The Golden Calf (No. 222)

When Moses was up on the mountain waiting to receive the Law from Messiah, as the presence of God, an activity took place in the camp of Israel that had profound significance for the religious structure of Israel.

The story of Moses and the Law is found in the Book of Exodus. The calf sequence commences in chapter 32.

Exodus 32:1-6 When the people saw that Moses delayed to come down from the mountain, the people gathered themselves together to Aaron, and said to him, "Up, make us gods, who shall go before us; as for this Moses, the man who brought us up out of the land of Egypt, we do not know what has become of him." ²And Aaron said to them, "Take off the rings of gold which are in the ears of your wives, your sons, and your daughters, and bring them to me." ³So all the people took off the rings of gold which were in their ears, and brought them to Aaron. ⁴And he received the gold at their hand, and fashioned it with a graving tool, and made a molten calf; and they said, "These are your gods, O Israel, who brought you up out of the land of Egypt!" ⁵When Aaron saw this, he built an altar before it; and Aaron made proclamation and said, "Tomorrow shall be a feast to the LORD." ⁶And they rose up early on the morrow, and offered burnt offerings and brought peace offerings; and the people sat down to eat and drink, and rose up to play.

Here there are a number of propositions. The first is that, in the absence of Moses, the people grew restless. Without their leader they were left to their own devices and did not really comprehend that their relationship was direct to the Laws of God and with God. This is the type of Christ being away on the Mountain of God. The High Priest acted at the behest of the people, who went back to a system of worship that they understood or that had penetrated their society from earlier days. The making of the molten calf was from the symbols of the earrings that they wore in their ears. These were referred to as gods. They were the gods that brought them up out of Egypt. This text is rendered in the singular by the scribes in Nehemiah (viz. This is your god), as it refers to a single calf (cf. Neh. 9:16f.). However, it was in the plural as the gods were represented in the earrings and also in the calf.

Why did they make a calf? Why not a lion or bear or an antelope? Why was it a calf and not a bull or a cow? The answers are to be found in the religious symbolism of the deities worshipped. We are dealing with the symbolism of the moon god that was symbolised by the upturned horns of the calf. These upturned horns of the calf are not found, as a rule, in the well-bred mature animals because they are culled. They are found in the calf and represented the crescent moon on the horizon, as it appears some period after the true phasis of the conjunction. This crescent was also carried in the ears as was the full round circle, which represented both the sun and moon and the Morning Star in their splendour, as part of the triune system worshipped in Egypt and in the northern Mesopotamian (or what was later understood as the Babylonian) system. They rose up early to greet the rising sun and offered sacrifice also.

They sat down to eat and drink and rose up to play. The words denote the cultic feasts of the pagan systems. Moses had stayed up on the mountain for forty days and forty nights. This was to symbolise the forty Jubilees that Christ was to be away from the first to the second Advent. This long period is symbolised in this figure. Messiah also prefigured his departure along these lines (cf. 1Kgs. 19:8; Mat. 4:2).

The terminology was that ‘these gods shall go before us’. This concept was as a visible symbol of the divine presence, as in all pagan idolatry. Thus we see the difference between the worship of the One True God who is invisible and whom no man has ever seen or ever can see (Jn. 1:18; 1Tim. 6:16) and no man has heard His voice either (Jn. 5:37), symbolised by the conjunction at the new moon and the visible presence of the moon god observed as the crescent on the horizon. This concept and the star of the god Remphan or Rephan (Acts 7:43) has been the most persistent factor in Israelite idolatry over the centuries and especially since the Babylonian captivity, up until and after the formation of the New Testament Church. Aaron said: “Tomorrow shall be a feast to God”. He tried to use pagan practices to worship God.

Acts quotes Amos 5:25-27 to show that Israel, and now Judah, had always been idolaters.

Amos 5:25-27 "Did you bring to me sacrifices and offerings the forty years in the wilderness, O house of Israel? ²⁶You shall take up Sakkuth your king, and Kaiwan your star-god, your images, which you made for yourselves; ²⁷therefore I will take you into exile beyond Damascus," says the LORD, whose name is the God of hosts. (RSV)

The terms Sakkuth and Kaiwan are rendered in the RSV and held to designate known Assyrian deities. While in the wilderness, Israel had a pure direct relationship with God that did not require sacrifice (Jer. 2:2-3; Hos. 2:14-20; 9:10). The MT is held by Green (Interlinear Bible) to read the booths of your king (SHD 5522 and 4428) and Kiyyun (SHD 3594), your images (SHD 6754) the star (SHD 3556) of your gods (elohim). The term kiyyun is actually derived from SHD 3559 kuwn (pronounced koon) to stand erect, hence as a statue and thus an idol or phallus.

To this day, the star of the god Remphan or Kaiwan or Chiun stands on the Israeli flag as the star of David, which it is not. It and the crescent moon stand on the flag of Islam also, symbolising the Morning Star of the planet, which is the god of this world (2Cor. 4:4). It is of note that the terms Kaiwan/Kiyyun and Remphan are understood to be interchangeable from New Testament and Old Testament. The Septuagint (LXX) renders the text the tabernacle of Moloch and the star of your god Raephan (’Raiphan) (cf. Brenton’s translation of the LXX).

The Peshitta has the term Malcom and Chiun in Amos 5:26.

But you carried the tabernacle of Malcom and Chiun your idol, the star which you made a god to yourselves.

Moloch and Malcom are the same deity. Thus the tabernacle or Sukkoth was understood to be that of Moloch and the star was of Raiphan as at the translation of the LXX, or Malcom and Chiun from the Aramaic (cf. Lamsa’s translation of the Peshitta). We are dealing with the fertility rites of Moloch and the Raiphan system. This fertility system has underpinned Israelite idolatry from the Exodus, through the kings, and at the time of Amos, and right after the captivity to the time of the Apostles.

