Golden calf
Encyclopedia
Hebrew Bible
The Hebrew Bible is a term used by biblical scholars outside of Judaism to refer to the Tanakh , a canonical collection of Jewish texts, and the common textual antecedent of the several canonical editions of the Christian Old Testament...
, the golden calf (עֵגֶּל הַזָהָב ‘ēggel hazâhâḇ) was an idol
Idolatry
Idolatry is a pejorative term for the worship of an idol, a physical object such as a cult image, as a god, or practices believed to verge on worship, such as giving undue honour and regard to created forms other than God. In all the Abrahamic religions idolatry is strongly forbidden, although...
(a cult image
Cult image
In the practice of religion, a cult image is a human-made object that is venerated for the deity, spirit or daemon that it embodies or represents...
) made by Aaron
Aaron
In the Hebrew Bible and the Qur'an, Aaron : Ααρών ), who is often called "'Aaron the Priest"' and once Aaron the Levite , was the older brother of Moses, and a prophet of God. He represented the priestly functions of his tribe, becoming the first High Priest of the Israelites...
to satisfy the Israelite
Israelite
According to the Bible the Israelites were a Hebrew-speaking people of the Ancient Near East who inhabited the Land of Canaan during the monarchic period .The word "Israelite" derives from the Biblical Hebrew ישראל...
s during Moses
Moses
Moses was, according to the Hebrew Bible and Qur'an, a religious leader, lawgiver and prophet, to whom the authorship of the Torah is traditionally attributed...
' absence, when he went up to Mount Sinai
Mount Sinai
Mount Sinai , also known as Mount Horeb, Mount Musa, Gabal Musa , Jabal Musa meaning "Moses' Mountain", is a mountain near Saint Catherine in the Sinai Peninsula of Egypt. A mountain called Mount Sinai is mentioned many times in the Book of Exodus in the Torah and the Bible as well as the Quran...
. The calf was intended to be a physical representation of the God of Israel, and therefore was doubly wrong for involving Israel in idolatry and for ascribing physicality to God.
In Hebrew
Hebrew language
Hebrew is a Semitic language of the Afroasiatic language family. Culturally, is it considered by Jews and other religious groups as the language of the Jewish people, though other Jewish languages had originated among diaspora Jews, and the Hebrew language is also used by non-Jewish groups, such...
, the incident is known as ḥēṭ’ ha‘ēggel (חֵטְא הַעֵגֶּל) or "The Sin of the Calf". It is first mentioned in . Bull worship was common in many cultures. In Egypt, whence according to the Exodus narrative the Hebrews had recently come, the Apis Bull
Apis (Egyptian mythology)
In Egyptian mythology, Apis or Hapis , was a bull-deity worshipped in the Memphis region.According to Manetho, his worship was instituted by Kaiechos of the Second Dynasty. Hape is named on very early monuments, but little is known of the divine animal before the New Kingdom...
was a comparable object of worship, which some believe the Hebrews were reviving in the wilderness; alternatively, some believe the God of Israel was associated with or pictured as a calf/bull deity through the process of religious assimilation
Religious assimilation
In religion, assimilation refers to the passive or active inclusion of persons or aspects of another religion as members or elements within a particular faith or belief system...
and syncretism
Syncretism
Syncretism is the combining of different beliefs, often while melding practices of various schools of thought. The term means "combining", but see below for the origin of the word...
. Among the Egyptians' and Hebrews' neighbors in the Ancient Near East
Ancient Near East
The ancient Near East was the home of early civilizations within a region roughly corresponding to the modern Middle East: Mesopotamia , ancient Egypt, ancient Iran The ancient Near East was the home of early civilizations within a region roughly corresponding to the modern Middle East: Mesopotamia...
and in the Aegean
Aegean Sea
The Aegean Sea[p] is an elongated embayment of the Mediterranean Sea located between the southern Balkan and Anatolian peninsulas, i.e., between the mainlands of Greece and Turkey. In the north, it is connected to the Marmara Sea and Black Sea by the Dardanelles and Bosporus...
, the Aurochs
Aurochs
The aurochs , the ancestor of domestic cattle, were a type of large wild cattle which inhabited Europe, Asia and North Africa, but is now extinct; it survived in Europe until 1627....
