John Chrysostom : And Moses broke their tablet, having written for them, as it were, certain words; just as a schoolmaster would do, who having taken up the writing tablet, and found it badly written, throws away the tablet itself, desiring to show great anger; and if he have broken it, the father is not angry. For he indeed was busy writing, but they not attending to him, but turning themselves other ways, were committing disorder. And as in school, they strike each other, so also, on that occasion, he bade them strike and slay each other. — HOMILIES ON Colossians 4 Augustine of Hippo : Moses, angry, seems to have thrown to the ground and smashed the tablets of the covenant written by the finger of God. In spite of everything, the renewal of the covenant is represented with great mystery, because the Old Testament was to be abolished and the New established. It should be noted, however, how much he tried to intercede for the people before God who was so severe in punishing them. I have already stated elsewhere, in the work against the Manichaean Faustus, what I think it means that Moses reduced the molten calf to dust, throwing it into the fire and scattering the dust in the water (Cf Exodus 32,20), which he then gave to drink. village. 145 (Exodus 32.24). And they gave it to me, and I put it on the fire and this calf came out. Aaron makes a very brief summary, and does not say what he had done to get the molten calf out. Or has he lied, apologizing for fear, as if he had thrown the gold to perish in the fire and without it pretending it came out the shape of a calf? It is not credible that he said this inside, precisely because Moses could not hide what was inside the man with whom God spoke, and Moses does not accuse his brother of being a liar. 146 (Exodus 32.25). And Moses saw that the people were unrestrained, because Aaron had unbridled them to make their adversaries happy. It is necessary to notice how all the evil that the people did is attributed to Aaron, who agreed with them to do what they had impiously asked. The Scripture says rather that Aaron rampaged them, for giving in to their demands, and not that they would rampage themselves for having asked such a great evil. — QUESTIONS ON EXODUS, Q. 144 (tr. J. Litteral, draft)