The Soncino commentary sides with the identification of the deities as the Assyrian Siccuth and Kaiwan, the latter being Saturn. The booth (Succoth) of the deity associated with Moloch (LXX) can only be the concept of the moon god, as the booth is the symbol for the concealment of the New Moon when the moon enters its booth and is concealed. The observation is done to note when the deity emerges and that is evidenced by the crescent as the upturned horns of the calf. For this reason, and for the dictates of the traditions, the observation of the crescent was introduced to the calendar. We now know for certain that the knowledge of the ancients regarding the phases of the moon was outstanding, and it is beyond question that they had the ability to measure such sequences with absolute accuracy. The introduced inaccuracy was deliberate and idolatrous.

The same symbols and the same idolatry were woven into the tapestry of Judaic religious life. The observation of the crescent is merely another representation of the Moon god Sin and the fertility system that underpinned it in the various names and forms we find from place to place. Sin was also Enzu and Nannaru. The name Naram-Sin was taken by one of Sargon’s (Sharru-kin) successors (c. 2637-2582 BCE), the son of Manishtusu, who reigned from 2557-2520 BCE. He attributed his victories to Ea, god of the abyss and lord of wisdom, even though he bore the name of the Moon god Sin. He was not the source of the deification of the god Sin. The dynasties at Ur all deified themselves under the name of Sin (i.e. Bur-Sin, Amal-Sin, Gimil-Sin, Shu-Sin, Ibi-Sin. The defeat of Ur by the Elamites saw the dynasty of Isin established there by Ishbi-irra (2186-2154 BCE). The Moon god Sin was symbolised by the bull. He was Chemosh of the Moabites and Milcom of the Ammonites. He was widely worshipped by all tribes.

The Canaanites were under Assyro-Babylonian dominance from 2200 (allegedly 3000, see ERE) to 1700 BCE. Even by circa 1400 BCE, their influence was still so great that all correspondence with Egypt and the Pharaoh was conducted in Babylonian, and the name of the Moon god Sin formed the basis for the Canaanite names Sinai and the Wilderness of Sin (ERE, Vol. 3, p. 183). The hand of Sin was seen in the cause of Catatonia or madness in children – hence, lunacy is associated with this deity (ibid., p. 527). Sin, Moon god of Harran, was also worshipped at Sam’al at the foot of Mount Amanus (ibid., Vol. 2, p. 295). Sin was the Baal of Harran mentioned in the correspondence at the time of Sennacharib, Esarhaddon and Ashurbanipal. Sargon (722-706 BCE) confirmed the exemption Harran enjoyed from taxes as the city of Sin (ibid.). Nabonidas, last king of Babylon (555-539 BCE), rebuilt the temple of Sin at Harran. Sin became identified with Be’el-shamin the owner of the sky from the Syrian dominance at Harran combining the Syrian god with the ancient Moon god. This deity was identified with Zeus by the Greeks from Phoenicia and Palmyra and elsewhere enjoying their patronage, and spread from Mesopotamia into Armenia. Ultimately, he became identified with Anu, Lord of Heaven of Babylon (ibid., Vol. 2, p. 295).

From the earliest times (ca. 4000 BCE), there were triads formed of Enlil, Anu and Enki. The second triad was formed from Ur, Moon god of Ur, Utu, Sun god of Sippar, and Nana, goddess of Erech (ibid., p. 296). The Moon god of Ur can be identified with Sin. The Semitic term Bel derived from Baal was used among the Babylonian Semites in the same sense as it was used by the other Semites, and in addition, used it as master or lord (ibid.).

The cults of Shamash and Sin there deal with the worship of the sun and the moon (ibid., p. 310). The second triad referred to above became known as Sin, Shamash and Ishtar (or also Sin, Shamash and Adad) (ibid., pp. 310-311). So that even by the middle of the second millennium BCE, Sin was a primary deity in both Ur and at Harran. Sin is the god of oracles (the word or divine utterance associated with Messiah and found among the early Sumerians and Babylonians), but Shamash his son carries this aspect also (ibid. and also cf. Vol. 12, pp. 749-752). Shamash is regarded as the brother of Ishtar. Shamash becomes supreme divine judge. Thus, the concept here in the Babylonian system strikes at the concepts vested in the biblical Messiah. Ishtar is the most prominent of female deities in the Assyro-Babylonian pantheon, absorbing the place of all others. Her place as queen of heaven goes back to remote antiquity. She is Venus and appears as Ashtarte (or Easter in the Anglo-Saxon), Nana and Anunitu (ibid.). She is goddess of fertility and worshipped everywhere. She is daughter of Sin and also of Anu. She is also associated with Sirius. She is goddess of sex and appropriates the attributes of Ninlil and Damkina and as daughter of Sin, and from her descent to Hades she is represented by temple prostitution. The lion, normally the symbol of Shamash, is associated with her, as is the dove (cf. ibid.). In this sequence, she then becomes associated with Tammuz or Dumuzi, as the bringer of new life in the spring cults.

This name Sin came into the Old English as a concept of transgression against the Laws of God. It was rendered from the original sunjo as sende in the old-Frisian, and became sonde in the middle-Dutch (cf. The Oxford Universal Dictionary, p 1897). It was associated with the foreign nations as an enclave in transgression against God’s Laws. The Arabs transferred the word to the empire of China as Sin and it seems that Sinim was understood as a far eastern land in the Hebrew/Aramaic (ciyniym SHD 5515 from 5512; cf. Isa. 49:12). This probably came from the concept of the moon and the rising sun with the morning star of Ishtar, rather than from Chinese mythology. Tien was the Chinese supreme heavenly deity.

