He said, "I noticed what they did not notice, so I took a portion from the teaching of the messenger, and I cast it away. This is what my person inspired me to do."
Translation endnotes
[20:83-98] Aaron is criticized for being a passive bystander here. However, the Biblical version of the story puts Aaron in the rank of idolaters. See Old Testament, Exodus 32:2. [20:96] Ignoring common sense, the context of the verse, and the semantics of the Quran, traditional translations and commentaries create a bizarre story through the mistranslation of the words AThaR, and NaBaZa. To accommodate the mistranslation, they also add several nonexisting and non-implied words, such as, "Muhammed," "Gabriel," "Dust," and "into calf." For a detailed discussion of this verse, see the Sample Comparisons section in the Introduction.