Golden Calf
Easton's Bible Dictionary [1]
Exodus 32:4,8Deuteronomy 9:16Nehemiah 9:18Exodus 32:20
Holman Bible Dictionary [2]
Ancient Near Eastern Background and Biblical References Living bulls were important in the religion of some regions of ancient Egypt, and bull images appear in the art and religious texts of Mesopotamia, Asia Minor, Phoenicia, and Syria. The primary references to “golden calf” in the Bible are Exodus 32:1-8 and 1 Kings 12:25-33 . The former passage records that the people summoned Aaron to make an image to go before them. The image was apparently intended to represent Yahweh, the Lord of Israel. The latter reference states that Jeroboam I constructed at Bethel and Dan two golden bulls, which were probably meant to represent the pedestals of God's throne. Interestingly, these passages are closely related to each other because they use the same terminology in the dedication of these images (Exodus 32:4; 1 Kings 12:28 ), and they both explore the sin of idolatry at crucial junctures in Israel's history. All other references to this subject in the Bible (Deuteronomy 9:16 ,Deuteronomy 9:16,9:21; 2 Kings 10:29; 2 Kings 17:16; 2 Chronicles 11:15; 2 Chronicles 13:8; Nehemiah 9:18; Psalm 106:19; Acts 7:41 ) have in view either the incident involving Aaron or the one involving Jeroboam I.
Theological Significance These accounts demonstrate Israel's strong conviction that God cannot be lowered to the level of pictorial representation. God, as sovereign Lord, allows no physical image of Himself, and any human effort to create such an image invites His judgment. See Aaron; Bethel; Bull; Dan; Exodus; Jeroboam I; Moses; Yahweh.
Cyclopedia of Biblical, Theological and Ecclesiastical Literature [3]
(עֵגֶל מִסֵּכָה , e'gel massekah', a steer-image, Exodus 32:4; Exodus 32:8; Deuteronomy 9:16; Nehemiah 9:19, lit. a calf, a molten image, and therefore massive, snot a mere wooden idol plated with gold), an idolatrous representation of a young bullock, which the Israelites formed at Mount Sinai (Exodus 32:3 sq.; compare Psalms 106:19; Acts 7:39 sq.), interdicted by Jehovah (Hengstenberg, Pentat. 1:159); and eventually, in the time of Jeroboam I of the kingdom of Israel, erected into a national object of worship (1 Kings 12:28 sq.; 2 Kings 10:29; comp. 17:16; Hosea 8:5 sq.; Hosea 10:5; Tobit 1:5) at Bethel and Dan (q.v.). (See Image). The symbol was undoubtedly borrowed from Egypt (comp. Ezekiel 20:7-8; Acts 6:39; see Philo, 2:159; Hengstenberg, Pentat. 1:156 sq.), where living bullocks, Apis (q.v.), as a living symbol of sins (Plutarch, Isid. 33) in Memphis (Herod. 3:28; Diod. Sic. 1:21; Strabo, 17:805), and Mnevis (q.v.) as a representation of the sun-god, (See Egypt), at Heliopolis (Diod. Sic. 1:21; Strabo, 17:903), were objects of worship (see Jablonsky, Panth. AEgypt. 1:122 sq.; 258 sq; Creuzer, Symbol. 1:480 sq.). One of these two, possibly Apis (Lactant. Instit. 4:10; Jerome, is Hosea 4:15; comp. Spencer, Leg. Rit. Hebrews I, 1:1, page 32 sq.; Witsii AEgypt. II, 2, page 61 sq.; Selden, De diis Syr. I, 4, page 125 sq.; Lengerke, Ken. p. 464), but more probably Mnevis (Wilkinson, Anc. Eg. 2d ser. 2:97), was the model of the golden calf which the Israelites in the desert, and perhaps Jeroboam afterwarnds, set up. On the contrary, Philo (Opp. 1:371), with whom Mill (Dissert. Sacr. page 309 sq.) agrees, asserts that the Israelitish calf was an imitation of the Egyptian Typhon; but this view was dictated rather by theological prejudices than historical considnidrations. Nevertheless, the bovine symbol is found in the ornamentation of the Temple (Ezekiel 1:10; 1 Kings 7:29), and is one of wide prevalence in antiquity (Movers, Phö nic. page 373 sq.). (See Cherubim).
How Moses was able to consume the golden calf with fire (שׂר ), and reduce it to powder (טחן, pulverize), as stated is Exodus 32:20, is difficult to say; for although gold readily becomes weak and to some extent friable under the action of fire, yet it is by no means thus burnt to such a degree as to be reducible to dust, and be susceptible of dissolution in drink. Most interpreters, e.g. Rosenmü ller (Schol. ad loc.), think of some chemical process (which Moses may have learned in Egypt, see Wilkinson, Ancient Egypt. abridgm. 2:136 sq.), by which gold may have been calcined, and so hame been taiturated as a metallic salt. Others (Ludwig, De modo quo comminutus est a Moses vitulus aureus, Altdorf, 1745) believe that Moses beat the fire-checked gold into leaves, and then ground these into fine particles in a mill, or filed the melted gold into dust (scobis aurea; comp. Josephus, Ant. 8:7, 3; see Bochart, Hieroz. 1:363). The difficulty lies in the double procedure, and in the expression "burned with fire" (וִיַּשְׁרֹ בָּאֵשׁ ), which does not seem applicalale to a chemical, but rather to a mechanical pro cess. (See Golden Calf).