Ishtar, as goddess of Venus as the evening star was goddess of sexual love. As goddess of Venus as the morning star she was goddess of war. Whilst there was a great diversity of cultic names in the Babylonian system, there was actually a central similarity of cultic function and this is not readily understood. They had a double triad, which we see here. The concept of seven from earliest Sumerian times was i-min as five (i) and two (min). This idea permeates the religious symbolism of the Bible and the compounds of five and two and then five again build the biblical system, which is determined to replace its Sumerian-Babylonian predecessor. Secular scholarship sees this as a cultural development. The Bible sees it as a spiritual question of the pre-eminence of the God of the Bible over the fallen Host, which are represented by the Babylonian system.

The symbolism surrounding this calf system at Sinai, from Sin as progenitor, ties into the earliest and most primitive sacrificial system employing also temple and cult prostitution on a widespread level. This is the reason the revelry was associated with the golden calf. By the invocation, Sin as Moon god represented by the calf, the three-fold or triune aspects of he and his offspring were invoked.

The terms relating to the horns of the calf are used by Kabbalistic Judaism even today, viz the upturned horns of the crescent moon on the horizon at the phasis. This terminology is of itself a lie, as the phasis is another aspect, namely the New Moon in its full dark capacity. Hence the term phases of the moon, being four from New Moon conjunction, to First Quarter, Full Moon, Last Quarter and back to the phasis or conjunction. These phases also govern the Spring and Neap tides. The symbolism of the chodesh as a concealed moon represents the God whom man has never seen nor can ever see. This concept of chodesh used in SHD 2320 is derived from chadar (SHD 2314), to enclose as in a room, to beset, or to enter a privy chamber (Strong). The New Brown-Driver-Briggs-Gesenius Lexicon has the term meaning to surround, enclose, conceal, curtain concealing a person, chamber, house or tent as concealing someone. It can mean surrounding someone (cf. Ezek. 21:19). This implies the temple or sepulchral chamber.

The addenda to page 293b of the Lexicon (as a footnote in the 1979 edition) dealing with SHD 2314, chadar, clearly shows the concept of being a sepulchral chamber and is held to be best explained from the Syriac to go about, surround, around. It is held that it is uncertain whether the chamber is derived from the concept of surrounding or from II. conceal behind a curtain, conceal or confine, IV. conceal oneself abide or stay or remain behind. The Ethiopic is abide or dwell.

The Hebrew usage and the other references, show that the concept is to conceal as behind a curtain and that is the prime root and basis of the New Moon. This aspect was used in the Temple so that God was concealed behind the veil within the Holy of Holies – until He was revealed by Christ.

The months were numbered from Esther. The Babylonian names for the months were themselves derived from older concepts. It is important to note that the concepts of the New Moon were perverted to the worship of the god Moloch among the entire Punic-speaking Thalassocracy or Sea Lords, and even from as early as the days of the Minoans. The Minotaur is the same being worshipped in the same way as the god Moloch or Malcom. It is the bull cult transferred to the crescent moon and involved human sacrifice (cf. Frazer The Golden Bough, Macmillan Press, 1976 print, iv, pp. 70-75).

The system was regulated on an eight-year cycle determined from the moon cycles. The Olympiad was the smallest unit of the moon system. Kings could reign for only eight years. On the New Moon of the eighth year in the dark of the moon, the sky was searched for signs as to whether the reign should be continued. This occurred among the Greeks and particularly the Spartans (Frazer, ibid., pp. 58-59). These limitations were known anciently and limited the Dorian kingship among others (cf. ibid.). The lunar system was correctly known anciently. The eight-year limitation on kingship was an ancient institution (cf. the current USA system). This system of star and kingship is ancient, being among even the Aborigines of Australia. The Mara tribe even relates the falling stars to two hostile spirits, father and son, who live in the sky and occasionally come down to do harm to men. In this tribe, the position of medicine man is strictly hereditary in the line of the men of the falling star totem (Frazer, ibid., p. 61).

The calf was also a symbol of fertility in the nature religions of the ancient Near East. These symbols were incorporated into the feasts of Israel by Jeroboam as two calves (cf. 1Kgs. 12:28; Hos. 8:5; fn. to Oxford Annotated Bible RSV, p. 109).

The worship at the tabernacle of Moloch or Chemosh was prevalent at the time of the Exodus, as we see from the advice of Balaam to the Moabites to cast a stumbling-block to the children of Israel.

The calf-headed Moloch or Malcom and the Minotaur both involved human sacrifice. The similarity of the worship of the Minotaur of the Cretans to that of the Carthaginian practice:

… suggests that the worship associated with the names of Minos and the Minotaur may have been powerfully influenced by that of a Semitic Baal (Frazer, ibid., p. 75).

The system was set up while Moses was away with God. In the same way, the system is perverted in the absence of Messiah.

Exodus 32:7-10And the LORD said to Moses, "Go down; for your people, whom you brought up out of the land of Egypt, have corrupted themselves; ⁸they have turned aside quickly out of the way which I commanded them; they have made for themselves a molten calf, and have worshiped it and sacrificed to it, and said, `These are your gods, O Israel, who brought you up out of the land of Egypt!'" ⁹And the LORD said to Moses, "I have seen this people, and behold, it is a stiff-necked people; ¹⁰now therefore let me alone, that my wrath may burn hot against them and I may consume them; but of you I will make a great nation." (RSV)

Israel was a stiff-necked people who would not leave this substructure of idolatry. They wove the fertility system and moon worship into the very fabric of their religious symbolism to the point that they are ensnared by it, even today, as we will see.

Moses was also tested here by God to see if he was worthy. He was worthy and he was not self-righteous.

Exodus 32:11-14 But Moses besought the LORD his God, and said, "O LORD, why does thy wrath burn hot against thy people, whom thou hast brought forth out of the land of Egypt with great power and with a mighty hand? ¹²Why should the Egyptians say, `With evil intent did he bring them forth, to slay them in the mountains, and to consume them from the face of the earth'? Turn from thy fierce wrath, and repent of this evil against thy people. ¹³Remember Abraham, Isaac, and Israel, thy servants, to whom thou didst swear by thine own self, and didst say to them, `I will multiply your descendants as the stars of heaven, and all this land that I have promised I will give to your descendants, and they shall inherit it for ever.'" ¹⁴And the LORD repented of the evil which he thought to do to his people. (RSV)

Moses passed his test. God, through Messiah, did not “repent” of the evil. He altered His position in dealing with them through the circumstances now dictated by their idolatry, as He would do many times over in the ensuing centuries. Their changes in behaviour do not impugn God’s omniscience.

