More likely is that they used the golden calf to represent Yahweh, especially given
God's close association with cattle. Or maybe the golden calf was a replacement for
Moses, who like a bull, has been portrayed as horned. Since he was missing on the
mountaintop, perhaps they felt they neededa new intermediary between God and
the people.
Related: In Vermont parishes I rediscovered the power of Moses' horns and an ox's
sacrifice
Whatever the motivation of Aaron and the people, the problem has little or nothing
to do with the fact that the statue they constructed was a bull, and more to do with
their spiritual orientation toward it.
God once used a golden image of a serpent, arguably the most unambiguously
negative animal in biblical tradition, to cure the people of snake poison (Numbers
21:9). If God can use a snake, then God can use a bull, especially given the repeated
association of cattle imagery with God in the tradition.
"El" is the oldest name of God in the Bible. It had broad regional resonance in the
Semitic world, and was unquestionably associated with cattle. Five times in the Old
Testament the name "The Mighty One of Jacob" is used for God, which scholars such
asTheodore J. Lewis argue is best translated as "The Bull of Jacob."
This connection might seem forced if not for the cultural context. The patriarchs,
kings and prophets were constantly offering sacrifices of cattle, such as when David
moved the ark (2 Samuel 6:13). After six steps, he sacrifices a bull and a fattened
calf. Cattle were the highest form of sacrifice in the Law (Psalm 69:32).
The cultural and spiritual influence of cattle culminated in the horn as an image of
royal and messianic power.Psalm 132 twice implores the Bull of Jacob to remember
the Horn of David, and prophesies that a new horn will sprout.
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St. Robert Bellarmine explains that the Old Testament use of the horn is taken "from
horned animals, who use their horns for protection." "I will bring forth a horn to
David," means for Bellarmine, "I will make David all powerful to conquer his
enemies; like a rampant bull, with his horns full grown."