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Israel ascend the mountain and have a partial vision of the divine glory or kavod. It must be explained here, in order to clarify our discussion below, what the Old Testament in general means by the kavod or the “glory of the Lord.” Walther Eichrodt gives a helpful and compact definition of the kavod as the “reflected splendor of the transcendent God, a token of the divine glory, by means of which Yahweh declares his gracious presence.”52 Here Eichrodt emphasizes the two most important elements of the kavod as it is frequently used in relationship to God, namely, the kavod is a manifestation of the presence of God, and of divine luminosity. According to Eichrodt, kavod also has a second connotation of referring to a person’s possession of riches, honor, and success. In other words, kavod can also mean glory, honor, or praise given or possessed by a person.53

In identifying the nature of the kavod, we will venture farther than Eichrodt. It must be recognized that the kavod does not merely refer to an attribute of God. Neither is kavod merely a metaphor for divine presence. Rather the Old Testament views the glory of the Lord to be something hypostatized. The kavod is often spoken of as God, but also separately as standing in relation to God (see Exod 33, Ezek 1–2). Some recognition of this fact continued in post-biblical Judaism. There is a manifestation of a continued belief in the distinction between God and his kavod in what Jewish scholar Alan Segal refers to as the “Heresy of the Two Powers” in rabbinic Judaism.54

This hypostatized divine presence of the divine glory is identical with the divine Word and Name, as Charles Gieschen has clearly shown.55 The Name of God is YHWH, “I am what I am” (Exod 3:14) (or perhaps “I will be whom I will be”). We are told in Genesis 1 that the first word that God utters is “Let there be.” Gieschen notes that many early Jewish interpreters of the text likely made a connection between the Word and the Name because they possess the identical verb “to be.”56 That there is an intentional connection in the biblical text itself and not just in the imagination of the later interpreters seems to be highly plausible insofar as God is identified throughout the Old Testament as both the creator and the initiator of the divine-human covenantal relationships. He “will be who he will be” because by his electing act he initiates his relationship both in the form creation and redemption. He thereby identifies himself with his redeeming and electing act and makes his reality known through it (for example see Exod 6:2–8, 33:19).

The Word and Name are therefore identical in that they have the same content of the divine reality and utterance. The Name is also identical with kavod, in that the tabernacle/temple is interchangeably described as the place of the dwelling of the glory of YHWH (Exod 40) and YHWH’s Name: “He [Solomon/the Messiah] shall build a house for my name, and I will establish the throne of his kingdom forever” (2 Sam 7:13, emphasis added. Also see Deut 12:5, v. 11; 1 Kgs 5:5, 8:16; 2 Chr 6:5).57 This identification is also made in Exodus by an act of poetic parallelism. When Moses is told he will see God’s kavod, YHWH explains: “I will make all my goodness pass before you and will proclaim before you my name ‘The Lord.’ And I will be gracious to whom I will be gracious, and will show mercy on whom I will show mercy” (Exod 33:19, emphasis added).

Lastly, the entity designated as the “Angel of YHWH” is himself also identical with the kavod, the Name, and the Word. This can be shown studying a number of passages in the Old Testament.58 The Angel of YHWH who appears in luminous manner on Mount Horeb, divulges and identifies himself with the divine Name in Exodus 3:2 and 3:14.59 The Angel of YHWH is spoken of as a different “thou” to YHWH’s “I,” while also being the very presence of YHWH himself. YHWH will not go with Israel, but his angel will (Exod 33:3).60 Nevertheless, the Angel of YHWH is identical with his Name and presence: “Pay careful attention to him [the Angel of YHWH] and obey his voice; do not rebel against him, for he will not pardon your transgression, for my name is in him” (Exod 23:21, emphasis added; also see 33:1).61 In Isaiah 63:9, he is called “angel of his presence.” In the book of Judges, Manoah remarks after the Angel of YHWH has announced Samson’s birth and departed in the flame of a sacrifice: “we have seen God!” (Judg 13:22). His wife does not contradict him, but merely says that it has been for their good and not for ill (vv. 23–24). We see a similar situation in the narrative of Hagar’s escape (Gen 16:7–13). As shall be observed later, some texts in the Old Testament also suggest that the Angel of the YHWH functions as a heavenly priest and king, who parallel Israel’s earthly kings and priests. Later, we will see from the data of the New Testament that this figure is to be properly identified with the preincarnate Christ.62

      Having entered into the presence of the glory of the Lord, the elders return again to the camp, while Moses is called to again ascend to the heights of Sinai in order to see the pattern of the tabernacle and receive the instructions regarding priestly worship (Exod 25–31). Meanwhile, the Israelites come to doubt Moses’s mediatorship and turn to Aaron for help. Aaron’s solution is to cast a golden calf and announce to the camp: “These are your gods [or possibly ‘your God’], O Israel, who brought you up out of the land of Egypt!” (32:4).

There is some debate among scholars regarding the function of the calf. First it should be observed that this event parallels an incident of the erection of two calf statues in 1 Kings 12:28 by Jeroboam the northern Israelite king. These calves are also credited with having led Israel out of Egypt and are viewed as an alternative to the temple in Jerusalem. As Cornelis Houtman points out, in the ancient Levant a rather significant number of deities were represented as a bull, including Baal and the Canaanite sky god El.63 This of course leads to the question of whether the image is meant to represent the deity and mediate his presence or merely to be a pedestal or throne indicating the presence of the deity. Martin Noth takes the latter position; Houtman appears to lean towards the former position.64

Either way, both agree that this incident does not represent an apostasy in the sense of abandoning YHWH for another deity.65 Beyond this cultural-religious background, the narrative context also helps us discern the function of the establishment of the calf. Moses has functioned previously throughout the narrative as the mediator, that is, as representative of the unity of God and Israel before both. He has nonetheless disappeared and therefore Israel is in need of a new mediator, a “replacement” of Moses as Rolf Rendtorff describes the situation.66 Such a mediator must represent and mediate the presence of the deity to them. Hence, after having seen the luminous hypostatized glory of the Lord, they construct a golden calf, whose luminosity will imitate the divine kavod. They choose the image of the calf because their view of YHWH is very likely similar to that of the Canaanite’s view of El.67 Jethro states earlier in the narrative: “Now I know that the Lord is greater than all gods” (Exod 18:11, emphasis added). Statements like this suggest that they thought of YHWH as simply the highest God among the gods, much like El. Such a god would, like El, need a fitting mediatorial image that would reflect its power.

Trading an image for God himself makes sense in the logic of sinful Israel. As we have seen, Israel cannot stand the real presence of YHWH even when it is concealed. God proves uncontrollable to them when he speaks his law (19–20). Similarly, God’s unilateral self-giving by his descent into the cult (which as we will

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