Keith&Co.

At least, not until we can see the lower left corner of the Unvierse and see if He signed it...

Casper

Especially if one source was guilded objects. Unless maybe they peeled the leaf. But that would take a lot of gold leaf and a lot of peeling.

Source aside, the hidden absurdity is the fashioning of such objects in the amount of time allotted, by a fairly nomadic band so large it was dependent on miracles just for basic food and water is what requires a real stretch of faith.

Was the calf truly solid metal, or a gilded icon? The ark?

What tools were available? Beeswax and refined clay for the mold? Fuel for the kiln?

How about the smelter? Similar questions, but you also need a crucible. And your fuel should be charcoal, not just wood. Your tools would not be iron, but bronze. That makes it a little bit tougher.

And was it pure gold? Egyptian gold was not purified, but a silver-gold amalgam (electrum). Refining of gold to remove the silver was a Persian practice introduced maybe 6th cent BCE. Silver was considered more scarce and valuable by the egyptians, and electrum with higher silver contents were more precious (to them) than pure gold.

Here is the rub; the tools and technology required by the assumptions in the traditional story, as well as the whole idea in the old testament that gold itself is of the highest value, hint at a much later authoring of the text than ~1300 BCE. Centuries later. In spite of the absurdities.

The argument I guess could be made that the gold came from leaf off of Egyptian gilded artwork, but that really only works if you accept a gilded, not solid, calf.

jules?

you may want to reconsider no6, money changers at the temple?

The money changers exchanged 'dirty' worldly real money for temple money, a bit like Itchy&scratchy fun park money [like real money but fun] and obviously there was commission so the poor sods could by an inflated pigion somewhat more expensive than if they brought their own. from the the Jesus the social reformer pov his actions are honorable.

jules?

Most late bronze-age finds of bull cult objects are palm sized so therefore a few ear-rings and alike could have been melted down in a campfire. Shit I am defending the bible. :Cheeky: again.

Casper

That would take more than a campfire and more than a few earrings I think. And what of the ark?

I have limited experience playing with gold, but I definitely had access to a wealth of tools and knowledge that they did not. Still, supposing it could be done with resources at hand, in the time frame specified, the imagery seems awfully iron-age to me. Note that this is not from any kind of expert opinion, just a personal observation subject to correction. This place corrects me all the time, I'm not ashamed to admit it.

jules?

Casper, considering the whole exodus thing is improbable the meaning is in the myth. Sure a gold worker could probably work miracles and some of the stuff produced in Egypt is stunning so I would not dismiss the ability of ancient smiths too quickly. Oddly the Jewish god starts out as a bull cult to morph into the alter with horns so what is the message behind the myth? as for the Ark the theft of an Egyptian ark would solve the problem as would the war tent of the Pharaoh who ever he was

Casper

Agreed. And I think this is commonly noted by many that the symbolism involves a metaphoric "dethroning" of El to be replaced by Yaweh, at least that is my take on some of the comments I've read. Not to mention the combining of the various septuagint sources, which throws some sand into the gears.

I guess my original point was, and I strayed too much, that the fleeing hebrews having all this gold did not strike me as real conundrum, but the time and effort involved in creating these objects, in the context of what they were doing, was more absurd from a literal standpoint.