CALF
2S
CALF
or with nferenoe to an Egyptian cnstom (Herod, ii, 41; Poll Sjfnapsisj in loc). It has always been a difficulty to explain the process which he used; some account for it by his supposed knowledge of a forgot- ten art (such as was one of the boasts of alchemy) by which he could ^reduce gold to dust. Goguet {Origins des Lois) invokes the assistanoe of natron, which would have had the additional advantage of making the draught nauseous. Banmgarten easily endows the fire employed with miraculous properties. Bochart and BosenmOUer merely think that he cut, ground, and filed the gold to powder, such as was need to sprinlde over the hair (Joeephus, AmL viil, 7, 8). There seems little doubt that the Heb. term here ren- dered *' burnt*' (C)^^, Sept Karaicalui) properly has this signification (H&vemick's Introd. to the Pentat. p. 292). Those commentators who have been at so great pains to explain in what manner Moses reduced the golden calf to such a state as to make it potable in wa- ter seem to have overlooked the consideration that, as the science of making gold leaf for gilding was already practised in Egypt, &ere could be no great difficulty, even if chemical processes had not then been discover- ed, in effecting the object See Metal.
The legends about the calf are numerous. The suggestion is said by the Jews to have originated with certain Egyptian proselytes (Godwyn's Mos, and Aar. iv, 6) ; Hur, *'the desert's martyr," was lulled for op- posing it ; Abulfeda says that all except 12,000 wor- shipped it; when made, it was magically animated (Exod. xxxii, 24). " The devil, " says Jonathan, " got into the metal and fashioned it into a calf" (Ughtfoot, Works, V, 898). Hence the Koran (vii, 146) calls it *'a corporeal calf, made of their ornaments, vkich loved" This was effected, not by Aaron (according to the Mo- hammedans), but by al-S4meri, a chief Israelite, whose descendants still hihabit an island of the Arabian Gulf. He took a handful of dust from the footsteps of the horse of Gabriel, who rode a^ the head of the host, and threw it into the mouth of the calf, which immediately began to low. No one is to be punished in heU more than forty days, being the number of days of the calf-worship (Sale's Koran, ed. Davenport, p. 7, note; and see Weil's Legends, p. 125). It was a Jewish proverb that " no punishment befidleth the Is- raelites in which there is not an ounce of this calf" (Godwyn, tU supJ). See Aabon.
2. The next notice refers to an event which occur- red ages after, when Jeroboam, king of Israel, return- ing from his long exile in Egypt, set up two idols in the form of a calf, the one in Dan (comp. Josephus, War, iv, i, 1) and the other in Bethel, the two ex- tremes of his kingdom, to prevent the ten tribes from resorting to Jerusalem to worship, and so more effect- ually to separate them from the house of David. Tem- ples were built and altars erected for these images ; priests were appointed from all the tribes without dis- tinction, and tiie priestly functions performed even by the monarch himself. The calves continued to be a snare to the people of Israel until the captivity. The calf at Dan was carried away by Tiglath-Pileser, and that of Bethel ten years after by his son Shalmaneser (1 Kings XV, 29; xvii, 18; Prideaux, Connection, i, 15). Jeroboam's sin is always mentioned whenever his name is used (1 Kings xi, 40; xii, 26-88 ; 2 Chron. xi, 15; Eos. Tiii, 6, 6; x, 5; xUi, 2). See Jbbo-
BOAM.
Bochart thinks that the ridiculous story of Celsus about the Christian worship of an ass-headed deity (cf^led Qa^fiaitO fi 'Ovtr}\ — a story at the source of which Tertullian, 'OtfOKoinjc, ApoL 16; Ad Nat. i, 14, could only guess) sprang from some misunderstanding of such emblems as the golden calf (Minuc. FeL Apol, ix). But it IB much more probable, as Origen conjec- tured, that the Christians were confounded with the absurd mystic Ophiani, or Ophite Gnostics (Tacitus,
HUL V, 4; Merhrde, Higt, of Emp, ri, 664). See Am's Head.
Theory oftUs Idolatrg.'—ThiB almost inoompralRBii- ble degradation of human reason was, more paftSroisrir in tlie first instance, no doubt the result of the debasing infiuences which operated on the minds of the Isra^ itee during tlieir sojourn in Egypt, wheie, amid the daily practioe of the most degrading and revolting re- ligions ceremonies, they were accustomed to see the image of a sacred calf, surronnded by other symbols, carried in solemn pomp at the head of marching annJee, such as may still be seen depicted in the proeessioos of Barneses the Great or Seaostrit. The accompiiiy*
Andtuit Egyptian Celf-IdoL ing figure is a representation of a calf-idol, copied fnm. the original collection made by the artists of tiie French Institute of Cairo. It is recumbent, with hu- man eyes, the skin flesh-colored, and the whole aftei^ parts covered with a white and sky-blue diapered dn^ pery ; the horns are not on the head, but above it, and contain within them the symbolical globe snrmoanted by two feathers. Upon the neck is a blue and yellow yoke, and the flagellum, of various colors, is suspend- ed over the back; the whole is fixed upon a brosd stand for carrying, as here shown. The rendering of the Auth. Vers., which alludes to the image being fin- ished with a graving-tool, is obviously correct, for all the lines and tooli^ of the covering doth, of the eyes, and of the feathers must have required tluit man- ual operation (Exod. xxxll, 4). It is doubtful wheth- er this idolatrous form is either Apis or Mnevis ; it may perhaps represent the sun's first entrance into Taurus, or, more probably, be a symbol known to the Egyp* tians by an undeciphered designation, and certainly understood by the Edomites of later ages, who called it bakumed and khar^f, or the calf, the mysterions <■•»- ma mundi; according to Yon Hammer (Pref. to An^ dent A Iphabets), the Nabathnan secret of secrets, or the beginning and return of every thing. With the em- blems oh the back, it may have symbolized the plnrsl Elohim long before the cabalistical additions of this mysterious type had changed the figure. At the time of the departure of the Israelites fk^ Egypt this may have been the Moloch of their neighbors, for that idol was figured with the head of a calf or steer. A shni- lar divinity belonged to the earliest Indian, Greek, and even Scandinavian mythologies, and thereibre it may be conceived that the symbol, enduring even to this day, was at that period generally understood by the multitude, and consequently that it was afterward re- vived by Jeroboam without popular opposition. Egyp- tian paintings illustrate the contempt which the proph- et Hoeea (x, 6) casts upon the practice of those whom he designates as *' coming to stuTt^ and iUw tAe oalwt.'' See Baal.