Chapter 14: Order to Slaughter a Cow

The idea of calf or bull-worship seems to have been taken from the Egyptians. In the opinion of Renan, Maspers, and Konig, “Bull-worship may have been an imitation of the worship of Apis at Memphis or Mendes at Heliopolis.” (Encyclopaedia Biblica, col. 631)

The writer of the article on the golden calf is, however, of opinion-that “Adoption from Egypt is unlikely,” and his chief reason is that “the Egyptians worshipped only living animals.” But the Israelites too seemed to have been addicted to the worship of living animals in the time of Moses as the incident given below shows and the calf was only an image of the living animal. At any rate, four hundred years of contact with the Egyptians could not have been without its influence, a bull worship dating from a very remote antiquity in Egypt must have had some effect. It was for this reason that the Mosaic law laid great stress on the slaughter of cows and the commandment mentioned below seems to have been given for the same reason. Notwithstanding all that Moses did to uproot this form of idolatry from among the Israelites, the worshipping of the bull appears to have continued up to the time of Hosea who rails at it in very strong terms. (Vide Hosea, 8: 5 and 10: 5)

“When Musa said to his people: Surely Allah commands you that you should sacrifice a cow.¹² They said: Dost thou ridicule us? He said: I seek the protection of Allah from being one of the ignorant. They said: Call on thy Lord for our sake to make it plain to us what she is. Musa said: He says, surely she is a cow neither, advanced in age nor too young, or middle age between that and this. Do therefore what you are commanded. They said: Call on thy Lord for our sake to make it plain to us what her colour is. Musa said: He says, she is a yellow cow; her colour is intensely yellow, giving delight to the beholders. They said: Call on thy Lord for our sake to make it plain to us what she is, for, surely to us the cows are all alike and if Allah please, we shall surely be guided aright. Musa said: He says, surely she is a cow not made submissive to plough the land nor does she irrigate the tilth, sound, without a blemish in her. They said: Now you have brought the truth. So they sacrificed her though they had not the mind to do it”. (2:67-71)