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Idol in the Bible

According to the Bible, the golden calf (עֵגֶּל הַזָהָב 'ēggel hazāhāv) was an idol (a cult image) made by the Israelites when Moses went up to Mountain Sinai. In Hebrew, the incident is known as ḥēṭ' ha'ēggel (חֵטְא הַעֵגֶּל) or "the sin of the calf". It is commencement mentioned in the Book of Exodus.^[1]

Bull worship was common in many cultures. In Arab republic of egypt, whence according to the Exodus narrative the Hebrews had recently come up, the Apis Balderdash was a comparable object of worship, which some believe the Hebrews were reviving in the wilderness;^[two] alternatively, some believe Yahweh, the national god of the Israelites, was associated with or pictured equally a calf/bull deity through the process of religious absorption and syncretism. Among the Canaanites, some of whom would get the Israelites,^[3] the bull was widely worshipped as the Lunar Bull and as the creature of El.^[4]

Biblical narrative [edit]

When Moses went upwards into Mount Sinai to receive the Ten Commandments (Exodus 24:12–18), he left the Israelites for forty days and nights. The Israelites feared that he would not return and demanded that Aaron make them "a god to go before them". Aaron gathered up the Israelites' golden earrings and ornaments, constructed a "molten calf" and they alleged: "'This is thy god, O State of israel, which brought thee up out of the land of Arab republic of egypt" (Exodus 32:1–4).

Aaron built an altar before the calf and proclaimed the next day to exist a banquet to the FiftyORD. So they rose up early the next day and "offered burnt-offerings, and brought peace-offerings; and the people sat down to eat and to drink, and rose up to play." (Exodus 32:half dozen) God told Moses what the Israelites were up to back in military camp, that they had turned bated quickly out of the way which God commanded them and he was going to destroy them and outset a new people from Moses. Moses besought and pleaded that they should be spared and "the LORD repented of the evil which He said He would practise unto His people." (Exodus 32:11–14)

Moses went down from the mount, but upon seeing the calf, he became angry and threw down the two Tablets of Stone, breaking them. Moses burnt the aureate calf in a fire, ground it to powder, scattered it on water, and forced the Israelites to drink it. When Moses asked him, Aaron admitted to collecting the golden, and throwing it into the fire, and said it came out as a calf (Exodus 32:21–24).

Exclusion of the Levites and mass execution [edit]

The Bible records that the tribe of Levi did not worship the aureate calf. "Moses stood in the gate of the camp, and said: 'Whosoever is on the LORD's side, allow him come unto me.' And all the sons of Levi gathered themselves together unto him. And he said unto them: 'Thus saith the LORD, the God of Israel: Put ye every homo his sword upon his thigh, and go to and fro from gate to gate throughout the camp, and slay every man his blood brother, and every man his companion, and every man his neighbor.' And the sons of Levi did according to the discussion of Moses; and in that location fell of the people that day about 3 yard men."(Exodus 32:26–28)

Other mentions in the Bible [edit]

Moses destroying the tables (watercolor circa 1896–1902 by James Tissot)

The golden dogie is mentioned in Nehemiah ix:16–21.

"Just they, our ancestors, became arrogant and stiff-necked, and they did not obey your commands. They refused to listen and failed to recall the miracles you performed among them. They became stiff-necked and in their rebellion appointed a leader in order to return to their slavery. Only you are a forgiving God, gracious and compassionate, slow to anger and abounding in beloved. Therefore you did not desert them, even when they bandage for themselves an epitome of a calf and said, 'This is your god, who brought y'all upwardly out of Egypt', or when they committed awful blasphemies.

"Because of your great compassion y'all did non abandon them in the wilderness. By solar day the pillar of cloud did not fail to guide them on their path, nor the pillar of burn past nighttime to smooth on the way they were to take. You gave your good Spirit to instruct them. Y'all did non withhold your manna from their mouths, and you gave them water for their thirst. For 40 years y'all sustained them in the wilderness; they lacked nothing, their clothes did not wear out nor did their feet become swollen."

The language suggests that in that location are some inconsistencies in the other accounts of the Israelites and their use of the dogie. As the version in Exodus and i 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.^[v]

Jeroboam's golden calves at Bethel and Dan [edit]

Worshiping the Golden Calf

Co-ordinate to 1 Kings 12:26–30, after Jeroboam establishes the northern Kingdom of Israel, he contemplates the sacrificial practices of the Israelites.

