Conclusion

      The bible is a complex web of traditions and not a cohesivewhole. In at least some cases it is possible to untangle the various threads and identify specificauthors working with a specific agenda. The example of the Golden Calf story is one such threadthat can be pulled out, and the evidence strongly suggests that the story was written by Levites, inparticular Northern Levites, during the time of the divided Kingdoms. It is their version of eventsthat has become 'official' so that through countless movies and story books everyone is familiarwith 'the story of Exodus' and the Golden Calf, but few people are familiar with just howcomplex these traditions really are, or that there are really multiple versions of events, and thisstory of the Ten Commandments and Sinai is just one of many examples of the same sort of thing.

     As for history in all this, there is certainly 'history' in the Bible, but it is the history of social divisions and political and religious feuds, and not at all the 'official' story of the Exodus, or anything else for that matter. Spot cannot both have four legs and three. Either he ismissing a leg or he isn't. When presented with multiple visions and versions of events, thequestion of historicity arises. The Calf Idol version of the tablet story is polemical and intended asa response to Jeroboam's new calf idol religion, written by jobless and disgruntled northernLevites, who had been put out of a job by those two calves.