Interestingly,
there is some evidence for the representation of El as a bull. In Ugaritic
mythological texts, in fact, El is often given the epithet “bull.” This imagery
may be picked up in a Ras Shamra relief, where an apparent representation of El
has him wearing horns. The Scriptures of the Hebrews, cultural and linguistic
relatives of the people of Ugarit, present Yahweh as the true name, revealed to
Moses, of the God whom the patriarchs worshiped as El. Indeed, it has been
argued that Yahweh is a cultic name of El, perhaps as patron deity of the
Midianites.33 It therefore is significant that the Hebrew Scriptures call the
God of the patriarchs the Bull of Jacob (often translated into English as the
Mighty One of Jacob) (Gen 49:24). Exodus 32 is relevant here. In that passage,
while Moses receives instruction from Yahweh on Mount Sinai, under pressure
from the people, Aaron has a golden calf made, really a young bull. In 1 Kgs
12:28–29, Jeroboam I enshrines two golden calves, that is, young bulls, one at Bethel
and one at Dan. These bulls in Exodus and in 1 Kings are identified as the gods
who led the Israelites out of Egypt (Exod 32:4; 1 Kgs 12:29). Could these bulls
have been images of Yahweh? These narratives, as we have received them, reflect
a hostile tradition that accuses the Israelites at Sinai and King Jeroboam of
apostasy. That may not be how everyone would have seen these events, which may
reflect a tradition of Yahweh worship that involved images of bulls that later
redactors of the Hebrew Scriptures opposed. If El is indeed represented as a
bull and is, as Levenson maintains, a god associated with child sacrifice, it
explains the bull imagery found in connection with child sacrifice. (John S.
Rundin, “Pozo Moro, Child Sacrifice, and the Greek Legendary Tradition,” Journal
of Biblical Literature 123, no. 3 [Fall 2004]: 433–435)
