According to the Hebrew Bible, the golden calf (עֵגֶּל הַזָהָב ‘ēggel hazâhâḇ) was an idol (a cult image) made by Aaron to satisfy the Israelites during Moses' absence, when he went up to Mount Sinai. The calf was intended to be a physical representation of the God of Israel, and therefore was doubly wrong for involving Israel in idolatry and for ascribing physicality to God.
In Hebrew, the incident is known as ḥēṭ’ ha‘ēggel (חֵטְא הַעֵגֶּל) or "The Sin of the Calf". It is first mentioned in Exodus 32:4. Bull worship was common in many cultures. In Egypt, whence according to the Exodus narrative the Hebrews had recently come, the Apis Bull was a comparable object of worship, which some believe the Hebrews were reviving in the wilderness;[1] alternatively, some believe the God of Israel was associated with or pictured as a calf/bull deity through the process of religious assimilation and syncretism. Among the Egyptians' and Hebrews' neighbors in the Ancient Near East and in the Aegean, the Aurochs, the wild bull, was widely worshipped, often as the Lunar Bull and as the creature of El.
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When Moses went up onto Mount Sinai to receive the Ten Commandments (Exodus 19:20), he left the Israelites for forty days and forty nights (Exodus 24:18). The Israelites feared that he would not return and asked Aaron to make for them an image of the God of Israel (Exodus 32:1). However, Aaron refused to build a representation of the God of Israel. The Israelites had complained enough to overwhelm Aaron, so he complied and gathered up the Israelites' golden earrings. He melted them and constructed a statue of a young bull, made of gold. Aaron also built an altar before the calf and declared "Israel, these are your gods, which brought you out of the land of Egypt". And the next day, the Israelites made offerings to the Golden Calf and celebrated. Moses saw what they were doing and became angry with them, shattering the Tablets of Stone God had written His laws for the Israelites upon.
Later, the Lord told Moses that his people had corrupted themselves, and he planned to eliminate them and start a new people from Moses himself. However, Moses argued and pleaded that they should be spared (Exodus 32:11), and the Lord relented. And when Joshua heard the noise of the people as they shouted, he told Moses. 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, breaking them. Moses burnt the golden calf in a fire, ground it to powder, scattered it on water, and forced the Israelites to drink it. Aaron admitted collecting the gold, and throwing it into the fire along with cutting wood, and said it came out as a calf. Moses then called everyone who was willing to follow the Torah to himself. Most of Israel came to Moses, including every member of the tribe of Levi. Moses sent the Levites to slay a large number of people (3000) who had rejected Moses' call. A plague struck the Israelites. Nevertheless, the Lord stated that he would one day visit the Israelites' sin upon them.
As Moses had broken the tablets, the Lord instructed him to return to Mount Sinai (Exodus 34:2) and receive a replacement.
In 922 BC, when Jeroboam I establishes the northern kingdom of Israel, he builds two golden calves and places them in Bethel and Dan. According to 1 Kings 12. c 26–30, Jeroboam surveys the pious rituals of the Israelites relative to sacrifices.
26 Jeroboam thought to himself, "The kingdom will now likely revert to the house of David. 27 If these people go up to offer sacrifices at the temple of the LORD in Jerusalem, they will again give their allegiance to their lord, Rehoboam king of Judah. They will kill me and return to King Rehoboam." 28 After seeking advice, the king made two golden calves. He said to the people, "It is too much for you to go up to Jerusalem. Here are your gods, Israel, who brought you up out of Egypt." 29 One he set up in Bethel, and the other in Dan. 30 And this thing became a sin; the people came to worship the one at Bethel and went as far as Dan to worship the other. Kings%2012:26–30&verse=NIV&src=! 1 Kings 12:26–30 NIV
His chief concern is their tendency to offer sacrifices in Jerusalem, an act he feels would lead to a return to King Rehoboam of Judah, which is in the southern kingdom. He creates the golden calf as a preventive method in order to ensure his own safety and recognizance as king. Furthermore, he erects the two calfs, in what he figures (in some interpretations) as substitutes for the cherubim built by King Solomon in Jerusalem..[2]
The golden calf is also mentioned by Ezra in Nehemiah Chapter 9, verses 18–19.