, the wild bull, was widely worshipped, often as the Lunar Bull
Bull (mythology)
The worship of the Sacred Bull throughout the ancient world is most familiar to the Western world in the biblical episode of the idol of the Golden Calf. The Golden Calf after being made by the Hebrew people in the wilderness of Sinai, were rejected and destroyed by Moses and his tribe after his...
and as the creature of El
El (god)
is a Northwest Semitic word meaning "deity", cognate to Akkadian and then to Hebrew : Eli and Arabic )....
.
The TorahTorahTorah- A scroll containing the first five books of the BibleThe Torah , is name given by Jews to the first five books of the bible—Genesis , Exodus , Leviticus , Numbers and Deuteronomy Torah- A scroll containing the first five books of the BibleThe Torah , is name given by Jews to the first five...
.jpg)
Moses
Moses was, according to the Hebrew Bible and Qur'an, a religious leader, lawgiver and prophet, to whom the authorship of the Torah is traditionally attributed...
went up onto Mount Sinai
Mount Sinai
Mount Sinai , also known as Mount Horeb, Mount Musa, Gabal Musa , Jabal Musa meaning "Moses' Mountain", is a mountain near Saint Catherine in the Sinai Peninsula of Egypt. A mountain called Mount Sinai is mentioned many times in the Book of Exodus in the Torah and the Bible as well as the Quran...
to receive the Ten Commandments
Ten Commandments
The Ten Commandments, also known as the Decalogue , are a set of biblical principles relating to ethics and worship, which play a fundamental role in Judaism and most forms of Christianity. They include instructions to worship only God and to keep the Sabbath, and prohibitions against idolatry,...
(Exodus 19:20), he left the Israelites for forty days and forty nights . The Israelites feared that he would not return and asked Aaron to make for them an image of the God of Israel . However, Aaron refused to build a representation of the God of Israel. The Israelites had complained enough to overwhelm Aaron, so he complied and gathered up the Israelites' golden earrings. He melted them and constructed a statue of a young bull, made of gold. Aaron also built an altar
Altar
An altar is any structure upon which offerings such as sacrifices are made for religious purposes. Altars are usually found at shrines, and they can be located in temples, churches and other places of worship...
before the calf and declared "Israel, these are your gods, which brought you out of the land of Egypt". And the next day, the Israelites made offerings to the Golden Calf and celebrated. Moses saw what they were doing and became angry with them, shattering the Tablets of Stone God had written His laws for the Israelites upon.
Later, the Lord told Moses that his people had corrupted themselves, and he planned to eliminate them and start a new people from Moses himself. However, Moses argued and pleaded that they should be spared (Exodus 32:11), and the Lord relented. And when Joshua heard the noise of the people as they shouted, he told Moses. Moses went down from the mountain, but upon seeing the calf, he too became angry. He threw down the tablets upon which God's law had been written, breaking them. Moses burnt the golden calf in a fire, ground it to powder, scattered it on water, and forced the Israelites to drink it. Aaron admitted collecting the gold, and throwing it into the fire along with cutting wood, and said it came out as a calf. Moses then called everyone who was willing to follow the Torah to himself. Most of Israel came to Moses, including every member of the tribe of Levi
Levi
Levi/Levy was, according to the Book of Genesis, the third son of Jacob and Leah, and the founder of the Israelite Tribe of Levi ; however Peake's commentary suggests this as postdiction, an eponymous metaphor providing an aetiology of the connectedness of the tribe to others in the Israelite...
. Moses sent the Levites to slay a large number of people (3000) who had rejected Moses' call. A plague struck the Israelites. Nevertheless, the Lord stated that he would one day visit the Israelites' sin upon them.
As Moses had broken the tablets, the Lord instructed him to return to Mount Sinai (Exodus 34:2) and receive a replacement.
The Former Prophets
In 922 BC when Jeroboam I establishes the northern kingdom of Israel, he builds two golden calves and places them in BethelBethel
Bethel was a border city described in the Hebrew Bible as being located between Benjamin and Ephraim...
and Dan
Dan (ancient city)
Dan , is a city mentioned in the Bible, described as the northernmost city of the Kingdom of Israel, belonging to the Tribe of Dan. The city is identified with the tel known as Tel Dan , or Tel el-Qadi in...
