The Golden Calf

[Xmod10]

“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.”

For me, clearly the Golden Calf is another case of idolatry because it does not represent God itself. Simple logic is, how can you imagine the golden calf as the image of Jesus Christ? We catholics, do not pray the images and statues itself. We only use the true image of God and the crucifixes to remind us of our God in heaven and of our salvation.

 

[patrick457]

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

Exodus 19-20 implies that the Ten Words were delivered in the hearing of all the Israelites (they implore Moses to not let God speak to them!) It’s just in Mr. DeMille’s film and deritatives that God reveals the Ten Words to Moses at the same time He hands him the tablets of the Law (Exodus 32).

 

[patrick457]

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,

Actually bull worship was everywhere in those days. You had it in Egypt and also back in Canaan. In the Levant, the bull and its horns represented virility and strength, which is why it was a favorite symbol. Gods like Hadad (the biblical Baal) or El could be represented in bovine form, or at least sport horns in their headgear. Apis ain’t the only bovine deity around. If it is meant to be a representation of Yhwh, the Israelites at least had a precedent for showing Him in the form of a ‘calf’.

 

[504Katrin]

This is just my personal interpretation, but I believe that had G-d wanted Moshe to drop the first set of tablets.
When Moshe dropped the tablets the line was drawn. The first commandment was set apart a little bit from the others. You can trespass all others in order to for instance safe a life. On the other hand though, if you trespass the first commandment keeping all the others won’t help you much. This is why the tablets broke when he saw that his peeps were worshipping a golden calf hence violated the first commandment.

What I find interesting is this. On another occation, after they were done building the Arc, G-d said something like (paraphrasing as I don’t know the bible too well): “You better don’t drop this one! There won’t be a second one…” I’m just wondering why He opened that can of worms again a while later?

 

[patrick457]

This is just my personal interpretation, but I believe that had G-d wanted Moshe to drop the first set of tablets.
When Moshe dropped the tablets the line was drawn. The first commandment was set apart a little bit from the others. You can trespass all others in order to for instance safe a life. On the other hand though, if you trespass the first commandment keeping all the others won’t help you much. This is why the tablets broke when he saw that his peeps were worshipping a golden calf hence violated the first commandment.

You know, there was this Jewish legend which states that the first set of the Tablets of the Law were these big cubes of sapphire/lapis lazuli (cf. Exodus 24:10) so heavy Moses couldn’t have lifted them all by himself. What happened was that Moses was able to carry the heavy tablets only because God helped him or because the letters supported themselves as well as the stone in which they were encased. When Moses then saw the people worshipping the idol, God withdrew His support and the letters flew back to heaven, leaving Moses too feeble to carry the heavy burden. Thus he drops the tablets and breaks them.

What I find interesting is this. On another occation, after they were done building the Arc, G-d said something like (paraphrasing as I don’t know the bible too well): “You better don’t drop this one! There won’t be a second one…” I’m just wondering why He opened that can of worms again a while later?

I can’t find it in Exodus. Is that another midrash?

 

[504Katrin]

I can’t find it in Exodus. Is that another midrash?

It’s somewhere in the “OT”. The Priest read it on a Sunday some time last summer. Now if I knew which Sunday that was - of course I can’t remember - we could look up the calendar for the readings.
I remember this so well because I laughed when I heard that sentence, immediately recalling the tablets, and some of our “fathfulls” were looking at me as if I was a criminal.