bull

An animal important in ancient Israelite religion. Bulls were often sacrificed in the Temple. A designation for Israel’s God in Genesis, commonly translated “Mighty One of Jacob,” was originally in Hebrew “Bull of Jacob” (Gen 49:24). Statues of bulls were erected in Israel presumably as animal thrones for the invisible deity. Still, in Israelite religion, there was always concern that the animal throne would itself become the object of worship. This danger was actually realized, according to the biblical writer, in the two bulls that Jeroboam I set up in Bethel and Dan in the tenth century BCE (1Kgs 12:28; Exod 32:4).