. According to 1 Kings
Books of Kings
The Book of Kings presents a narrative history of ancient Israel and Judah from the death of David to the release of his successor Jehoiachin from imprisonment in Babylon, a period of some 400 years...
12. c26-30, Jeroboam surveys the pious rituals of the Israelites relative to sacrifices.
26 Jeroboam thought to himself, "The kingdom will now likely revert to the house of David. 27 If these people go up to offer sacrifices at the temple of the LORD in Jerusalem, they will again give their allegiance to their lord, Rehoboam king of Judah. They will kill me and return to King Rehoboam." 28 After seeking advice, the king made two golden calves. He said to the people, "It is too much for you to go up to Jerusalem. Here are your gods, Israel, who brought you up out of Egypt." 29 One he set up in Bethel, and the other in Dan. 30 And this thing became a sin; the people came to worship the one at Bethel and went as far as Dan to worship the other.
His chief concern is their tendency to offer sacrifices in Jerusalem, an act he feels would lead to a return to King Rehoboam
Rehoboam
Rehoboam was initially king of the United Monarchy of Israel but after the ten northern tribes of Israel rebelled in 932/931 BC to form the independent Kingdom of Israel he was king of the Kingdom of Judah, or southern kingdom. He was a son of Solomon and a grandson of David...
of Judah
Kingdom of Judah
The Kingdom of Judah was a Jewish state established in the Southern Levant during the Iron Age. It is often referred to as the "Southern Kingdom" to distinguish it from the northern Kingdom of Israel....
, which is in the southern kingdom. He creates the golden calf as a preventive method in order to ensure his own safety and recognizance as king. Furthermore, he erects the two calfs, in what he figures (in some interpretations) as substitutes for the cherubim built by King Solomon in Jerusalem..
The Latter Prophets
The golden calf is also mentioned by EzraEzra
Ezra , also called Ezra the Scribe and Ezra the Priest in the Book of Ezra. According to the Hebrew Bible he returned from the Babylonian exile and reintroduced the Torah in Jerusalem...
in Nehemiah
Nehemiah
Nehemiah ]]," Standard Hebrew Nəḥemya, Tiberian Hebrew Nəḥemyāh) is the central figure of the Book of Nehemiah, which describes his work rebuilding Jerusalem and purifying the Jewish community. He was the son of Hachaliah, Nehemiah ]]," Standard Hebrew Nəḥemya, Tiberian Hebrew Nəḥemyāh) is the...
Chapter 9, verses 18-19.
16 "But they, our ancestors, became arrogant and stiff-necked, and they did not obey your commands. 17 They refused to listen and failed to remember the miracles you performed among them. They became stiff-necked and in their rebellion appointed a leader in order to return to their slavery. But you are a forgiving God, gracious and compassionate, slow to anger and abounding in love. Therefore you did not desert them, 18 even when they cast for themselves an image of a calf and said, 'This is your god, who brought you up out of Egypt,' or when they committed awful blasphemies. 19 "Because of your great compassion you did not abandon them in the wilderness. By day the pillar of cloud did not fail to guide them on their path, nor the pillar of fire by night to shine on the way they were to take. 20 You gave your good Spirit to instruct them. You did not withhold your manna from their mouths, and you gave them water for their thirst. 21 For forty years you sustained them in the wilderness; they lacked nothing, their clothes did not wear out nor did their feet become swollen.
Ezra, in speaking to the Israelites, revisits their history and tells them about God's grace during their attempts to worship God with a calf.
The language in Ezra concerning "God" suggests that there are some inconsistencies in the other accounts of the Israelites and their use of the calf. As the version in Exodus and 1 Kings are written by Deuteronomistic historians based in the southern kingdom of Judah, there is a proclivity to expose the Israelites as unfaithful. The inconsistency is primarily located in Exodus 32.4 where "gods" is plural despite the construction of a single calf. When Ezra retells the story, he uses the single, capitalized God.
