Golden calf
The golden calf was loud biblical tradition, an idol , which the Israelites after the Exodus from Egypt along with Aaron created while Moses on Mount Sinai , the Ten Commandments received.
“When the people saw that Moses still did not come down from the mountain, they gathered around Aaron and said to him: Come, make us gods who go before us. Because this Moses, the man who brought us up out of Egypt - we don't know what happened to him. Aaron replied, "Take the gold rings from your wives, sons and daughters, which they wear on their ears, and bring them here." So all the people took off their gold earrings and brought them to Aaron. He took it from them, drew a sketch with a pen and then watered a calf. So they said, These are your gods, Israel, who brought you up out of Egypt. When Aaron saw this, he built an altar in front of the calf and exclaimed, Tomorrow is a festival for the glory of the Lord. The next morning they got up early, offered burnt offerings, and brought animals for the salvation offering. The people sat down to eat and drink and got up to have fun. "
After his return, Moses smashed the idols and the tablets of the law ; subsequently, of the Levites 3000 at the direction of Moses people killed ( Ex 32.25 to 28 EU ).
The story of the golden calf, which was created in many layers, is not a description of a historical event, but in its last Deuteronomistic treatment an etiological story that explains the fall of the northern kingdom afterwards.
Context of the narrative
The narrative (Ex 32–34) stands out from its context, both literarily as well as temporally and spatially. Because before it comes to instructions for the sanctuary (Ex 25–31) and afterwards to their execution (Ex 35–40).
Golden calf symbolism
A calf is a young arthropod , such as cattle and red deer. The golden calf in the Bible is usually identified as a cow (see pictures). Bull cults are documented around the Mesopotamian weather god Hadad and the ancient Egyptian Apis bull. The Gilgamesh epic knows a heavenly bull. In Bethel a bull represented YHWH.
The word עֵגֶל (egel) used in the original Hebrew text describes a bull that is up to three years old. Since the bull cults were rated negatively in the Bible, the translators used the word calf to mock the worshipers of a "little calf". YHWH was first depicted and worshiped as a bull. This is related in Exodus 32: 1-6, the oldest text layer. The later, deuteronomistic text layer Exodus 32, 7-14 then subsequently provides the negative assessment.
More golden calves in the Bible
The first king of the northern kingdom of Israel, Jeroboam I , also created sanctuaries of YHWH in Bethel and Dan as the seat of God with a golden calf as his image.
“So he consulted with himself, had two golden calves made and said to the people: You have already moved up too much to Jerusalem. Here is your God, Israel, who brought you up out of Egypt. He placed one calf in Bet-El, and brought the other to Dan. This became the cause of sin. The people even went as far as Dan, in front of the one calf. "
The golden calves were a violation of the first commandment:
“I am Yahweh your God, who brought you out of Egypt, out of the slave house. You shall have no other gods besides me. You shall not make yourself an image of God or any representation of anything in the sky above, on the earth below, or in the water below the earth. You should not prostrate yourself to other gods or commit yourself to serve them. For I, the Lord your God, am a jealous God: With those who are enemies of me, I pursue the guilt of the fathers to the sons, to the third and fourth generation; "
The absolute and formulated prohibition of images is a development from later times. Even originally, YHWH was not represented figuratively in the Jerusalem temple.
Also because of the competition with Jerusalem , the capital of the Israelite southern kingdom of Judah , Jeroboam I and all of the kings of Israel who succeeded him are repeatedly and in many places sharply condemned by the Deuteronomist historians. According to their view, which characterizes Deuteronomy and the Deuteronomic historical work, the two books of kings and that of the Chronicle, YHWH may only be worshiped in the Jerusalem temple . King Josiah of Judah destroys the alternative YHWH shrines.
