The Golden Calf

[Augustine3]

This is what the American bible commentary says:

“The calf . . . a feast of the LORD: from this it is clear that the golden calf was intended as an image, not of a false god, but of the LORD himself, his strength being symbolized by the strength of a young bull. The Israelites, however, had been forbidden to represent the Lord under any visible form.”

Doesn’t this contradict our statues and crucifixes?
I thought the golden calf was made to resemble apis the god of wealth, fertility and power?
Is there any evidence to prove it was made to resemble apis?

God bless,

 

[Phillip_Rolfes]

The text does not say that the calf represented the Lord. Remember, the elders pointed to the calf and said, “This is your God, who brought you out of the land of Egypt…” or something along those lines.

Also, the calf itself indicates that Israel had mentally regressed back to the “good old days” in the land of Egypt. Cattle (cows, bulls, calves, whatever) were considered sacred among the Egyptians, and there was a god (forget his name) who was in the form of a bull. Essentially the creation and worship of the golden calf indicates the Hebrews embracing the religion of Egypt.

Scott Hahn has an excellent discussion of this in his book “A Father Who Keeps His Promises.” Check it out.

 

[NotWorthy]

All of the animals that the Israelites were supposed to sacrifice were gods of Egypt. If you recall, when Moses first asked Pharaoh to let him go out into the desert to make sacrifices to God, he insisted that Israel should go out of Egypt to do this because their sacrifices would be abominations to the Egyptians.

But back to the OP, please don’t hold too much water to what the NAB commentary says. Sometimes I wonder if they got Protestant commentators for the NAB!

 

[meltzerboy]

This is what the American bible commentary says:

“The calf . . . a feast of the LORD: from this it is clear that the golden calf was intended as an image, not of a false god, but of the LORD himself, his strength being symbolized by the strength of a young bull. The Israelites, however, had been forbidden to represent the Lord under any visible form.”

Doesn’t this contradict our statues and crucifixes?
I thought the golden calf was made to resemble apis the god of wealth, fertility and power?
Is there any evidence to prove it was made to resemble apis?

God bless,

There are several interpretations of what the Golden Calf represented, but the main one in Judaism is that it takes the place of Moses as the conduit through which the presence of G-d can be experienced. The people thought that Moses was not returning and may have died, so the Calf was built to take his place. However, this soon deteriorated into the idolatry of worshiping the Golden Calf itself. Its resemblance to Apis in the service of the god Ptah is also referred to, as are other gods apart from Egypt. Some claim the Calf serves as the pedestal of G-d, but I think that interpretation is unlikely.

 

[JRKH]

This is what the American bible commentary says:

“The calf . . . a feast of the LORD: from this it is clear that the golden calf was intended as an image, not of a false god, but of the LORD himself, his strength being symbolized by the strength of a young bull. The Israelites, however, had been forbidden to represent the Lord under any visible form.”

Doesn’t this contradict our statues and crucifixes?
I thought the golden calf was made to resemble apis the god of wealth, fertility and power?
Is there any evidence to prove it was made to resemble apis?

God bless,

Wasn’t the calf made BEFORE Moses delivered the commandments?? Before the prohibition against “graven Images”.

That being the case, it seems unlikely that the Lord was upset with them for making an “image” of Him…

Peace
James

 

[thistle]

This is what the American bible commentary says:

“The calf . . . a feast of the LORD: from this it is clear that the golden calf was intended as an image, not of a false god, but of the LORD himself, his strength being symbolized by the strength of a young bull. The Israelites, however, had been forbidden to represent the Lord under any visible form.”

Doesn’t this contradict our statues and crucifixes?
I thought the golden calf was made to resemble apis the god of wealth, fertility and power?
Is there any evidence to prove it was made to resemble apis?

God bless,

D-R Bible, Haydock Commentary:

Exodus 32:

Ver. 4. Received them, “in a purse, (as Gideon did afterwards, Judges viii. 25,) he made a molten calf.” (Jonathan) — Perhaps he engraved on it the peculiar marks of the Egyptian idol, Apis; a square white spot on the forehead, and a crescent upon the side. For it is generally believed, that this calf was designed to imitate that object of worship, to which the Hebrews had been too much accustomed. (Acts vii. 39, 41.; St. Jerome in Osee iv.) The Egyptians adored not only the living ox, but also its image, which they kept in their temple. (Porphyrius, Abst. ii. Mela. i. 8.) Some of the fathers think, that the head of a calf only appeared. (St. Ambrose; Lactantius, &c.) The rest of the figure was perhaps human, as Osiris was represented with the head of an ox, as well as Astarte and Serapis. Monceau pretends that Aaron represented the true God, under the form of a cherub, in which he falsely asserts he had appeared on Mount Sinai, and that his fault consisted only in giving occasion of superstition to the people. But his opinion (though adopted by many Protestants, who excuse all from the guilt of idolatry, but papists; Haydock) has been condemned at Rome, and refuted by Visorius, &c. — Thy gods, &c. Thus spoke the infatuated ringleaders. (Calmet) — And they changed their glory, the true God, into the likeness of a calf that eateth grass, Psalm cv. 19. — They forgot God, who saved them, (Psalm cv. 21,) and forsook Him, (Deuteronomy xxxii. 18,) to adore the calf. (Worthington)

 

[Joseph_LaMothe]

Read all things in context. Using one line out of context leads to many errors.

