“Deities can also be
represented by their symbol animal with which they share a particular characteristic
. . . According to 1 Kgs 12:26 ff.; Hos 8:5f.; 10:5; and 13:2 bull cults
existed in Samaria, Bethel, and Dan, and the Exodus formula in 1 Kgs 12:28
demonstrates that the bulls were understood as representations of YHWH and not
merely as animals on which he sat or stood. Thus, whoever regards the biblical
exodus credo as a cornerstone of the early worship of YHWH could find in a calf
a possible, albeit biblically proscribed, representation of YHWH. (Angelika
Berlejung, “The Origins and Beginnings of the Worship of YHWH: The Iconographic
Evidence,” in Jürgen van Oorschot and Markus Witte, eds., The Origins of
Yahwism [Beihefte Zur Zeitschrift Für Die Alttestamentliche Wissenschaft
484; Berlin: Walter de Gruyter, 2019], 67-92, here, pp. 70-71, 79)
Beyond this
apparently irenic position toward other peoples’ gods, the E source has a more
familiar harsh attitude toward Israelites who, after the rite of passage in
Genesis 35, backslide and worship foreign gods. A curious detail in the ritual
acts of Genesis 35 may signal this dangerous contingency. Along with setting aside
their foreign icons, Jacob’s household also sets aside הַנֵּכָר֙ אֲשֶׁ֣ר בְּיָדָ֔ם (“the rings that
were in their ears,” Gen 35:4). Jacob then buries the earrings with the foreign
gods. The curious link between earrings and foreign gods seems to be an anticipatory
detail, which is taken up in the Golden Calf story, another key event in E’s
history of religion. There Aaron commands the Israelites: “Take off the gold
rings that are in the ears of your wives, sons, and daughters (נִזְמֵ֣י הַזָּהָ֔ב אֲשֶׁר֙ בְּאָזְנֵ֣י נְשֵׁיכֶ֔ם בְּנֵיכֶ֖ם וּבְנֹתֵיכֶ֑ם) and bring them to
me” (Exod 32:2). From these gold earrings Aaron makes the Golden Calf, with
disastrous results. Aaron here seems to be a kind of anti-Jacob, reconstituting
a foreign icon from the earrings of the people. To worship a foreign god after
having entered into the covenant with God is a dangerous sin, which provokes
his deadly wrath. For Israelites to worship foreign gods is, at this point, a
breach of sacred boundaries with deadly consequences.-
As many commentators
have noted, the Golden Calf story bears an obvious relationship to the depiction
in of the sin of Jeroboam in 1 Kings 12, where he sets up “two golden calves”
for the people to worship at the shrines of Bethel and Dan. Jeroboam proclaims:
“These are your gods, O Israel, who brought you up from the land of Egypt” (1
Kgs 12:28). The plural verb הֶעֱל֖וּךָ (“brought you up”) clarifies that the subject אֱלֹהֶ֙יךָ֙ (“God, gods”) is
plural. The same sentence occurs in the Golden Calf story (Exod 32:4), where it
is spoken by the idolatrous Israelites. The allusion in Exodus to the northern
cult is clear. As many scholars have noted, the Golden Calf story “can only be
understood as a condemnation of the established religion of Northern Israel,
and at the same time of the priests connected with it, who probably traced
their descent from Aaron” (A. Kuenen, An Historico-Critical Inquiry into the
Origin and Composition of the Hexateuch [trans. P.H. Wicksteed; London,
1886], 245).
The danger of foreign
gods for Israelites is here polemically attached to the religion of the
Northern Kingdom and, in particular, cultic sites of Bethel and Dan. The E
source is arguing against his adversaries about the proper forms of Israelite religious
worship. He does this by characterizing the God of his adversaries as foreign
gods. This translation damnatio is elegantly conveyed in parallelistic
style in the introduction to the Covenant Code in E:
לֹ֥א תַעֲשׂ֖וּן אִתִּ֑י אֱלֹ֤הֵי כֶ֙סֶף
וֵאלֹהֵ֣י זָהָ֔ב לֹ֥א תַעֲשׂ֖וּ לָכֶֽם
Do not make with me
gods of silver,
And gods of gold do not make for yourselves. (Exod 20:23)
By implicitly
polemicizing against the worship of foreign gods at Bethel and Dan, the E
source alleges a backsliding from the separation from foreign gods in Genesis
35, which was a necessary part of the founding of Bethel as a sacred shrine.
This rite of passage of Jacob’s household from foreign polytheism to Israelites
monotheism has been undone. Like Pascal, the E source inveighs against his
adversaries in the religious establishment, alleging an atavistic worship of
foreign gods, not the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. (Ronald Hendel, “God and
the Gods in the Tetrateuch,” in Ibid., 239-66, here, pp. 249-50)
