Westminster Theological Journal 44 1982 71 87 Copyright 1982 by Westminster Theological Seminary cited with permission REBELLION PRESENCE AND COVENANT A STUDY IN EXODUS 32 34 DALE RALPH DAVIS Introduction THE thesis of this paper is that the narrative of Exodus 32 34 is a basic unity that it is more likely to stem from one original hand than from a number of contributors plus the final redactor and that the connections and materials of the narrative itself reveal and support such a unity There is no claim here that difficulties are non existent only that a real basic unity inheres in the narrative if it is approached by way of its canonical presentation This in turn suggests a methodology that the text is to be approached holistically with a serious attempt to discern an internal consistency if it be there This is not to rule out the place of source analysis it is to say that analysis has a tendency to begin too soon and thus not really to hear the text Most of our attention will be focused on literary concerns with some concluding remarks about the theology of the unit The Basic Unity of the Narrative First of all it is necessary to deal briefly with the tradition of 32 1 6 which forms the backdrop for all three chapters It is of course rather common to see this tradition taken as a polemic against Jeroboam I s calf worship at Dan and Bethel the tradition projecting the condemnation backwards in order to denounce it out of the mouth of Moses 1 But this is open to question In 1 Kings 12 the cult stems from Jeroboam s initiative while here 1 So Martin Noth A History of Pentateuchal Traditions Englewood Cliffs Prentice Hall 1972 143 George W Coats Rebellion in the Wilderness Nashville Abingdon Press 1968 185 and Ronald E Clements Exodus The Cambridge Bible Commentary Cambridge CUP 1972 206 For Jeroboam see 1 Kgs 12 26ff 71 72 WESTMINSTER THEOLOGICAL JOURNAL the groundswell comes from the people Moreover if we are intended to see Aaron in the role of Jeroboam then the representation is truly inept for Aaron is here a sort of weak and pressured victim while Jeroboam appears as the strong instigator A more astute polemic than this would be needed Aaron would have had to be cast into more of an image of Jeroboam than this Some deny that Aaron s role in vv 1b 4 is original the original picture of vv 5f shows him to be only a victim of the people s fait accompli 2 Noth who takes this view bases the excision of vv 1b 4 on the idea that vv 21 24 which seek to excuse Aaron are secondary Thus his role in vv 1b 4 must be likewise I feel this misses the intent of vv 21 24 wholly aside from whether they are original for rather than excuse Aaron they tend to blast him as a sort of Caspar Milquetoast There is no need to question the unity of vv 1 6 3 Incidentally there may be good grounds for following NEB at v 5a in repointing the form wayyar as wayyira then Aaron feared instead of when Aaron saw NEB follows Syriac against NEB I would retain the plural verb of MT in v 4 In this case the idea would be that when Aaron saw what the people were making of the calf v 4 he became alarmed and tried to steer the affair back to some semblance of Yahwism by proclaiming a feast to Yahweh for the next day One could have a diluted if not an orthodox Yahwism 4 Now let us consider the larger complex 2 Martin Noth Exodus OT Library Philadelphia Westminster Press 1962 244f 3 B S Childs The Book of Exodus OT Library Philadelphia Westminster Press 1974 558f 4 I have not dealt with the historical antecedents of the calf bull worship here See among others Lloyd R Bailey The Golden Calf HUCA 42 1971 97 115 and John N Oswalt The Golden Calves and the Egyptian Concept of Deity EvQ 45 1973 13 20 Whatever kind of worship this was intended to be the cultic confession these are your gods Israel who brought you up from the land of Egypt 32 4 8 with its plural subject and verb eloheyka he eluka shows the writer branded it as idolatry The plural subject and verb are sometimes thought to fit Jeroboam s two calves more appropriately 1 Kgs 12 28 but this ignores the fact that there was only one at each cult center thus making the plural no more suitable for 1 Kgs 12 than for Exod 32 On the problem of the REBELLION PRESENCE AND COVENANT 73 1 Evidence of structural design supports the unity of chap 32 If one considers the flow of chap 32 through v 29 a definite pattern seems to emerge In tabular form it would look like this Idolatry originates vv 1 6 Expression of Yahweh s wrath vv 7 10 Quest to conciliate God vv 11 13 Total judgment restrained v 14 Idolatry discovered vv 15 19a Expression of Moses wrath vv 19b 21 or 20 Quest to conciliate Moses vv 22 24 Partial judgment executed vv 25 29 Viewed as such the narrative appears to have a thematic parallel development Of course this is true only of the extant text However a common literary analysis holds the basic narrative to have consisted only of vv 1 6 15 20 35 5 while vv 714 are usually suspected as being Deuteronomic This latter point aside from vv 25 29 see below wipes out three elements of the narrative as depicted in the above table However it is only with vv 7 14 that the chapter possesses the symmetry I have attempted to sketch It might be observed that part of the problem rests with vv 7 8 they are held to be too anticipatory of vv 15ff as to make Moses wrath inexplicable since he would have known everything beforehand 6 Yet Driver sees no difficulty here Moses anger may naturally have been kindled by the spectacle of the doings in the camp the full character of which he did not before realize 7 Childs would also retain vv 7 8 8 Of course if the extant narrative does possess this structural unity it may simply mean that it has been so arranged by a redactor using his various materials in a skillful Jeroboam and Aaron traditions one would do well to ponder the comments of historian Marc Bloch The Historian s Craft New York Vintage 1953 123f 130f 5 J P Hyatt Exodus New Century Bible London Oliphants 1971 301 also Georg Beer Exodus HAT Tubingen J C B Mohr 1939 153 except for vv 17 18 6 Elias Auerbach Moses Detroit Wayne State 1975 123 7 S R Driver The Book of Exodus Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges Cambridge The University Press 1911 350 8 Childs Book of Exodus 559 74 WESTMINSTER THEOLOGICAL JOURNAL manner This is recognized However one of the main reasons for dividing …