iv. The Origin of the Bull Symbols. — We have deferred to this stage tlie inquiry as to the origin of this form of religious symbolism. It is needless to occupy space witli proof of tlie absurdity of the opinion so long current in the Church, both Jewish and Christian, that we have here a species of avowed idolatry. Whatever abuses may have crept in at a later period, however gross may have become the conceptions of the people regarding the golden bulls, it is now universally acknowledged that they were originally a sincere attempt to symbolise the true covenant God of Israel. Whence, then, did the Hebrews derive this symbol ? How came they to represent the Deity under the form of a young bull? Tlie answer, almost uniformly given from the days of Philo and the early fathers to our own, has been : The Hebrews borrowed this symbolism from tlie Egyptians. Now, it is indeed a striking coincidence that both Aaron and Jero- boam had intimate relations with Egypt just before they fashioned their respective images. But it is a mistake to speak of Jeroboam as a prot<ig6 of Shishak or Sheshonk of Egj-pt, for this monarch claims to have captured cities from Central as well as from Southern Palestine in the course of the raid referred to in 1 K 14^*-. Some of the difficul- ties in the way of accepting the Egyp. origin of the so-called calf or bull worship are these : (a) The Eg3-ptians worshipped only the living bulls Apis and Mnevis, as incarnations of Osiris and of the Sun-god respectively ; (6) it would have been the height of absurdity to speak, as Aaron did, of the golden calf as representing the God that brought the Hebrews up out of Egypt, had the image been a reflection of any Egyp. deity ; (c) the historical situation of 1 K 12^"- recjuires that the new symbolism by which Jeroboam hoped to consolidate his kingdom should not be an importation from without, but something genuinely national. For these and other reasons the majority of the more recent writers on this subject prefer to seek the origin of the bull-symbolism in the native religious tendencies of the Hebrews themselves — tendencies which they shared with the other Semitic peoples about them. Among an agricultural people there could be no more natural symbol of strength and vital energy than the young bull. The leaning to this particular symbolism was, so to say, in the blood, from the far-olf days when the ancestors of the Hebrews were still beyond the flood (Jos 24-). This view of the native origin of the so-called bull- worship has been adopted not only by such men as Vatke (Bibl. T/ieol. p. 398), Kuenen (Relit;, oj Israel, i. passim), and Uahm{Theol. d. Pruphetcn, p. 47), but by more conservative scholars, such as Dillmann [Exodus, 1880, p. 337; Handb. d. AT T/u-ol. 1895, pp. 98-9), and Baudissin, in Germany, and hesitatingly, in our ovm coimtry, by Robertson (Early lidig. pp. 215-220, where a full discussion of the problem will be found).
V. Attitude of the Prophets Amos axd Hosea to the Bull-Symbols. — We cannot bring this article to a close without a brief reference to this topic. However excellent Jeroboam's in- tentions may have been in the institution of the new form of the national cultus, and however little the contemporary representatives of Jahwism may have found amiss therein, we cannot escape the conclusion that he, unwittingly it may be, sanctioned a declension from the pure teaching of the great prophet and founder of Israel's religion,
CALITAS
CALL
343
with its imageless worship of J". The silence of the earlier prophets is a fact, explain it as we may. It has even been questioned if Amos condemns the bulls of tlie northern sanctuaries (but see above for Am 4* 5'). Hosea, on the other hand, is unable to express the intensity of his scorn for them. He saw what liis predecessors in the i)roplietic office had not seen, how dangerous an approach to the worship of the heathen deities of Caii.ian the institution.'^ of Jerolioam had provided. This wor- ship of J" by images had helped on a gradual assimi- lation of the religion of J " to that of Baal, which now threatened to prove f.atal to the former. IJuU- symbolism was rapidly becomin" mere bull-worship. So that while, in justice to Jeroboam, we may fairly modify the sweeping condemnation passed upon him bv the later biblical writers, imbued with the lohier si)iritual te.acliing of Ueut., we must also charge him with having hindered, not helped forward, the di\'ine purpose in the election of Israel. ' In reality, man cannot with impunity brin" down the invisible God to the sphere of the visible ; he thereby empties the idea of God of its ethical content ; it loses for him its sanctifyin", elevating, disciplinin" and purifying power ; God, for him, .sinks to the level of a heathen idol, which makes no higher demands on men. This is amply proved by tlie history of the Northern kingdom ; Its image-worship became for it a bridge by which to pass over into genuine heathenism ; the heathenish, secular atmosphere (Sinn) and heathen immorality overpowered it, and brought al)Out the premature dissolution of the State' (Dillmann, Uandbuch, p. 167).
LiTSRATURK. — Besides the Comm. on Exrxius and Kinp>, and the works on OT TlieoIo(r>' by Kiiencn {HcHtUin of Israel esp., lol. 1. 73-7,^, Ei.l-riO, 2&I-62, 34.')-347), Schultz, 'Smend, and mWrntinn (I I andljuchd. AT Throlopie, 1895, pp. 98-9, 160-7), the folL special works may be consulted : Of the older writers MoncsDus, Aaron Pur<]at\u (in Critici Sacri, ix., a brief sum- ni%ry is piven by Slait. Poole in his St/nopsis under Ex 32) ; Bi> hart, 1/i^rozoicon, lib. ii. c. 34 ; De Aureui . . . Vitulia, pp. S29-.'i00 ; Sclilen, I)e DU Syria, pp. 45-fl4. Of modem work.s, E. Konijt. Uii'i]it]irnbiemr., etc., pp. 63-.'i8, and Dit liUdlositikeit d. l^itimen J ahwehcuUua, ISS6 ; also on the same lines. Ilubcrtson, Early lifligum of Igraft, ch. ix. ; Baudi-ssin, Studini, etc. vol. i., And his art. ' Kalb (^roIdenes)' in PUK'-, vii. 39!>-400 (e.sp. infomiintr as to prevalence of bull-worship among the Seni. tribes); S. Oettii, * I>er Kultus bei Amus u. Hosea in Grn'fu- vaUler Stiidim, 181)5, pp. 1-34 ; also art. 'Calf in Smith, DBl (by Farrar). A. R. S. KENNEDY.