Golden, Calf

(עֵגֶל מִסֵּכָה, e’gel massekah’, a steer-image, Exo 32:4; Exo 32:8; Deu 9:16; Neh 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 (Exo 32:3 sq.; compare Psa 106:19; Act 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 (1Ki 12:28 sq.; 2Ki 10:29; comp. 17:16; Hos 8:5 sq.; Hos 10:5; Tob 1:5) at Bethel and Dan (q.v.). SEE IMAGE. The symbol was undoubtedly borrowed from Egypt (comp. Eze 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 Hos 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 (Eze 1:10; 1Ki 7:29), and is one of wide prevalence in antiquity (Movers, Phönic. 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 Exo 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. Rosenmüller (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 CALF, GOLDEN.

See CALF, GOLDEN.

Image of God made by Aaron at the foot of Mount Sinai, pursuant to the request of the Hebrews wearied by the protracted stay of Moses on the mountain (Exodus 32). It consisted probably of a wooden frame with plates of gold obtained from melting the jewelry worn by the Hebrews. Judging from the Hebrew word employed, its appearance was not so much that of a calf as of a young bull, connoting strength and vigor and symbolizing the principle of fertility. In the minds of the people the golden calf was not to be the formal object of their worship, but a representation of Yahweh, as is clear from Aaron’s attributing to God the deliverance from Egypt, and proclaiming a feast to Yahweh. Any divine representation, however, contravened the prohibition to make any kind of images of God (Exodus 20); and particularly was the bovine figure objectionable, as the worship of that symbol was associated traditionally with scenes of obscenity. That is exactly what happened in this instance. After the secession of the ten northern tribes, Jeroboam, with a view to turn his new subjects away from the temple of Jerusalem, and at the same time to cater to their naturalistic propensities, set up golden calves at Dan and Bethel (3 Kings 12). These apparently must be looked upon, like Aaron’s golden calf, as representations of Yahweh. The worship carried out at their sanctuaries was likewise strongly tainted with immoral practises.

An object of worship among the Hebrews, mention of which occurs principally in Ex., xxxii, where the story of the molten calf of Aaron is narrated, and in III Kings, xii (cf. 2 Chronicles 11), in connection with the policy of Jeroboam after the schism of the ten tribes. Various reasons make it probable that the rendering "calf" is not to be taken in a strict sense, for the Hebrew term has a wider signification, and it is likely that in the present case it stands for a young bullock just arrived at maturity.Waiving all critical discussion as to the sources embodied in Ex., xxxii, the main features of the present narrative are as follows: Becoming impatient at Moses’ long delay on the mount, the people ask Aaron to make them a god or gods to go before them. He yields to their solicitations, and, making use of the golden earrings of the women and children, he causes a "molten calf" or bull to be fashioned. Shortly after its construction Moses returns, and, moved to wrath and indignation, destroys the idol, reducing it to dust and throwing it into the brook from which the Israelites are made to drink. After the schism of the ten tribes, Jeroboam, fearing that the regular pilgrimages of the people of the northern kingdom to Jerusalem would endanger their political allegiance to himself, resorted to the natural expedient of furnishing them with a substitute for the sanctuary of the Temple (1 Kings 12); and he set up two golden calves, one in Bethel and the other in Dan. As to their construction information is lacking, but it is likely that they were life-sized bull figures constructed after the fashion of the one mentioned above. It seems also probable that they were intended as symbols of Yahweh, for, thus considered, they would be more effective in attracting the pious Israelites who were accustomed to go to Jerusalem.Most writers have accepted the view of Philo and the early Fathers, who regarded the worship of the golden calves as borrowed from the Egyptians, and in favour of this opinion is the fact that both Aaron and Jeroboam had sojourned in Egypt shortly before constructing their respective idols; this view, however, has its difficulties, among which is the improbability of an Egyptian deity being set up as the god "who brought Israel out of the land of Egypt". Hence, some recent scholars are inclined to seek the origin of the Hebrew bull worship in the conditions and surroundings of the Israelites as an agricultural people, for whom the bull was naturally an appropriate symbol of strength and vital energy.-----------------------------------JAMES F. DRISCOLL Transcribed by Sean Hyland The Catholic Encyclopedia, Volume VICopyright © 1909 by Robert Appleton CompanyOnline Edition Copyright © 2003 by K. KnightNihil Obstat, September 1, 1909. Remy Lafort, CensorImprimatur. +John M. Farley, Archbishop of New York

gōld´’n: Probably a representation of the sun in Taurus. See ASTROLOGY, 7; CALF, GOLDEN.