The Golden Calf at Mount Sinai

[Nofear]

It's not too often that my interpretations of biblical stories get a radical reshaping. I think this article in one of the exceptions. The Golden Calf wasn't about worshiping a false god so much as putting a buffer between us and direct contact with God. This kind of idolatry is something that would affect many latter-day saints as well.

https://publicsquaremag.org/faith/gospel-fare/embracing-the-risk-of-divine-encounter/

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In Exodus 32, idolatry is not a question of prioritization. Idolatry starts with allowing, or wanting, or even preferring something to stand in between us and God.  And thus, idolatry, at its heart, is trying to create a situation where we can worship without the risk of direct Divine encounter. 

 

[bluebell]

16 minutes ago, Nofear said:

It's not too often that my interpretations of biblical stories get a radical reshaping. I think this article in one of the exceptions. The Golden Calf wasn't about worshiping a false god so much as putting a buffer between us and direct contact with God. This kind of idolatry is something that would affect many latter-day saints as well.

https://publicsquaremag.org/faith/gospel-fare/embracing-the-risk-of-divine-encounter/

 

A golden calf is unlikely to ask much of someone.  Maybe that is part of the appeal.

[Pyreaux]

Well, Moses stood between them and God. Then Moses was gone for 40 days without food or water, so obviously he was dead, and they weren't going after him up Mount Doom.

[filovirus]

Three months out of Egypt. They still had a lot to unlearn about idol worship. I too agree that the golden calf probably represented God. We see in Exodus 19 that the Israelites were invited into God's presence, and that it was them who refused. This is termed the provocation. So the next best thing would be to create an image that represented God. What better symbol than an "Apis Bull".

It is my interpretation that Moses was trying to sanctify the Israelites to have an "City of Enoch" experience. Obviously, they were not yet ready.

[smac97]

It has been my understanding that a big part of the offense to God re: the Israelites worshipping the Golden Calf was how they were "worshipping."  It appears to have involved, um, "dancing" of a particular sort.  See, e.g., here:

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According to Exodus 32:8, Moses is told by God:

“They have made themselves a molten calf and bowed low to it and sacrificed to it, saying: ‘This is your god, O Israel, who brought you out of the land of Egypt!”

When Moses views the camp, however, he sees something more (Exod. 32:19):

“As soon as Moses came near the camp and saw the calf and the dancing, he became enraged; and he hurled the tables from his hands and shattered them at the foot of the mount.”

The verse adds “dancing” to the information that Moses already knew, and it was only when he came close to the camp that he witnessed it, and only then that he shattered the tablets.

 

The Significance of Dancing

What is so wrong with dancing, or more specifically, why is it worse than “just” worshipping the calf? The terminology used in Exodus 32 implies that the Israelites were involved in group sexual promiscuity. Exod. 32:6 notes “they rose to play (לצחק).” The term “play” has clear sexual overtones in Gen. 26:8, where Abimelech sees Isaac “playing” with his wife, Rebecca, and deduces that they must be husband and wife. In short, in v. 19 Moses learns of the party’s erotic nature, something God had not informed him of earlier.^[1]

Noting this in combination with Moses’ reaction to the dancing, R. Shimshon Rafael Hirsch suggests that the erotic dancing pushed Moses to destroy the tablets (Exodus 32:19).

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The calf and dancing – “the calf” with the definite article, because he already knew about it; “dancing” without the definite article, since he did not know about it, for he only learned about it first with his own eyes. These were orgiastic or lewd dances. Witnessing them was what brought Moses to smash the tablets, for now it wasn’t only a theological breakdown among the Israelites, but a lapse in sexual mores that came along with it

I believe that the ancient Near Eastern context supports this contention and can help modern readers understand Moses’ reaction a little better.

My sense is that the OT prohibitions against idol worship arose both because of "theological breakdown" among those who are under sacred covenants with God, but also because of gross sexual misconduct and licentiousness that was often a party of such "worship."  See, e.g., here:

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A year after the golden calf—after the renewal and implementation of Leviticus—the Israelites set out for the Promised Land:

“In the second year, in the second month, on the twentieth day of the month, the cloud was taken up from over the tabernacle of the testimony, and the people of Israel set out by stages from the wilderness of Sinai; and the cloud settled down in the wilderness of Paran” (Numbers 10:11-12).

