2 Ernest I. Jacob as either masculine or feminine. God called king or father also reflected the lack of abstract thought and logical consistency so characteristic of Greek thought.! The divine relationship between God and Israel was compared to the love between a man and a woman and religious infidelity was seen as adultery. This is a figure of speech, deeply expressive of emotional ties, without sexual implications, nor any connection to a sexual myth of God .

ANCIENT ISRAEL- THE REALITY

This is the ideal picture of Israels religion as understood by the teachers of later Judaism . The reality, however, of biblical times paralleled the other ancient religions of the ancient Middle East . Sexual traces can be claimed for passages that refer to God as the “bull” of Israel , as the bull remains among the oldest religious sexual symbols(Hos. 2, Is. 59:3-13; Jer. 3:8, etc.). So God ’s strength was compared to the lofty horns of an ox(Gen. 49.29, etc.). This was also reflected in Israel ’s sin of the golden calf at Sinai. Worship of a golden calf was reported later of Jeroboam (433-412 B.C.E.) when he set up calves in Bethel and Dan(1 Kgs. 12:29) upon the creation of the northern kingdom. The bull may also be connected to the“horns” of Moses , a passage usually translated as“the skin of his face was radiant”(Ex. 34:29). These represent older Israelite religious concepts.

The serpent, another ancient sexual symbol, has also left traces; in the tale of paradise, for example, and the copper serpent that Moses set up to ward off death from snake bites(Nu. 21:9). The Bible asserts that this copper snake was preserved for many centuries and worshiped through offerings under the name Nehushtan until King Hezekiah removed it.(2 Kgs. 18:4).

The common people of ancient Israel shared or acquired the religious concepts of the original Canaanite inhabitants; they worshiped baalim, the male gods of fertility. The very word baal possesses strong sexual implications, as it also means husband.