Exodus 32:4 (WEB)
He received what they handed him, fashioned it with an engraving tool, and made it a molded calf. Then they said, “These are your gods, Israel, which brought you up out of the land of Egypt.”
Catechism · 1
From this intimacy with the faithful God, slow to anger and abounding in steadfast love, Moses drew strength and determination for his intercession. He does not pray for himself but for the people whom God made his own.
Fathers and councils · 10
Origen
- Origen, Against Celsus II.73Book II
“…calf; nor would they have said to one another with reference to the calf, “These be thy gods, O Israel, who brought thee up out of the land of Egypt.”” — editor's note: Cf. Ex. xxxii. 4.
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Tertullian
“And when the gold out of the necklaces of the women and the rings of the men had been wholly smelted by fire, and there had come forth a calf-like head, to this figment Israel with one consent (abandoning God) gave honour, saying, “These are the gods who brought us from the land of Egypt.”” — editor's note: Ex. xxxii. 4: comp. Acts vii. 38–41; 1 Cor. x. 7; Ps. cvi. 19–22.
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Cyril of Jerusalem
“These be thy gods, O Israel, they said: yet again, as He was wont, the God of Israel became their Saviour.” — editor's note: Ex. xxxii. 4.
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Augustine of Hippo
“…four-footed beast instead of Thee, turning back in heart towards Egypt, and prostrating Thy image—their own soul—before the image “of an ox that eateth grass.”” — editor's note: Ps. cvi. 20; Ex. xxxii. 1–6.
Read the whole comment“The early life of Aaron also was such as would displease God; for he allowed a maddened and infatuated people to make an idol to worship; and an idol was made for God’s people to worship.” — editor's note: Exod. xxxii. 1–4.
Read the whole comment“And in Exodus: “They have made them,” Moses says, “gods of gold,” though they had made only one calf, of which they said: “These be thy gods, O Israel, which brought thee up out of the land of Egypt,”—here, too, putting the plural in place of the singular.” — editor's note: Ex. xxxii. 4
Read the whole comment“How soon forgetful of such manifest grace!” — editor's note: Ex. xxxii. 1–4.
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Hippolytus of Rome
“And who was he that spake, but the angel who was given to the people, as he says in the law of Moses: “I will not go with you, because the people is stiff-necked; but my angel shall go before along with you?”” — editor's note: Ex. xxxii. 4; xxxiii. 3.
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Jerome
“…the delays of her leader Moses, had said when maddened by the stings of lust: “these be thy gods, O Israel, which brought thee up out of the land of Egypt,” she received statutes that were not good and commandments that were altogether evil whereby she should not live but should be punished through them.” — editor's note: Exod. xxxii. 4.
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Ephrem the Syrian
“For the one calf which they made in the desert, pastured on their lives as on grass in the desert.” — editor's note: Exod. xxxii. 4.
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Cross-references · 2
Cited together in The Enchiridion Chapter 44.
Cited together in The Enchiridion Chapter 44.