The golden calf incident

In Acts 7:41, Luke wrote “And they made a calf in those days, and offered a sacrifice to the idol and rejoiced in the works of their hands.”

Consequently, I have rewritten a sentence of “Rewriting of Sacred History” to include the “golden calf” with a new endnote as follow:

“This rewriting is directed particularly at Luke because only Luke includes unmistakable references to Enoch, Moses, the golden calf[i], Elijah, Lot, the Diaspora, covenant-rooted ingathering of the exiles, and a circumcised messiah out of the house of David.”

Luke includes “And they made a calf in those days, and offered a sacrifice to the idol and rejoiced in the works of their hands” in close proximity to “A large number of priests gave their obedience to the faith.”[ii]

I am wondering if Luke identified with these priests and the Northern Levites who are said to have inserted this story of the Golden Calf into Sacred Scriptures as a subtle criticism of the priesthood of the Jerusalem Temple. These priests, who joined the community of the followers of Jesus, liked the Northern Levites, considered the temple establishment in Jerusalem to be idolatrous. In any event Josephus appreciated what Luke has done and thus he rewrote sacred scriptures to eliminate the scriptural support for Acts 7:41 by omitting the golden calf incident from his rewriting of sacred scripture.


[i] Feldman notes that Josephus has omitted any mention of the incident of the golden calf and its consequences. Feldman, Louis H. "Rearrangement of Pentateuchal Material in Josephus' Antiquities, Books 1-4" is available on the Internet.
[ii] Acts 6:7.

copyrighted 2005