589 Bull Site 590 Bul sacrifice that precedes Balaam’s second oracle The Hebrew term bûl denotes the second month of (Num 23 : 30). the Canaanite agricultural calendar, as attested in The term šôr, often translated “ox,” has refer- Phoenician inscriptions (KAI 14 : 1; 32 : 1; 38 : 2). In ence to a bull image in Ps 106 : 20. The term is cog- the Bible, the month of Bul is only mentioned once, nate to Ugaritic ßtr, found as an epithet of El (e.g., in the account of Solomon building the temple KTU 1.1 iii 26). Tur-Sinai has proposed that this ep- (1 Kgs 6 : 38). ithet underlies Hos 8 : 6, where, instead of kî mîyis´ - Christoph Berner ra¯ e¯ l, he reads kî mî sˇo¯ r eˇl, “For who is the Bull El” See also /Calendars (Tur Sinai: 31). On the basis of Ugaritic literature, it is now gen- erally recognized that the appellative abbîr yaa˘qob/ Bulgakov, Mikhail Afanasievich yis´ ra¯ e¯ l, traditionally translated “mighty one of A medical doctor by training, in the 1920s M. A. Jacob/Israel,” is derived from bull imagery. Ugaritic Bulgakov (1891–1940) began to publish satirical ibr clearly means bull (Olmo Lete: 10). Miller (421) sketches and short stories. His initial successes as a has argued that this imagery was meant to convey playwright and novelist were drastically curtailed strength and power. As such, the translation by increasing Soviet political censorship in the late “mighty one” for abbîr is appropriate. Given all of 1920s and 1930s. Bulgakov devoted the final years the bull imagery associated with El and Baal, it is of his life to the writing of the satirical fantasy Mas- likely that this is the association underlying the calf ter i Margarita (The Master and Margarita), which was (e¯ gel) images forged in the desert in Exod 32 : 4 as finally published only in 1966–67. In part a story well as those places in Bethel and Dan by Jeroboam of the struggle between political expediency and in 1 Kgs 12 : 28. morality within the Soviet literary establishment, Bibliography: ■ Miller, P., “El the Warrior,” Harvard Theo- The Master and Margarita recounts a visit by the devil logical Review 60/4 (1967) 411–37. ■ Olmo Lete, G. del/J. and his retinue to Moscow in the 1930s. Within this Sanmartín, A Dictionary of the Ugaritic Language in the Alpha- novel chapters of another novel tell the story of the betic Tradition (Leiden 2004). ■ Ornan, T., “The Bull and Its encounter between Jesus and Pontius Pilate from Two Masters: Moon and Storm Deities in Relation to the the point of view of the latter. Bull in Ancient Near Eastern Art,” Israel Exploration Journal In creating the figure of Pilate, Bulgakov made 51/1 (2001) 1–26. use of an impressive range of religious and secular Christopher Hooker sources. These included the four Gospels, especially the Gospel of John, accounts by ancient historians like Josephus and Philo, apocryphal writings, such Bull Site as the Acta Pilati, and 19th-century secular biogra- The single-period open-air cultic site of the 12th phies of Jesus, like F. W. Farrar’s The Life of Christ (1874), David Strauss’ Das Leben Jesu, kritisch bearbei- century BCE (Iron I Age; Map Reference 1807.2016) tet (1835), and E. Renan’s Vie de Jésus (1863). Bul- is situated in the hill country of northern Samaria, gakov’s procurator emerges as a tormented figure 7 km/4.5 miles east of Tell Dothan on the Dhahrat who succumbs to moral cowardice despite his intel- et-Tawileh ridge north of the Zebabda Valley, a lectual sense that Jesus has been falsely accused and natural route connecting Dothan with Tirzah. his emotional attraction to the sensitive but simple From the summit, one has a commanding view of Ieshua Ga-Notsri (Bulgakov’s name for Jesus). To the area, including Mount Tabor to the north, the biblical idea of amoral relativism suggested by Mount Carmel to the west, and Mount Gilboa to Pilate’s famous and cynical question “What is the northeast. truth?,” Bulgakov adds the notion, clearly appli- 1. The Site. The Bull Site was the chance discovery cable to life in Stalinist Moscow as well as Roman of an Israeli kibbutznik who spotted a partially bur- Jerusalem, that cowardice is “the most terrible ied statuette of a bronze bull in the ground. Excava- vice.” tions were carried out between 1978 and 1981 by Bibliography: ■ Barratt, A., Between Two Worlds (Oxford A. Mazar on behalf of the Institute of Archaeology 1987). ■ Ianovskaia, L., Mikhail Bulgakov’s Career as a Writer of the Hebrew University of Jerusalem and the staff ■ (Moscow 1983). [Russian] Krugovoy, G., The Gnostic Novel officer for archaeology in Judea and Samaria (West of Mikhail Bulgakov (Lanham, Md. 1990). ■ Milne, L., Mi- khail Bulgakov (Cambridge 1990). ■ Zerkalov, A., The Gospel Bank). The badly eroded remains on bedrock in- of Mikhail Bulgakov (Ann Arbor, Mich. 1984). [Russian] cluded an elliptical rock wall enclosure ca. 20 m/66 Margaret C. Ziolkowski feet in diameter with an apparent opening in the northeast. At the eastern end of the enclosure was a large, slightly worked stone lying on its long, nar- Bull row side (ca. 1.2 m/4 feet x 0.91 m/3 feet x 0.23 m/ Bulls (Heb. par, šôr, abbîr; Gk. μσς) are often the ¾ feet). The bull figurine was found nearby. This objects of sacrifice in the cultic literature (e.g., Exod slab may have been a standing stone (Heb. masøsøe¯ bâ; 29 : 11 Lev 4 : 4, 8 : 14, 16 : 11) and are a part of the cf. Gen 35 : 14) or an altar (cf. Gen 12 : 8). In front Encyclopedia of the Bible and Its Reception vol. 4 Authenticated | [email protected] © Walter de Gruyter, Berlin/Boston, 2012 Download Date | 11/24/18 10:46 PM 591 Bullinger, Heinrich 592 14). However, Gideon’s father worshipped Baal at Ophrah (Judg 6 : 25), and the young bull (Heb. e¯ gel) had great importance in the cult of the northern tribes (1 Kgs 12 : 28). Bibliography: ■ Ahlström, G., “The Bull Figurine from Dhahrat et-Tawileh,” BASOR 280 (1990) 77–82. ■ Coogan, M. D., “Of Cults and Cultures,” PEQ 119 (1987) 1–8. ■ Ma- zar, A., “The ‘Bull Site’,” BASOR 247 (1982) 27–42. ■ Ma- zar, A., “A Cultic Site from the Period of the Judges in the Northern Samaria Hills,” Eretz-Israel 16 (1982b) 135–45. [Heb.] ■ Wenning, R./E. Zenger, “Ein bäuerliches Baal- Heiligtum im samarischen Gebirge aus der Zeit der Anfänge Israels,” ZDPV 102 (1986) 75–86. Robert Mullins Bullinger, Heinrich Fig. 17 Bull figurine (12th cent. BCE) Born July 4, 1504, in Bremgarten (Switzerland), Bullinger had already turned towards the evangeli- of the slab, excavations revealed a stone-paved area cal faith before he completed his Master’s degree in with Iron I pottery, a bronze object (possibly an Cologne (1522). The question driving him was less Egyptian-type mirror), and the fragment of a square the achievement of righteousness by either works cult vessel. In addition, there would have been suf- or faith alone than the pure original “Word of ficient room for a sacred tree (Heb. a˘še¯ râ) to stand God.” As a consequence of the humanist principle – inside the enclosure (cf. Ezek 6 : 13). back to the roots – he dedicated his time to intense Bible study accompanied by studies of the church 2. The Bull. Made according to the “lost wax” tech- fathers. With open gratefulness for what Erasmus nique, the bronze bull measures 18 cm/7 inches had achieved for biblical interpretation, from the long by 13 cm/5 inches high. The legs were made beginning, Bullinger placed humanist philology in separate strips and folded over the back of the and rhetoric in the service of Bible interpretation animal to create prominent ridges, the ridge behind without compromising his Reformed core. As early the head formed by the forelegs suggesting it was a as 1525, as a teacher in the monastery at Kappel Zebu bull (Bos indicus). Its flat feet rest firmly on the by Zurich, he was holding public lectures on Paul’s surface and do not require tangs or other means of Letters. At the same time, he penned writings in support. Its rounded eyes may have held glass or which he defended his hermeneutic and the meth- semi-precious stone. Though unique in size, style, odological steps of his exegesis. His extensive Stu- and details of design, the statuette appears to con- diorum ratio, a comprehensive sketch of rules for tinue the Canaanite tradition of bronze bull figu- study, praised worldly education and placed it in rines as found at Hazor and Ugarit. The figurine the service of a better understanding of God’s word may have been manufactured at one of the Canaan- in Bible texts. His demands to consider the context, ite towns in the northern valleys or made by an Isra- the grammar, and the rhetoric in biblical interpre- elite craftsman in the Canaanite tradition (cf. Judg tation alluded to the later development of historic 17 : 4–5). In the ancient Near East, the young bull philological exegesis. symbolized power and fertility and was usually After Zwingli’s death in October 1531, Bullin- identified with El or Baal. It remains uncertain, ger became his successor in Zurich, where he was though, whether such a statuette would have been effective until his own death on September 17, worshipped as an object in its own right or viewed 1575. His unremitting Bible interpretations were as a pedestal for the deity.