After the Calf and the 10 commandments God keeps talking to Moses. He tells him to put the tablets in an arc, that has golden images on it. The arc goes into a tent. The tent is adorned with great big images. When praying the People of God faced the images while praying. Or, another example, is when poisonous snakes where sent among the Israelites ONLY the ones that looked on the IMAGE of the snakes on a stick lived. The rest died. Looking to what is on a stick to cure the evil as the thing on the stick takes on the nature of what caused the evil… sounds familiar? It was an image of Jesus.

Either God is wrong due to inconstancy OR there is a difference between religious images and idolatry.

Also, Moses is pre-Christ. Christ is the image of the unseen God (Icon). This is when images of God starts to really take off.

Also, we are the image of God (OT switches to the use of the plural pronoun in the Hebrew and Greek to talk about creation of humanity, “let us create mankind in our own image”)

We can use images because God commanded the use of images.

 

[onlyvoice]

The text does not say that the calf represented the Lord. Remember, the elders pointed to the calf and said, “This is your God, who brought you out of the land of Egypt…” or something along those lines…

I don’t understand how the elders’ declaration that, “This is your God, who brought you out of the land of Egypt,” could show that the calf was not their representation of the Lord. Isn’t this “Lord” the God who led them out of Egypt? They had just identified the calf to be Him – “This is our God who led us out of Egypt.” But, having fashioned the image with their own hands, they did not really mean the calf was the Lord Himself. Rather, they meant it was a representation of Him.

Notice that, “Aaron built an altar in front of the gold bull-calf and announced, ‘Tomorrow there will be a festival to honor the Lord” (Exo. 32:5). The word “Lord” is translated from the Hebrew YWVH, the same YWVH who is, “the YWVH God their fathers, the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob…” (Exo. 4:5).

Clearly, the calf was their representation of YWVH – the God who freed them from Egyptian bondage.

 

[onlyvoice]

Wasn’t the calf made BEFORE Moses delivered the commandments?? Before the prohibition against “graven Images”.

That being the case, it seems unlikely that the Lord was upset with them for making an “image” of Him…

Peace
James

Pardon me, but you seem to imply that God’s Commandments began with Moses. It did not. All of God’s laws began at Creation. Would you say the physical laws did not exist at Creation? Why could God’s spiritual laws not exist at Creation as well? God’s inexorable laws have been in active force from the beginning. The fact that God wrote them down for the Israelites at Sinai merely means that God catalogued them for us. Men write down the laws of physics in a book. They catalog these laws for ready reference, but their writing down these laws does not originate them anymore than Newton’s “law of gravity” brought gravity into being.

Notice that one point of God’s law says “Thou shalt not commit adultery.” How could it be a “sin against God” for Joseph to commit adultery (Gen. 39:9) if the Ten Commandments were not in existence prior to Moses? “Sin,” says the Scripture, “is the transgression of the law” (1 John 3:4). Also, how could Abraham keep God’s commandments (Gen. 26:5) if they did not exist during his time?

 

[bmullins]

I don’t understand how the elders’ declaration that, “This is your God, who brought you out of the land of Egypt,” could show that the calf was not their representation of the Lord. Isn’t this “Lord” the God who led them out of Egypt? They had just identified the calf to be Him – “This is our God who led us out of Egypt.” But, having fashioned the image with their own hands, they did not really mean the calf was the Lord Himself. Rather, they meant it was a representation of Him.

Notice that, “Aaron built an altar in front of the gold bull-calf and announced, ‘Tomorrow there will be a festival to honor the Lord” (Exo. 32:5). The word “Lord” is translated from the Hebrew YWVH, the same YWVH who is, “the YWVH God their fathers, the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob…” (Exo. 4:5).

Clearly, the calf was their representation of YWVH – the God who freed them from Egyptian bondage.

The problem is in the very essence of what you’re saying. They didn’t see it as a ‘representation’ of God. They saw it as God himself. We see images of Mary and we venerate them, but we are not supposed to be venerating the image… but what the image represents. We see Jesus on the cross and we worship Christ, not the literal image. We are well aware that Christ is not ‘trapped’ in the image.