Jeroboam idea to himself, "The kingdom volition now probable revert to the business firm of David. If these people go upwards to offer sacrifices at the temple of the LORD in Jerusalem, they volition again give their allegiance to their lord, Rehoboam king of Judah. They will kill me and return to Rex Rehoboam." Subsequently seeking communication, the king fabricated ii gilded calves. He said to the people, "It is besides much for yous to go up to Jerusalem. Here are your gods, Israel, who brought you upwardly out of Arab republic of egypt." One he fix up in Bethel, and the other in Dan. And this affair became a sin; the people came to worship the one at Bethel and went as far every bit Dan to worship the other.

His concern was that the trend to offer sacrifices in Jerusalem, which is in the southern Kingdom of Judah, would lead to a return to King Rehoboam. He makes two golden calves and places them in Bethel and Dan. He erects the two calves in what he figures (in some interpretations) as substitutes for the cherubim built by Male monarch Solomon in Jerusalem.^[6]

However, in the Antiquities of the Jews (v. 8: 8), which is taken from the Septuagint, Josephus states: "He made ii golden heifers, and built ii footling temples for them, the one in the city Bethel, and the other in Dan...and he put the heifers into both the little temples in the forementioned cities." This is quite incompatible with whatsoever resemblance of the "calves" to the Egyptian Apis Bull, just quite indicative of the Egyptian goddess Hathor, to whom in the Egyptian text "Devastation of Mankind" is attributed cataclysmic events similar to those recounted in Exodus.^{[ citation needed ]}

Richard Elliott Friedman says "at a minimum we can say that the author of the aureate calf account in Exodus seems to take 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 idolatry, by a family of priests sidelined by Jeroboam.^[7]

The declarations of Aaron and Jeroboam are almost identical:

• 'These are your gods, O State of israel, who brought you up from the land of Egypt' (Exod 32:iv, 8);
• 'Behold your gods, O Israel, who brought you up from the land of Egypt (1 Kings 12:28)

Later making the golden calf or aureate calves both Aaron and Jeroboam celebrate festivals. Aaron builds an altar and Jeroboam ascends an altar (Exod 32:v–6; i Kings 12:32–33).^[eight]

Jewish views [edit]

The Levites killed about 3,000 Israelites who worshipped the Golden Calf (1984 analogy by Jim Padgett)

In Legends of the Jews, the Conservative rabbi and scholar Louis Ginzberg wrote that the worship of the gilded calf was the disastrous result for Israel who took a mixed multitude in their exodus from Egypt. Had not the mixed multitude joined them, Israel would not have been misled to worship this molten idol. The form of the calf itself came from a magical virtue of an ornament leaf with the paradigm of the bull which is fabricated by Aaron.^[nine]

The devotion of Israel to this worship of the calf was partly explained by a circumstance at passing through the Red Sea, when they beheld the nigh distinct creature nigh the Angelic Throne which is the resemblance of ox, and so they thought it was an ox who had helped God in their journey from Arab republic of egypt.^[nine] After seeing Hur son of Miriam who was carelessly murdered by the people following his rebuke of their ingratitude action to God, Aaron was willing rather to have a sin upon himself to make an idol than to cast the burden of an evil deed upon the people if they commit and then terrible sin of killing a priest and prophet among them.^[9]

Also in that location would be among the Israelites no priestly degree, and the nation would have been a nation of priests only if Israel had not sinned through worshiping the golden calf that the greater part of the people lost the right to priesthood, except the tribe of Levi as the only tribe who remained faithful to God and did not partake in this sinful human activity.^[10]

According to Nachman of Breslov, everyone contributed to the building of the Tabernacle, and the contribution that each Jew made was his or her good points. Thus, the Tabernacle was congenital by the good points found in each person; this was sufficient to counteract the blemish of the aureate calf.^[11] The "adept points" are reflected in the "gold, silvery and copper" that the Jews donated. The diverse colors of these metals reverberate the Supernal Colors and the beauty of a person's good deeds.^[12]

Islamic narrative [edit]

The incident of the worship of the gold calf is narrated in the second chapter of the Quran, named Al-Baqarah, and other Islamic literature. The Quran narrates that after they refused to enter the promised land, God decreed that as punishment the Israelites would wander for 40 years. Moses continued to atomic number 82 the Israelites to Mount Sinai for divine guidance. According to Islamic literature, God ordered Moses to fast for forty nights before receiving the guidance for the Israelites.^{[13] [14]} When Moses completed the fasts, he approached God for guidance. During this fourth dimension, Moses had instructed the Israelites that Aaron was to lead them.^[xv]

