The Sky Bull as a Messianic Image

Alice C. Linsley

In ancient Egypt, Saturn was called "Horus, Bull of the Sky." Mars, Jupiter, and Saturn were depicted with the falcon-head of Horus (Krupp 1979).

The Akkadian word for a powerful (Alpha) bull is gud. This may be the source of the word God. This would explain why in Iceland, þjór' (thor) means bull and also is the name of the High God of the Nordic pantheon before he was displaced by or renamed Odin.

The Akkadian word for bull is turu. The Danish word for bull is tyr. In Swedish bull is tjur. In Latin, bull is taurus. These share the TR root which suggests a connection to blood, purity, radiance, the Sun, copper, gold, and holiness.

The Proto-Dravidian word tor refers to blood. In Hausa, toro means clean, and in Tamil tiru means holy. There appears to be a relationship between tor and the Hebrew thr which means "to be pure." The people were made pure when the High Priest sacrificed the bull and made atonement with the blood of the sin offering (Ex. 30:1-10).

Clearly, the TR root is very old as it reflects the polysemic feature of the oldest known Indo-European lexicons and many of the words in those lexicons share roots with Ancient Akkadian, the oldest know Semitic language. 

The terms for ritual purity in Sumerian, Akkadian, Biblical Hebrew, Hittite, and Ugaritic are related to the idea of radiance. (See The Semantics of Purity in the Ancient Near East, p. 5.) The ancient Nilotes associated purity with the radiance of the sun, the emblem of the High God Re. (Re means "Father" in ancient Egyptian.)

Ra's bull in the sky is symbolized by the Sun. In the Ancient Pyramid Texts (2400-2000 BC) the King addresses the celestial bull saying, "Hail to you, Bull of Re who has four horns, a horn of yours in the west, a horn of yours in the east, a horn of yours in the south, and a horn of yours in the north! Bend down this western horn of yours for me that I may pass."

The association of Horus and the rising sun is evident in the Horus name of some Nilotic rulers. The Horus name of Thutmose III was "Horus Mighty Bull, Arising in Thebes."

The rising sun represents resurrection, and the deceased king seeks passage to the place of immortality in the sky (duat), among the imperishable stars. He is recognized as a "pure Westerner" who has come from Nekhen, the oldest known site of Horite Hebrew worship.

According to the Pyramid Texts, Utterance 205, the Great Bull smites the enemies of Re. This is expressed in the Pyramid Texts, Utterance 388: "Horus has shattered (tbb, crushed) the mouth of the serpent with the sole of his foot." Those words are echoed in Genesis 3:1, the first messianic prophesy of the Bible.

The appointed bull calf of the Horite Hebrew would have looked like this.

The Great Bull is Horus the appointed bull calf who has reached mature strength. He is to pass to the heavens on the third day. "Oh Horus, this hour of the morning, of this third day is come, when thou surely passeth on to heaven, together with the stars, the imperishable stars." (Pyramid Texts, Utterance 667)

According to the Coffin Texts, Horus is "the great Falcon upon the ramparts of the house of him of the hidden name" and he says: "my wrath will be turned against the enemy of my father" and "I will put him beneath my feet." (Utterance 148)

This text is at least 800 years older than the Messianic reference of Psalm 110:1: The Lord says to my Lord: “Sit at My right hand until I make your enemies a footstool for your feet.”

The Bull is to be sacrificed so that the king may eat the foreleg and haunch in the sky (Utterance 413). By forbidding the consumption of the thigh tendon attached to the hip (Gen. 32:32) Judaism distances itself from the Horite Hebrew Faith.

By eating the sacrifice, the deceased king becomes one with the sacred bull. The king is urged to rise, to "gather his bones together, shake off your dust" and enter into immortality. 


