Idols

An Idol is an image or representation of a god used as an object of worship. The golden calf was an idol of the Israelites who, according to the book of Exodus in the Old Testament, and backed by archaeology, left Egypt in the 13th century BC  in the reign of the Pharaoh Ramses II.  During their 40 years wandering in the desert, their leader Moses left them for 40 days and 40 nights to go up Mount Sinai and seek inspiration from God.  God gave him stone tablets inscribed with the ten commandments.  The number 40 is used in both the Bible and the Koran to indicate a long period of time.  (Jesus spent 40 days in the wilderness.  Muhammad was 40 when the Quran was revealed to him).

The Israelites, left without a leader, feared that Moses would not return.  They asked Aaron, who was Moses’ elder brother to make them a god.  He melted all their gold and jewellery and constructed a golden calf saying  “This is thy God O Israel which brought thee out of the land of Egypt”.  The Israelites offered sacrifices to the calf on an altar.  Up on the mountain God told Moses what was going on and he came down the mountain and was very angry and threw down the tablets  He gathered the sons of Levi who did not worship the golden calf, together and told them to slay every man, his brother and his neighbour in the camp of the golden calf.

 
The Adoration of the Golden calf by Nicholas Poussin 1594-1665 

Another story of the golden calf is told in the book of Kings in the Old Testament. In the 10th century BCE Jeroboam broke away from the house of David with 10 of the 12 tribes of Israel and set up the kingdom of Israel to the North of Jerusalem.  Afraid that some of his followers might return to Jerusalem to worship,  he built two temples and set up golden calves, one of them in Bethel and one in Dan. 

The Israelites choice of a bull for their idol was not surprising as the cult was common amongst the peoples of the Eastern Mediterranean.  A symbol of virility and strength, the bull god El was a god of the Canaanites, from whom the Israelites were descended.  The bull idol was worshiped from the Indus in the East to the Danube in the West.  The earliest evidence comes from shrines in Anatolia (c7000BCE), depicting paintings of bull games and bull leaping, along with plaster bull’s heads.  Similar frescos were found in Crete, they are later and date to about 2000BCE.  It is thought that Crete was inhabited by Anatolians who brought their religious customs with them.  Artefacts from Knossos in Crete include the famous “Horns of Consecration” and frescos showing bull leaping.  

The Egyptian god Apis from the 2nd dynasty (2890-2685BCE) was a living bull who was believed to be the embodiment of the god Ptah.  When an Apis bull died priests would find a new one which was taken to Memphis to live in luxury.  After death they were mummified.  Apis was worshiped in Egypt until the rise of Christianity in the 4th century.

Bull worship continued throughout the ancient world with deities in Greece and Rome.  Mithraism was a strong belief in the Roman empire, especially amongst the Roman legions and existed until the beginning of the 5th century. Bull fighting in Spain and Southern France are connected to St Saturnin a Christian Martyr put to death by a bull, for silencing the prophesies of the local oracle.

 


The Martyrdom of St Saturnin

Margaret  31.01.2021

Comments

  1. myarmJanuary 31, 2021 at 12:17 PM

    Margaret thank you, a good read that. Cows highly revered amongst Hindus also.

    ReplyDelete
  2. BridgetJanuary 31, 2021 at 12:17 PM

    so many big words and facts, I'll have to read again and again. I like the bit about the bull fighting...

    ReplyDelete

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