Now the only one that is a danger is the Eucharist. Because we literally worship the Eucharist believing it is Christ. But we aren’t worshiping bread, or wine. We are worshiping the ‘real presence’ of Christ in the bread and wine. All of those are important distinctions.

You notice that the snake that they held up to save them from the snakes was perfectly acceptable to the people. Until they began to worship the snake itself, then we find that the Jewish people destroyed it.

[bibledrb]2 Kings 18:3-4[/bibledrb]

It is when we allow an object to be our god and not worship God himself that it becomes idolatry. We have to be very careful never to allow that to happen, to always only use the object as a reminder to focus our mind on the truth of who it represents. And that person/thing it represents should always point us directly to God.

Hadock Commentary on that event:

Ver. 4. Groves. The people were now more obedient, being terrified at the chastisement of Israel, (Calmet) though Samaria was not taken till the sixth year of this good king; who carried his reform rather than most of his predecessors, (Haydock) in destroying the high places which had been unlawfully (Calmet) retained, as consecrated to the true God. See ver. 22. (Haydock) — Yet Josias had still some to remove. (Menochius) — Nohestan; that is, their brass, or a little brass. So he called it in comtempt, because they had made a god of it. (Challoner) — Before, this image had been treated with due respect. When any relic or image becomes the occasion of abuse in the Catholic Church, it is thus taken away, or the error is otherwise corrected. See St. Augustine, City of God x. 8., Ser. 14., de Verb. Ap., &c. (Worthington) — Some of the ancients assert, that Ezechias suppressed many books of Solomon, on account of similar abuses. But this seems not to be well attested. We know that he made a collection of some of some of his sentences, Proverbs xxv. 1.

 

[onlyvoice]

Read all things in context. Using one line out of context leads to many errors.

After the Calf and the 10 commandments God keeps talking to Moses. He tells him to put the tablets in an arc, that has golden images on it. The arc goes into a tent. The tent is adorned with great big images. When praying the People of God faced the images while praying. Or, another example, is when poisonous snakes where sent among the Israelites ONLY the ones that looked on the IMAGE of the snakes on a stick lived. The rest died. Looking to what is on a stick to cure the evil as the thing on the stick takes on the nature of what caused the evil… sounds familiar? It was an image of Jesus.

Either God is wrong due to inconstancy OR there is a difference between religious images and idolatry.

Also, Moses is pre-Christ. Christ is the image of the unseen God (Icon). This is when images of God starts to really take off.

Also, we are the image of God (OT switches to the use of the plural pronoun in the Hebrew and Greek to talk about creation of humanity, “let us create mankind in our own image”)

We can use images because God commanded the use of images.

God’s commandment against graven images does not prohibit the making of graven images. What it prohibits is the worship, adoration, or veneration of images: “Thou shalt not BOW DOWN thyself to them, nor serve them…” Incidentally, this applies to all graven images even to an image that resembles God Himself (assuming such an image can be made), for the commandment says that, “Thou shalt not make unto thee any graven image, or any likeness of anything that is in heaven above (remember God’s abode is in heaven)…”

 

[bmullins]

Hrm the quote above should have been from 2 Kings, but I keep forgetting that it’s not 2 Kings in the Douay Rheims, it’s 4 kings.

let me see if I can do that again.

[bibledrb]4 Kings 18:3-4[/bibledrb]

 

[JRKH]

Pardon me, but you seem to imply that God’s Commandments began with Moses. It did not. All of God’s laws began at Creation. Would you say the physical laws did not exist at Creation? Why could God’s spiritual laws not exist at Creation as well? God’s inexorable laws have been in active force from the beginning. The fact that God wrote them down for the Israelites at Sinai merely means that God catalogued them for us. Men write down the laws of physics in a book. They catalog these laws for ready reference, but their writing down these laws does not originate them anymore than Newton’s “law of gravity” brought gravity into being.

Notice that one point of God’s law says “Thou shalt not commit adultery.” How could it be a “sin against God” for Joseph to commit adultery (Gen. 39:9) if the Ten Commandments were not in existence prior to Moses? “Sin,” says the Scripture, “is the transgression of the law” (1 John 3:4). Also, how could Abraham keep God’s commandments (Gen. 26:5) if they did not exist during his time?

You are pardoned……Thanks for the reply.

Yes I can see what you are saying about Divine law being in effect from creation onwards…and I like how you compare them to physical laws…BUT…
Just because physical laws existed from the beginning of creation does not mean that WE knew what they were or could describe them.
Likewise with the divine law. Perhaps they existed…but were they known and understood before this time???

You demonstrate a couple of places where scripture points to God’s Law in Genesis. Is there one that points to not making images???