The Israelites grew restless, since Moses had not returned to them, and after thirty days, a man the Quran names Samiri raised doubts amongst the Israelites. Samiri claimed that Moses had forsaken the Israelites and ordered his followers among the Israelites to lite a fire and bring him all the jewelry and aureate ornaments they had.^[16] Samiri fashioned the gold into a golden calf along with the dust on which the angel Gabriel had trodden, which he proclaimed to be the God of Moses and the God who had guided them out of Arab republic of egypt.^[17] At that place is a sharp contrast between the Quranic and the biblical accounts of the prophet Aaron's actions. The Quran mentions that Aaron attempted to guide and warn the people from worshipping the gilded dogie. However, the Israelites refused to stop until Moses had returned.^[18] The righteous separated themselves from the pagans. God informed Moses that he had tried the Israelites in his absence and that they had failed by worshipping the golden calf.

Returning to the Israelites in neat acrimony, Moses asked Aaron why he had not stopped the Israelites when he had seen them worshipping the gilded calf. The Quran reports that Aaron stated that he did not act due to the fear that Moses would blame him for causing divisions amid the Israelites. Moses realized his helplessness in the situation, and both prayed to God for forgiveness.^[xix] Co-ordinate to not-Qur'anic sources Moses then questioned Samiri for the creation of the gold calf; Samiri justified his actions by stating that he had thrown the dust of the ground upon which Gabriel had tread on into the burn down because his soul had suggested it to him.^[16] Moses informed him that he would be banished and that they would burn the golden calf and spread its dust into the body of water. Moses ordered seventy delegates to apologize to God and pray for forgiveness.^[20] The delegates traveled aslope Moses to Mount Sinai, where they witnessed the speech betwixt him and God simply refused to believe until they had witnessed God with their sight. As punishment, God struck the delegates with lightning and killed them with a violent earthquake.^[21] Moses prayed to God for their forgiveness. God forgave and resurrected them and they continued on their journey.^{[ citation needed ]}

In the Islamic view, the calf-worshipers' sin had been shirk (Standard arabic: شرك), the sin of idolatry or polytheism. Shirk is the deification or worship of anyone or anything other than Allah, or more than literally the establishment of "partners" placed beside God, a virtually serious sin.

Criticism and interpretation [edit]

According to modern scholarship, in that location are 2 versions of the 10 Commandments story, in E (Exodus xx) and J (Exodus 34), this gives some artifact and there may be some original events serving equally a basis to the stories. The Golden Calf story is only in the East version and a later editor added in an explanation that God made a second pair of tablets to give continuity to the J story.^[22] The actual Ten Commandments as given in Exodus xx were likewise inserted by the redactor who combined the diverse sources.^[23]

Co-ordinate to Michael Coogan, it seems that the golden calf was not an idol for another god, and thus a simulated god.^[24] He cites Exodus 32:4–five equally show:

He [Aaron] took the gold from them, formed information technology in a mold, and cast an image of a calf; and they said, "These are your gods, O Israel, who brought you lot upward out of the land of Egypt!" When Aaron saw this, he congenital an altar before information technology; and Aaron made annunciation and said, "Tomorrow shall be a festival to the FiftyORD (Yahweh)."

Importantly, in that location is a single dogie in this narrative. While the people refer to it every bit representative of the "gods", this is a possessive form of the word Elohim (אֱלֹהֶיךָ‎ elo'hecha, from אֱלֹהִים‎), which is a proper noun of God equally well as general word for "gods". While a reference to singular god does not necessarily imply Yahweh worship, the word ordinarily translated as 'lord' is Yahweh יהוה‎ in the original, so at least it can't be ruled out.^[24] In the chronology of Exodus the commandment confronting the creation of graven images had not nevertheless been given to the people when they pressed upon Aaron to assistance them make the dogie, and that such behavior was not withal explicitly outlawed.^[24]

Some other understanding of the golden calf narrative is that the dogie was meant to be the pedestal of Yahweh. In Almost Eastern art, gods were frequently depicted standing on an animal, rather than seated on a throne.^[24] This reading suggests that the golden dogie was only an alternative to the ark of the covenant or the cherubim upon which Yahweh was enthroned.^[24]