16 "But they, our ancestors, became arrogant and stiff-necked, and they did not obey your commands. 17 They refused to listen and failed to remember the miracles you performed among them. They became stiff-necked and in their rebellion appointed a leader in order to return to their slavery. But you are a forgiving God, gracious and compassionate, slow to anger and abounding in love. Therefore you did not desert them, 18 even when they cast for themselves an image of a calf and said, 'This is your god, who brought you up out of Egypt,' or when they committed awful blasphemies. 19 "Because of your great compassion you did not abandon them in the wilderness. By day the pillar of cloud did not fail to guide them on their path, nor the pillar of fire by night to shine on the way they were to take. 20 You gave your good Spirit to instruct them. You did not withhold your manna from their mouths, and you gave them water for their thirst. 21 For forty years you sustained them in the wilderness; they lacked nothing, their clothes did not wear out nor did their feet become swollen. Nehemiah 9:16–19 NIV
Ezra, in speaking to the Israelites, revisits their history and tells them about God's grace during their attempts to worship God with a calf.
The language in Ezra concerning "God" suggests that there are some inconsistencies in the other accounts of the Israelites and their use of the calf. As the version in Exodus and 1 Kings are written by Deuteronomistic historians based in the southern kingdom of Judah, there is a proclivity to expose the Israelites as unfaithful. The inconsistency is primarily located in Exodus 32.4 where "gods" is plural despite the construction of a single calf. When Ezra retells the story, he uses the single, capitalized God.[3]
After the death of Solomon the usurper Jeroboam sought to strengthen his hold on the northern 10 tribes by making two golden calves. The declarations of Aaron's followers and Jeroboam are almost identical:
After making the golden calf or golden calves both Aaron and Jeroboam celebrate festivals. Aaron builds an altar and Jeroboam ascends an altar (Exod 32:5–6; 1 Kings 12:32–33).[4]
Richard Elliott Friedman says "at a minimum we can say that the writer of the golden calf account in Exodus seems to have taken the words that were traditionally ascribed to Jeroboam and placed them in the mouths of the people." Friedman believes that the story was turned into a polemic, exaggerating the throne platform decoration into idolatory, by a family of priests sidelined by Jeroboam. [5]
The golden calf narrative differs notably among non-Masoretic, non canonical texts. For instance, the version contained in the Dead Sea Scrolls tells that upon coming down from the mountain, Moses discovered that the Israelites engaging in debaucherous behavior on the shores of a nearby beach. Roughly translated:
"...and Moses saw that the Israelites had constructed a dwelling on the shore, and that they were making merry. Seeing that their actions were displeasing to God, Moses was filled with great wrath."
Despite a seemingly simplistic façade, the golden calf narrative is complex. According to Michael Coogan, it seems that the golden calf was not an idol for another god, and thus a false god.[6] He cites Exodus 32:4–5 as evidence: He[Aaron] took the gold from them, formed it in a mold, and cast an image of a calf; and they said, “These are your gods, O Israel, who brought you up out of the land of Egypt!” When Aaron saw this, he built an altar before it; and Aaron made proclamation and said, “Tomorrow shall be a festival to the Lord.” Importantly, there is a single calf in this narrative, though the people refer to it as representative of the “gods.” While a reference to singular god does not necessarily imply Yahweh worship, it does not rule out the possibility that it is Yahweh that the people are worshiping, as the reference to a plurality of “gods” would. Additionally, the festival “to the Lord” in verse 5 is sometimes translated as “to Yahweh”.[6] It should also be noted that “in the chronology of the narrative of the Ten Commandments” the commandment against the creation of graven images had not yet been given to the people when they pressed upon Aaron to help them make the calf, and that such behavior was not yet explicitly outlawed.[6]
Amateur biblical scholars often forget that when compared in context to the rest of the sentence (in a Torah verse which indicates singular usage), the Hebrew term "gods" is actually a Semitic elative meaning the one God YHWH (see the original term in Hebrew, Elohim); thus, Aaron's famous response to the unruly Israelites after he is forced to cast the Golden Calf could be seen as a bitterly sarcastic condemnation of their assumption of God's likeness, even after he consents to their demands.
