Golden calf
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According to the Torah, the Bible, and the Quran, the golden calf or, in the Quranic account, the calf was a cult image made by the Israelites when Moses went up to Mount Sinai. In Hebrew, the inciden
Worshiping the golden calf, as in Exodus 32:1-35, illustration from a Bible card published in 1901 by the Providence Lithograph Company
Moses Indignant at the Golden Calf, painting by William Blake, 1799–1800
The Levites killed about 3,000 Israelites who worshipped the Golden Calf (1984 illustration by Jim Padgett).
Moses destroying the tablets (watercolor c. 1896–1902 by James Tissot)
El (deity)
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El is a Northwest Semitic word meaning 'god' or 'deity', or referring to any one of multiple major ancient Near Eastern deities. A rarer form, 'ila, represents the predicate form in the Old Akkadian a
Golden calf
…and syncretism. Among the Canaanites, some of whom would become the Israelites, the bull was widely worshipped as the sacred bull and the creature of El. When Moses went up Mount Sinai to receive the Ten Commandments (Exodus 24:12–18), he left the Israelites for forty days and nights. The Israelites…
Gilded statuette of El from Ugarit
Gebel al-Arak knife Possible depiction of El with two lions, B.C. 3450
Gilded statue of El (c. 1400–1200 BC) from the site of Tel Megiddo.