GOLDEN CALF. - A religious symbol which, at the request of the Israelites, Aaron (v.) had made near Mount Sinai (Ex. 31, 14) during the forty days that Moses remained on the summit (ibid. 24, 18) in communication with God. Around it the people began a nature-worshipping and orgiastic cult (songs, dances), which was practiced by many ancient Orientals, particularly the Canaanites.
When Moses came down from the mountain and saw what was happening, in reaction he threw the tablets of the Law to the ground, where they shattered. Then he “took the v...”, burned it, ground it to powder, and scattered the dust on the water, which he made the children of Israel drink (ibid. 32, 20). This indicates that the qualification “of gold” is to be understood in the same sense as in other cases: of wood covered with metal (Is. 40, 19–20; 44, 10–17; cf. Dan. 2, 33; 14, 6).
This calf was a symbol of Yahweh, and the worship offered to it was intended for Yahweh (cf. Ex. 32, 4–5); this was also the case later, in the time of Jeroboam I (1 Kings 12, 20 ff.), and generally in the “sanctuaries” of Bethel, Gilgal, Dan, and Beersheba. It therefore seems to be a matter of a symbolism with pagan tendencies rather than outright idolatry; yet the impropriety of the idea itself and the religious-moral deviations to which it immediately gave rise in worship justified Moses’ reaction against the calf and later the attacks of the prophets against the resurgence of the symbol and its related cultic practices (Am. 8, 14; Hos. 8, 4–6; 10, 5–8; 12, 15–17; etc.). Among many Orientals the calf was taken as a symbol of divinity because of its strength; this is the true sense of the choice of the image, on which the memory of the Egyptian Apis (v.) probably had no influence.