Exodus 32:15-16 And Moses turned, and went down from the mountain with the two tables of the testimony in his hands, tables that were written on both sides; on the one side and on the other were they written. ¹⁶And the tables were the work of God, and the writing was the writing of God, graven upon the tables. (RSV)

Note here that Moses came down with two tablets written on both sides, carried in each hand. This aspect of the Law was to symbolise its all-encompassing nature. The duality of the texts and their covenant relationship was also emphasised. We see two aspects of the covenant, two aspects of the nation and two aspects of the Law and the Plan of Salvation. More importantly, we see two Messiahs, who were one person over two advents – the Messiah of Aaron and the Messiah of Israel. This first time Moses came down it was to sanctify the priesthood, who actually sanctified themselves by their actions as we will see.

Exodus 32:17-19 When Joshua heard the noise of the people as they shouted, he said to Moses, "There is a noise of war in the camp." ¹⁸But he said, "It is not the sound of shouting for victory, or the sound of the cry of defeat, but the sound of singing that I hear." ¹⁹And as soon as he came near the camp and saw the calf and the dancing, Moses' anger burned hot, and he threw the tables out of his hands and broke them at the foot of the mountain. (RSV)

Here Moses threw the tablets down because the covenant had been broken and, thus, the symbolism was established in power.

The word for noise of war is milchamah (SHD 4421). This is related to the root for Milkown or Malkam (SHD 4445) of the Ammonites. The word for sing and cry or shout is the same form (SHD 6030 and 6031), being the positive and negative forms ’Anath, to witness etc. The tumult of Malkam was the witness against Israel.

Exodus 32:20 And he took the calf which they had made, and burnt it with fire, and ground it to powder, and scattered it upon the water, and made the people of Israel drink it. (RSV)

This process was as a test. The after-effects were according to the complicity and culpability in the minds of the people.

Exodus 32:21 And Moses said to Aaron, "What did this people do to you that you have brought a great sin upon them?" (RSV)

Moses posed a direct question of the High Priest who led the people astray in their wickedness. It is written: thou shall not follow a multitude to do evil (Ex. 23:2). Here, Aaron has immediately done exactly that. Note Aaron’s response.

Exodus 32:22-24 And Aaron said, "Let not the anger of my lord burn hot; you know the people, that they are set on evil. ²³For they said to me, `Make us gods, who shall go before us; as for this Moses, the man who brought us up out of the land of Egypt, we do not know what has become of him.' ²⁴And I said to them, `Let any who have gold take it off'; so they gave it to me, and I threw it into the fire, and there came out this calf." (RSV)

Aaron said it was not really his fault; he was only doing what they asked of him. He just put the gold in the fire and out came this calf! It must have been truly miraculous. The priesthood have had the same excuse for centuries. The nation has paid the penalty time and again but still they do not learn. The entire priesthood knows that the calendar is wrong and that it must be corrected yet they do nothing.

Exodus 32:25 And when Moses saw that the people had broken loose (for Aaron had let them break loose, to their shame among their enemies), (RSV)

From what had the people broken loose to their shame? It was from the Laws of their God and from right conduct.

Exodus 32:26-29 then Moses stood in the gate of the camp, and said, "Who is on the LORD's side? Come to me." And all the sons of Levi gathered themselves together to him. ²⁷And he said to them, "Thus says the LORD God of Israel, `Put every man his sword on his side, and go to and fro from gate to gate throughout the camp, and slay every man his brother, and every man his companion, and every man his neighbor.'" ²⁸And the sons of Levi did according to the word of Moses; and there fell of the people that day about three thousand men. ²⁹And Moses said, "Today you have ordained yourselves for the service of the LORD, each one at the cost of his son and of his brother, that he may bestow a blessing upon you this day." (RSV)

Moses used the loyal priesthood to kill the disloyal priesthood.

Here is the ordination by self-selection of the Levites. It was the fact that they stood aside from error and stood for the Lord that was to ordain the priesthood. They did so at the cost of their brothers and their sons and their families. So also will the elect be blessed in Messiah. The concept here was also that three thousand men had to fall in the process of the sanctification of the priesthood. This was done from Pentecost in the Church, where three thousand were baptised in one day. They died to the world and were raised to the priesthood of Melchisedek as a nation of kings and priests (Rev. 5:9-10).

Exodus 32:30 On the morrow Moses said to the people, "You have sinned a great sin. And now I will go up to the LORD; perhaps I can make atonement for your sin." (RSV)

This return prefigured the ascension of the wave-sheaf as Christ, ascending to make atonement for sin. The sin followed the giving of the Law at Sinai, traditionally at Pentecost, which represented the harvest of the Church. The sin here was SHD 2398 chata (pr. khaw-taw) to miss and hence to sin and by inference to forfeit to lack and hence to expiate and also to repent. SHD 2401 chata’ah (pr. khat-aw-aw) means an offence or sacrifice for it.

Exodus 32:31-35 So Moses returned to the LORD and said, "Alas, this people have sinned a great sin; they have made for themselves gods of gold. ³²But now, if thou wilt forgive their sin -- and if not, blot me, I pray thee, out of thy book which thou hast written." ³³But the LORD said to Moses, "Whoever has sinned against me, him will I blot out of my book. ³⁴But now go, lead the people to the place of which I have spoken to you; behold, my angel shall go before you. Nevertheless, in the day when I visit, I will visit their sin upon them." ³⁵And the LORD sent a plague upon the people, because they made the calf which Aaron made. (RSV)

Moses offered himself as a substitute, as did Messiah. Moses pointed towards Messiah by his actions here. The whole question of remaining in the Book of Life is one of obedience and the willing self-revelation of God, based on obedience.