Peace
James

 

[onlyvoice]

You are pardoned……Thanks for the reply.

Yes I can see what you are saying about Divine law being in effect from creation onwards…and I like how you compare them to physical laws…BUT…
Just because physical laws existed from the beginning of creation does not mean that WE knew what they were or could describe them.
Likewise with the divine law. Perhaps they existed…but were they known and understood before this time???

You demonstrate a couple of places where scripture points to God’s Law in Genesis. Is there one that points to not making images???

Peace
James

Thanks.

Here’s one. In Genesis 35:2, 4 we read: “Then Jacob said unto his household, and to all that were with him, Put away the strange gods that are among you, and be clean… And they gave unto Jacob all the strange gods which were in their hand, and all their earrings which were in their ears; and Jacob hid them under the oak which was by Shechem.”

Scripture defines sin as “the transgression of the Law” (1 John 3:4). But what Law? James tells us in James 2:8-11 that this Law is the Ten Commandments, which Jesus summarized by two basic principles – love toward God and love toward one’s fellow man (Matt. 22:36-39).

The Apostle Paul says that, “… I had not known sin, but by the law” (Rom. 7:7). Why? “For by the law is the knowledge of sin” (Rom. 3:20). So, the Law defines sin. Without the Law, there is no sin – no transgression. “Where no law is, there is no transgression” (Rom. 4:15), and “Sin is not imputed when there is no law” (Rom. 5:12). Now, if our first parents sinned, then God’s Divine Law was in existence at Creation and well understood by them. Did Adam and Eve sin? Indeed. “By one man sin entered into the world…” (Rom. 5:12).

 

[JRKH]

Thanks.

Here’s one. In Genesis 35:2, 4 we read: “Then Jacob said unto his household, and to all that were with him, Put away the strange gods that are among you, and be clean… And they gave unto Jacob all the strange gods which were in their hand, and all their earrings which were in their ears; and Jacob hid them under the oak which was by Shechem.”

Scripture defines sin as “the transgression of the Law” (1 John 3:4). But what Law? James tells us in James 2:8-11 that this Law is the Ten Commandments, which Jesus summarized by two basic principles – love toward God and love toward one’s fellow man (Matt. 22:36-39).

The Apostle Paul says that, “… I had not known sin, but by the law” (Rom. 7:7). Why? “For by the law is the knowledge of sin” (Rom. 3:20). So, the Law defines sin. Without the Law, there is no sin – no transgression. “Where no law is, there is no transgression” (Rom. 4:15), and “Sin is not imputed when there is no law” (Rom. 5:12). Now, if our first parents sinned, then God’s Divine Law was in existence at Creation and well understood by them. Did Adam and Eve sin? Indeed. “By one man sin entered into the world…” (Rom. 5:12).

Thanks…

Peace
James

 

[Joseph_LaMothe]

God’s commandment against graven images does not prohibit the making of graven images. What it prohibits is the worship, adoration, or veneration of images: “Thou shalt not BOW DOWN thyself to them, nor serve them…” Incidentally, this applies to all graven images even to an image that resembles God Himself (assuming such an image can be made), for the commandment says that, “Thou shalt not make unto thee any graven image, or any likeness of anything that is in heaven above (remember God’s abode is in heaven)…”

Yes, thanks for the clarification that, after reading what I posted, was missing.

 

[Augustine3]

Wasn’t the calf made BEFORE Moses delivered the commandments?? Before the prohibition against “graven Images”.

That being the case, it seems unlikely that the Lord was upset with them for making an “image” of Him…

Peace
James

Actually God spoke is commandments in Exodus 20 before the golden calf event in Exodus 32. So they knew full well adoring a graven image was wrong.

Brother in Christ,

 

[Augustine3]

Is there any evidence that the graven image was in fact apis the god of fertility wealth and power?

Brother in Christ,

 

[NotWorthy]

Is there any evidence that the graven image was in fact apis the god of fertility wealth and power?

Brother in Christ,

Well…

The 400 years that Israel spent in Egypt, and the fact that they took on some of the Egyptians pagan worship would lead one to believe that the Israelite golden calf would be the same god that they had worshipped in Egypt.

The only other option would be that it was a cheap imitation.

 

[JRKH]

Actually God spoke is commandments in Exodus 20 before the golden calf event in Exodus 32. So they knew full well adoring a graven image was wrong.

Brother in Christ,

Thanks.
I scanned through this quickly. In my NAB it seems a little bit unclear whether God spoke the commandments to all the Israelites at once or only to Moses…

Be that as it may…They should not have made the golden calf after the demonstration they had seen on the mountain…where they were so terrified they told Moses to not let God speak to them directly…

Peace
James