Mrs God.

[Gob]

God had a wife, Asherah, whom the Book of Kings suggests was worshipped alongside Yahweh in his temple in Israel, according to an Oxford scholar.

In 1967, Raphael Patai was the first historian to mention that the ancient Israelites worshipped both Yahweh and Asherah. The theory has gained new prominence because of the research of Francesca Stavrakopoulou, who began her work at Oxford and is now a senior lecturer in the department of Theology and Religion at the University of Exeter.

Information presented in Stavrakopoulou's books, lectures and journal papers has become the basis of a three-part documentary series, now airing in Europe, where she discusses the Yahweh-Asherah connection.

"You might know him as Yahweh, Allah or God. But on this fact, Jews, Muslims and Christians, the people of the great Abrahamic religions, are agreed: There is only one of Him," writes Stavrakopoulou in a statement released to the British media. "He is a solitary figure, a single, universal creator, not one God among many ... or so we like to believe.

"After years of research specializing in the history and religion of Israel, however, I have come to a colorful and what could seem, to some, uncomfortable conclusion that God had a wife."

Stavrakopoulou bases her theory on ancient texts, amulets and figurines unearthed primarily in the ancient Canaanite coastal city called Ugarit, now modern-day Syria. All of these artifacts reveal that Asherah was a powerful fertility goddess.

Asherah's connection to Yahweh, according to Stavrakopoulou, is spelled out in both the Bible and an 8th-century B.C. inscription on pottery found in the Sinai desert at a site called Kuntillet Ajrud.

"The inscription is a petition for a blessing," she shares. "Crucially, the inscription asks for a blessing from 'Yahweh and his Asherah.' Here was evidence that presented Yahweh and Asherah as a divine pair. And now a handful of similar inscriptions have since been found, all of which help to strengthen the case that the God of the Bible once had a wife."

Also significant, Stavrakopoulou believes, "is the Bible's admission that the goddess Asherah was worshiped in Yahweh's Temple in Jerusalem. In the Book of Kings, we're told that a statue of Asherah was housed in the temple and that female temple personnel wove ritual textiles for her."

J. Edward Wright, president of both The Arizona Center for Judaic Studies and The Albright Institute for Archaeological Research, told Discovery News that he agrees several Hebrew inscriptions mention "Yahweh and his Asherah."

"Asherah was not entirely edited out of the Bible by its male editors," he added. "Traces of her remain, and based on those traces, archaeological evidence and references to her in texts from nations bordering Israel and Judah, we can reconstruct her role in the religions of the Southern Levant."

Asherah — known across the ancient Near East by various other names, such as Astarte and Istar — was "an important deity, one who was both mighty and nurturing," Wright continued.

.."Many English translations prefer to translate 'Asherah' as 'Sacred Tree,'" Wright said. "This seems to be in part driven by a modern desire, clearly inspired by the biblical narratives, to hide Asherah behind a veil once again."

"Mentions of the goddess Asherah in the Hebrew Bible (Old Testament) are rare and have been heavily edited by the ancient authors who gathered the texts together," Aaron Brody, director of the Bade Museum and an associate professor of Bible and archaeology at the Pacific School of Religion, said.

Asherah as a tree symbol was even said to have been "chopped down and burned outside the Temple in acts of certain rulers who were trying to 'purify' the cult, and focus on the worship of a single male god, Yahweh," he added.

The ancient Israelites were polytheists, Brody told Discovery News, "with only a small minority worshiping Yahweh alone before the historic events of 586 B.C." In that year, an elite community within Judea was exiled to Babylon and the Temple in Jerusalem was destroyed. This, Brody said, led to "a more universal vision of strict monotheism: one god not only for Judah, but for all of the nations."



http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/42154769

[MajGenl.Meade]

In 1967, Raphael Patai was the first historian to mention that the ancient Israelites worshipped both Yahweh and Asherah.

What a clever chap! He must have read the Bible which clearly relates how Israelites worshipped Yahweh, Baal, Asherah and other gods.

"After years of research specializing in the history and religion of Israel, however, I have come to a colorful and what could seem, to some, uncomfortable conclusion that God had a wife."

She could have saved some time by reading the 1995 Thomas Nelson Bible Dictionary as well as the Bible where rather more than "traces" of her remain:

The goddess Asherah (1 Kin. 15:13; 2 Chr. 15:16; Asherahs, Judg. 3:7) was portrayed as the wife of El (or sometimes Baal) in Canaanite mythology. Asherah was a favorite deity of women. Some of the wives of David and Solomon worshiped her (1 Kin. 15:13), as Ahab’s wife, Jezebel, also probably did (1 Kin. 16:31–33). King Asa suppressed the worship of Asherah (1 Kin. 15:13), and King Josiah destroyed “the articles that were made for Baal, for Asherah, and for all the host of heaven” (2 Kin. 23:4). Recently discovered inscriptions at Kuntillet Ajrud and Khirbet el-Kom seem to indicate that the goddess Asherah was sometimes worshiped as if she were the wife of the Lord Himself—a pagan abomination of the worst possible sort.

