The sin of the calf

by Youn Ho Chung

"The Sin of the Calf is a comprehensive study of one of the most important topics in the history of Israel’s religion: the cult of the Calf that was practiced in the northern Kingdom for several centuries during pre-exilic times. Dr. Chung has considered this topic from every angle, examining the archeological evidence, the question of origins and influences, the religious phenomenology and the implications for the history of monotheism, monolatry and aniconism in Israel. Skillfully combining source-critical and tradition-critical study, he has arrived at a new and persuasive historical reconstruction of the circumstances leading to the rise of the Calf worship, its initial legitimacy, its erosion in the eyes of some of its practitioners, its subsequent condemnation in the prophetic-Elohistic tradition, its distortion in the eyes of the Deuteronomistic historian, and its echoes in later texts." --Baruch J. Schwartz, The Hebrew University of Jerusalem