Shortly thereafter, we have the twelve spy episode, which then leads to the forty-year wandering (see Numbers 13-14). As Israel journeys, there is a recurring theme of rebellion against God and his appointed leaders (Moses and Aaron). This culminates in Numbers 25, where on the plains of Moab, Israel commits “golden calf 2.0,” of sorts. As the golden calf represented the twin combination of idolatry and sexual immorality, these same features show up in the Baal Peor incident:

While Israel dwelt in Shittim the people began to play the harlot with the daughters of Moab. These invited the people to the sacrifices of their gods, and the people ate, and bowed down to their gods” (Numbers 25:1-2).

This event takes place at the end of the forty-year wandering. At this point, the adults of the Exodus generation have largely died off, and so it’s their children who commit Baal Peor—a sin very much like that of their parents.

Thanks,

-Smac

[longview]

Huston has written a very thought provoking column.  So many perspectives.  I personally believe the most important reason they wanted a Golden Calf was to engage in riotous rituals that catered to their hedonistic desires such as group sex or anonymous relations, etc.  They most likely did NOT believe the Golden Calf was an actual god but used it as a "buffer" (license) as Huston said.

However, I think his statement about the collective memory of the Hebrews is too absolute:

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It is probably hard to overstate the impact that living in Egypt and being enslaved by Pharaoh had on the Israelites. Theologian Walter Bruggeman, borrowing a phrase from social science, describes Egypt as totalizing, meaning that Israelites simply could not conceive of a life outside of the Egyptian culture in which they were enmeshed.  In essence, not only were they a people with no way out, but the Israelites could not even imagine the idea of “a way out.” 

The Hebrews must still have had their traditions, verbal storytelling, written records in the care of the "elders", etc. There was a prophecy given by Jacob and possibly Joseph that there would be a "deliverer" sent to rescue them.

[pogi]

5 hours ago, Nofear said:

It's not too often that my interpretations of biblical stories get a radical reshaping. I think this article in one of the exceptions. The Golden Calf wasn't about worshiping a false god so much as putting a buffer between us and direct contact with God. This kind of idolatry is something that would affect many latter-day saints as well.

https://publicsquaremag.org/faith/gospel-fare/embracing-the-risk-of-divine-encounter/

 

Great article!  

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The kind of idolatry we see in the golden calf story is not really a story of ‘worshiping a statue instead of God;’ it is a story about wanting to worship God, but also wanting a buffer.  It is a story about giving away the option of interacting with God directly.  It is a story about focusing on the wrong thing even while the people believed they were worshiping in the right way

I have said in the past that the greater test of faith is not walking into the darkness (as is a common illustration), but stepping into the light of full exposure, or "direct contact with God".  This is illustrated in the temple story of Adam in Eden when he came out of hiding and exclaimed "Here I am".  

I believe that is the greatest catalyst to redemption and oneness with God.  It is found in the oft over-looked liturgical words of the temple which put in motion everything else which followed - "Here I am".  That is the pure attitude of faithful worship and I believe the only way to truly know God (which is eternal life). 

I believe this article correctly addresses that fact that anything we substitute for that attitude is an idol (and may include "scriptures", "church", and "leaders") and what is represented in the story of the calf.

     

[Robert F. Smith]

7 hours ago, Nofear said:

It's not too often that my interpretations of biblical stories get a radical reshaping. I think this article in one of the exceptions. The Golden Calf wasn't about worshiping a false god so much as putting a buffer between us and direct contact with God. This kind of idolatry is something that would affect many latter-day saints as well...............

