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Asherah

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For the small research submarine, see Asherah (submarine).
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Asherah
Deities of the ancient Near East
Ancient Egyptian
Arabian
Eblaite
Elamite
Hurrian
Levantine
(Canaanite and Ugaritic)
Mesopotamian
Religions of the ancient Near East

Asherah (Ugaritic: 𐎀𐎘𐎗𐎚 : 'ṯrt; Hebrew: אֲשֵׁרָה), in Semitic mythology, is a Semitic mother goddess, who appears in a number of ancient sources including Akkadian writings by the name of Ashratum/Ashratu and in Hittite as Asherdu(s) or Ashertu(s) or Aserdu(s) or Asertu(s). Asherah is generally considered identical with the Ugaritic goddess Athirat (more accurately transcribed as ʼAṯirat).

The Book of Jeremiah written circa 628 BC possibly refers to Asherah when it uses the title "queen of heaven" (Hebrew: לִמְלֶכֶת הַשָּׁמַיִם) in Jer 7:18 and Jer 44:17–19, 25.[1] (For a discussion of "queen of heaven" in the Hebrew Bible, see Queen of heaven.)

In Ugarit

In the Ugaritic texts (before 1200 BC) Athirat is almost always given her full title rbt ʼaṯrt ym, rabat ʼAṯirat yammi, 'Lady Athirat of the Sea' or as more fully translated 'She who treads on the sea', (Ugaritic : 𐎗𐎁𐎚 𐎀𐎘𐎗𐎚 𐎊𐎎 )

This occurs 12 times in the Ba'al Epic alone.[2] The name understood by various translators and commentators to be from the Ugaritic root ʼaṯr 'stride' cognate with the Hebrew root ʼšr of the same meaning.

Her other main divine epithet was "qaniyatu ʾilhm" (Ugaritic : 𐎖𐎐𐎊𐎚 𐎛𐎍𐎎 : qnyt ʾlm) which may be translated as "the creatrix of the gods (Elohim)".[3]

In those texts, Athirat is the consort of the god El; there is one reference to the 70 sons of Athirat, presumably the same as the 70 sons of El. She is clearly distinguished from ʿAshtart (better known in English as Astarte or Ashtoreth in the Bible) in the Ugaritic documents although in non-Ugaritic sources from later periods the distinction between the two goddesses can be blurred; either as a result of scribal error or through possible syncretism. She is also called Elat ("Goddess", the feminine form of El; compare Allat) and Qodesh 'Holiness'. Athirat in Akkadian texts appears as Ashratum (Antu), the wife of Anu, the god of heaven. In contrast, Ashtart is believed to be linked to the Mesopotamian Goddess Ishtar who is sometimes portrayed as the daughter of Anu while in Ugaritic myth, Ashtart is one of the daughters of El, the West Semitic counterpart of Anu.

Among the Hittites this goddess appears as Asherdu(s) or Asertu(s), the consort of Elkunirsa (from the Ugaritic title, El-qan-arsha : "El the Creator of Earth") and mother of either 77 or 88 sons.

Among the Amarna letters a king of the Amorites is named Abdi-Ashirta, "Servant of Asherah".[4]

In Egypt

In Egypt, beginning in the 18th dynasty, a Semitic goddess named Qudshu ('Holiness') begins to appear prominently, equated with the native Egyptian goddess Hathor. Some think this is Athirat/Ashratu under her Ugaritic name Qodesh. This Qudshu seems not to be either ʿAshtart or ʿAnat as both those goddesses appear under their own names and with quite different iconography and appear in at least one pictorial representation along with Qudshu.

But in the Persian, Hellenistic, and Roman periods in Egypt there was a strong tendency towards syncretism of goddesses and Athirat/Ashrtum then seems to have disappeared, at least as a prominent goddess under a recognizable name.

