the elaborate and luxurious ritual of the aristocratic and exclusive priesthood of the South, which insisted upon political and religious centralization, and was dependent upon such enormous revenues for its support (compare 1 Kings 12:10 , 1 Kings 12:14 ). At any rate it is self-evident that if Elijah had turned against Jeroboam and the state religion, it would have divided seriously the forces which needed to unite, in order to oppose with all energy the much fouler worship of Baal which just at this crisis, as never before or afterward, threatened completely to overwhelm the worship of Yahweh.
IV. Attitude of Amos and Hosea to the Bull Symbols
It is easy to see why Hosea might fiercely condemn a ritual which Elijah might rightly tolerate. (1) This calf worship may have deteriorated. Elijah lived closer to the time when the new state ritual was inaugurated and would naturally be at its best. Hosea lived at an era when he could trace the history of this experiment for nearly two cents, and could see clearly that these images had not helped but greatly hindered the development of the ethical and spiritual religion of Yahweh. Even if at first recognized as symbols, these images had become common idols (Hosea 12:11; Hosea 13:2 , and passim ). "This thing became a sin" ( 1 Kings 12:30; 1 Kings 13:34 ). The history of religion shows many such instances wher the visible or verbal symbol which in one era had been a real aid to devotion at a later time became positively antagonistic to it (see IMAGES ). As Baal was also worshipped under the form of a calf and as Yahweh himself was at times called "Baal" (Isaiah 54:5; Jeremiah 31:32; Hosea 2:16 Hebrew) this unethical tendency would be accelerated, as also by the political antagonism between Judah and Ephraim and the bitter hatred between the two rival priesthoods (compare 2 Chronicles 11:15; 2 Chronicles 13:9 ). Certain it is that by the middle of the 8th century the worship at Dan and Bethel had extended itself to many other points and had become so closely affiliated with the heathen worship as to be practically indistinguishable - at least when viewed from the later prophetic standpoint. But (2) it cannot be doubted that the prophetic standpoint had changed in 200 years. As the influence of the northern worship had tended toward heathenism, so the influence of the southern worship of an imageless god had tended toward higher spiritual ideals. Elijah could not have recognized the epoch-making importance of an imageless temple. The constant pressure of this idea
Literature
Besides references above, see especially commentaries of Dillmann and Driver on Exodus; Kuenen, Religion of Israel; W. R. Smith, Religion of Semites , 93-113 and index; König, Hauptprobleme der altisraelitischen Religionsgeschichte; Baeth gen, Beitr. zur semit. Religionsgeschichte; Kittel, History of Hebrews; "Baal" and "Ashtoreth" in Encyclopedia of Rel. and Ethics (full lit.); "Golden Calf" in Jewish Encyclopedia for Rabbinical and Mohammedan lit.
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Orr, James, M.A., D.D. General Editor. Entry for 'Calf, Golden'. International Standard Bible Encyclopedia. https://www.studylight.org/encyclopedias/eng/isb/c/calf-golden.html. 1915.