The Lord sent a plague on the people because of the idolatry of the calf system, which they had Aaron make for them. This process of compulsion of the priesthood into the idolatry of the calf-fertility system, and the structure of the gods of the nations, is found even today. It permeates the structure of the calendar and the religious symbolism of Judah. Their perversion of the Law was the reason they were destroyed in 71 CE. After this destruction and from 358 CE they enshrined a perverted calendar based on the calculation determined from the Seventh month, and not the First month as God commanded them. It was calculated so that no New Moon was ever correctly kept. Even the horns of the Moon god were often well past. So too today, the system is perverted by tradition and, in fact, more so as time goes on.

Let us look at the concepts inherent in the Moon god and the golden calf.

The name of the Moon god in the Semitic was Sin. The sun-moon nexus later became Shams as female sun, and Qamar (pr. hamar) as male moon in the Arabic. The Hebrew concept of hamah (SHD 1993) is to make a loud noise or commotion and hence war. This is the origin of the English word hum. This name Qamar and, more particularly, Shams the sun consort is found among the nations of Hebraic and Punic descent. The name is found among the Scoto-Milesians as Shamus and its variants. The name Malcom or Malcomb is also prevalent among them.

It is no coincidence that the name James does not appear in the Hebrew or the Greek texts of the New Testament or the Old Testament. It does not exist. It was introduced into the English version of the Bible by the English translators. It was probably done to pander to the ego of the monarch of the time, James Stuart of England.

In every instance in the New Testament, James is actually ’Iakobos (SGD 2385) from ’Iakob (SGD 2384) or simply Yacob, hence, Jacob. The concept of ’Iama is derived from ’Iaomai, to cure and, hence, to heal or make whole. The same occurs in the LXX.

The names came into the Scoto-Milesians from the Magi. The Magi or Druids were Scythian and came into Egypt where they perfected the mysteries and Egyptian hieroglyphs. They went from there to Spain among the Gadelians. They were held to have joined the Scoto-Milesians in Spain from the Gadelians and went with them into Ireland (see MacGeoghegan and Mitchell, History of Ireland, Sadlier and Co., New York, 1868, p. 42). The concepts seem to have come with them. However, they seem to have altered the calendar to a 354-day year of twelve months, with a bimonthly period of twenty-nine and thirty days respectively. They seem to have begun the month on the sixth day of the moon and had a thirty-year cycle (Pliny, xvi, 95, 250) and counted by nights (Ceasar, vi, 18.2). A month of thirty days was intercalated every two and one half years. At the end of every five years, there was complete agreement in the solar and lunar calendars and the quinquennial sacrifices were offered (cf. Diodorus and Jullian; Encyc. of Religion and Ethics (ERE), Vol. 12, p. 73). From the Saltair na Rann, every person in ancient Ireland was expected to know the day of the solar months, the age of the moon, the flow of the tides, and the day of the week (cf. ERE, ibid.). The traces of the ancient Celtic system, which served to convert the lunar and solar years are found preserved in Amorican Brittany and in Wales. The Gallic god Bellenos was assimilated to Apollo as healer rather than as a sun-god (ibid., p. 74). The Bel and Bellenos association seems evident. The images of sun, moon and star worship are not terribly common, but do exist.

The Celtic bimonthly system of fifty-nine days (being thirty days followed by twenty-nine days) is in the same manner as was found among the Jews. The Book of Enoch recognises a year of six thirty-day months and six twenty-nine day months (1Enoch 78:15-16). Galen records the Jews had a fifty-nine day bimonthly system prior to his observations in the second century (cf. Schürer, The History of the Jewish People in the Age of Jesus Christ, Vol. 1, App. 3, pp. 590-591).

Like Egypt, the astrological knowledge in the British Isles was extensive anciently. Stonehenge appears to have been built on the rising of the sun at the summer solstice, but the Hurlers in Cornwall are held prima facie to have been built based on the helical rising of the Pleiades on May morning 1600 BCE approximately (ERE, ibid., p. 64). The knowledge at the time of the Exodus was at least as advanced as this. The Egyptians could not only calculate the month with precision, they could also calculate the Sothic cycle and the helical rising of Sirius, centuries before the Exodus.

The name Shams is found in the Arabic. Shams is the Sun goddess and is feminine. The Moon god Qamar is masculine. The poetry goes as follows:

It is no disgrace for the sun to be feminine nor anything to boast about for the moon to be masculine.

This masculinity of the moon god is seemingly derived from the watering freshness and, hence, growth power of the cool desert nights prior to the heat of the day.

The Egyptian and Babylonian systems seem to have applied the concept also of Healing to the name. The name of the Egyptian priest Jambres (SGD 2387) seems to be related to this concept also.

The use of names based on the moon extends into the Book of Enoch where the angel given charge for the path of the moon is ’Seriel (layrhv) (cf. Knibb, The Ethiopic Book of Enoch, Vol. 2, p. 83). The term dawn of God or moon of God (Shariel or perhaps Sahariel) is uncertain. Sun of God (Samsiel) being the fifteenth angel preceding Shariel as the dawn of God or perhaps the moon of God (Knibb, ibid., p. 74) is tied in to the concepts found in the text in Exodus where the people rose up early (i.e. before dawn) to sacrifice and to feast. The use of the Greek Sarinas for the angel of the moon system, which is as Sariel, is another problem for the scholars dealing with the late second-Temple texts.

