How Moses was able to consume the golden calf with fire (r]"iU3), and reduce it to powder ("ni:, pul- verize), as stated in Exod. xxxii, 20, is difficult to say ; for although gold readiljr becomes weak and to some extent friable under the action of fire, 3'et it is by no means thus burnt to sucii a degree as to be reduciljle to dust, and be susceptible of dissolution in drink. Most interpreters, e. g. Rosenmiiller {Scliol. ad loc.), thinlv of some chemical process (which Closes ma}' have learned in Egypt, see Wilkinson, A7icient Egypt. abridgm. ii, 136 sq.), Iiy which gold maj' have been cal- cined, and so have been triturated as a metallic salt. Others (Ludwig, Be inodo quo comminiitus est a Jlfoses vitulus aureus, Altdorf, 1745) believe that Moses beat the fire-checked gold into leaves, and then ground these into fine particles in a mill, or filed the melted gold into dust (scohis rivrea ; comp. Josephus, Ant.vln, 7, 3; see Bochart, Hieroz. i, 363). The difficult}' lies in the double procedure, and in the expression " burn- ed with fire" ("CNS ^"'b''^), which does not seem ap- plicable to a chemical, but rather to a mechanical pro- cess.— Winer, i, 644. See Calf, Golden.
Golden City (tlSti'ip, madliebah'; Sept. iiri- (T7ro!i("«(Tr//c,Vulg. trihutuiii), a term applied as an ep- ithet of Babylon (Isa. xiv, 4), and occurring nowhere else. Some derive it from the Arama-an 2tTl, gold. as a verb-form (in the Hip. part. f<im.)=gold-maHng, i. e. exactress of gold, a not inapt emblem of the impe- rial mart (parallel hemistich wJi, grinding') ; or else = a heap or treastiry of gold ("S pref. formative of place). So Gesenius prefers with hesitation (T/ies. IJeb. p. 322 b), after Kimchi, Al)en-Ezra, etc. Others (so Etirst, Heb. Lex. s. v.), following the Targums, Sept., Aqui- la, SjTiac, and Arab, of Sadias, prefer to read nsrtl^
marhehah' , in the sense of opjjression, from Dll'^, rO' hub' , to scare (compare Isa. iii, 5, where iil"i occurs in parallelism with CJl). See Babylon.
Golden Legend (La.t.Aurea Legenda), a collec- tion of legendary accounts of saints, long very popu- lar, in almost all the European languages. It was compiled by a Dominican, James de Voragine, also written Vragine and Varagine, about A.D. 1230. It has 177 sections, each giving an account of a particu- lar saint or festival. It is of no historical value.
Golden. Number, the number in the ecclesiasti- cal calendar by which the age of the moon, and conse- quently the time of Easter, is determined. Easter-day being the first Sunday after the full moon, which hap- pens upon or next after the 21st of March, to deter- mine the time of Easter, it is onh^ necessary to find out the precise time of the above full moon. As at the end of nineteen j'ears the moon returns to have her changes on the same daj-s of the solar year i.nd of the month on which they happened nineteen years before, it follows that hy the use of a cvcle consisting of nineteen numbers, the various changes of the moon for every year may be found out without the use of astronomical tables. The numbers of this cj'cle, from their great usefulness, were usually written in the cal- endar in letters of gold: hence the name, golden num- ber. Another account of the origin of the name is that the metonic cycle of ni^^teen years [see Chro- nology] was originally engraved in letters of gold on marble columns. The rule for finding the golden number for any particular year is, ".4 dd 1 to the number of years, and divide by 19 ; the quotient gives the number of cycles, and the remainder gives the golden nwndier for that year; and if there be no remaiiuler, then 19 is the golden number, and that year is the lust of the cycle." — Farrar, Eccles. Diet. s. v.
Golden Rose, a rose set in precious stones, con- secrated by the pope, and sent to crowned heads and others whom the pope deliglits to honor. This rose was first sent in 1366 by Urban V to Joan, queen of Sicily. The pope consecrates one every jear on the 4th Sundaj' in Lent. The golden rose was sent to the queen of Spain just before her downfall in 1868.
Golden Wedge (Crs, lethen/, Isa. xiii, 12; a poetical term, fine gold, as elsewhere rendered). See Gold.
Goldsmith ("'l^'i^, tsoreph', Neh. iii, 8, 32 ; Isa. xl, 19; xli, 7; xlvi, 6; ajTowwc^cr or ^?ier, as elsewhere rendered), a melter of gold (i. q. r)']i^p, matsrej^h' , " re- finer," Mai. iii, 2, 3). See Gold. In Neh. iii, 31, the word so rendered ("^S"!^) is rather a proper name, Zor- PHi (q. v.). " The use of gold for jewelry and vari- ous articles of luxury dates from the most remote ages. Pharaoh having 'arraj'ed' Joseph 'in vestures of fine linen, put a gold chain about his neck ;' and the jew- els of silver and gold borrowed from the Egyptians by the Israelites at the time of their leaving Egypt (out of which the golden calf was afterwards made), suffice to prove the great quantitj' of precious metals wrought at that time into female ornaments. It is not from the Scriptures alone that the skill of the Egyptian goldsmiths may be infeired; the sculptures of Thelies and Beni-Hassan aftbrd their additional testimonj', and the numerous gold and silver vases, inlaid work, and jewehy, represented in common use, show the great advancement the}' had made in this branch of art. At Beni-Hassan, the process of washing the ore, smelting or fusing the metal with the help of the blow-pipe, and fashioning it for ornamental purposes, weighing it, and taking an account of the quantity so made up, and other occupations of tlie goldsmith, are represented ; but, as might be supposed, these subjects merely suf- fice, as they were intended, to give a general indica- tion of the goldsmith's trade, without attempting to