The Israelites and
Aaron provide an immediate interpretation of the golden calf at the moment of
its construction: “These (’ēlleh) are
your gods, O Israel, who brought you up out of Egypt” (32:4). Their statement
indicates the original sin to be the equation of the calf with “gods.” The
proclamation re-appears in the Former Prophets (Joshua-2 Kings); 1 Kings 12
recounts the emergence of the monarchy in the northern kingdom under Jeroboam.
Following the pattern of kings as temple builders, the rule of Jeroboam is
accompanied by the construction of two cult sites, one in Dan and another in
Bethel (12:26–32). The temple complexes include the institution of a
non-Levitical priesthood, a liturgical calendar and festival, cultic objects,
and altars (12:31–32). The central cultic object at each site is a golden calf,
which Jeroboam interprets for the northern Israelites: “Here are your gods, O
Israel, who brought you up out of Egypt” (12:28), a near repetition of the
words of Aaron and the people in Exod 32:4. In the present structure of the
Hebrew Bible, the proclamation of Jeroboam is an inner-biblical quotation,
relating the golden calf in the wilderness with the cultic sites in Dan and
Bethel. Thus Jeroboam is presented as repeating the original sin of the golden
calf.
But a closer look at
the context indicates that the inner-biblical quotation moves in the other
direction: the construction of the golden calf in the wilderness is meant to be
an interpretation of the story of Jeroboam. His statement, “Here are your gods,
O Israel, who brought you up out of Egypt,” is written in the plural, “gods,”
because there are two golden calves, one in Dan and another in Bethel. The
statement fits the narrative context of 1 Kings 12. But the proclamation by
Aaron and the Israelites, which also refers to the golden calf in the plural,
“these (’ēlleh) are your gods,” does
not conform to the narrative context of Exodus 32, where there is only one
calf. The inner-biblical quotation moves from Jeroboam to the wilderness
community, and it indicates how crucial the rise of the northern monarchy is
for interpreting the “original sin” of the golden calf in the Non-P History. It
is so important that the inner-biblical quotation takes precedence over
narrative logic in Exodus 32. This fact did not escape the eye of the author of
Nehemiah, who corrects the grammar so that Ezra prays: “Therefore you [God] did
not desert them even when they cast for themselves an image of a calf and said,
‘This (zeh) is your god, who brought
you up out of Egypt’ ” (Neh 9:17–18). The Non-P historian, unlike the
author of Nehemiah, is willing to sacrifice grammar and narrative context to
insure that monarchy looms in the background of any interpretation of the
golden calf in Exodus 32. As a result, an interpretation of the original sin of
the Israelites requires an interpretation of the two golden calves in the
Deuteronomistic History.
The golden calves
are a religious and political metaphor in the Deuteronomistic History. They
represent the apostasy of Jeroboam I (1 Kgs 12:26–32), and, indeed, of all monarchs—even
reforming kings like Jehu, who destroyed Baal worship, but continued “the
worship of the golden calves at Bethel and Dan” (2 Kgs 10:29). The golden
calves are the reason for the destruction of the northern kingdom (2 Kgs
17:7–23). It fell because “they forsook all the commands of Yahweh their God
and made for themselves two idols cast in the shape of calves” (2 Kgs 17:16).
The two calves are also at the center of a range of forbidden worship practices
in the Deuteronomistic History, including the Asherah, astrology, child
sacrifice, sorcery, and high places. The prophet Hosea echoes the same
criticism of the north (Hos 8:5–6; 13:2), providing a glimpse into the cultic
practices of the northern kingdom. Hosea proclaims the sin of Ephraim with the
words: “People are kissing the calves!” The prophet also provides the divine
judgment: “Your calf is rejected, O Samaria.” In the Deuteronomistic History
the golden calves and the accompanying cultic practices are not limited to a
critique of the cultic practices of the north. The calves become a metaphor for
rejecting Yahweh, and the criticism of the calves is also extended to the
south. Judah too “followed the practices Israel had introduced.” As a result,
Yahweh “rejected all the people of Israel; he afflicted them and gave them into
the hands of plunderers, until he thrust them from his presence” (2 Kgs
17:19–20). Van Seters is certainly correct when he concludes: “The Jeroboam
apostasy has become a model for the whole people and for their ultimate fate,
even of Judah.”
The Former Prophets
provides a backdrop for interpreting the idolatry of the golden calf in Exodus
32 as a political and religious allegory about the inherent conflict between
Yahweh and kings. The inner-biblical quotation by Aaron (and the Israelites) of
Jeroboam signals that on one level the golden calf in the wilderness is the
taproot, which will inevitably lead to the political idolatry associated with
monarchy in the promised land. The content of the idolatry is worshiping the
power of the king over Yahweh. On another level the Non-P historian elaborates
on the nature of idolatry as any manufactured icon, thus reinforcing the
aniconic cultic theology of the Name (see the commentary on 19:1–24:11). Both
the Decalogue and the Book of the Covenant introduce a rigid prohibition
against any representation of the Deity, or, for that matter, of any other
icons. (Thomas B. Dozeman, Commentary
on Exodus [The Eerdmans Critical Commentary; Grand Rapids, Mich.: Eerdmans,
2009], 686–688)
It is to be noted that the
demonstrative pronoun (ʾelleh) and
the verb governed by ʾelohim, “God,”
are in the plural form, and that a plural verb is also used in verses 1 and 23.
Plural forms with ʾelohim are found
in a monotheistic context several times in the Bible, and there is as yet no
satisfactory explanation for this anomaly. In the present chapter the plural
usage may be a scribal device to emphasize the unacceptable nature of the
object. Aaron made only one image, and, significantly, Nehemiah 9:18, in
recalling this episode, has the cry of the people in the singular, “This [zeh] is your God who brought you out [heʿelkha] of Egypt.” (Nahum M. Sarna, Exodus [The
JPS Torah Commentary; Philadelphia: Jewish Publication Society, 1991], 204)
