- Golden calf
The golden calf (עגל הזהב) was an idol (a
cult image ) made for theIsraelite s duringMoses ' absence, as he went up toMount Sinai . According to theHebrew Bible , the calf was made byAaron to satisfy the Israelites, whereas theQuran indicates the maker to beSamiri .In Hebrew, the incident is known as "Chet ha'Egel" (חטא העגל) or "The Sin of the Calf". It is first mentioned in
Exodus [http://bible.cc/exodus/32-4.htm 32:4] (Taha [http://www.usc.edu/dept/MSA/quran/020.qmt.html#020.83 20:83] in theQuran ). In Egypt, whence the Hebrews had recently come, the Apis Bull was the comparable object of worship, which the Hebrews were reviving in the wilderness. Among the Egyptians' and Hebrews' neighbors in theAncient Near East and in the Aegean, theAurochs , the wild bull, was widely worshipped, often as the Lunar Bull and as the creature of El. Its Minoan manifestation survived as theCretan Bull of Greek myth.ummary of the Biblical narrative
When
Moses went up ontoMount Sinai to receive theTen Commandments ( [http://bible.cc/exodus/19-20.htm Exodus 19:20] ), he left the Israelites for forty days and forty nights ( [http://bible.cc/exodus/24-18.htm Exodus 24:18] ). The Israelites feared that he would not return and asked Aaron to make gods for them ( [http://bible.cc/exodus/32-1.htm Exodus 32:1] ). The Bible does not note Aaron's opinion of this request, merely that he complied, and gathered up the Israelites' golden earrings. He melted them and constructed the golden calf.The Hebrew word calf can also mean circle. This might seem to indicate that they made a RA symbol rather than cast a calf, which would require a difficult manufacturing process with furnace, beeswax, clay, etc.Fact|date=September 2008Aaron also built an
altar before the calf / circle (RA), and the next day, the Israelites made offerings and celebrated.The Lord told Moses that his people had corrupted themselves, and that he planned to eliminate them, but Moses argued and pleaded that they should be spared ( [http://bible.cc/exodus/32-11.htm Exodus 32:11] ); the Lord relented. Moses went down from the mountain, but upon seeing the calf, he too became angry. He threw down the tablets upon which God's law had been written, and broke them. Moses then burnt the golden calf in the fire, ground it to powder, scattered it on water, and forced the Israelites to drink it. He questioned Aaron about the event, who admitted to collecting the gold, throwing it into the fire, and out came a calf. Then Moses gathered the sons of
Levi and set them to slaying a large number of adult males (3000). A plague then struck the Israelites. Nevertheless, the Lord stated that he would one day visit the Israelites' sin upon them.Since Moses had broken the tablets, the Lord instructed him to return to Mount Sinai yet again ( [http://bible.cc/exodus/34-2.htm Exodus 34:2] ) to receive a replacement.
Interpretation
The Sin of Idolatry
Within the context of the narrative, God has just finished delivering the
Ten Commandments to the Israelites, which included theSecond Commandment regarding the prohibition againstidolatry , that is, the making of images (similitudes) to be used in the worship ofYahweh . Further interpretation also suggests that the prohibition of the Second Commandment also included any adoption of the rites and traditions of the pagan nations, not merely the making of images.Many Christian scholars have suggested that the Israelites were worshipping the Egyptian god Apis, falling back into what they had known for centuries while in captivity. It is suggested that the "idolatry" (a voiding of the Second Commandment) on display here was the worship of another god. However, forging an image of Apis would not have violated the Second Commandment before it had literally violated the First, "worship no other gods".
As such, what may have actually transpired within the event is that the Israelites had not so much voided the First Commandment so much as they had violated the Second, which prohibited the making of an image of Yahweh. In Exodus 32 it states: "When Aaron saw this, he built an altar in front of the calf and announced, 'Tomorrow there will be a festival to the LORD (Yahweh).'" Within the context of the Exodus story, it would be highly unlikely that the Israelites, after witnessing the miracles of the Exodus first hand, would have fallen into the worship of another god immediately after Yahweh had just spoken the
Decalogue in their midst.Complicating the matter still further, there are indications in the story that the Israelites intended a replacement "Moses" rather than a replacement or even icon for God Himself. For instance, the rationale they gave Aaron for making the thing in the first place (Ex. 32:1) was "because this the man Moses, "who took us out of the land of Egypt", we do not know what has become of him."
Aaron's statement
When Aaron has made the golden calf, he says the rather confusing statement "These are your gods, O Israel, who brought you up out of Egypt." It is confusing because there is a single calf, so why refer to it as gods (plural). It is also not clear why it might be involved with bringing the people up from Egypt.
According to Exodus 32:4 the golden calf is made "...And they exclaimed, "This is your god O Israel, who brought you up from the land of Egypt!"" [
New Jewish Publication Society of America Version ]The preceding paragraph contains an inaccurate quotation of Exodus 32:4. The verse reads 'these' just prior to 'Elohim-of-you,' which explicitly pluralizes the reference to Elohim, which is often used in singular or plural contexts in the bible (see the wiki article for
Elohim ). [http://www.scripture4all.org/OnlineInterlinear/OTpdf/exo32.pdf]However, later on in 1 Kings [http://bible.cc/1_kings/12-28.htm 12:28] ,
Jeroboam tries to stop the Northern Israelites from visitingJerusalem . He has twohigh place s erected at Dan andBethel as new offering places. At each of these he has constructed a golden calf and says "It is too much for you to go up to Jerusalem. Here are your gods, O Israel, who brought you up out of Egypt." A similar phrase.The creation of the golden calves may have been an attempt to identify the Lord with
Baal . Among the Phoenicians, Baal was sometimes called the "calf" whereas the supreme god El (God) was called the "bull". Bovine whole-burnt offerings were an important part of Baal worship. The golden calf may have been a zoomorphic ark for Baal, just as winged lions (cherubim) were for the Lord. By making a calf pedestal, instead of a lion, would have been an attempt to identify the Lord with the Canaanite son of Dagon, Baal.The construction of the two golden calves would have been seen as a gross blasphemy by the Kings author, on a par with the original Golden Calf episode. The Levite priests in the North would have found those golden calves an irritation as they were looked after by non-Levite priests, and were probably seen as idolatrous. A reference to the original golden calf episode may have been seen fitting. There may even have been some cross over of the language.
As adoration of wealth
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