In Israel and Judah

Figurines identified with Asherah are strikingly common in the archaeological record, indicating the popularity of her cult from the earliest times to the Babylonian exile.[5] More rarely, inscriptions linking Yahweh and Asherah have been discovered: an 8th century BCE ostracon inscribed "Berakhti etkhem l’YHVH Shomron ul’Asherato" (Hebrew: בירכתי אתכם ליהוה שומרון ולאשרתו) was discovered by Israeli archeologists at Kuntillet Ajrud (Hebrew "Horvat Teman") in the course of excavations in the Sinai desert in 1975. This translates as: "I have blessed you by YHVH of Samaria and His Asherah" (or perhaps "... by YHVH our guardian and His Asherah", if "Shomron" is to be read "shomrenu"). Another inscription, from Khirbet el-Kom near Hebron, reads: "Blessed be Uriyahu by Yahweh and by his Asherah; from his enemies he saved him!".[6] Tilde Binger notes in her study, Asherah: Goddesses in Ugarit, Israel and the Old Testament (1997, p. 141), that there is warrant for seeing an Asherah as, variously, "a wooden-aniconic-stela or column of some kind; a living tree; or a more regular statue." A rudely carved wooden statue planted on the ground of the house was Asherah's symbol, and sometimes a clay statue without legs. Her cult images— "idols"— were found also in forests, carved on living trees, or in the form of poles beside altars that were placed at the side of some roads. Asherah poles are mentioned in the books of Exodus, Deuteronomy, Judges, the Books of Kings, the second Book of Chronicles, and the books of Isaiah, Jeremiah, and Micah. The term often appears as merely אשרה, Asherah; this is translated as "groves" in the King James Version and "poles" in the New Revised Standard Version, although there is disagreement about the translation of the ancient Hebrew as "poles."

Both the archaeological evidence and the Biblical texts document tensions between groups comfortable with the worship of Yahweh alongside local deities such as Asherah and Baal and those insistent on worship of Yahweh alone during the monarchal period.[7] The Deuteronomistic source gives evidence of a strong monotheistic party during the reign of king Josiah during the late 7th century BC, but the strength and prevalence of earlier monotheistic worship of Yahweh is widely debated based on interpretations of how much of the Deuteronomistic history is accurately based on earlier sources, and how much has been re-worked by Deuteronomistic redactors to bolster their theological views.[8] The archaeological record documents widespread polytheism in and around Israel during the period of the monarchy.[9]

Divergent scholarship

A combination of iconography and inscriptions at a religious center/lodging place for travelers at Kuntillet Ajrud was discovered, in the northern Sinai desert that dates to the 8th century BC.[10] Among various other artifacts was a large storage jar that has attracted much attention. The side of the jar contains iconography showing three anthropomorphic figures and an inscription that refers to "Yahweh … and his asherah". The inscription led to some early identifications of two standing figures in the foreground as representing Yahweh and his consort Asherah, but later work identified them as Bes figures.[11] A number of scholars, including archeologist William G. Dever[12] and Judith Hadley,[13] continue to interpret the inscription in a way that it refers to Asherah as an Israelite goddess and consort of Yahweh. Dever authored the book Did God Have a Wife? that references archaeological evidence pointing to many female figurines unearthed in ancient Israel as supporting his hypothesis that Asherah functioned as a goddess and consort of Yahweh in Israelite folk religion of the monarchal period and was worshiped as the Queen of Heaven—the Hebrews baked small cakes for her festival.[14] However, while acknowledging it as "readable," professor of Biblical studies Shmuel Ahituv also faults Dever's book for being historically incomplete; moreover, Dever comes to a number of demonstrably incorrect conclusions given his lack of fluency in ancient languages or Hebrew.[15]

In contrast to interpretations of "asherah" as a goddess in the Kuntillet ‘Ajrud inscriptions, a number of other authors, including Mark S. Smith,[16] biblical scholar John Day,[17] and Andre Lemaire,[18] view the asherah in these inscriptions as a cult object, stylized tree, or location of worship through which Yahweh’s blessing was imparted rather than a goddess who could function as a consort.[19] "Neither the iconography nor the texts force us to interpret the relationship between ‘Yahweh ... and his asherah’ in Iron Age IIB in the sense of a (sexually-determined) relationship of two forces that are paired and thus compel us to assume that asherah has the status as a partner. ‘Yahweh’s asherah’ does not have equal rank with Yahweh but is rather a mediating entity that brings his blessing and is conceived in the mind in the shape of a stylized tree that was thus subordinate to Yahweh."[20]

Indeed, Day doubts any heavenly association, asserting "there is nothing in first-millennium BCE texts that singles out Asherah as 'Queen of Heaven' or associates her particularly with the heavens at all."[21]

