I am reading “Who Wrote the Bible” by Dr. Richard Elliot Friedman who states, as I understand it, that Israel had the tabernacle At Shechem where besides the two fifteen-foot-high winged sphinxes, or cherubim, made of wood with gold plated coverings, there were sculpted images of flowers and palm trees, ordered by the Jewish deity to be placed there; they had two molten golden young bulls (not really calves) as the symbol of their religion. One was placed in Dan, and the other in Beth-El, so the deity would be enthroned in all of Israel rather than in only one place in Jerusalem, Judah’s capital.
Exodus 32:4 (KJV)
And he received them at their hand, and fashioned it with a graving tool, after he had made it a molten calf: and they said, These be thy gods, O Israel, which brought thee up out of the land of Egypt.
My comments: A curious thing is that besides the bible throughout condemns molten images, but not beaten gold Exodus 32 uses the plural “these” and “gods”. It should indicate more than one god, even though there is only one golden young bull (calf) to represent them.
Dr. Elliot Friedman makes the point that the Canaanite god El was represented not only by cherubs (winged sphinxes), but also by bulls.
Numbers 21:8 (NIV)
The LORD said to Moses, "Make a snake and put it up on a pole; anyone who is bitten can look at it and live."
My comments: Here the deity YHWH orders the construction of an idol with magical powers. (Although this one did not eat two snakes without apparent weight gain when switched back to wood, as it happened in the pharaoh’s court legend)
2 Kings 18:4 (NIV)
He removed the high places, smashed the sacred stones and cut down the Asherah poles. He broke into pieces the bronze snake Moses had made, for up to that time the Israelites had been burning incense to it. (It was called Nehushtan.)
My thoughts: Those high places were used for the sacrifice of acceptable animals to YHWH, but the Aaronite priests would not get their cut of the action. The Mushite (descendants of Moses) priests would be out of a job due to the centralization of sacrifices. El's / YHWH’s consort would be of the picture for some time.
The bronce snake had offerings of burnt incense, which were meant, not to the snake, but to the deity. According to Josephus, all animals could talk in “Paradise”, but I doubt that they would would burn incense to an animal or anything else that a representation of their exclusive god, who ordered it built. Obviously this deity had no problem with it for 800 years or so. How do I know it?
Remember that Moses, the meekest man on earth, had a man murdered for picking sticks on a Saturday, but there is no record of anyone being murdered during all this time by YHWH or his followers for burning incense to the snake's statue. Therefore working on a Saturday is a greater sin than offering a smoke to El / YHWH.
Faraon