Another radical take on this whole matter includes the bull or calf images installed in North Israelite temples visited by the 10 northern tribes.  Some scholars believe that they were modeled on the bulls ridden by Canaanite El, except that Israelite El was invisible when he rode them.[1]  In fact, Gen 49:24 refers to El as the Bull of Jacob -- in an astrological sequence which makes this Taurus the Bull.  Moreover, the name Lehi "Jawbone" may represent the Jawbone of the Bull of Heaven, the Hyades:  The god Marduk even uses the Hyades as a boomerang-like weapon, just as Samson uses a jawbone to slaughter Philistines.

[1] See G. N. Knoppers, "Aaron's Calf and Jeroboam's Calves," in A. Beck, A. Bartelt, P. Raabe, and C. Franke, eds., Fortunate the Eyes That See: Essays in Honor of David Noel Freedman in Celebration of His Seventieth Birthday (Grand Rapids: Eerdmans, 1995), 92-104; Amihai Mazar, “The ‘Bull Site’ – An Iron Age I Open Cult Place,” BASOR, 247 (Summer 1982):27-42, online at https://www.jstor.org/stable/1356477?seq=1 .

[The Nehor]

“Supposing We Really Found Him? It is always shocking to meet life where we thought we were alone. ‘Look out!’ we cry, ‘it’s alive’. And therefore this is the very point at which so many draw back—I would have done so myself if I could—and proceed no further with Christianity. An ‘impersonal God’—well and good. A subjective God of beauty, truth and goodness, inside our own heads—better still. A formless life-force surging through us, a vast power which we can tap—best of all. But God Himself, alive, pulling at the other end of the cord, perhaps approaching at an infinite speed, the hunter, king, husband—that is quite another matter. There comes a moment when the children who have been playing at burglars hush suddenly: was that a real footstep in the hall? There comes a moment when people who have been dabbling in religion (‘Man’s search for God!’) suddenly draw back. Supposing we really found Him? We never meant it to come to that! Worse still, supposing He had found us?”

-C.S. Lewis

[The Nehor]

Another one from The Screwtape Letters:

“But of course the Enemy will not meantime be idle. Wherever there is prayer, there is danger of His own immediate action. He is cynically indifferent to the dignity of His position, and ours, as pure spirits, and to human animals on their knees He pours out self-knowledge in a quite shameless fashion. But even if He defeats your first attempt at misdirection, we have a subtler weapon. The humans do not start from that direct perception of Him which we, unhappily, cannot avoid. They have never known that ghastly luminosity, that stabbing and searing glare which makes the background of permanent pain to our lives. If you look into your patient's mind when he is praying, you will not find that. If you examine the object to which he is attending, you will find that it is a composite object containing many quite ridiculous ingredients. There will be images derived from pictures of the Enemy as He appeared during the discreditable episode known as the Incarnation: there will be vaguer-perhaps quite savage and puerile-images associated with the other two Persons. There will even be some of his own reverence (and of bodily sensations accompanying it) objectified and attributed to the object revered. I have known cases where what the patient called his "God" was actually located-up and to the left at the corner of the bedroom ceiling, or inside his own head, or in a crucifix on the wall. But whatever the nature of the composite object, you must keep him praying to it-to the thing that he has made, not to the Person who has made him. You may even encourage him to attach great importance to the correction and improvement of his composite object, and to keeping it steadily before his imagination during the whole prayer. For if he ever comes to make the distinction, if ever he consciously directs his prayers "Not to what I think thou art but to what thou knowest thyself to be", our situation is, for the moment, desperate. Once all his thoughts and images have been flung aside or, if retained, retained with a full recognition of their merely subjective nature, and the man trusts himself to the completely real, external, invisible Presence, there with him in the room and never knowable by him as he is known by it-why, then it is that the incalculable may occur. In avoiding this situation-this real nakedness of the soul in prayer-you will be helped by the fact that the humans themselves do not desire it as much as they suppose. There's such a thing as getting more than they bargained for!”

 

And to prove God has a sense of irony while putting this in I felt the Holy Ghost coursing through my body in that awe-filled way it sometimes does. A quick thump on the back of the head to say: “Still here” and I find myself hoping it is nothing urgent I need to do.

