| Topic: |
Religions > Atheism |
| User: |
"Sean C" |
| Date: |
02 Apr 2005 09:30:08 PM |
| Object: |
Did God Have a Wife? |
The March/April issue of Archaeology magazine has an interesting
article that presents compelling arguments that the the ancient
Israelites worshipped the Canaanite goddess Asherah as the consort of
Yahweh. Somewhere along the line Yahweh developed a Narcissus complex
and she got booted in favor of the "one true God." So with Jesus'
brother, there is yet another member of the divine family that has been
disowned by Yahweh. Although God is known to have since knocked-up some
shepherd's wife, he apparently never remarried.
Unfortuantely, only the abstract is available at the site:
http://www.archaeology.org/0503/abstracts/israel.html
The Lost Goddess of Israel
Volume 58 Number 2, March/April 2005
by Sandra Scham
And [the king] set a graven image of Asherah, that he had made, in the
house of which the Lord said to David and Solomon his son, "In this
House, and in Jerusalem, which I have chosen out of all tribes of
Israel, will I put my name for ever." --II Kings 21:7
Asherah is arguably the most important goddess in the Canaanite
pantheon. The prototypical mother of gods and humans and consort of the
chief god, El, she is also the mistress of the sea and the land, and
protector of all living things. We have long known Asherah from the
immense library of thirteenth-century cuneiform tablets found in Syria
at the site of Ugarit. But there are also more than 40 references to
Asherah in the Old Testament. What could she have meant to the people
of monotheistic ancient Israel?
A bit too much, apparently, at least according to the authors of the
biblical texts, who attack her relentlessly. They praise Asa, king of
Judah (911-870 B.C.), for removing his mother Ma'acah from official
duties after "she had an abominable image made for Asherah" (I Kings
15.13, II Chronicles 15.6). They condemn the long-reigning Manas'seh of
Judah (698-642) for doing "what was evil in the sight of the Lord" in
"making an Asherah" (II Kings 21.7). And they trumpet the achievements
of Josiah (639-609), including the destruction of offerings made to
Asherah at the temple in Jerusalem, the abolition of "the Asherah from
the house of the Lord," and demolition of a shrine there in which women
"did weaving for Asherah" (II Kings 23). These passages reflect both
the worship of Asherah and efforts to stamp out her cult during in the
Iron Age. But it was only in the succeeding Persian period, after the
fall of Judah in 586 B.C. and the exile in Babylon, that Asherah
virtually disappeared.
Ultimately, the campaign to eliminate the goddess has failed. "Asherah
was buried long ago by the Establishment," declares respected biblical
scholar William H. Dever. "Now, archaeology has excavated her." Dever
is quite certain that he knows who the Asherah of ancient Israel and of
the biblical texts is--she is the wife or consort of Yahweh, the one
god of Israel. Many of his colleagues would agree.
Sandra Scham, the editor of Near Eastern Archaeology and a contributing
editor to ARCHAEOLOGY, teaches biblical archaeology at the Catholic
University of America in Washington, D.C.
Further Reading
William H. Dever, Did God Have a Wife?: Archaeology and Folk Religion
in Ancient Israel, Eerdmans Press, 2005 Susan Ackerman, Under Every
Green Tree, Scholars Press, 1992 Carol Meyers, Households and Holiness:
the Religious Culture of Isrealite Women, Fortress Press, 2005 Diana
Edelman, The Triumph of Elohim: From Yahwisms to Judaisms, Eerdmans
Press, 1996 Mark Smith, The Early History of God: Yahweh and the Other
Deities in Ancient Israel, Eerdmans Press, 2002
.
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| User: "JTEM" |
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| Title: Re: Did God Have a Wife? |
02 Apr 2005 10:07:49 PM |
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"Sean C" <redhawk@burnspammersalive.com> wrote
The March/April issue of Archaeology magazine
has an interesting article that presents compelling
arguments that the the ancient Israelites
worshipped the Canaanite goddess Asherah as the
consort of Yahweh. Somewhere along the line
Yahweh developed a Narcissus complex and she
got booted in favor of the "one true God."
Most likely with the arrival of the Nabatians, the people
who actually entered "the promised land" from the east,
just as the bible describes for the Israelites.
Their religious tradition also forbid depictions of the
god. This would have jived nicely with previously
introduced religious concepts from Egypt. Amun, for all
his depictions, was also known as the invisible one, or
unseen one.... whatever the case may be.
The Hebrews themselves were a culture born from a
meshing of these diverse cultural traditions. Ancient
Canaan was the original "melting pot," sitting at the
crossroads of three continents. We want easy answers,
and it's easy to just say "The Nabatians were the
Israelites," but that's selling ourselves short. They most
likely were the glue -- or the final major piece to be
fitted within the puzzle -- but they by no means eclipsed
the other religious/cultural contributions.
.
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