The reason for this complexity may be understood as

1. a criticism of Aaron, as the founder of one priestly house that rivaled the priestly firm of Moses, and/or
2. as "an assault on the northern kingdom of Israel."^[24] The 2d explanation relies on the "sin of Jeroboam," who was the beginning rex of the northern kingdom, every bit the cause of the northern kingdom's fall to Assyria in 722 BCE.^[24] Jeroboam's "sin" was creating two calves of gold, and sending one to Bethel equally a worship site in the south of the Kingdom, and the other to Dan equally a worship site in the n, 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, afterwards the autumn of the northern kingdom, which was biased against the northern kingdom.^[24] Coogan maintains that Jeroboam was merely presenting an culling to the cherubim of the Temple in Jerusalem, and that calves did not point non-Yahwehistic worship.^[24]

The documentary hypothesis tin can be used to further understand the layers of this narrative: it is plausible that the primeval 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 low-cal," and the worship of the dogie was depicted as "polytheism, with the proffer of a sexual orgy" (see Exodus 32:6). When compiling the narratives, P (a afterward Priest source from Jerusalem) may have minimized Aaron'due south guilt in the affair, simply preserved the negativity associated with the dogie.^[24]

Alternatively it could be said that there is no aureate calf story in the J source, and if information technology is correct that the Jeroboam story was the original equally stated by Friedman, and so it is unlikely that the golden calf events as described in Exodus occurred at all. Friedman states that the cracking of the Ten Commandments by Moses when he beheld the worship of the gilded dogie, is really an endeavour to cast into doubtfulness the validity of Judah's primal shrine, the Ark of the Covenant. "The author of Due east, in fashioning the gilt dogie story, attacked both the Israelite and Judean religious establishments."^[25]

As adoration of wealth [edit]

A metaphoric interpretation emphasizes the "gilded" role of "gilded calf" to criticize the pursuit of wealth.^[26] This usage tin can exist found in Spanish^[27] where Mammon, the Gospel personification of idolatry of wealth, is not so current.

In popular civilisation [edit]

Eponymous subjects [edit]

• Le veau d'or est toujours debout (The Gilt Calf is still standing), an aria in Charles Gounod's opera Faust
• Cave of the Golden Calf, a notorious nightclub in Edwardian London, created past Frida Uhl
• "The Golden Calf and the Altar", an episode in the unfinished opera Moses und Aron, a 3-act, uncompleted opera by Arnold Schoenberg
• The Golden Dogie, a sculpture by conceptual artist Damien Hirst
• "The Gold Calf", a song on the Prefab Sprout album From Langley Park to Memphis
• Mooby the Golden Calf, a fictional character featured in the works of Kevin Smith
• The Footling Gilded Calf, a satirical novel by Soviet authors Ilf and Petrov
• Dance Around the Golden Calf, a painting by Emil Nolde
• The Calf of Dan, a sculpture by James W. Washington Jr.
• The 2021 Conservative Political Action Conference (CPAC) featured a golden statue of former United States President Donald Trump. Online commentators compared the figure with the Exodus'southward gilt calf, considering Trump'southward largely evangelical and conservative Christian base.^{[28] [29] [30] [31]}

Others [edit]

• In Episode 79 of Batman, a Golden Calf full of money was stolen by The Riddler^[32]

See also [edit]

• Bull of Sky
• Cattle in religion
• Erev Rav
• Gugalanna
• Ki Tissa and Eikev, Torah parshiot dealing with the Golden Calf
• Red heifer
• Sacred balderdash
• Tauroctony

Further reading [edit]

• Driscoll, James F. (1909). "Golden Dogie". In Herbermann, Charles (ed.). Catholic Encyclopedia. Vol. half-dozen. New York: Robert Appleton Company.
• Friedrich Justus Knecht (1910). "Chapter XXXVII. The Golden Dogie". A Practical Commentary on Holy Scripture. B. Herder.