Jeroboam's golden calves at Bethel and Dan
After the death of SolomonSolomon
Solomon , according to the Book of Kings and the Book of Chronicles, a King of Israel and according to the Talmud one of the 48 prophets, is identified as the son of David, also called Jedidiah in 2 Samuel 12:25, and is described as the third king of the United Monarchy, and the final king before...
the usurper Jeroboam
Jeroboam
Jeroboam was the first king of the northern Israelite Kingdom of Israel after the revolt of the ten northern Israelite tribes against Rehoboam that put an end to the United Monarchy....
sought to strengthen his hold on the northern 10 tribes by making two golden calves. The declarations of Aaron's followers and Jeroboam are almost identical:
- 'These are your gods, O Israel, who brought you up from the land of Egypt' (Exod 32:4, 8);
- 'Behold your gods, O Israel, who brought you up from the land of Egypt (1 Kings 12:28)
After making the golden calf or golden calves both Aaron and Jeroboam celebrate festivals. Aaron builds an altar and Jeroboam ascends an altar (Exod 32:5-6; 1 Kings 12:32-33).
Richard Elliott Friedman
Richard Elliott Friedman
Richard Elliott Friedman is a biblical scholar and the Ann and Jay Davis Professor of Jewish Studies at the University of Georgia. He joined the faculty of the UGA Religion Department in 2006. Prior to his appointment there, he was the Katzin Professor of Jewish Civilization: Hebrew Bible; Near...
says "at a minimum we can say that the writer of the golden calf account in Exodus seems to have taken the words that were traditionally ascribed to Jeroboam and placed them in the mouths of the people." Friedman believes that the story was turned into a polemic, exaggerating the throne platform decoration into idolatory, by a family of priests sidelined by Jeroboam.
Alternate Versions
The golden calf narrative differs notably among non-MasoreticMasoretic Text
The Masoretic Text is the authoritative Hebrew text of the Jewish Bible and is regarded as Judaism's official version of the Tanakh. While the Masoretic Text defines the books of the Jewish canon, it also defines the precise letter-text of these biblical books, with their vocalization and...
, non canonical texts. For instance, the version contained in the Dead Sea Scrolls
Dead Sea scrolls
The Dead Sea Scrolls are a collection of 972 texts from the Hebrew Bible and extra-biblical documents found between 1947 and 1956 on the northwest shore of the Dead Sea, from which they derive their name...
tells that upon coming down from the mountain, Moses discovered that the Israelites engaging in debaucherous behavior on the shores of a nearby beach. Roughly translated:
"...and Moses saw that the Israelites had constructed a dwelling on the shore, and that they were making merry. Seeing that their actions were displeasing to God, Moses was filled with great wrath."
Criticism and interpretation
Despite a seemingly simplistic façade, the golden calf narrative is complex. According to Michael Coogan, it seems that the golden calf was not an idol for another god, and thus a false god. He cites Exodus 32:4-5 as evidence: He[Aaron] took the gold from them, formed it in a mold, and cast an image of a calf; and they said, “These are your gods, O Israel, who brought you up out of the land of Egypt!” When Aaron saw this, he built an altar before it; and Aaron made proclamation and said, “Tomorrow shall be a festival to the Lord.” Importantly, there is a single calf in this narrative, though the people refer to it as representative of the “gods.” While a reference to singular god does not necessarily imply Yahweh worship, it does not rule out the possibility that it is Yahweh that the people are worshiping, as the reference to a plurality of “gods” would. Additionally, the festival “to the Lord” in verse 5 is sometimes translated as “to Yahweh”. It should also be noted that “in the chronology of the narrative of the Ten Commandments” the commandment against the creation of graven images had not yet been given to the people when they pressed upon Aaron to help them make the calf, and that such behavior was not yet explicitly outlawed.
Amateur biblical scholars often forget that when compared in context to the rest of the sentence (in a Torah verse which indicates singular usage), the Hebrew term "gods" is actually a Semitic elative
Elative case
See Elative for disambiguation.Elative is a locative case with the basic meaning "out of"....
meaning the one God YHWH (see the original term in Hebrew, Elohim
Elohim
Elohim is a grammatically singular or plural noun for "god" or "gods" in both modern and ancient Hebrew language. When used with singular verbs and adjectives elohim is usually singular, "god" or especially, the God. When used with plural verbs and adjectives elohim is usually plural, "gods" or...
); thus, Aaron's famous response to the unruly Israelites after he is forced to cast the Golden Calf could be seen as a bitterly sarcastic condemnation of their assumption of God's likeness, even after he consents to their demands.
