The Golden CalfPage 1

Christian Churches of God

No. 222

The Golden Calf

(Edition 4.0 19970916-20001212-20080705)

Most people know of the symbol of the golden calf made by Aaron for Israel when Moses was up on the mountain. Most, however, do not understand what the calf stood for or what association it had then with Israel and what significance the calf had for the religious structure in the Middle East. The calf was not a simple idol of a calf. It was a symbol of a system of worship that was to penetrate Israel and destroy the religious system of Judah.

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(Copyright  1997, 1998, 2000, 2008 Wade Cox)

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The Golden Calf

The Golden CalfPage 1

When Moses was up on the mountain waiting to receive the Law from Messiah, as the presence of God, an activity took place in the camp of Israel that had profound significance for the religious structure of Israel.

The story of Moses and the Law is found in the Book of Exodus. The calf sequence commences in chapter 32.

Exodus 32:1-6 When the people saw that Moses delayed to come down from the mountain, the people gathered themselves together to Aaron, and said to him, "Up, make us gods, who shall go before us; as for this Moses, the man who brought us up out of the land of Egypt, we do not know what has become of him." 2 And Aaron said to them, "Take off the rings of gold which are in the ears of your wives, your sons, and your daughters, and bring them to me." 3 So all the people took off the rings of gold which were in their ears, and brought them to Aaron. 4 And he received the gold at their hand, and fashioned it with a graving tool, and made a molten calf; and they said, "These are your gods, O Israel, who brought you up out of the land of Egypt!" 5 When Aaron saw this, he built an altar before it; and Aaron made proclamation and said, "Tomorrow shall be a feast to the LORD." 6 And they rose up early on the morrow, and offered burnt offerings and brought peace offerings; and the people sat down to eat and drink, and rose up to play.

Here there are a number of propositions. The first is that, in the absence of Moses, the people grew restless. Without their leader they were left to their own devices and did not really comprehend that their relationship was direct to the Laws of God and with God. This is the type of Christ being away on the Mountain of God. The High Priest acted at the behest of the people, who went back to a system of worship that they understood or that had penetrated their society from earlier days. The making of the molten calf was from the symbols of the earrings that they wore in their ears. These were referred to as gods. They were the gods that brought them up out of Egypt. This text is rendered in the singular by the scribes in Nehemiah (viz. This is your god), as it refers to a single calf (cf. Neh. 9:16f.). However, it was in the plural as the gods were represented in the earrings and also in the calf.

Why did they make a calf? Why not a lion or bear or an antelope? Why was it a calf and not a bull or a cow? The answers are to be found in the religious symbolism of the deities worshipped. We are dealing with the symbolism of the moon god that was symbolised by the upturned horns of the calf. These upturned horns of the calf are not found, as a rule, in the well-bred mature animals because they are culled. They are found in the calf and represented the crescent moon on the horizon, as it appears some period after the true phasis of the conjunction. This crescent was also carried in the ears as was the full round circle, which represented both the sun and moon and the Morning Star in their splendour, as part of the triune system worshipped in Egypt and in the northern Mesopotamian (or what was later understood as the Babylonian)system. They rose up early to greet the rising sun and offered sacrifice also.

They sat down to eat and drink and rose up to play. The words denote the cultic feasts of the pagan systems. Moses had stayed up on the mountain for forty days and forty nights. This was to symbolise the forty Jubilees that Christ was to be away from the first to the second Advent. This long period is symbolised in this figure. Messiah also prefigured his departure along these lines (cf. 1Kgs. 19:8; Mat. 4:2).

The terminology was that ‘these gods shall go before us’. This concept was as a visible symbol of the divine presence, as in all pagan idolatry. Thus we see the difference between the worship of the One True God who is invisible and whom no man has ever seen or ever can see (Jn. 1:18; 1Tim. 6:16) and no man has heard His voice either (Jn. 5:37), symbolised by the conjunction at the new moon and the visible presence of the moon god observed as the crescent on the horizon. This concept and the star of the god Remphan or Rephan (Acts 7:43) has been the most persistent factor in Israelite idolatry over the centuries and especially since the Babylonian captivity, up until and after the formation of the New Testament Church. Aaron said: “Tomorrow shall be a feast to God”. He tried to use pagan practices to worship God.

Acts quotes Amos 5:25-27 to show that Israel, and now Judah, had always been idolaters.

Amos 5:25-27 "Did you bring to me sacrifices and offerings the forty years in the wilderness, O house of Israel? 26 You shall take up Sakkuth your king, and Kaiwan your star-god, your images, which you made for yourselves; 27 therefore I will take you into exile beyond Damascus," says the LORD, whose name is the God of hosts. (RSV)

The terms Sakkuth and Kaiwan are rendered in the RSV and held to designate known Assyrian deities. While in the wilderness, Israel had a pure direct relationship with God that did not require sacrifice (Jer. 2:2-3; Hos. 2:14-20; 9:10). The MT is held by Green (Interlinear Bible) to read the booths of your king (SHD 5522 and 4428) and Kiyyun (SHD 3594), your images (SHD 6754) the star (SHD 3556) of your gods (elohim). The term kiyyun is actually derived from SHD 3559 kuwn (pronounced koon) to stand erect, hence as a statue and thus an idol or phallus.