The word asherah also refers to a wooden pole, or cult pillar, that stood at Canaanite places of worship—perhaps the trunk of a tree with the branches chopped off—and associated with the worship of the goddess Asherah.

Youngblood, Ronald F. ; Bruce, F. F. ; Harrison, R. K. ; Thomas Nelson Publishers: Nelson's New Illustrated Bible Dictionary. Nashville : T. Nelson, 1995

I wonder why the assumption is that Asherah was edited out when (a) she wasn't and (b) there is no evidence whatsoever of any such thing. Of course, I suppose the fact that the Bible doesn't have books about Asherah is proof that those naughty men tried their durndest to cut her out but they just overlooked all of those references (and more). Stupid men!

Meade

[Sue U]

Oh FFS, as they say. Where has this woman been the last 30 years? Someone get her a subscription to Biblical Archeology Review.

ETA:
See in particular the Mar/Apr 1979 edition with the article "Did Yahweh Have a Consort?" and the Mar 15, 2011 news item about the recent resurfacing of the Kuntillet Ajrud ostraca in Egypt. Yeah, this gal's a real original thinker.

[Andrew D]

To understand the Bible, the first thing one must do is recognize that it is a collection of stories of highly dubious authorship, selectively edited and compiled to suit the religio-ideological predilections of the editors and compilers. Once one takes that necessary first step, real scholarship can begin.

[Sue U]

To understand the Bible, the first thing one must do is recognize that it is a collection of stories of highly dubious authorship, selectively edited and compiled to suit the religio-ideological predilections of the editors and compilers. Once one takes that necessary first step, real scholarship can begin.

Everyone's got an axe to grind:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Documentary_hypothesis

[loCAtek]

Wki

Worship of Yahweh alone is a central idea of historical Judaism.[9] Much of Christianity views Jesus as the human incarnation of Yahweh.[10] The importance of the divine name and the character of the “one true God” revealed as Yahweh are often contrasted with the significantly different character of rival deities known by different names in the traditional polytheistic religions.[11] Some scholars, including William G. Dever, have asserted that the Asherah was worshipped as a consort of Yahweh, until the 6th century BCE, when strict monolatry of Yahweh became prevalent in the wake of the destruction of the temple.[12][13] However, the consort hypothesis has been subject to debate with numerous scholars publishing disagreement.[14]

^ A Shmuel, Did God Really Have a Wife, The Biblical Archaeology Review, Vol. 32 (2006) pp. 62-66;

Mark S. Smith, The Early History of God, Yahweh and Other Deities in Ancient Israel, Eerdmans (2002),p. xxxii–xxxvi;

John Day, Yahweh and the Gods and Goddesses of Canaan, Sheffield Academic Press (2002) pp. 50–52;

Who or What Was Yahweh’s Asherah? André Lemaire, BAR 10:06, Nov/Dec 1984;

Kuntillet ‘Ajrud, Mercer Bible Dictionary, Mercer University Press (1991) pp. 494-494;

Othmar Keel, Christoph Uehlinger, Gods, Godesses, and Images of God in Ancient Israel, Fortress Press (1998) p. 237;

"Yahweh and His Asherah": the Goddess or Her Symbol? J.A. Emerton, Vetus Testamentum, Volume 49, Number 3, 1999 , pp. 315-337(23)

[Sean]

The important question is being missed here:
Did God really rest on the 7th day or did she send him to Ikea?

And lo, on the 7th day the handbrake did say: "Let there be cushions and throw rugs, for thou art not going to lounge about heaven all day or play poker with the seraphim until thou hast finished that universe."
And God did bow his head and say: "Yes dear".

[Gob]

"And that lawn will not mow itself, verily it has been all summer I have awaited it's cropping. Do I have to mention the bathroom tap whose drip has been eternal?"

[BoSoxGal]

[Sean]

Actually this raises another question: How could God be omnipotent if he is married? 'Tis impossible I tells you!

[Gob]

Seconded!

[Sue U]

Actually this raises another question: How could God be omnipotent if he is married? 'Tis impossible I she tells you!

/fixed.

[Andrew D]

A wife?

God has a wife?

Oh, no; we can't have that.

That would suggest that women are somehow equal to men.

Haven't they been degraded enough?

[Timster]

Evidently not...

[Crackpot]

A wife?

God has a wife?

Oh, no; we can't have that.

That would suggest that women are somehow equal to men.

Haven't they been degraded enough?

It would also suggest that god has a penis and capable of reproduction (forward and backward) hence a whole race of gods with independant thought and motivations with conflicts and we end up back at polytheism.

[Big RR]

Didn't he have a son? I don't know the mechanics but he obviously got/made someone pregnant and produced a human offspring, one who called him "father".

[Timster]

And that would the birth of Catholicism... Hee heee...

[Big RR]

And also the phrase, "Behold the coming of the lord"

[Timster]

Stop it! You're killing me~ LMAO!