Pharaoh Kneeling Before the Bull God

Was this the Golden Calf of the Exodus? The ancient Egyptians believed that Apis, the sacred bull of Memphis was a manifestation of Ptah upon the earth. Whenever an Apis bull died in Memphis it was embalmed and mummified. Each bull had its own huge sarcophagus and its birth and death were recorded, carved onto the walls. The Pharaoh Kneeling Before the Bull Deity discovery is important in the study of Biblical Archaeology. After the Israelites were delivered from Egypt, Moses came down from the mountain and found Aaron had set up a golden calf or young bull, that the people might worship God in this form. When the northern kingdom of Israel divided from their brothers in the south, Jeroboam introduced bull worship and set up two idols (calves of gold), one at Bethel and the other at Dan. "The Apis is the calf of a cow which is never afterwards able to have another. The Egyptian belief is that a flash of light descends upon the cow from heaven, and this causes her to conceive Apis. The Apis-calf has distinctive marks: it is black, with a white square on its forehead, the image of an eagle on its back, the hair on its tail double, and a scarab under its tongue. Herodotus, Histories 3.28 Exodus 32:3,4 "And all the people brake off the golden earrings which were in their ears, and brought them unto Aaron. 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." 1 Kings 12:28-29 "Whereupon the king took counsel, and made two calves of gold, and said unto them, It is too much for you to go up to Jerusalem: behold thy gods, O Israel, which brought thee up out of the land of Egypt. And he set the one in Bethel, and the other put he in Dan."