Mohammed, in the Koran (at Surah 20 Ta Ha), deals with the episode of the calf. He produces the being As-Samiri who influences the making of the golden calf. Here we see the etymology for the moon/sun system as it is attributed to this being by name. The explanation is that Gabriel had hallowed the ground and this being threw some of it into the casting of the calf. The Koran holds the calf had the capacity to make a sound as though lowing (cf. Pickthall’s translation, pp. 231-232). This may have been from heating. The bull systems of Moloch or Malcom and the Minotaur were heated for human sacrifice, which may have been within them in some cases.

It is by no means clear who the Samiri is (cf. Dawood’s translation, p. 230, n. 1). The name seems to be related to the concepts of the moon and sun associated with the calf system. It is used in the Koran, as though it is taken for granted that the reader will know as a matter of course. There is no doubt that the being is identified exclusively with the golden calf.

In the Babylonian system, the identification with the fertility system was as Shamash the Sun god, brother of the fertility goddess Ishtar. Shamash was the personification of light and righteousness and had the power to deliver oracles of prophecy (cf. Drury, Dictionary of Mysticism and the Occult, p. 237). The Babylonians worshipped Istar or Ishtar as Venus, the morning star. The two horns of the moon at sunset, and also sunrise on the horizon with the morning star, symbolised the system both in peace and war. We know that when Esarhaddon (681-669 BCE) defeated the Babylonian and Elamite rebellion, he placed one of his sons Shamash-shum-ukin on the throne of Babylon and restored the priests and the temples there. The other son Ashurbanipal (668-626 BCE) was made king of Assyria.

Shamash was also associated with the closing of the Ark in the Epic of Gilgamesh behind Ut-na Pishtim (the far away, i.e. Noah) (see Budge, Babylonian Life and History, 2nd ed., Religious Tract Society, London, 1925, p. 93). Sin the first-born son of Enlil, was also called Enzil and Nannar as variant forms. He marked the length of the day, the month and the year and, as lord of the month, his number was thirty. His chief shrines were in Ur and Harran. His wife was Ningal or Nikkal and she is held to be the mother of the Sun god. Nin-Mar (goddess of the town of Mar) was associated with Sin and is held to have had twelve children by him. Tamasha, the Sun god (also called Utu and Babbar), was the son of Sin (Budge, p. 105). Here we have the triune system we see in the Egyptians as Isis, Osirus and Horus. The bull symbolism is central as the male deity. With the Babylonians, the sun is another male as Shamash. His wife is Aia or Shenirda (Budge, ibid., p. 106).

The god Dumuzi or Tammuz unites the attributes of the two gods Shamash and a son of Ea. He was in part a water god and in part a vegetation god. His cult was already old in Sumerian times and was honoured among the people until a very late period (Budge, ibid., p. 106). Ishtar went down to the underworld to bring him back to Earth. During his annual visit to the underworld, women wept for him. This custom is condemned by Ezekiel (Ezek. 8:14). His mother was Sirdu and his sister Geshtin. Thus, Shamash is inherent in Tammuz. The cult was thus continuous in variant forms.

The original Sumerian deities, which also came to be prominent in Babylon, were based on or descended from Anu the father and king of the gods. He was considered too remote to be worshipped and, hence, he was not popular with the Babylonians. He was held to have married Ninzalli, and his concubine was Ninursalla. His wife was given in later times as Antu. Her position was usurped by Ishtar to whom Anu gave a name corresponding to his own. This story mirrors that of Isis who succeeded in making Ra give her his secret name. The goddess Nana was daughter of Anu in practice (cf. the paper Abracadabra: The Meaning of Names (No. 240)).

Another “father of the gods” was Enlil, Ellil or Bel, god of the Semites. He lived on the Great Mountain of Heaven. His principal wife was Ninlil who had attributes of the world-mother. The god Dagan, which was of foreign origin to Assyria, was counterpart of Enlil. His wife also had a foreign name which was Shalash. Ninurta was son of Enlil and a god of war and the chase. He represented the sun at midday. He was represented by Saturn and the star Sirius.

Nusku a fire-god and light-god was sometimes identified with Sin the Moon god. He was also identified with the Cossean god Shuqamuna. His wife was Sadaranunna.

Marduk, also a son of Ea, had the original seat of his cult in Eridu. Like Horus in Egypt, he represented the sun at morning. At an early period he was chosen as the chief god of Babylon. As his father Ea had conquered Mummu, so he conquered Tiammat (the world serpent) and was made king of the gods as a result. The serpent-gryphon was sacred to him and the number ten was his number, and his star was Jupiter. His chief shrine was at Eagila in Babylon. His statue was made of pure gold ornamented with precious stones. His wife was Sarpanitu which the Semites made into Zer-banitu.

Ishtar (or Ninni, or Innina) among the Babylonians was the daughter of Sin the moon god. She usurped the position of Antu as the wife or concubine of Anu. She was the goddess of love, but in one of her forms her lovers suffered pain and death (Budge, ibid., p. 107). Also a goddess of battle, she was Anunitu and goddess of Akkad. She was also held to be the wife of the god Ashur, war-god of the Assyrians (Budge, ibid., p. 109). She unites both triads from her concubinage with Anu (see above).

In the Arabic, Shams, the sun, becomes female. The bull of the moon in the early systems was male. The crescent was his symbol and the crescent dictated the calendar in his system and not the true conjunction, which is the symbol of the unseen god.

The symbol of the Mesopotamian lunar god as Sin is well known. He often took the form of a bull (Cirlot, A Dictionary of Symbols, Dorset, 1991, p. 34). The Egyptian equivalent was Osirus who was the lunar god represented by the bull Apis (ibid., also cf. above). Thus the symbolism used at Sinai was both Egyptian and Mesopotamian and related to the golden calf, which was the symbol of the lunar god. This Moon god Sin was the cause that Israel wandered in the wilderness of Sin for forty years. We thus have Sin identified with the Moon god of the bull and, thus, also Shariel. Perhaps the word serial from series as progression is linguistically related here. The sun goddess Shams perhaps reflects the older and pre-Babylonian system still extant among the Arabs where the Moon god Qamar has taken over from Sin.

