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Archaeology and the Book of Exodus: Exit From Egypt

by Mario Seiglie

In earlier issues, The Good News examined archaeological finds that illuminate portions of the book of Genesis and Exodus. In this issue we continue our exploration of discoveries that confirm other aspects of the Exodus account, beginning with the incident of the Israelites’ worship of the golden calf.

The golden calf

After crossing the Red Sea (see "The Red Sea or the Reed Sea?", p. 24), the Israelites made their way to Mount Sinai. The account of Israel’s appropriation of a golden calf to worship was long questioned by secular scholars. They noted that bull-worship was common in both Egypt and Canaan, but not calf-worship. However, in 1991 a statue of a silver calf was found in an excavation of ancient Ashkelon on Israel’s coast. Authorities dated this calf to more than 100 years before the Exodus.

When Aaron shouted to the people, "This is your god, O Israel, that brought you out of the land of Egypt!" (Exodus 32:4), he knew well how popular calf-worship was. Four centuries later, almost the same words were uttered by King Jeroboam when he made two golden calves and told the people, "Here are your gods, O Israel, which brought you up from the land of Egypt!" (1 Kings 12:28). In Biblical Archaeology Review, an extensive article on the discovery of the silver calf notes: "The Golden Calf worshipped at the foot of Mt. Sinai by impatient Israelites (Exodus 32) may have resembled this statuette" (March-April 1991, p. 1).

Read the full article at www.gnmagazine.org/issues/gn10/archaeologyexodusexit.htm


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