Looks like not. Going to sleep before God changes His mind.

Edited May 25, 2022 by The Nehor

[JLHPROF]

On 5/24/2022 at 8:55 AM, Nofear said:

The Golden Calf wasn't about worshiping a false god so much as putting a buffer between us and direct contact with God. 

This "nothing between me and God" idea continues to gain popularity.

The problem is that there is ample gospel evidence that it's being taken too far.

Certainly there is nothing preventing us from praying to our Father and having prayers answered or blessings given.

But there will always be someone between us and God.  And then probably a chain of people too.

[mfbukowski]

On 5/24/2022 at 8:12 AM, bluebell said:

A golden calf is unlikely to ask much of someone.  Maybe that is part of the appeal.

Actually if you had to pick a god, that one was not all that far off!    Intermediary god, sacrificed and reborn, son of a woman.... 

 

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Apis (deity)

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

 

 

 

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Apis
Statue of Apis, Thirtieth dynasty of Egypt (Louvre)
Name in hieroglyphs	, or , or , or
Symbol	Bull

In ancient Egyptian religion, Apis or Hapis (Ancient Egyptian: ḥjpw, reconstructed as Old Egyptian */ˈħujp?w/ with unknown final vowel > Medio-Late Egyptian ˈħeʔp(?w), Coptic: ϩⲁⲡⲉ ḥapə), alternatively spelled Hapi-ankh, was a sacred bull worshiped in the Memphis region, identified as the son of Hathor, a primary deity in the pantheon of ancient Egypt. Initially, he was assigned a significant role in her worship, being sacrificed and reborn. Later, Apis also served as an intermediary between humans and other powerful deities (originally Ptah, later Osiris, then Atum).^[1

 

 

[mfbukowski]

13 hours ago, The Nehor said:

And to prove God has a sense of irony while putting this in I felt the Holy Ghost coursing through my body in that awe-filled way it sometimes does. A quick thump on the back of the head to say: “Still here” and I find myself hoping it is nothing urgent I need to do.

Looks like not. Going to sleep before God changes His mind.

I totally get it and love/hate those moments at 2 AM when you fell asleep in front of the tv and then head to bed but- "dang I should check the board I guess..."

"Wait will Robinson!  Someone wrong on the internet!! ......  Must---save---church---before---it---spreads---" 

 

[mfbukowski]

21 hours ago, Robert F. Smith said:

Another radical take on this whole matter includes the bull or calf images installed in North Israelite temples visited by the 10 northern tribes.  Some scholars believe that they were modeled on the bulls ridden by Canaanite El, except that Israelite El was invisible when he rode them.[1]  In fact, Gen 49:24 refers to El as the Bull of Jacob -- in an astrological sequence which makes this Taurus the Bull.  Moreover, the name Lehi "Jawbone" may represent the Jawbone of the Bull of Heaven, the Hyades:  The god Marduk even uses the Hyades as a boomerang-like weapon, just as Samson uses a jawbone to slaughter Philistines.

[1] See G. N. Knoppers, "Aaron's Calf and Jeroboam's Calves," in A. Beck, A. Bartelt, P. Raabe, and C. Franke, eds., Fortunate the Eyes That See: Essays in Honor of David Noel Freedman in Celebration of His Seventieth Birthday (Grand Rapids: Eerdmans, 1995), 92-104; Amihai Mazar, “The ‘Bull Site’ – An Iron Age I Open Cult Place,” BASOR, 247 (Summer 1982):27-42, online at https://www.jstor.org/stable/1356477?seq=1 .

Just not fair that you are so dang smart!  🤕

Luv ya, dude!

[Nofear]

1 hour ago, JLHPROF said:

This "nothing between me and God" idea continues to gain popularity.

The problem is that there is ample gospel evidence that it's being taken too far.

Certainly there is nothing preventing us from praying to our Father and having prayers answered or blessings given.

But there will always be someone between us and God.  And then probably a chain of people too.

The presence of prophets and a community of believers is indeed a check and balance to self delusion. Nonetheless, the check and balance isn't a substitute for our seeking personal connection with the divine. See Jeremiah 31:33–34. Joseph Smith's vision for us was also quite in line with this.