Notes [edit]

1. ^ (Exodus 32:iv
2. ^ The early on Christian Apostolic Constitutions, vi. 4 (c. 380), mentions that "the police force is the decalogue, which the Lord promulgated to them with an audible voice, before the people made that calf which represented the Egyptian Apis."
3. ^ Finklestein, Israel; Silberman, Neil Asher (2002). The Bible Unearthed. Touchstone. p. 118. ISBN0-684-86913-vi. Most of the people who formed early on State of israel were local people — the same people whom nosotros run into in the highlands throughout the Bronze and Iron Ages. The early on Israelites were — irony of ironies — themselves originally Canaanites!
4. ^ Friedman, Richard Elliott (2019) [Beginning published 1987]. Who Wrote the Bible?. Simon & Schuster. ISBN978-1-9821-2900-ii. The calf, or young bull, was often associated with the god El, the chief god of the Canaanites, who was in fact referred to as "Bull El.".
5. ^ Coogan, 2009, pg. 116–117.
6. ^ Coogan, pg. 117, 2009
7. ^ Friedman, Richard Elliott "Who Wrote the Bible?" 1987 pp 72–3
8. ^ Harvey, John East. (2004). Retelling the Torah: the Deuteronomistic historian's use of Tetrateuchal Narratives . New York; London: T & T Clark International. p. 2. OCLC 276852204. : "The subsequent declarations of Aaron's people and Jeroboam are nigh identical: 'These are your gods, O Israel, who brought you upwardly from the land of Egypt' (Exod 32:four, viii); 'Behold your gods, O Israel, who brought you upwardly from the land ..."
9. ^ ^{a b c} Ginzberg, Louis (1909). The Legends of the Jews Volume Iii : The Golden Calf (Translated by Henrietta Szold) Philadelphia: Jewish Publication Society
10. ^ Ginzberg, Louis (1909) The Legends of the Jews Volume III : The Revelations in the Tabernacle (Translated by Henrietta Szold) Philadelphia: Jewish Publication Guild
11. ^ Likutey Halakhot I
12. ^ Rebbe Nachman of Breslov. Exodus-Leviticus Jerusalem/New York, Breslov Inquiry Institute
13. ^ (Quran 2:51)
14. ^ (Quran 7:142)
15. ^ (Quran vii:142)
16. ^ ^{a b} M. Th Houtsma (1993). First encyclopaedia of Islam: 1913-1936. p. 136. ISBN9004097961.
17. ^ Abdul-Sahib Al-Hasani Al-'amili. The Prophets, Their Lives and Their Stories. p. 354. ISBN9781605067063.
18. ^ IslamKotob, Sayyed Abul Hasan Ali Nadwi. Stories of the Prophets - قصص الانبياء. p. 115.
19. ^ (Quran vii:167-174)
20. ^ IslamKotob, Sayyed Abul Hasan Ali Nadwi. Stories of the Prophets - قصص الانبياء. p. 113.
21. ^ Iftikhar Ahmed Mehar (2003). Al-Islam: Inception to Conclusion. p. 123. ISBN9781410732729.
22. ^ Friedman, Richard Elliott. 2003. The Bible with Sources Revealed, p 177.
23. ^ Friedman, Richard Elliott. 2003. The Bible with Sources Revealed, p 153.
24. ^ ^{a b c d eastward f g h i j} Coogan, M. (2009). A Brief Introduction to the Quondam Attestation: The Hebrew Bible in its context. Oxford: Oxford University Press. p. 115.
25. ^ Friedman, Richard Elliott (1987). Who Wrote the Bible?. p. 74.
26. ^ Squires, Nick (2013-05-17). "Pope blames tyranny of capitalism for making people miserable". The Age . Retrieved 2019-09-25 .
27. ^ "becerro de oro". Diccionario de la Real Academia Española.
28. ^ Trump'south golden statue compared to Golden Calf in online derision The Jerusalem Post
29. ^ Castronuovo, Celine. "Gilt statue of Trump at CPAC ridiculed online". thehill.com. The Colina. Retrieved 28 February 2021.
30. ^ Beauchamp, Zach. "This gilded statue of Trump at CPAC is a perfect metaphor for the state of the GOP". Vox.com. Vocalisation. Retrieved 28 Feb 2021.
31. ^ Chait, Jonathan. "Donald Trump, CPAC and Republican Cult of Losing". nymag.com . Retrieved 28 February 2021.
32. ^ DeCandido, Keith (September xvi, 2016). "Holy Rewatch Batman! "Batman's Anniversary" / "A Riddling Controversy"". Tor.com. Macmillan Publishers. Archived from the original on September 17, 2016.

External links [edit]

• The Golden calf from a Jewish perspective at Chabad.org
• Rabbi Fohrman's Lectures on the Golden Dogie
• The Gold dogie from Ein Hod perspective
• Islamic interpretation of the story of the Golden calf in the Qur'an
• Story of Muses and Aaron in the Qur'an
• Jewish Encyclopedia: Calf, Golden
• Online Quran Project 20.83

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Source: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Golden_calf

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