Who Fash­ioned The Gold­en Calf ?

Mohd Elfie Nieshaem Juferi

The Chris­t­ian mis­sion­ar­ies have accused the Qur’an of mak­ing a con­tra­dic­tion” on the issue of who was respon­si­ble for the wor­ship of the Gold­en Calf. 

It is fur­ther inter­est­ing to note, how­ev­er, that the New Tes­ta­ment con­tra­dicts the Old Tes­ta­ment on the mat­ter of blam­ing Aaron(P) sole­ly for the fash­ion­ing of the Gold­en Calf. Exo­dus 32:4 square­ly puts the respon­si­bil­i­ty of mak­ing the calf upon Aaron himself :

He [Aaron] took this from their hand, and fash­ioned it with a grav­ing tool and made it into a molten calf.” (Exo­dus 32:4)

Clear­ly in this verse above, it is Aaron who is blamed here. This is also made clear­er when we read in the sub­se­qent vers­es (Q 32 : 5 – 6) how Aaron was respon­si­ble for build­ing an altar to the stat­ue he had just cre­at­ed and made burnt offer­ings to it.

How­ev­er, when we com­pare this with Stephen’s speech in the Acts of the Apos­tles, the blame of fash­ion­ing the Calf clear­ly shifts upon the Israelite peo­ple them­selves, by employ­ing the blame in plural :

At that time they [the Israelites] made a calf and brought a sac­ri­fice to the idol, and were rejoic­ing in the works of their hands.” (Acts 7:41)

Sub­se­quent vers­es also sug­gests the same if it were read fur­ther (7:42 – 43). So who was respon­si­ble for the fash­ion­ing of the Gold­en Calf, Aaron or the Israelites ? That is a ques­tion which behooves for the Chris­t­ian mis­sion­ar­ies to answer !

And only God knows best.

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