I get what you are trying to say though. Many use this nothingn-twixt–me–and–God idea as an excuse to believe whatever they want.

Edited May 25, 2022 by Nofear

[mfbukowski]

1 hour ago, Nofear said:

Many use this nothingn-twixt–me–and–God idea as an excuse to believe whatever they want.

And so they should instead believe things God tells them He doesn't want them to believe?

THAT is the "problem" in thinking there is something they should believe other than what God tells them personally.

That's also the problem that comes with any teaching saying to follow your testimony that doesn't allow for different testimonies.

I BELIEVE we all have our own true paths that differ. Like a GPS, getting from where you are to the same destination as others requires a customized path unless you start from the same address 

And no one does, in religion 

Edited May 25, 2022 by mfbukowski

[Nofear]

9 minutes ago, mfbukowski said:

And so they should instead believe things God tells them He doesn't want them to believe?

God sometimes tells us things we don't want to believe.

Sometimes we believe God said something that He did not say.

I don't think God tells us things He doesn't want us to believe. Thuough, often we may get simplified versions that we can understand but may not reflect the complexity of reality.

[The Nehor]

2 hours ago, JLHPROF said:

This "nothing between me and God" idea continues to gain popularity.

The problem is that there is ample gospel evidence that it's being taken too far.

Certainly there is nothing preventing us from praying to our Father and having prayers answered or blessings given.

But there will always be someone between us and God.  And then probably a chain of people too.

Why?

[manol]

 

1 hour ago, mfbukowski said:

That's also the problem that comes with any teaching saying to follow your testimony that doesn't allow for different testimonies.

????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????? <- The cat typed this.  I happen to agree with you, but I'm leaving his comment up as a demonstration of my allowance for his different testimony. 

1 hour ago, mfbukowski said:

I BELIEVE we all have our own true paths that differ. Like a GPS, getting from where you are to the same destination as others requires a customized path unless you start from the same address 

And no one does, in religion 

/;.;.;.;.;.;.;.;.;.;.;.;.;.;.;.;.;.;.;.;.;.;.;.;.;.;.;.;.;.;.;.;.;.;.;.;.;.;.;.;.;.;.;.;.;.;.;. <-  The cat again.  He delights in obfuscation and innuendo.  Once again I happen to agree with you, bigtime. 

Great analogy by the way.  Combine our experiential diversity with our genetic diversity (the two sets of 26 chromosomes donated by EACH PAIR of male and female parents can combine in 70,300,000,000,000 UNIQUE combinations, then multiply that by the number of parental pairs), and we are truly each on a unique path. 

Assuming there is a Plan, I do not think that aspect is accidental. 

 

 

[JLHPROF]

3 hours ago, The Nehor said:

Why?

Because that's what the scriptures and prophets have revealed.  At least to those who accept scripture and prophets.

After a few discussions with those who believe the opposing view I don't fully understand their approach.

[The Nehor]

17 hours ago, JLHPROF said:

Because that's what the scriptures and prophets have revealed.  At least to those who accept scripture and prophets.

After a few discussions with those who believe the opposing view I don't fully understand their approach.

I don’t have a problem with people having authority to speak and act on God’s behalf. I just don’t accept that there is ALWAYS someone between us and God. There is a danger of preferring a kind of private devotional life to concrete knowledge of God’s will but it is not because the prophet’s voice is the core of religion.

I have been breaking out the Lewis quotes regularly. This is a response to a man who said that religion was a distraction and that communing with God alone is more real. In many ways it, of course, is.

Quote

 

Now in a sense I quite agreed with that man. I think he had probably had a real experience of God in the desert. And when he turned from that experience to the Christian creeds, I think he really was turning from something real to something less real.

In the same way, if a man has once looked at the Atlantic from the beach, and then goes and looks at a map of the Atlantic, he also will be turning from something real to something less real: turning from real waves to a bit of coloured paper. But here comes the point. The map is admittedly only coloured paper, but there are two things you have to remember about it.

