The Sinai traditions

     There are two versions of the story of Moses going up Mount Sinai to receive the tablets containing the Ten Commandments. The story of the Golden Calf been immortalized in Hollywood productions.

     After the split occurred between Israel and Judah, Judah remained in possession of the Temple in Jerusalem and Israel was forced to substitute worship at Bethel in the north. In the listing of the tribes of Israel in Judges, Judah is not mentioned, suggesting an early and separate existence for this tribe extending far back into history, and unexplained.

     Jeroboam became King of Israel after the split and he was worried about maintaining the national cohesion of his new Kingdom, particularly when people remained attached to their previous religious customs and the Temple in Jerusalem.

"'As it now stands,' he said to himself, 'the kingdom will revert to the house of David (in Judah). If these people go to sacrifice in the Temple in Jerusalem, it will revive their allegiance to the King of Judah.' After taking counsel about the matter, he made two golden calves and said to the people, 'You have gone to Jerusalem long enough. Here are your gods that brought you up from Egypt.'" (1 Kings Chapter 12 verse 26) "He also appointed priests who did not belong to the Levites." (1 Kings Chapter 12 verse 31)

     Sacrifices and festivals were ordained for his new religious centers, one calf at Bethel, the other at Dan.

     Another name for Israel in the north was 'Samaria'. Hosea testified about the calves saying:

"Samaria, your calf-god is loathsome! My anger burns against them! How long must they remain guilty? The calf was made in Israel; a craftsman made it and it is no god." (Hosea Chapter 8 verse 5)

     And again he refers to a custom of offering

"human sacrifices and kissing the calves." (Hosea Chapter 13 verse 2)

     No doubt the snouts of those two calves were polished and worn down from all those centuries of kissing. As well, one would think that when those two calves brought the people out of Egypt, they must have been more mobile than they were at Jeroboam's shrines. No doubt those calves were running around the camp and giving everyone orders, and lifting their golden hooves to bless everyone. Based on the testimony of a disgusted and scandalized Hosea, Jeroboam did set up two calves.

     The Golden Calf story is found in Exodus Chapter 32. Moses was gone a long time and the people said to Aaron,

"as for this Moses, we don't know what has become of him. Make us a god so we can say, 'here are your gods (plural) who brought you up from Egypt.' "
(Exodus Chapter 32 verse 1)

     Aaron made a (single) golden calf, and presented it to the people saying,

'"here are your GODS (plural), who brought you up from Egypt,'" (Exodus Chapter 32 verse 4)

the exact words ascribed to Jeroboam in the book of Kings.

     The tradition in chapter twenty four presents an alternative to the so familiar Golden Calf account of Moses and the mountain. It appears to be either a conflation of conflicting sources or has been heavily edited in an attempt to make it consistent with the second tradition of the tablets, the one everyone is so familiar with.

     The tradition found in Exodus Chapter 24 describes a great crowd going up the mountain. This creates two conflicts. First there is an obvious conflict within the account itself which clearly demonstrates the awkward editing process used to create the Bible. The story opens with a strict prohibition against anyone going up the mountain except Moses. This is consistent with the Golden Calf version of events in which Moses went up the mountain alone, as anyone who remembers those movies will recall. An awkward attempt is made at editing this material to make it consistent, and anyone who carefully reads Exodus Chapter 24 should notice that it both states that these people all went up the mountain and then later another editorial revision suggests that they did not, for only Moses went up the mountain. The original source incident contains a reference to the Sabbath tradition in that Moses was on the mountain for six days and met God on the seventh day, with a later editorial revision to refer to forty days (an attempt, like the comment on David's harp playing, made to reconcile inconsistent accounts). Note that first it is said that no one must go up the mountain with Moses. (Italics should not be necessary, but are included.)

"And he said to Moses, "Come up to YAHWEH, you and Aaron, Nadab, and Abihu, and seventy of the elders of Israel, and worship afar off. Moses alone shall come near to YAHWEH; but the others shall not come near, and the people shall not come up with him." Moses came and told the people all the words of YAHWEH and all the ordinances; and all the people answered with one voice, and said, "All the words which YAHWEH has spoken we will do."" (Exodus Chapter 24 verse 1)

      However, a few verses later, bits and pieces from the earlier tradition surface (it is characteristic of the bizarre editing of the Bible that scraps were not thrown out, but rather an attempt was made to submerge and 'harmonize' the various conflicting accounts). Note that it is a constant refrain in the Golden Calf tradition that no one must ever see God (including Moses) or they would die. This theological doctrine has no part in the alternative tradition in chapter twenty four.

"Then Moses and Aaron, Nadab, and Abihu, and seventy of the elders of Israel went up, and they saw the God of Israel; and there was under his feet as it were a pavement of sapphire stone, like the very heaven for clearness. And God's arm was not stretched out against the chief men of the people of Israel; they saw God; they ate and drank." (Exodus Chapter 24 verse 9)

     In the famous Calf tradition even Moses was not allowed to see God, for,

"For no man shall see God and live." (Exodus Chapter 33 verse 20)

     The alternative tradition forbids anyone from going up the mountain with Moses and then everyone went up the mountain with Moses.

