What is the name of the golden calf?

AnswerThe Bible has several references to the Israelites worshipping the golden calf, which we now know represented the moon god. During the third dynasty of Ur (c 2060 - 1950), the moon god, Sin, was represented in the the form of a golden calf with crescent-shaped horns and a long flowing beard of lapis lazuli. C L Woolley (Ur Excavations: The Royal Cemetery) shows several images found in his excavations of the royal graves at Ur. That these images are of the god Sin can be seen by the following description found in a Sumero-Akkadian hymn to that god: "Ferocious bull, whose horn is thick, whose legs are perfected, who is bearded in lapsis, and filled with luxury and abundance."

The moon god went under different names at different times and in different regions. That the Hebrew people knew him by the name 'Sin' is attested in Exodus 17:1, "And all the congregation of the children of Israel journeyed from the wilderness of Sin ..." Theologians have long sought to identify the exact location of this wilderness, because they took a narrow and literalist view. The wilderness of Sin (ie the moon) is simply night time, and after several verses inserted late into the passage, the reason is clear. After leaving the widerness of Sin, Moses and Joshua fight the Amalek until going down of the sun.

However, there is no certainty that the Israelites only used the name Sin for the moon god. Some scholars believe that the stories of the Hebrew patriarchs originally developed out of a story of the moon god. On this view, 'Jacob' may have been a commonly used name for the moon god, represented by the golden calf.