This anecdote summarizes the events that are also related in surah 20:83-99 and in Exodus 32. Verse 148 mentions something that the Biblical text does not mention: the golden calf-idol had a sound (as if it was mooing). This appears to be based on a rabbinical source. If so, Muhammads adaptation of a rabbinical saying has created a serious problem for defenders of the Quran. More about that in a minute. First, consider another question, one about the timing of the repentance of the Israelites: verses 149-150 indicate that the Hebrews were repentant before the return of Moses. Over in surah 20, though, in 20:90-91 the people insist on continuing to worship the golden calf until Moses returns.
Muhammad re-worked the Biblical story in his attempt to exonerate Aaron of serious wrongdoing. Muhammad regarded Aaron as a prophet, and throughout the Quran, the prophets careers are selectively described so as to minimize their mistakes. (For instance, here in v. 150, Moses threw down the tablets. In Exodus 32:19, the result is that the tablets of the law are shattered. But the standard Islamic view is that Moses did not throw them down hard enough to break them, since 7:154 says that Moses took up the Tablets after throwing them down.) Aaron -- who is clearly portrayed in Exodus 32:24 as being guilty of capitulating to the people and of making the golden calf-idol -- is guilty only of inaction in the Quran. The individual responsible for the creation of the golden calf is some fellow named As-Samiri, according to 20:85.
Who is this As-Samiri fellow? In surah Ta-Ha (#20), he is described as the individual who led the people astray (20:85); he suggests to the people that they make a calf-idol; he takes out of the casting-fire "a calf that seemed to low" (20:88) and later, when questioned by Moses, he explains, in 20:96, "I saw what they saw not, so I took a handful (of dust) from the (hoof) print of the messenger [Jibrils (Gabriels) horse] and threw it [into the fire in which were put the ornaments of Firauns (Pharaoh) people), or into the calf]. Thus my inner-self suggested to me." And Moses responds to this by telling him to go away.
Several Christian writers (such as John Gilchrist see www.truthnet.org/islam/Qurangil4.html and the people at Answering Islam see answering-islam.org.uk/Qu...bhc01.html ) have said that there is a problem here because "As-Samiri" means "The Samaritan," and the Samaritans were not in existence as a distinct ethnic-group before the Fall of Jerusalem in 586 B.C., so there could be no Samaritans on the scene in the days of Moses. Rodwell translated the term as "The Samaritan;" some other translators treat the term like a proper name and present it as "As-Samiri." (See www.truthnet.org/islam/Quran/Rodwell/20 for Rodwells comments on the parallel-passage in surah 20.)
The lack of Samaritans in the time of Moses is only part of the problem. The Jewish writing Pirke de Rabbi Eliezer, (which reflects and repeats earlier traditions) says in part 45, "The calf came forth lowing and the Israelites beheld it. Rabbi Yehuda says that Sammael entered into it and lowed in order to deceive Israel." The name "Sammael" is a Jewish term for an arch-demon. (Sammael is featured, by the way, in the Hellboy movie.)
The proposal made by Tisdall at www.truthnet.org/islam/src-chp3.htm (and which is addressed at www.islamic-awareness.org...amari.html ), makes very good sense: Muhammad encountered Jewish accounts of the golden calf in which someone named Sammael, or something like Sammael, was said to be responsible for provoking the Israelites to make the golden calf for causing the calf-idol to moo. But Muhammad or perhaps the person who told the tale to Muhammad did not know that "Sammael" was a Jewish name for an arch-demon. Possibly Muhammad or his source replaced the enigmatic term "Sammael" with the term "The Samaritan" under the influence of Hosea 8:6s statement that "The calf of Samaria shall be broken to pieces." By the time Muhammad delivered the story of the golden calf, Sammael the archdemon was transformed into The Samaritan, whose sole purpose for being on the narration-stage is to get Aaron off the hook (As-Samiri in 20:96 replaces Aaron in Exodus 32:27): the Quran presents As-Samiri, rather than Aaron, as the person responsible for the calf-idol.
There is a downside to this otherwise formidable objection: there are no manuscripts of Pirke de Rabbi Eliezer which pre-date the career of Muhammad. So a Muslim could propose that someone who knew the Qurans description of As-Samiri mischievously inserted the statement about Sammael into the text of Pirke de Rabbi Eliezer. (For a discussion of Pirke de Rabbi Eliezer, see the essay by Dr. Lewis Barth at www.usc.edu/dept/huc-la/p...endas.html .) I think it's exponentially more likely that the saying that Sammael causing the golden calf to moo was disseminated in Arabia long before the text of Pirke de Rabbi Eliezer was finalized, but that is of course difficult to prove. So although the ring of truth reverberates in the theory that the Qurans As-Samiri character is the result of a misunderstanding of a rabbinical saying about the archdemon Sammael, it is not empirically demonstrable.
