Golden calf
In the
Hebrew Bible, the
golden calf (ע'ל "ז"ב) was an
idol (a
cult image) made by
Aaron for the
Israelites during
Moses' unexpectedly long absence. In
Hebrew, the incident is known as "Chet ha'Egel" (חטא "ע'ל) or "The Sin of the Calf". It is first mentioned in
Exodus 32:4.
Among the Hebrews' neighbors in the
Ancient Near East and the
Aegean, the
Aurochs, the wild bull, was widely worshipped, often as the
Lunar Bull and as
El. Its
Minoan manifestation survived as the
Cretan Bull of Greek myth.
The story of the Golden Calf is mentioned in the
Qur'an (see
Musa) in many
Suras (e.g.
Al-Baqara,
An-Nisa,
Al-A'raf,
Ta-Ha).
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 gods for them (
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.
Aaron also built an
altar before the calf, 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 (
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 he 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 (
Exodus 34:2) to receive a replacement.
The story raises a number of interesting questions, such as why Aaron, who went on to be the head priest, was not punished for his action. Aaron leads a somewhat charmed life, missing out on the consequences of his actions, similar to the
Snow-white Miriam issue.
In the
documentary hypothesis, the story is not present in the
Priestly source. It would certainly not fit in with their view of Aaron. The story occurs in the
Elohist component. This author is rather anti-Aaron, and pro Moses.
The
grinding to powder action is also repeated in King
Josiah's reign when
"He burned the high place and ground it to powder", which echos the
"then he ground it to powder, scattered it on the water and made the Israelites drink it" phrase.
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.
==> (i added this in view of the above comments)its in plural form because they personalified Jehovah(the God of Abraham) in the form of a golden calf. They gave Jehovah a physical form which was expressively forbidden by their laws.
However later on in 1
Kings 12:28,
Jeroboam tries to stop the Northern Israelites from visiting
Jerusalem. He has two
high places erected at Dan and
Bethel 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 suspiciously similar phrase.
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.
The golden calf is also the award given at the Netherlands film festival. (Which is regarded as the Dutch
Academy awards).
Torah parshiot or portions dealing with the Golden Calf:
Ki Tisa and
Eikev*
The Golden calf from a Jewish perspective at
chabad.org*
Islamic interpretation of the story of the Golden calf in the Qur'an
