The golden calf of Bethel and Judah’s mimetic desire of Israel

Abstract

Based on René Girard’s mimetic theory, this article reexamines the vilification of Jeroboam’s cultus in 1 Kgs 12.25–33 as an attempt to depict Bethel and the Northern Kingdom as the monstrous double of Jerusalem and Judah. Mimetic rivalry and mutual desire often impose a grotesque mixture of the emotional residues of mimetic crisis—be they anxiety, fury, or fear—on rivals’ faces. Although the text attempts to highlight differences between Bethel and Jerusalem, mimetic theory suggests that the rivals’ mutual blame conceals their fundamental similarities. The text paints Jeroboam’s golden calf as a monstrous double of Jerusalem’s cherubim, but the monstrous depiction of the calf as a pagan idol also conceals Judah’s own insecurity and mimetic desire of Israel. As the “inferior” party, Judah imitated Israel and eventually supplanted her older sibling, and this sense of insecurity is reflected in the accusations against her rival.