One may observe that in this passage, the plausibility of the Quranic account ends where its resemblance to the Biblical narrative ends, and the Quranic accounts fabulistic elements -- the calf-idols moo, the presence of a Samaritan in the lifetime of Moses, and the Samaritans possession of a handful of dust from the hoofprint of Gabriels horse -- begin at the same point.
Yours in Christ,
Waterrock
Muhammad re-worked the Biblical story in his attempt to exonerate Aaron of serious wrongdoing. Muhammad regarded Aaron as a prophet, and throughout the Quran, the prophets careers are selectively described so as to minimize their mistakes. (For instance, here in v. 150, Moses threw down the tablets. In Exodus 32:19, the result is that the tablets of the law are shattered. But the standard Islamic view is that Moses did not throw them down hard enough to break them, since 7:154 says that Moses took up the Tablets after throwing them down.) Aaron -- who is clearly portrayed in Exodus 32:24 as being guilty of capitulating to the people and of making the golden calf-idol -- is guilty only of inaction in the Quran. The individual responsible for the creation of the golden calf is some fellow named As-Samiri, according to 20:85.
Who is this As-Samiri fellow? In surah Ta-Ha (#20), he is described as the individual who led the people astray (20:85); he suggests to the people that they make a calf-idol; he takes out of the casting-fire "a calf that seemed to low" (20:88) and later, when questioned by Moses, he explains, in 20:96, "I saw what they saw not, so I took a handful (of dust) from the (hoof) print of the messenger [Jibrils (Gabriels) horse] and threw it [into the fire in which were put the ornaments of Firauns (Pharaoh) people), or into the calf]. Thus my inner-self suggested to me." And Moses responds to this by telling him to go away.
Several Christian writers (such as John Gilchrist see www.truthnet.org/islam/Qurangil4.html and the people at Answering Islam see answering-islam.org.uk/Qu...bhc01.html ) have said that there is a problem here because "As-Samiri" means "The Samaritan," and the Samaritans were not in existence as a distinct ethnic-group before the Fall of Jerusalem in 586 B.C., so there could be no Samaritans on the scene in the days of Moses. Rodwell translated the term as "The Samaritan;" some other translators treat the term like a proper name and present it as "As-Samiri." (See www.truthnet.org/islam/Quran/Rodwell/20 for Rodwells comments on the parallel-passage in surah 20.)
The lack of Samaritans in the time of Moses is only part of the problem. The Jewish writing Pirke de Rabbi Eliezer, (which reflects and repeats earlier traditions) says in part 45, "The calf came forth lowing and the Israelites beheld it. Rabbi Yehuda says that Sammael entered into it and lowed in order to deceive Israel." The name "Sammael" is a Jewish term for an arch-demon. (Sammael is featured, by the way, in the Hellboy movie.)
The proposal made by Tisdall at www.truthnet.org/islam/src-chp3.htm (and which is addressed at www.islamic-awareness.org...amari.html ), makes very good sense: Muhammad encountered Jewish accounts of the golden calf in which someone named Sammael, or something like Sammael, was said to be responsible for provoking the Israelites to make the golden calf for causing the calf-idol to moo. But Muhammad or perhaps the person who told the tale to Muhammad did not know that "Sammael" was a Jewish name for an arch-demon. Possibly Muhammad or his source replaced the enigmatic term "Sammael" with the term "The Samaritan" under the influence of Hosea 8:6s statement that "The calf of Samaria shall be broken to pieces." By the time Muhammad delivered the story of the golden calf, Sammael the archdemon was transformed into The Samaritan, whose sole purpose for being on the narration-stage is to get Aaron off the hook (As-Samiri in 20:96 replaces Aaron in Exodus 32:27): the Quran presents As-Samiri, rather than Aaron, as the person responsible for the calf-idol.
There is a downside to this otherwise formidable objection: there are no manuscripts of Pirke de Rabbi Eliezer which pre-date the career of Muhammad. So a Muslim could propose that someone who knew the Qurans description of As-Samiri mischievously inserted the statement about Sammael into the text of Pirke de Rabbi Eliezer. (For a discussion of Pirke de Rabbi Eliezer, see the essay by Dr. Lewis Barth at www.usc.edu/dept/huc-la/p...endas.html .) I think it's exponentially more likely that the saying that Sammael causing the golden calf to moo was disseminated in Arabia long before the text of Pirke de Rabbi Eliezer was finalized, but that is of course difficult to prove. So although the ring of truth reverberates in the theory that the Qurans As-Samiri character is the result of a misunderstanding of a rabbinical saying about the archdemon Sammael, it is not empirically demonstrable.
One may observe that in this passage, the plausibility of the Quranic account ends where its resemblance to the Biblical narrative ends, and the Quranic accounts fabulistic elements -- the calf-idols moo, the presence of a Samaritan in the lifetime of Moses, and the Samaritans possession of a handful of dust from the hoofprint of Gabriels horse -- begin at the same point.
Yours in Christ,
Waterrock