To this day, the star of the god Remphan or Kaiwan or Chiun stands on the Israeli flag as the star of David, which it is not. It and the crescent moon stand on the flag of Islam also, symbolising the Morning Star of the planet, which is the god of this world (2Cor. 4:4). It is of note that the terms Kaiwan/Kiyyun and Remphan are understood to be interchangeable from New Testament and Old Testament. The Septuagint (LXX) renders the text the tabernacle of Moloch and the star of your god Raephan (’Raiphan) (cf. Brenton’s translation of the LXX).

The Peshitta has the term Malcom and Chiun in Amos 5:26.

But you carried the tabernacle of Malcom and Chiun your idol, the star which you made a god to yourselves.

Moloch and Malcom are the same deity. Thus the tabernacle or Sukkoth was understood to be that of Moloch and the star was of Raiphan as at the translation of the LXX, or Malcom and Chiun from the Aramaic (cf. Lamsa’s translation of the Peshitta). We are dealing with the fertility rites of Moloch and the Raiphan system. This fertility system has underpinned Israelite idolatry from the Exodus, through the kings, and at the time of Amos, and right after the captivity to the time of the Apostles.

The Soncino commentary sides with the identification of the deities as the Assyrian Siccuth and Kaiwan, the latter being Saturn. The booth (Succoth) of the deity associated with Moloch (LXX) can only be the concept of the moon god, as the booth is the symbol for the concealment of the New Moon when the moon enters its booth and is concealed. The observation is done to note when the deity emerges and that is evidenced by the crescent as the upturned horns of the calf. For this reason, and for the dictates of the traditions, the observation of the crescent was introduced to the calendar. We now know for certain that the knowledge of the ancients regarding the phases of the moon was outstanding, and it is beyond question that they had the ability to measure such sequences with absolute accuracy. The introduced inaccuracy was deliberate and idolatrous.

The same symbols and the same idolatry were woven into the tapestry of Judaic religious life. The observation of the crescent is merely another representation of the Moon god Sin and the fertility system that underpinned it in the various names and forms we find from place to place. Sin was also Enzu and Nannaru. The name Naram-Sin was taken by one of Sargon’s (Sharru-kin) successors (c. 2637-2582 BCE), the son of Manishtusu, who reigned from 2557-2520 BCE. He attributed his victories to Ea, god of the abyss and lord of wisdom, even though he bore the name of the Moon god Sin. He was not the source of the deification of the god Sin. The dynasties at Ur all deified themselves under the name of Sin (i.e. Bur-Sin, Amal-Sin, Gimil-Sin, Shu-Sin, Ibi-Sin. The defeat of Ur by the Elamites saw the dynasty of Isin established there by Ishbi-irra (2186-2154 BCE). The Moon god Sin was symbolised by the bull. He was Chemosh of the Moabites and Milcom of the Ammonites. He was widely worshipped by all tribes.

The Canaanites were under Assyro-Babylonian dominance from 2200 (allegedly 3000,see ERE) to 1700 BCE. Even by circa 1400 BCE, their influence was still so great that all correspondence with Egypt and the Pharaoh was conducted in Babylonian, and the name of the Moon god Sin formed the basis for the Canaanite names Sinai and the Wilderness of Sin (ERE, Vol. 3, p. 183). The hand of Sin was seen in the cause of Catatonia or madness in children – hence, lunacy is associated with this deity (ibid., p. 527). Sin, Moon god of Harran, was also worshipped at Sam’al at the foot of Mount Amanus (ibid., Vol. 2, p. 295). Sin was the Baal of Harran mentioned in the correspondence at the time of Sennacharib, Esarhaddon and Ashurbanipal. Sargon (722-706 BCE) confirmed the exemption Harran enjoyed from taxes as the city of Sin (ibid.). Nabonidas, last king of Babylon (555-539 BCE), rebuilt the temple of Sin at Harran. Sin became identified with Be’el-shamin the owner of the sky from the Syrian dominance at Harran combining the Syrian god with the ancient Moon god. This deity was identified with Zeus by the Greeks from Phoenicia and Palmyra and elsewhere enjoying their patronage, and spread from Mesopotamia into Armenia. Ultimately, he became identified with Anu, Lord of Heaven of Babylon (ibid., Vol. 2, p. 295).

