The Golden Calf
In Exodus 32, the Israelites construct a golden calf,
inviting divine censure. Seeing that Moses, the guide and mediator, has not
returned from his forty-day sojourn atop the mountain (24:18), the people take
matters into their own hands. Alone in the wilderness with nothing to do and no
idea where to go, with both god and guide nowhere to be seen, the people
request that Aaron “make ‘ēlohîm” for them, who will “go before” (yēlkû)
them. Aaron makes a golden calf, builds an altar for it, and declares a
festival to Yahweh (4-5). Afterward the people proclaim, “This is/these are
your ‘ēlohîm, O Israel, who brought you up out of the land of Egypt.” The
people then celebrate and present offerings (6). In this passage and in the
parallel episode with Jeroboam (1 Kings 12:26-30), the people anomalously employ
plural verb forms (32:2, 4, 8, 23) and pronouns (4, 87) to refer to the contextually
singular deity. (While ‘ēlohîm is morphologically plural, it often
functions as an abstract plural for a singular deity that uses singular designators.
While there are examples of the abstract plural taking plural forms, such usage
is unnatural in context . . .)
Throughout the chapter the text presents the perspectives
of various characters—the people, Aaron, Moses, and Yahweh—as well as that of
the storyteller. The people make the calf as a symbol of deity that concretizes
presence, either presencing or replacing Yahweh as god and eliminating the need
for Moses as guide and mediator. Presumably, the people indeed the calf to
presence Yahweh, but in their desperation may take any god who wants to take
credit for the Exodus. Aaron attempts to reforge a tangible connection to Yahweh
(5) and either replace Moses as guide and mediator or stall unto Moses returns.
(Michael Hundley, Yahweh Among the Gods: The Divine in Genesis, Exodus, and
the Ancient Near East [Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2022], 341-42)
Elsewhere in the ANE, a bull may serve as a
representation of divine form, a symbol, a pedestal, or mount. The people likely
intend a symbol since they have not seen the divine form and a pedestal for an invisible
deity is both unprecedented and too abstract. A calf or young bull signifies a
strong and active deity, the very qualities they seek. It is also nonspecific enough
to apply to multiple deities. (Ibid., 341 n. 63)