Another understanding of the golden calf narrative is that the calf was meant to be the pedestal of Yahweh. In Near Eastern art, gods were often depicted standing on an animal, rather than seated on a throne.[6] This reading suggests that the golden calf was merely an alternative to the ark of the covenant or the cherubim upon which Yahweh was enthroned.[6]
The reason for this complication maybe understood as 1.) a criticism of Aaron, as the founder of one priestly house that rivaled the priestly house of Moses, and/or 2.) as “an attack on the northern kingdom of Israel.”[6] The second explanation relies on the “sin of Jeroboam,” who was the first king of the northern kingdom, as the cause of the northern kingdom’s fall to Assyria in 722 BCE.[6] Jeroboam’s “sin” was creating two calves of gold, and sending one to Bethel as a worship site in the south of the Kingdom, and the other to Dan as a worship site in the north, so that the people of the northern kingdom would not have to continue to go to Jerusalem to worship (see 1 Kings 12.26–30). According to Coogan, this episode is part of the Deuteronomistic history, written in the southern kingdom of Judah, after the fall of the Northern kingdom, which was biased against the northern kingdom.[6] Coogan maintains that Jeroboam was merely presenting an alternative to the cherubim of the Temple in Jerusalem, and that calves did not indicate non-Yahwehistic worship.[6]
The documentary hypothesis can be used to further understand the layers of this narrative: it is plausible that the earliest story of the golden calf was preserved by E (Israel source) and originated in the Northern kingdom. When E and J (Judah source) were combined after the fall of northern kingdom, “the narrative was reworked to portray the northern kingdom in a negative light,” and the worship of the calf was depicted as “polytheism, with the suggestion of a sexual orgy” (see Exodus 32.6). When compiling the narratives, P (a later Priest source from Jerusalem) may have minimized Aaron’s guilt in the matter, but preserved the negativity associated with the calf.[6]
Alternatively it could be said that there is no golden calf story in the J source, and if it is correct that the Jeroboam story was the original as stated by Friedman, then it is unlikely that the Golden Calf events as described in Exodus occurred at all. Friedman states that the smashing of the Ten Commandments by Moses when he beheld the worship of the golden calf, is really an attempt to cast into doubt the validity of Judah's central shrine, the Ark of the Covenant. "The author of E, in fashioning the golden calf story, attacked both the Israelite and Judean religious establishments." [7]
As to the likelihood that these events ever took place, on the one hand there are two versions of the ten commandments story, in E (Exodus 20) and J (Exodus 34), this gives some antiquity and there may be some original events serving as a basis to the stories. The Golden Calf story is only in the E version and a later editor added in an explanation that God made a second pair of tablets to give continuity to the J story.[8] The actual Ten Commandments as given in Exodus 20 were also inserted by the redactor who combined the various sources. [9]
Archaeologists Israel Finkelstein and Neil Asher Silberman say that while archaeology has found traces left by small bands of hunter gatherers in the Sinai, there is no evidence at all for the large body of people described in the Exodus story: "The conclusion – that Exodus did not happen at the time and in the manner discribed in the Bible – seems irrefutable.. repeated excavations and surveys throughout the entire area have not provided even the slightest evidence.."[10]
A metaphoric interpretation emphasizes the "gold" part of "golden calf" to criticize the pursuit of wealth.
This usage can be found in Spanish[11] where Mammon, the Gospel personification of idolatry of wealth, is not so current.
The incident of Israel and the golden calf is retold in Taha 20.83 in the Quran. The Quranic Version of the episode is similar to the original in most respects, except that the golden calf is constructed by a man named Samiri, rather than Aaron. Samiri claims that Moses has disappeared/forgotten (as stated in Holy Quran From Verse 20–84 Till verse 20–98), and the Israelites have to find this (calf) god & he also claimed that this calf is god of Musa/Moses. To meet this end, Samiri makes a golden calf from the gold jewelry brought out of Egypt and some collected from the people Bani Israeel. After that Samiri blew some glowing sand/dust (which he collected earlier from the bank of Nile form a point where a Foot of an angel Ridden Pegasus hit that part of ground while the Paroh was Drowning). Harun (Aaron), who is acting as leader in Moses' absence, attempts to prevent them from worshiping the statue, but is unsuccessful and was seriously cautious not to raise any differences in Bani Israeel until the Return Of his brother Prophet Musa/Moses. When Moses does return, he is infuriated at the pagan ritual and Harun's inability to stop it, and tugs violently at Harun's beard in his anger. Moses then exiles Samiri and orders the golden calf burnt and its ashes cast into the sea.
The exoneration of Aaron from making and worshiping the golden calf can be seen in the verses [90–94] of Surah Taha in Quran:
"Aaron had already, before this said to them: "O my people [The Children of Israel]! ye are being tested in this: for verily your Lord is (Allah) Most Gracious; so follow me and obey my command." (90) They had said: "We will not abandon this cult, but we will devote ourselves to it until Moses returns to us." (91) (Moses) said: "O Aaron! what kept thee back, when thou sawest them going wrong, (92) "From following me? Didst thou then disobey my order?" (93) (Aaron) replied: "O son of my mother! Seize (me) not by my beard nor by (the hair of) my head! Truly I feared lest thou shouldst say, 'Thou has caused a division among the children of Israel, and thou didst not respect my word!'" (94)"