What the Golden Calf Represented
The text does not explicitly identify what the golden calf represents,
and no consensus has been made about the relationship between this golden calf
and the ones that Jeroboam later makes.
• The people want Aaron
to make an idol because they are concerned about Moses’ absence. George W.
Coats argues that the golden calf was an idol of Moses (Coats, “Golden Calf in
Psalm 22,” 1–12). However, Aaron creates an animal form—not a human form. Also,
Coats’ explanation does not account for why the people acknowledge the golden
calf as their (plural) gods (Exod 32:4b) rather than Moses.
• The people may call
the singular calf their “gods” because they see it as a pattern upon which all
future idols of Yahweh can be replicated (Jacobsen, “Graven Image,” 15–32).
• The golden calf could
also represent deities other than Yahweh. The bull was associated with Sin,
Anat, El, and Baal in the ancient Near East, so the calf could represent any of
these other deities (Childs, Exodus,
565; Whybray, “ ‘Annot in Exodus
32:18,” 122).
• Moses Aberbach and
Leivy Smolar see this as a reference to Jeroboam’s two golden calves (1 Kgs
12:26–33; Aberbach and Smolar, “Aaron, Jeroboam, and the Golden Calves,”
129–40). After making the calves, Jeroboam proclaims: “Behold your gods,
Israel, who brought you up from the land of Egypt” (1 Kgs 12:28). The people
say these same words when they see the golden calf. This position has gained
widespread acceptance, despite no further connection between the stories.
• Aaron associates the
calf with a festival to Yahweh immediately after creating it (Exod 32:5). Sarna
suggests that Yahweh is not the golden calf, but is standing upon it (Sarna, Exploring Exodus, 218–19). If the golden
calf was the object upon which Yahweh rested, it would function in the same
symbolic manner as the cherubim over the ark of the covenant (Exod 25:17–22).
However, Yahweh had instituted the cherubim, and His condemnation of the golden
calf implies it is an idol (Janzen, “Character of the Calf,” 600–02). (Noah
M. Marsh, “Golden Calf,” in The Lexham Bible Dictionary, ed. John D.
Barry et al. [Bellingham, Wash.: Lexham Press, 2016], Logos Bibel Software
edition)
