Exodus 32

The episode of The Golden Calf Apostasy of Israel is recorded in this chapter, some six paragraphs being devoted to the narrative:

1. the making of the calf (Exodus 32:1-6);

2. Moses' intercession on behalf of Israel (Exodus 32:7-14);

3. the wrath of Moses (Exodus 32:15-20);

4. Aaron's excuses (Exodus 32:21-24);

5. the faithfulness of the Levites (Exodus 32:25-29); and

6. Moses' renewed intercession (Exodus 32:30-35).

The critical strategy of trying to understand this episode as a polemic developed in the times of Jeroboam II (800-750 B.C.), more than half a millennium after Moses wrote Exodus, is completely frustrated by the practical impossibility of any Jew at so late a period inventing an incident that would have so effectively damaged the reputation and stained forever the name of Aaron, one of the national heroes of Israel. Men who can imagine such an absurdity can imagine anything. The truth of all that is written here stands, because only truth could ever have won for such a passage as this an honored place in the sacred writings of Moses. Furthermore, certain expressions found in this chapter are indicative of the second millennium B.C., not the first millennium B.C.