Another understanding of the golden calf narrative is that the calf was meant to be the pedestal of Yahweh. In Near Eastern art, gods were often depicted standing on an animal, rather than seated on a throne. This reading suggests that the golden calf was merely an alternative to the ark of the covenant
Ark of the Covenant
The Ark of the Covenant , also known as the Ark of the Testimony, is a chest described in Book of Exodus as solely containing the Tablets of Stone on which the Ten Commandments were inscribed...
or the cherubim upon which Yahweh was enthroned.
The reason for this complication maybe understood as 1.) a criticism of Aaron, as the founder of one priestly house that rivaled the priestly house of Moses, and/or 2.) as “an attack on the northern kingdom of Israel.” The second explanation relies on the “sin of Jeroboam
Jeroboam
Jeroboam was the first king of the northern Israelite Kingdom of Israel after the revolt of the ten northern Israelite tribes against Rehoboam that put an end to the United Monarchy....
,” who was the first king of the northern kingdom, as the cause of the northern kingdom’s fall to Assyria in 722 BCE. Jeroboam’s “sin” was creating two calves of gold, and sending one to Bethel
Bethel
Bethel was a border city described in the Hebrew Bible as being located between Benjamin and Ephraim...
as a worship site in the south of the Kingdom, and the other to Dan
Dan (ancient city)
Dan , is a city mentioned in the Bible, described as the northernmost city of the Kingdom of Israel, belonging to the Tribe of Dan. The city is identified with the tel known as Tel Dan , or Tel el-Qadi in...
as a worship site in the north, so that the people of the northern kingdom would not have to continue to go to Jerusalem to worship (see 1 Kings 12.26-30). According to Coogan, this episode is part of the Deuteronomistic history, written in the southern kingdom of Judah, after the fall of the Northern kingdom, which was biased against the northern kingdom. Coogan maintains that Jeroboam was merely presenting an alternative to the cherubim of the Temple in Jerusalem, and that calves did not indicate non-Yahwehistic worship.
The documentary hypothesis
Documentary hypothesis
The documentary hypothesis , holds that the Pentateuch was derived from originally independent, parallel and complete narratives, which were subsequently combined into the current form by a series of redactors...
can be used to further understand the layers of this narrative: it is plausible that the earliest story of the golden calf was preserved by E (Israel source) and originated in the Northern kingdom. When E and J (Judah source) were combined after the fall of northern kingdom, “the narrative was reworked to portray the northern kingdom in a negative light,” and the worship of the calf was depicted as “polytheism, with the suggestion of a sexual orgy” (see Exodus 32.6). When compiling the narratives, P (a later Priest source from Jerusalem) may have minimized Aaron’s guilt in the matter, but preserved the negativity associated with the calf.
Alternatively it could be said that there is no golden calf story in the J source, and if it is correct that the Jeroboam story was the original as stated by Friedman, then it is unlikely that the Golden Calf events as described in Exodus occurred at all. Friedman states that the smashing of the Ten Commandments
Ten Commandments
The Ten Commandments, also known as the Decalogue , are a set of biblical principles relating to ethics and worship, which play a fundamental role in Judaism and most forms of Christianity. They include instructions to worship only God and to keep the Sabbath, and prohibitions against idolatry,...
by Moses
Moses
Moses was, according to the Hebrew Bible and Qur'an, a religious leader, lawgiver and prophet, to whom the authorship of the Torah is traditionally attributed...
when he beheld the worship of the golden calf, is really an attempt to cast into doubt the validity of Judah's central shrine, the Ark of the Covenant
Ark of the Covenant
The Ark of the Covenant , also known as the Ark of the Testimony, is a chest described in Book of Exodus as solely containing the Tablets of Stone on which the Ten Commandments were inscribed...
. "The author of E, in fashioning the golden calf story, attacked both the Israelite and Judean religious establishments."
As to the likelihood that these events ever took place, on the one hand there are two versions of the ten commandments story, in E (Exodus 20) and J (Exodus 34), this gives some antiquity and there may be some original events serving as a basis to the stories. The Golden Calf story is only in the E version and a later editor added in an explanation that God made a second pair of tablets to give continuity to the J story. The actual Ten Commandments as given in Exodus 20 were also inserted by the redactor who combined the various sources.