Related reading: Sky Bull Eaten to Gain Immortality; The Afro-Asiatic Conception of Purity; The Ra-Horus-Hathor Narrative; Abraham's Faith Lives in Christianity; Early Resurrection Texts

Israel Museum Reopens

The Israel Museum reopened on July 26 after a three-year, $100 million reorganization and facelift.  Here is the report from Biblical Archaeology Review:

"The refurbished museum creates links across cultures and their histories by displaying fewer objects in a much larger space with deeper explanations. Museum director James S. Snyder, an American Jew who worked for 22 years at the Museum of Modern Art, did not want to display the history of the land solely from a Jewish perspective. He placed an emphasis on cultural commonalities, and sought to contextualize Jewish history within a broad context. The design minds behind the renewal of the Israel Museum include James Carpenter Design Associates of New York and Efrat-Kowalsky Architects of Tel Aviv."

The oldest object in the museum is the million-year-old horns of a wild bull. There is also a heel bone pierced by an iron nail with wood fragments, the oldest physical evidence of crucifixion.

Read more about the newly reopened Israel Museum here.

The Bull's Head in Antiquity

Royal couple of Hattusa

Alice C. Linsley


Among the Nilotic and Proto-Saharan cattle herders the cow and bull were sacred animals. The milk cow was the totem of Hathor, the mother of Horus. The Apis bull was a totem associated with sacrifice and Horus, called the son of God.  Below is a photo of a bas-relief found in the royal complex of Denderah. This shows Horus with a ram's head and the crown of Horus of Nekhen on the Nile, the oldest known site of Horite Hebrew worship (4000 BC).

As the Nilotic and Proto-Saharan peoples dispersed across the Levant and Asia Minor their religious symbols went with them. So we find horns on the heads of kings and queens in Hattusa in Turkey (shown at top), and bull heads in the pan graves of the Beja of Sudan. The Beja or Medjayu buried their dead in distinctive circular "pan graves" which they marked with the decorated skulls of bulls, gazelles and goats. These have been found in cemeteries of Upper Egypt and Lower Nubia beginning in the Second Intermediate Period. (Source: Sudan, 2000–1000 B.C., Heilbrunn Timeline of Art History. The Metropolitan Museum of Art)

The Beja brought gold to Egypt from mines deep in the heartland of Nubia and Kush. They were a caste of metal-working priests, such as Harun (Aaron), which is why they are assocaited with the Habiru (Hebrew priests) and the Brahmin (Vedic priests). Linguist Penelope Aubin notes, "In Demotic sources they are called Brhm while in classical sources they are the Blemmyes, ancestors of the modern Beja."

The bull's head is found also at Roman-period graves in Palestine, such as that found on this altar at Ashqelon.

On 17 May 2010, during excavation for a new hospital emergency room in the city of Ashqelon, a 24-inch-high granite structure was discovered. It dates to the time of Jesus and is adorned with carvings of three bull heads, ribbons, and laurel wreaths.

According to Yigal Israel, chief archaeologist at the Israel Antiquities Authority in Ashqelon, the structure is a pagan altar where there was once a pagan cemetery. The cemetery where the altar was found served Ashqelon's pagan population. Israel said that altars were "found everywhere, in cemeteries, in town squares, and also in temples."

Ashqelon is one of the oldest port cities in the Holy Land. It was inhabited as early as the Neolithic period, which began around 10,000 B.C. The structure dates to the time of the Roman occupation of the city and is believed to represent Pagan belief and funerary practices.  It is also possible that the bull's head image comes from before the Roman Period as Ashqelon was influenced from ancient times by Egyptian theology.

The curve of the Apis bull's horns form the lower rim of the Sun. This is why the Apis bull often appears with the Sun over its head.  At Ashqelon this idea was portrayed later by the sign of Tanit.  The sign shows the upraised arms with the Sun resting at the top of the cosmic pyramid.

The sign of Tanit, like the bull's head, is found on funerary monuments in Carthage, as show below.