"...worship afar off. Moses alone shall come near to YAHWEH; but the others shall not come near, and the people shall not come up with him."

"Then Moses and Aaron, Nadab, and Abihu, and seventy of the elders of Israel went up, and they saw the God of Israel; ... they saw God; they ate and drank."

The conflict between this statement and the opening sentences of the story is obvious and indicates that the introduction was a later editorial interpolation.

      After visiting heaven and sitting down for lunch with God, Moses got the tablets containing the ten commandments for the first time. Later a tradition would be introduced during the editorial process to allow the second version to be woven into the tale by concocting a connective fictional device which stated that Moses 'dropped and broke' the first set, thus making 'a second trip up the mountain necessary' This is not a description of an historical event but is merely a product of the editing together of two disparate tablet traditions of Sinai, an attempt to weave them together into one unharmonious fictional narrative.

"YAHWEH said to Moses, "Come up to me on the mountain, and wait there; and I will give you the tables of stone, with the law and the commandment, which I have written for their instruction." So Moses rose with his servant Joshua, and Moses went up into the mountain of God ... Then Moses went up on the mountain, and the cloud covered the mountain. The glory of YAHWEH settled on Mount Sinai, and the cloud covered it six days; and on the seventh day he called to Moses out of the midst of the cloud." (Exodus Chapter 24 verse 12, 15)

     The story begins with a reference to 'no one seeing God,' a motif of the alternate tradition, and after having Moses meet God on 'the seventh day' (an allusion to the Sabbath) a reference to 'forty days' is included, once again in an attempt to 'harmonize' the two conflicting versions of events by weaving together bits and pieces of each tradition.

     Exodus Chapter 19 can be considered a prelude to Exodus Chapter 32 and the Golden Calf incident. It is a doublet of the introduction to the other version of the Tablet story. In both Exodus Chapter 19 and Exodus Chapter 24, God announced a covenant and the people replied,

"whatever God has said we will do."(Exodus Chapter 19 verse 8, Exodus Chapter 24 verse 3)

     In the earlier version a big crowd then went up the mountain to eat and drink and see God. In the later version, in Exodus Chapter 19, the people have to do some specially ordained purification rites. The mountain is strictly off limits, being far to holy.

"Do not even touch its base. Anyone who touches the mountain will be put to death. No one must touch him; he must be stoned to death or shot; neither man or animal may be allowed to live." (Exodus Chapter 19 verse 12)

     Finally, several days later, the people were allowed to approach the base of the mountain. God instructed Moses to warn the people solemnly that they would not see God, or they would die. (Exodus Chapter 19 verse 21) Then only Moses and Aaron were allowed to go any further. Even priests were banned from the mountain. The people could not come up the mountain, and strict bounds were set,

"for fear that God might break out against them."
(Exodus Chapter 19 verse 24)

     As is so common in Exodus, the narrative is constantly interrupted by God giving long speeches about how lengthy rituals must be performed, how to properly sacrifice an animal (as God had commanded those people when God brought them out of Egypt, no doubt). Indeed, you will notice that every time God's mouth opens, the long ritualistic monologue must go on for many chapters before any narrative can resume. This was done to justify both later Levitical law and the state law of the ancient Hebrew theocratic autocracy by suggesting Divine imprimatur. These conflicting narrative segments are woven together somewhat awkwardly, with the editors doing their best to reconcile the inconsistencies, an exercise, I should add, in futility, but they gamely made the attempt.

     The people started giving whole offerings to the calf, and God told Moses to get down the mountain quickly for the people were worshiping a calf. God told Moses,

"Leave me alone so that I can destroy these people and make a great nation spring from you." (Exodus Chapter 32 verse 11)

     Moses managed to talk God out of doing this with a reminder of how embarrassing it would if the nations heard that God brought people out of Egypt and then killed them all. (Exodus Chapter 32 verse 11)

"So God thought better of the evil with which the people had been threatened ." (Exodus Chapter 32 verse 14)

     When Moses reached the bottom of the mountain, he heard singing and saw revelry around the calf, and he dropped the two tablets and they shattered. He ground up the calf and made 'bitter waters' out of it, which he forced the people to drink, and then he turned on Aaron. And God, we are told, was so angry that he could have just about killed Aaron.

"Who is on God's side?" (Exodus Chapter 32 verse 26)

Moses asked, and the Levites stood beside him. He then ordered them to

"kill your brother, friend, and neighbor." (Exodus Chapter 32 verse 27)

He then announced that this was the day of the institution of the Levitical priesthood because by killing their brothers, friends, and neighbors,

"you have brought a blessing this day upon yourselves." (Exodus Chapter 32 verse 29)

Moses went up the mountain a second time, and this is preceded by language mimicking that of Exodus Chapter 19, suggesting again an original connection between these two narrative segments.

"No one must go up the mountain with you. No one must be even seen anywhere near the mountain, nor must flocks and herds graze within the sight of that mountain." (Exodus Chapter 34 verse 3)