golden calf
deity earth Israelites single tradition · 1
An idol constructed by Aaron from the golden earrings and ornaments of the Israelites while Moses was on Mount Sinai. The calf was declared by Aaron to be the god who brought the Israelites out of Egypt, and an altar was built before it with a feast proclaimed to yhwh. Moses destroyed the idol by burning it, grinding it to powder, scattering it on water, and forcing the Israelites to drink it.
When
- First attested
- 1200 BCE
- Attested period
- -1200 – 2020
- Historical notes
- Biblical narrative from Exodus describing events during the Israelite exodus from Egypt.
Relationships
- created by
- Aaron
Sources
wikipedia (1)
Source passages
“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”
#25970 · extracted by anthropic/claude-sonnet-4.5