The Vedic god Surya, on the other hand, was a solar bull. According to the Assyrians, the bull was born of the sun. Krappe explains this contradiction as stemming from the way that the lunar and solar cults succeeded one another (cf. Cirlot, ibid.). The reason is actually more complex stemming from the explanation of the celestial wars. Cirlot explains this as:

The lunar bull becomes solar when the solar cult supplants the more ancient cult of the moon. But it may well be that the bull is first and foremost a lunar symbol because it is equated with the moon morphologically by virtue of the resemblance of the horns of the crescent moon, while it must take second place to the solar symbol of the lion.

This is the view expressed by Eliade also (cf. Cirlot, ibid.).

There is no doubt that the crescent moon is not the New Moon. Cirlot explains the views of the changing sequence of the moon where the sun rises again out of the gloom of night and the crescent moon grows out of the New Moon (ibid., p. 215). This symbolism in ancient times related specifically to the cosmic systems of the Mysteries. The Moon god was represented by the upturned horns of the bull calf as a symbol of the crescent. It has nothing to do with the precise calculation of the calendar, which is exactly determinable to the second each month, and can be so determined for centuries in advance. The system of crescent observation is insisted on within Kabbalistic Judaism as part of the Mysteries.

‘Every month the moon completes the same trajectory executed by the sun in a year... It contributes in large measure to the maturation of shrubs and the growth of animals.’ (Cicero). [According to Cirlot:] This helps to explain the important role of the lunar goddesses such as Ishtar, Hathor, Anaitis, Artemis. Man from the earliest times has been aware of the relationships between the moon and the tides, and of the more mysterious connexion between the lunar cycle and the physiological cycle of the woman (Cirlot, ibid., p. 214).

There is no doubt that the relationship of the New Moon and the tides was understood and was perfectly predictable from early times. The uncertainty of observation was introduced by the Mystery elements, of what later became Kabbalah for purposes related to the fertility cults of the moon worshippers, aided and abetted by the burdens of the traditions of the Pharisees and especially within the rabbinical system.

There were a number of ceremonies at the New Moon, and Frazer records that the New Moon is represented by a cow among the Minoans and this, seemingly, represents the symbolic marriage of sun and moon (Golden Bough, iv, 71 et seqq). It was also viewed as the husband of the sun by ancient agricultural societies in both the eastern and the western hemisphere. The Japanese hold the moon as male, but as the brother of the sun-goddess, not as consort. The Babylonians originally held the moon took precedence over the sun and was reckoned its father (Frazer, ibid., vi, 139 n.). Thus the early morning sacrifices we find in the Bible at the Exodus. This view is borne out in the sequence of the levels in the ziggurat at Babylon. This is not the tower associated with Nimrod and Abraham. Budge observes that the levels for the sun and Venus were gold (fourth) and yellow (fifth) respectively. The moon was at the highest (seventh) level. The colours were associated with the gold-yellow and perhaps silver (or white gold) which we also see in the calf system. The seven levels relate back to the Shamanic ascents to the heavens and appear again in Kabbalistic Judaism as the ascent of the chariot in Merkabah mysticism through the seven halls of the Hekkalot or Hekhaloth (cf. Kaplan, Meditation and Kabbalah, 1982, pp. 35-37; 294-295; Drury, Dictionary of Mysticism and the Occult, 1985, pp. 104, 113, 177 et seqq).

The Finger of Ashirat

We know from the archaeological record that the crescent moon was associated with the Triune system, as it was termed the finger of Ashirat and was used as a specific time indicator not only in Palestine, but also in the Egyptian army. The crescent was seen as the fingernail of the beckoning goddess.

The fortified city of Taanak in Canaan lay on the ancient Egyptian military road through Canaan to Syria. The name is in Egyptian, Assyrian and OT sources. It was discovered not surprisingly at Tel Ta’anek. Ernst Sellin’s excavation of 1901 discovered cuneiform inscriptions, which “rarely come to light in Palestine.” The tablets were letters to the king of Taanak Ishtarjasher whose name is associated with the Babylonian goddess Ishtar or Easter in the Anglo-Saxon. One of the letters was written by an Egyptian general. It was an instruction for a report from Ishtarjasher. It said:

All that thou hearest write to me from thence, that I may understand it. If the finger of Ashirat show itself, I would wish to take heed of it and obey. And do thou report unto me the sign and the mater thereof (Erich Zehren, The Crescent and the Bull, tr. James Cleugh, Hawthorn, NY, p. 190).

Zehren identifies Ashirat as being the star goddess of Canaan and analogous to Ishtar and Inanna. He identifies the text as referring to the crescent moon as the finger, which is visible in the shape of the crescent moon towards the end of the month (ibid.). Thus the Egyptian general indicates a specific date. When the finger of Ashirat, that is, the crescent moon, appears and approaches Venus (Ashirat) he will expect a report. This mention of the finger of the great star goddess was used to indicate just before or just after the New Moon (ibid., p. 191) which was the conjunction.

The Bull

The transfer of the bull symbolism to Osirus, who was anciently a god of corn and produce, is held by Frazer to stem from the influence of Mesopotamia. Frazer holds that the sacred bull Mnevis of Heliopolis was deemed an incarnation of the Sun god (ibid., iv, p. 72) which was the same concept found among the Cretans. The eight-year periods of the Cretan cycles appear to relate more to the lunar cycles, as a double Olympiad in an ancient form of the nineteen-year system (see the paper God’s Calendar (No. 156)). A title of the Pharaohs for thousands of years was mighty bull (ibid.).

The identification of the bull or golden calf with Moloch comes from the practice of the Carthaginians, and probably all of the Punic world, to sacrifice their children to Moloch or Malcom by placing them on the arms of the bronze statue of the beast which had a head of a bull calf (i.e. with horns as a crescent). The children rolled onto the fire in front and were killed. This may be similar to the tradition of the Minotaur on Crete (Frazer, ibid., iv, p. 75). Thus, the tabernacle of Moloch can be identified with the calf of Sin at Sinai.