God remembers the golden calves
Dan and Ephraim from the tribes of Israel (the two tribes in which the golden calves were placed) were no longer included in the enumeration of the tribes of Israel. Dan and Ephraim were replaced by Joseph and Levi :
“And I heard the number of those who were sealed: a hundred and forty-four thousand, who were sealed from all the tribes of Israel: sealed from the tribe of Judah twelve thousand, from the tribe of Reuben twelve thousand, from the tribe of Gad twelve thousand, from the tribe of Aser twelve thousand, from the tribe Naftali twelve thousand, of the tribe of Manasseh twelve thousand, of the tribe of Simeon twelve thousand, of the tribe of Levi twelve thousand, of the tribe of Issachar twelve thousand, of the tribe of Zebulun twelve thousand, of the tribe of Joseph twelve thousand, of the tribe of Benjamin twelve thousand. "
God remembers his words that he would punish idolatry and blot out the name of such a tribe from under heaven:
“You have seen monsters and idols made of wood and stone, of silver and gold among them. There shall be none of you, neither male nor female, neither clan nor tribe, who today turns his heart away from the Lord our God and begins to serve the gods of these peoples. No root should grow with you that would produce poison and wormwood, that is, no one who, when hearing the words of this curse, secretly speaks the following counter-blessing about himself: Nothing should happen to me if I do something of my own accord so that the abundance of water ends the drought . The Lord will refuse to forgive him, he will snort with anger and jealousy against such a person. Every curse recorded in this document will be in wait for him and the Lord will obliterate his name from under heaven ”
"The Lord replied to Moses: Only he who has sinned against me will be deleted from my book."
As long as they were on earth (under heaven) the tribes of Dan and Ephraim were absent from the tribes of Israel. The prophet Ezekiel wrote that they would be accepted back into the tribes of Israel in the millennium ( Ez 48 EU ).
reception
From the image of the golden calf, the saying derives from the dance around the golden calf , as a symbol for a worship of wealth and power.
In the performing arts up to the present day political culture it is often used as a speaking symbol for an ethical and moral decline worthy of criticism.
See also
literature
- Joachim Hahn : The "Golden Calf". The YHWH worship at bull images in the history of Israel. (= Europäische Hochschulschriften , Volume 23/154.) 2nd edition, Lang, Frankfurt am Main et al. 1987, ISBN 3-8204-8657-7 (also dissertation at the University of Tübingen 1981).
Web links
- Klaus Koenen: Golden Calf. In: Michaela Bauks, Klaus Koenen, Stefan Alkier (Eds.): The Scientific Biblical Lexicon on the Internet (WiBiLex), Stuttgart 2006 ff.
Individual evidence
- ↑ http://www.bibelwissenschaft.de/wibilex/ Keyword: Goldenes Kalb, 1.2. The fictional character and the historical reference of the story
- ↑ Fischer / Markl: The book Exodus . S. 320 .
- ↑ http://www.bibelwissenschaft.de/wibilex/ Keyword: bull pictures, 3. Bull pictures as pictures of Yahweh
- ↑ Keel, O .: The right of images to be seen. Three case studies on the method of interpreting ancient oriental images (OBO 122). , Freiburg (Switzerland) / Göttingen 1992, pp. 169ff
- ^ Koenen, K .: Bethel. History, cult and theology (OBO 192). , Freiburg (Switzerland) / Göttingen 2003, p. 99ff
- ↑ http://www.bibelwissenschaft.de/wibilex/ Keyword: Goldenes Kalb, 2. The term עֵגֶל "Kalb / Jungstier"
- ↑ http://www.bibelwissenschaft.de/wibilex/ Keyword: Goldenes Kalb, 1.3. How the story came about
- ↑ http://www.bibelwissenschaft.de/wibilex/ Keyword: Bethel, 5. Deities and cult images
- ↑ http://www.bibelwissenschaft.de/wibilex/ Keyword: Bilderverbot, 3.3. A YHWH image in Jerusalem?
- ↑ http://www.bibelwissenschaft.de/wibilex/ Keyword: Deuteronomium