In the first place, it is based on what hundreds and thousands of people have found out by sailing the real Atlantic. In that way it has behind it masses of experience just as real as the one you could have from the beach; only, while yours would be a single isolated glimpse, the map fits all those different experiences together.

In the second place, if you want to go anywhere, the map is absolutely necessary. As long as you are content with walks on the beach, your own glimpses are far more fun than looking at a map. But the map is going to be more use than walks on the beach if you want to get to America.

Now, Theology is like the map. Merely learning and thinking about the Christian doctrines, if you stop there, is less real and less exciting than the sort of thing my friend got in the desert. Doctrines are not God: they are only a kind of map. But that map is based on the experience of hundreds of people who really were in touch with God—experiences compared with which any thrills or pious feelings you and I are likely to get on our own are very elementary and very confused. And secondly, if you want to get any further, you must use the map.

You see, what happened to that man in the desert may have been real, and was certainly exciting, but nothing comes of it. It leads nowhere. There is nothing to do about it. In fact, that is just why a vague religion—all about feeling God in nature, and so on—is so attractive. It is all thrills and no work; like watching the waves from the beach. But you will not get to Newfoundland by studying the Atlantic that way, and you will not get eternal life by simply feeling the presence of God in flowers or music. Neither will you get anywhere by looking at maps without going to sea. Nor will you be very safe if you go to sea without a map.

Consequently, if you do not listen to Theology, that will not mean that you have no ideas about God. It will mean that you have a lot of wrong ones—bad, muddled, out-of-date ideas. For a great many of the ideas about God which are trotted out as novelties today, are simply the ones which real Theologians tried centuries ago and rejected.

 

Except replace theologians with prophets.

[filovirus]

2 hours ago, The Nehor said:

I don’t have a problem with people having authority to speak and act on God’s behalf. I just don’t accept that there is ALWAYS someone between us and God. There is a danger of preferring a kind of private devotional life to concrete knowledge of God’s will but it is not because the prophet’s voice is the core of religion.

I have been breaking out the Lewis quotes regularly. This is a response to a man who said that religion was a distraction and that communing with God alone is more real. In many ways it, of course, is.

Except replace theologians with prophets.

Here is the balancing act we are asked to perform. It’s Elder Oaks from General Conference October 2010. “We must use both the personal line and the priesthood line in proper balance to achieve the growth that is the purpose of mortal life. If personal religious practice relies too much on the personal line, individualism erases the importance of divine authority. If personal religious practice relies too much on the priesthood line, individual growth suffers. The children of God need both lines to achieve their eternal destiny. The restored gospel teaches both, and the restored Church provides both.”

It’s something I have thought a lot about and have come to the same conclusion. I think this one of the reasons why we are always asked to get our own witnesses of the truthfulness (or lack there of) of what prophets teach.

[The Nehor]

3 hours ago, filovirus said:

Here is the balancing act we are asked to perform. It’s Elder Oaks from General Conference October 2010. “We must use both the personal line and the priesthood line in proper balance to achieve the growth that is the purpose of mortal life. If personal religious practice relies too much on the personal line, individualism erases the importance of divine authority. If personal religious practice relies too much on the priesthood line, individual growth suffers. The children of God need both lines to achieve their eternal destiny. The restored gospel teaches both, and the restored Church provides both.”

It’s something I have thought a lot about and have come to the same conclusion. I think this one of the reasons why we are always asked to get our own witnesses of the truthfulness (or lack there of) of what prophets teach.

And I bet everyone (including me) has a strong opinion on which of the two is worse to overemphasize.

[Hamba Tuhan]

34 minutes ago, The Nehor said:

And I bet everyone (including me) has a strong opinion on which of the two is worse to overemphasize.

Literally either!

Edited May 27, 2022 by Hamba Tuhan

[mfbukowski]

On 5/25/2022 at 5:14 PM, manol said:

Assuming there is a Plan, I do not think that aspect is accidental. 

 

Assume nothing.   Get a testimony