The sign of Tanit is associated with goddess worship and the sacrifice of infants, both demonically inspired and condemned by the Prophets. Plutarch (ca. 46–120 AD) mentions the practice, as do Tertullian, Orosius and Diodorus Siculus. The Hebrew Bible indicates that some Canaanites sacrificed children at places called Tophet ("roasting place"). This was the meaning of the expression "to pass though the fire." 

Abraham's binding of Isaac on the altar at Moriah doesn't fit this practice which suggests that it has a different context. The ram which God provided symbolized the future Messiah who the Horite Hebrew spoke of as a Lamb at the sun's rising, and a ram, at the sun's setting.

Golden calves and bull figurines have been found in the Holy Land. These date between 2000-1000 BC. One is on exhibit at the Museum of Israel in Jerusalem.  It was discovered near an ancient road with massive pavement running north-south between Dothan and Tizah. This area of the road near Dothan had many wells and cisterns to water the caravans that traveled to and from Egypt. Joseph was sold by his brothers to one of these caravans.

In 1990, Harvard University archeologists excavating Canaanite ruins surrounding the port of Ashkelon unearthed a golden calf dating from 2000 B.C.

The oldest know use of the bull's head in religious symbolism was found at the Egyptian shrines at Memphis  and Heliopolis.  There the bull's head represented Ptah, the creator of the world and all that is in it. He is not created, but simply is.

Horus, called the "son" of God, was often shown with upraised arms and this image of Ptah over his head.  Note also the Sun image.

This image later came to be associated with Zeus, the first of all the gods, which is why it appears on the cemetery altar found at Ashqelon.

Left:  Apis bull with Sun resting on its horns.  The sun was the emblem of the Creator among Abraham's Proto-Saharan ancestors. The Proto-Saharans venerated cattle and left behind engraving of bulls and oxen with solar disc between their horns. This image was associated with Hathor, whose son was Horus. She is often shown wearing a crown of horns in which the solar disk rests.

The bull's head also appears on ancient monuments and structures in India where the symbol was taken by the Sudra who went there from the Upper Nile region that is today called Sudan.

Right: Found at Mohenjo-daro. A deity seated with a stylized bull's head over him.

The bull's head is associated with Dravidian temples in Pakistan and southern India. The Dravidians and the Sudra are related, both classified as Sudoid.  These people likely carried their religious ideas from Africa to Pakistan, India, Nepal and the Maldives.  These were the founders of the temples of Mohenjo-daro and Harappa where many bulls have been found. The bull appears to have been the sacred totem of these ancient religious centers with their river shrines.

The spread of religious ideas and practices from Africa is due in part to the great Kushite kingdom builders like Nimrod, the son of Kush.  He is said to have had two sons: Hun and Magor.  Biblical Nimrod is said to have had twin sons or two first-born sons: Hunor and Magor. They were the patriarchs of the Hunogurs and Magyars (Hungarians). They are also said to be “sons” (descendants) of Japheth. So what would this look like when diagramed?


   ∆ Japheth                 ∆ Ham

            ∆ Magog                  ∆ Kush
                                         Nimrod
            O           =                 ∆             =          O Nimrod's half-sister
                          ∆                                ∆
                     Magog                         Hunor


Here we again note the practice of Afro-Asiatic rulers having two wives.  One wife was Nimrod's half-sister (as was Sarah to Abraham) and the other was a patrilineal parallel cousin (as was Keturah to Abraham).  The cousin bride named her first-born son after her father, as has been seen in analysis of the cousin bride's naming prerogative.

Evidence in support of the Nimrod-Magyar connection is found in carvings, paintings and reliefs such as this found in Hungary. Note the characteristic symbols of the ancient Afro-Asiatics: a Tree of Life, the Sun, and cattle with horns.

Related reading:  Twin Pyramids in Zinder; Nilotic Cattle Herders; Evolutionists Reveal Ignorance of Culture; Afro-Asiatic Metal Workers; The Kushite-Kushan Connection