Ten-tribe politics: proposing Apis would be madness—far likelier Jehovah under calf-symbols like cherubim or the bronze serpent
A Mosaic people would revolt at Apis; empire-hope rules that out.
Better parallel: calves as presence-symbols like cherubim or the bronze serpent.
Latin
XXXIX. Et certe cum Israelitae, quos Jeroboam sibi subjicere, & a Domo David abducere volebat, Jehovam solum Deum agnoscerent, & ex lege Mosis viverent, non potuit ille, nisi summa dementia, iis proponere cultum Apis, vel alterius numinis Aegyptiaci, salva spe retinendi imperii. Quare longe probabilius est, eum voluisse Jehovam coli in vitulis, tanquam in symbolis praesentiae divinae, ad instar Cherubinorum, vel serpentis aenei.