We may now speak of the idolatrous practices into which the Israelites fell at various times from t'ne period of the sojourn in Egypt downwards.
The Israelites in Egypt yielded to the tempta tions of the polytheistic population among which they dwelt. In Joshua's last address he counselled the people to put away the gods which their fathers served beyond Euphrates and in Egypt (Josh. xxiv. 14), that is, if we compare the context, not to return to these forms of idolatry (15, 16). The same is stated (Ezek. X.X. 6, 7, S) and alluded to (xxiii. 3) by Ezekiel. The only other notices of this idolatry are the account of the golden calf, and the passage in Amos, cited by St. Stephen in the Acts, respecting the worship of Chitin or Remphan.
Let us take a glance at the condition of the Israelites in Egypt. We have seen that they were in a country where tvvo pagan religions obtained, the Egyptian and that of the Shepherd-strangers. The Israelites, as dwellers in the most outlying and separate tract of the Shemite part or Lower Egypt are more likely to have followed the corruptions of the strangers than those of the Egyptians, more esr ecially as, saving Joseph, Moses, and not im probably Aaron and Miriam, they seem to have almost universally preserved the manners of their former wandering life. There is scarcely a trace of Egyptian influence bcyond that seen in the names of IS,Toses and Miriam, and perhaps of Aaron also, for the only other natne besides the former txvo that is certainly Egyptian, and may be reasonably referred to this period, that of Harnepher, evi dently the Egyptian HAR-NEFRo, Horus the good,' in the genealogies of Asher (t Chron. vii. 36), probably marks an Egyptian taken by marriage into the tribe of Asher, whether a pro selyte or not we cannot attempt to decide.
The only glimpse we have of the manners of the tribes after their settlement in Goshen shows us that they led a pastoral if not a freebooting life. The calamity that deprived Ephraim of his sons was, however we read the passage, an event of wild desert-warfare (1 Chron. vii. 21). If the Israelites left Egypt tainted with idolatry, they cer tainly left it uncorrupted by the evils of civilized and settled life. It is to be supposed, therefore, that whatever false worship they practised would have been adopted rather from the Shepherds than the Egyptians. The little evidence we have pre
cisely confirms this supposition. The Hebrew ido latry in the Desert was like that of the Shepherds, partly borrowed from the Egyptian system, partly showing a separate source.
The golden calf, or, more accurately, bull calf,' was, we suppose, not a representation of any Egyptian god, but made to represent God Hitnself. There has been a difference of opinion as to the golden calf, some holding the view we have expressed, others maintaining that it was only an imitation of an Egyptian idol. We first observe that this and Jeroboam's golden calves are shown to have been identical in the inten tion with which they were made, by the cir cumstance that the Israelites addressed the former as the God who had brought them out of Egypt (Exod. xxxii. 4, 8), and that Jeroboam proclaimed the same of his idols (1 Kings xii. 28). We next remark, that Aaron called the calf not only god but the LORD (Exod. xxxii. 5), that in the Psalms it is said they changed their glory into the simili tude of an ox that eateth hay' (cvi. 20), that no one of the calf-worshipping, kings and princes of Israel bears any name connected with idolatry, while many have names compounded with the most sacred name of God, and that in no place is any foreign divinity connected with calf-worship in the slight est degree.
The adoption of such an image as the golden calf shows the strength of Eg,yptian associations, else how would Aaron have fixed upon so ignoble a form as that of the God who had brought Israel out of Egypt ? Only a mind thoroughly accus tomed to the profound respect paid in Egypt to the sacred bulls, and especially to Apis and Mnevis, could have hit upon so strange a representation ; nor could any people who had not witnessed the Egyptian practiccs have found, as readily as did the Israelites, the fulfilment of their wishes in such an image. The feast that Aaron celebrated, when, after eating and drinking, the people arose, sang, and danced naked before the idol, is strikingly like the festival of the finding of Apis, which was celebrated with feasting and dancing, and also, apparently, though this custom does not seem to have been part of the public festivity, with indecent gestures. PIOSCHOLATRY.