Archaeologists Israel Finkelstein
Israel Finkelstein
Israel Finkelstein is an Israeli archaeologist and academic. He is currently the Jacob M. Alkow Professor of the Archaeology of Israel in the Bronze Age and Iron Ages at Tel Aviv University and is also the co-director of excavations at Megiddo in northern Israel...
and Neil Asher Silberman
Neil Asher Silberman
Neil Asher Silberman is an archaeologist and historian with a special interest in history, archaeology, public interpretation and heritage policy. He is a graduate of Wesleyan University and was trained in Near Eastern archaeology at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem...
say that while archaeology has found traces left by small bands of hunter gatherers in the Sinai, there is no evidence at all for the large body of people described in the Exodus story: "The conclusion - that Exodus did not happen at the time and in the manner discribed in the Bible - seems irrefutable.. repeated excavations and surveys throughout the entire area have not provided even the slightest evidence.."
Quranic version
The incident of Israel and the golden calf is retold in TahaTa-Ha
Sura Ta-Ha is the 20th sura of the Qur'an with 135 ayat. It is a Makkan sura.It is named "Ta-Ha" because the sura starts with the Arab letters طه ....
20.83 in the Quran. The Quranic Version of the episode is similar to the original in most respects, except that the golden calf is constructed by a man named Samiri, rather than Aaron. Samiri claims that Moses has disappeared/forgotten(As stated in Holy Quran From Verse20-84 Till verse20-98), and the Israelites have to find this(calf) god & he also claimed that this calf is god of Musa/Moses. To meet this end, Samiri makes a golden calf from the gold jewelry brought out of Egypt and some collected from the people Bani Israeel, After that samiri blown some glowing sand/Dust (which he collected earlier from the bank of Nile form a point where a Foot of an angel Ridden Pegasus hit that part of ground while the Paroh was Drowning) . Harun (Aaron), who is acting as leader in Moses' absence, attempts to prevent them from worshiping the statue, but is unsuccessful & was seriously cautious not to raise any differences in Bani Israeel until the Return Of his brother Prophet Musa/Moses. When Moses does return, he is infuriated at the pagan ritual and Harun's inability to stop it, and tugs violently at Harun's beard in his anger. Moses then exiles Samiri and orders the golden calf burnt and its ashes cast into the sea.
The exoneration of Aaron from making and worshiping the golden calf can be seen in the verses [90-94] of Surah Taha in Quran:
"Aaron had already, before this said to them: "O my people [The Children of Israel]! ye are being tested in this: for verily your Lord is (Allah) Most Gracious; so follow me and obey my command." (90) They had said: "We will not abandon this cult, but we will devote ourselves to it until Moses returns to us." (91) (Moses) said: "O Aaron! what kept thee back, when thou sawest them going wrong, (92) "From following me? Didst thou then disobey my order?" (93) (Aaron) replied: "O son of my mother! Seize (me) not by my beard nor by (the hair of) my head! Truly I feared lest thou shouldst say, 'Thou has caused a division among the children of Israel, and thou didst not respect my word!'" (94)"
In popular culture
- Le veau d'or est toujours debout (The Golden Calf is still standing) is a world famous aria in Charles GounodCharles GounodCharles-François Gounod was a French composer, known for his Ave Maria as well as his operas Faust and Roméo et Juliette.-Biography:...
's operaOperaOpera is an art form in which singers and musicians perform a dramatic work combining text and musical score, usually in a theatrical setting. Opera incorporates many of the elements of spoken theatre, such as acting, scenery, and costumes and sometimes includes dance...
: Faust - The Golden CalfGolden Calf (award)The Golden Calf is the award of the Netherlands Film Festival, which is held annually in Utrecht. The award has been presented since 1981, originally in six categories: Best actor, Best actress, Best film, Best Short film, Culture Prize and Honourable mention...
is the award given at the Netherlands Film FestivalNetherlands Film FestivalThe Netherlands Film Festival is an annual film festival, held in September and October of each year in the city of Utrecht.During the ten-day festival, all Dutch film productions of the previous year are exhibited. Besides feature films, the program also consists of short subjects, documentary...
, regarded as the Dutch counterpart to the Academy AwardsAcademy AwardsAn Academy Award, also known as an Oscar, is an accolade bestowed by the American Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences to recognize excellence of professionals in the film industry, including directors, actors, and writers...