From the earliest times (ca. 4000 BCE), there were triads formed of Enlil, Anu and Enki. The second triad was formed from Ur, Moon god of Ur, Utu, Sun god of Sippar, and Nana, goddess of Erech (ibid., p. 296). The Moon god of Ur can be identified with Sin. The Semitic term Bel derived from Baal was used among the Babylonian Semites in the same sense as it was used by the other Semites, and in addition, used it as master or lord (ibid.).

The cults of Shamash and Sin there deal with the worship of the sun and the moon (ibid., p. 310). The second triad referred to above became known as Sin, Shamash and Ishtar (or also Sin, Shamash and Adad) (ibid., pp. 310-311). So that even by the middle of the second millennium BCE, Sin was a primary deity in both Ur and at Harran. Sin is the god of oracles (the word or divine utterance associated with Messiah and found among the early Sumerians and Babylonians), but Shamash his son carries this aspect also (ibid. and also cf. Vol. 12, pp. 749-752). Shamash is regarded as the brother of Ishtar. Shamash becomes supreme divine judge. Thus, the concept here in the Babylonian system strikes at the concepts vested in the biblical Messiah. Ishtar is the most prominent of female deities in the Assyro-Babylonian pantheon, absorbing the place of all others. Her place as queen of heaven goes back to remote antiquity. She is Venus and appears as Ashtarte (or Easter in the Anglo-Saxon), Nana and Anunitu (ibid.). She is goddess of fertility and worshipped everywhere. She is daughter of Sin and also of Anu. She is also associated with Sirius. She is goddess of sex and appropriates the attributes of Ninlil and Damkina and as daughter of Sin, and from her descent to Hades she is represented by temple prostitution. The lion, normally the symbol of Shamash, is associated with her, as is the dove (cf. ibid.). In this sequence, she then becomes associated with Tammuz or Dumuzi, as the bringer of new life in the spring cults.

This name Sin came into the Old English as a concept of transgression against the Laws of God. It was rendered from the original sunjo as sende in the old-Frisian, and became sonde in the middle-Dutch (cf. The Oxford Universal Dictionary, p 1897). It was associated with the foreign nations as an enclave in transgression against God’s Laws. The Arabs transferred the word to the empire of China as Sin and it seems that Sinim was understood as a far eastern land in the Hebrew/Aramaic (ciyniym SHD 5515 from 5512; cf. Isa. 49:12). This probably came from the concept of the moon and the rising sun with the morning star of Ishtar, rather than from Chinese mythology. Tien was the Chinese supreme heavenly deity.

Ishtar, as goddess of Venus as the evening star was goddess of sexual love. As goddess of Venus as the morning star she was goddess of war. Whilst there was a great diversity of cultic names in the Babylonian system, there was actually a central similarity of cultic function and this is not readily understood. They had a double triad, which we see here. The concept of seven from earliest Sumerian times was i-min as five (i) and two (min). This idea permeates the religious symbolism of the Bible and the compounds of five and two and then five again build the biblical system, which is determined to replace its Sumerian-Babylonian predecessor. Secular scholarship sees this as a cultural development. The Bible sees it as a spiritual question of the pre-eminence of the God of the Bible over the fallen Host, which are represented by the Babylonian system.

The symbolism surrounding this calf system at Sinai, from Sin as progenitor, ties into the earliest and most primitive sacrificial system employing also temple and cult prostitution on a widespread level. This is the reason the revelry was associated with the golden calf. By the invocation, Sin as Moon god represented by the calf, the three-fold or triune aspects of he and his offspring were invoked.

The terms relating to the horns of the calf are used by Kabbalistic Judaism even today, viz the upturned horns of the crescent moon on the horizon at the phasis. This terminology is of itself a lie, as the phasis is another aspect, namely the New Moon in its full dark capacity. Hence the term phases of the moon, being four from New Moon conjunction, to First Quarter, Full Moon, Last Quarter and back to the phasis or conjunction. These phases also govern the Spring and Neap tides. The symbolism of the chodesh as a concealed moon represents the God whom man has never seen nor can ever see. This concept of chodesh used in SHD 2320 is derived from chadar (SHD 2314), to encloseas in a room, to beset, or to enter a privy chamber (Strong). The New Brown-Driver-Briggs-GeseniusLexicon has the term meaning to surround, enclose, conceal, curtain concealing a person, chamber, house or tent as concealing someone. It can mean surrounding someone (cf. Ezek. 21:19). This implies the temple or sepulchral chamber.

The addenda to page 293b of the Lexicon (as a footnote in the 1979 edition) dealing with SHD 2314, chadar, clearly shows the concept of being a sepulchral chamber and is held to be best explained from the Syriac to go about, surround, around. It is held that it is uncertain whether the chamber is derived from the concept of surrounding or from II.conceal behind a curtain, conceal or confine, IV. conceal oneself abide or stay or remain behind. The Ethiopic is abide or dwell.