A Hard Yoke Upon Their Neck

Abstract

This chapter compares the presentations of the Golden Calf narrative in the literary texts of early Christianity and early rabbinic Judaism. The promotion of anti-Jewish readings of the Golden Calf narrative by the early Christian movement, especially after Christianity’s establishment as an imperial religion, would compel Jewish exegetes to adopt new apologetic interpretations that were more imaginative, as well as more evasive, concerning the issue of the culpability of both Aaron and the Israelites for their deed at Sinai. Virtually from the outset, the early Christian movement made use of the Calf narrative as proof of the disconfirmation of the formerly chosen Israel in favor of the Christian Church, positioned as the true Israel and new chosen people. Early Christian exegetes strove to emphasize the illegitimacy of the Jews’ continuing claim to covenantal priority, but this effort was tempered by the necessity of validating Israel’s historical relationship with God and the authenticity of the Bible as true revelation. Notably, these exegetes’ understanding of the significance of Israel’s idolatry with the Calf often appears to reflect an awareness of older Jewish approaches to the story. In turn, the major revisions of the episode seen in later rabbinic tradition can be read as a response to the promotion of specific anti-Jewish themes in patristic literature. Thus, despite the mutual opposition and hostility expressed by spokesmen of both communities, a basic symmetry, even symbiosis, between Jewish and Christian traditions is characteristic of this phase of development of accounts of Israel’s making of the Calf.