. - In 2008, Damien HirstDamien HirstDamien Steven Hirst is an English artist, entrepreneur and art collector. He is the most prominent member of the group known as the Young British Artists , who dominated the art scene in Britain during the 1990s. He is internationally renowned, and is reportedly Britain's richest living artist,...
put his sculpture The Golden Calf up for auction at Sotheby's. The dead calf in formaldehyde, complete with gold-plated horns and hooves, sold for 10.3 million pounds. - Prefab SproutPrefab SproutPrefab Sprout are an alternative English pop rock band from Witton Gilbert, County Durham, England who rose to fame during the 1980s. Eight of their albums have reached the Top 40 in the UK Albums Chart, and one of their singles, "The King of Rock 'n' Roll", peaked at number seven in the UK...
has a song on the album From Langley Park to MemphisFrom Langley Park to MemphisFrom Langley Park to Memphis is the third album by English pop band Prefab Sprout, and was released in March 1988.The title is taken from a lyric to the song, "The Venus of the Soup Kitchen", and refers to the village of Langley Park, County Durham in England, and the city of Memphis, Tennessee in...
called "The Golden Calf". - Mooby the Golden Calf is a fictional character featured in Kevin Smith's films, comics and animated series—an indictment of McDonald'sMcDonald'sMcDonald's Corporation is the world's largest chain of hamburger fast food restaurants, serving around 64 million customers daily in 119 countries. Headquartered in the United States, the company began in 1940 as a barbecue restaurant operated by the eponymous Richard and Maurice McDonald; in 1948...
, Mickey MouseMickey MouseMickey Mouse is a cartoon character created in 1928 by Walt Disney and Ub Iwerks at The Walt Disney Studio. Mickey is an anthropomorphic black mouse and typically wears red shorts, large yellow shoes, and white gloves...
and Disney overall. - The Little Golden CalfThe Little Golden CalfThe Little Golden Calf is a famous satirical novel by Soviet authors Ilf and Petrov, released in 1931. Its main character Ostap Bender, also appeared in a previous novel of the authors called The Twelve Chairs...
is a famous satirical novel by Soviet authors Ilf and PetrovIlf and PetrovIlya Ilf Ilya Ilf Ilya Ilf (Ilya Arnoldovich Faynzilberg and Evgeny or Yevgeni Petrov (Yevgeniy Petrovich Kataev or Katayev were two Soviet prose authors of the 1920s and 1930s...
.
See also
- TorahTorahTorah- A scroll containing the first five books of the BibleThe Torah , is name given by Jews to the first five books of the bible—Genesis , Exodus , Leviticus , Numbers and Deuteronomy Torah- A scroll containing the first five books of the BibleThe Torah , is name given by Jews to the first five...
parshiotParshaThis article is about the divisions of the Torah into weekly readings. For this week's Torah portion, see Torah portionThe weekly Torah portion |Sidra]]) is a section of the Torah read in Jewish services...
or portions dealing with the Golden Calf: Ki Tissa and EikevEikevEikev, Ekev, Ekeb, or Eqeb is the 46th weekly Torah portion in the annual Jewish cycle of Torah reading and the third in the book of Deuteronomy... - Red HeiferRed heiferThe red heifer or red cow was a sacrifice in the Hebrew Bible the ashes of which are used for the ritual purification of an ancient Israelite who had come into contact with a corpse.- Hebrew Bible :...
- MolochMolochMoloch — also rendered as Molech, Molekh, Molok, Molek, Molock, or Moloc — is the name of an ancient Semitic god...
- GugalannaGugalannaIn Mesopotamian mythology, Gugalanna In Mesopotamian mythology, Gugalanna In Mesopotamian mythology, Gugalanna (lit. "The Great Bull of Heaven" In Mesopotamian mythology, Gugalanna (lit. "The Great Bull of Heaven" In Mesopotamian mythology, Gugalanna (lit...
External links
- The Golden calf from a Jewish perspective at Chabad.orgChabad.orgChabad.org is the flagship website of the Chabad-Lubavitch Hasidic movement. It serves not just its own members but Jews worldwide in general. It was one of the first Jewish internet sites and the first and largest virtual congregation.-History:...
- Rabbi Fohrman's Lectures on the Golden Calf
- The Golden calf from Ein Hod perspective
- Islamic interpretation of the story of the Golden calf in the Qur'an
- Story of Muses and Aaron in the Qur'an