This insidious worship of Molech or Chemosh or the Moon god Sin as the golden calf of Sinai, as he was variously called, involved the sacrifice and also the eating of the children. It was an abomination to the Lord. According to the Abbe MacGeoghegan, the worship of the golden calf was carried on by the Milesians in Ireland as second divinity behind the sacred Oak and Mistletoe, until the advent of Christianity (MacGeoghegan-Mitchell, ibid., p. 65). This religion of the Triune god of the Aryans was endemic among the Phoenicians, Carthaginians, Gauls, Scythians, Greeks and Romans. This was why the Trinity was introduced, and so staunchly defended by them. The consumption of the children and of dogs, continued until the destruction of Carthage. It was halted among the Carthaginians in the reign of Darius I, who considered it barbarous. The Irish Milesians were not alone in this sacrificing and eating of human flesh (often for magical reasons), as Polybius records, that [H]Annibal rejected the proposition made to him by the Gauls, of eating human flesh. It was endemic to the Irish, Gauls, Britons, Spaniards, Scythians and other nations. The Scots of Britain were observed by Jerome, when he saw them in Gaul, to be eaters of human flesh in his time, at the end of the fourth century (cf. MacGeoghegan ibid., p. 67). The crescent moon and the star with it, that has penetrated even Islam, are associated with the worship. Jones and Pennick (A History of Pagan Europe, Routledge, London and New York, 1995, pp. 77ff.) note that the crescent and star motif of Islam recalls the worship of the Moon god Sin, who had already subsumed the worship of the three goddesses Al’lat, Al-Uzzah and Manat. The Triune system was endemic to the Aryans, and was found among the Celts in the similar forms of the Triune system, and the three goddesses, of whom one was Brigit. They and the Triune system were part of the same system of the sacred groves, and the Moon god Sin who the adherents also worshipped. The sacred groves were scattered with human entrails, and even the Druids would not enter them at certain times. Sardinia was a stronghold of this pagan system until the eleventh century, and the magistrates were bribed to ignore it.

²¹And thou shalt not let any of thy seed pass through the fire to Molech, neither shalt thou profane the name of thy God: I am the LORD.

The system was ancient in Ireland, and the eating of human flesh was common both there, and among the Scots, who originally came to Scotland via Ireland when it was called Scotia. The Anglo-Saxons were also not immune to it. Recent excavations of the megaliths in County Sligo show the massive graves there of untold thousands of humans, more than possibly could have been supported by the country around them. There are many hundreds of these types of burial sites over Ireland, but Sligo seems to be a major site. The archaeologists have noted recently that the people were cremated using their own body fat and then (as one scholar put it on a recent radio interview), were “seemingly disinterred for a feast by their families, or such, at a later date”. The obvious conclusion is being studiously ignored, for the present (as MacGeoghegan did when he noted the burial practice). The fact is that humans and mostly children were roasted in images of the god, or on fires, throughout the Aryan and Phoenician world. Romano-Celtic and Phoenician mothers took it as a matter of pride that they could comfort their children without emotion while they were being roasted alive in the name of piety, and the screams were covered by drum and trumpets (cf. also MacGeoghegan ibid., pp. 65-73).

The customs were found in Tyre and among the Phoenicians, and continued for a long time there and among the Canaanites. Those who did not have children purchased them from the poor so that they would not be short of a suitable sacrifice. The children who were burnt were either cast into a furnace or placed in a statue of Saturn, which was set on fire. The defeat of Carthage by Agathocles was ascribed by them to the fact that they had sacrificed children of secondary quality, being children of strangers and slaves, to the god in the form of Saturn (hence the Saturnalia) instead of their usual children of first quality. They then offered up two hundred children of the first quality and three hundred citizens who voluntarily offered themselves to appease the god of their crime of negligence. (MacGeoghegan, pp. 67-68).

This cult of worship of the Moon god Sin as the golden calf or Molech or the Triune God, of which the Trinity is the modern derivation, is the most evil form of human barbarity, and God condemns it and its system. The system is extant even today (cf. the papers The Origins of Christmas and Easter (No. 235); and The Doctrine of Original Sin Part 1 The Garden of Eden (No. 246)).

The bull calf is identified with the Moon god whose horns are the crescent moon observed from the false phasis and variable as opposed to the true New Moon of the conjunction, which is not variable and is measurable to the exact second. The identification of this idolatrous crescent is also identified with the morning star or Venus which, biblically, represents the god of this world until the second advent of Messiah when he will assume that rank (cf. Rev. 2:28; 22:16).

The morning star was in ancient times seemingly also identified with the cult of Adonis (Frazer, ibid., v, 258f.). Human sacrifice was enjoined at sowing in this cult of the morning star (Frazer, ibid., vii, 238). The terms in Isaiah 14:12 refer to the Day Star, Morning Star or Lucifer (Latin for Phosphorus) meaning light bearer. It is identified with the Babylonian system because it forms the nucleus of the world religious system as identified in Revelation. Ishtar, as Morning Star, is also Lucifer as light bearer and these functions will be taken over by Messiah and the elect. That is why Mariolatry is the Mother-goddess system of the queen of heaven.

Thus both aspects of the bull as the crescent and the morning star were tied absolutely to idolatry. Both aspects involved human sacrifice at one time. The tabernacle of Moloch and the star of Raiphan or Chiun are thus related to the crescent and the morning star system. Messiah will take them over and eliminate every vestige of their observation as it relates to the biblical system. They are a gross perversion of the biblical system and the calendar of God.

To continue with the Hillel calendar or any system based on observation of the crescent, given the known information about the significance of the crescent moon and its place in the worship of the calf system, is effectively to continue in the system of worship if not the active sacrifices of Moloch so condemned by God.