(March 5, 2022 at 7:46 pm)Belacqua Wrote:(March 5, 2022 at 7:33 pm)JairCrawford Wrote: One of the first things that stuck out to me as a potential parallel when I first started reading about old Canaanite and ANE religion, were the various descriptions of the “horns of the alter” in scripture. Using my Bible app search, the search phrase “horns of the altar” yields 16 result verses; Exodus 29-12, 37:25, Leviticus 4:7, 4:18, 4:25, 4:30, 4:34, 8:15, 9:9, 16:18, 1 Kings 1:50-51, 2:28, Psalm 118:27, Amos 3:14, and Revelation 9:13.
Based on the description of the altar and it’s horns being covered by gold, I couldn’t help but think about the golden/bronze bulls used in ANE religious iconography. I came across this article that discusses how the golden calf incident is a polemic against various northern temple practices: https://www.thetorah.com/article/the-gol...el-worship
However from my online searching and digging I have yet to find any writings that attempt to connect the bull iconography with the biblical horns of the altar. I’m wondering if any of you have come across resources that have, or if any of you have any insights on the topic?
Have you checked the original Hebrew word that gets translated as "horns"? The range of nuance might be different from the English, perhaps with multiple meanings. I don't know if that's relevant....
(It occurs to me because the Japanese word 角 means both "horn" and "corner," depending on context. Possibly something similar in Hebrew..?)
The Hebrew word for “horns” shows as “qeren” in the interlinear portion of my app. But it only shows the root word in the interlinear. That being said, the same word is used for when the rams horns get caught in the thicket in Genesis.