In a BBC documentary, Dr. Francesca Stavrakopoulou, Senior Lecturer at University of Exeter declared: "The majority of biblical scholars throughout the world now accept it as compelling evidence that God once had a consort."[22] Questioned in the same documentary if the Jews were monotheistic, thus having a religion distinct from the Canaanite religion, Prof. Dr. Herbert Niehr from University of Tübingen declared: "Between the 10th century and the beginning of their exile in 586 there was polytheism as normal religion all throughout Israel; only afterwards things begin to change and very slowly they begin to change. I would say it is only correct for the last centuries, maybe only from the period of the Maccabees, that means the second century BC, so in the time of Jesus of Nazareth it is true, but for the time before it, it is not true."[23]

Biblical sources

According to the documentary hypothesis, the majority of the forty references to Asherah in the Hebrew Bible derive from the Deuteronomist, always in a hostile framework: the Deuteronomist judges the kings of Israel and Judah according to how rigorously they uphold Yahwism and suppress the worship of Asherah and other deities. King Manasseh, for example is said to have placed an Asherah pole in the Holy Temple, and was therefore one who "did evil in the sight of the LORD" (2 Kings 21:7); but king Hezekiah "removed the high places, and broke the pillars, and cut down the Asherah", (2 Kings 18.4), and was noted as the most righteous of Judah's kings before the coming of the reformer Josiah, in whose reign the Deuteronomistic history of the kings was composed. In addition to the authors of Exodus, Deuteronomy, Kings, and Judges, the prophets Isaiah (Isaiah 17:8, 27:9), Jeremiah (Jereimiah 17:2), and Micah (Micah 5:14) also condemned worship of Asherah and praised turning from this idolatry to worship Yahweh alone as the true God.

The Hebrew Bible uses the term asherah in two senses, as a cult object and as a divine name.[24] As a cult object, the asherah can be "made", "cut down", and "burnt", and Deuteronomy 16:21 prohibits the planting of trees as asherah, implying that a stylised tree or lopped trunk is intended.[25] At other verses a goddess is clearly intended, as, for example, 2 Kings 23:4–7, where items are being made "for Baal and Asherah".[26] The references to asherah in Isaiah 17:8 and 2:8 suggest that there was no distinction in ancient thought between the object and the goddess.[27]

Ashira in Arabia

A stele, now at the Louvre, discovered by Charles Huber in 1883 in the ancient oasis of Tema (modern Tayma – Arabic: تيماء) , northwestern Arabia, and believed to date to the time of Nabonidus's retirement there in 549 BC, bears an inscription in Aramaic which mentions Ṣalm of Maḥram and Shingala and Ashira as the gods of Tema.

This Ashira might be Athirat/Asherah. Since Aramaic has no way to indicate Arabic th, corresponding to the Ugaritic th (phonetically written as ṯ), if this is the same deity, it is not clear whether the name would be an Arabian reflex of the Ugaritic Athirat or a later borrowing of the Hebrew/Canaanite Asherah.

The Arabic root ʼṯr is similar in meaning to the Hebrew indicating "to tread" used as a basis to explain the name of Ashira as "Lady of the sea", specially that the Arabic root ymm also means "sea".

See also

Notes

  1. ^ [Albertz, Rainer (2010) 'Personal piety'. In Stavrakopoulou, Francesca and John Barton (eds.), Religious Diversity in Ancient Israel and Judah. London: T & T Clark (2010), 135–146 (at 143)
  2. ^ Driver, G.R., Canaanite Myths and Legends, T & T Clark, Edinburgh, 1971
  3. ^ Driver, G.R., Canaanite Myths and Legends, T & T Clark, Edinburgh, 1971
  4. ^ Noted by Raphael Patai, "The Goddess Asherah", Journal of Near Eastern Studies 24.1/2 (1965:37–52) p. 39.
  5. ^ Dever, William G. (2005), Did God Have a Wife?: Archaeology and Folk Religion in Ancient Israel, (Eerdmans ISBN 0-8028-2852-3)
  6. ^ Israel Finkelstein and Neil Asher Silberman, The Bible Unearthed: Archaeology's New Vision of Ancient Israel and the Origin of Its Sacred Texts, ISBN 0-684-86912-8
  7. ^ 1 Kings 18, Jeremiah 2; Othmar Keel, Christoph Uehlinger, Gods, Goddesses, and Images of God in Ancient Israel, Fortress Press (1998); Mark S. Smith, The Origins of Biblical Monotheism: Israel’s Polytheistic Background and the Ugaritic Texts, Oxford University Press (2001)
  8. ^ Steven L. McKenzie, "Deuteronomistic History", The Anchor Bible Dictionary Vol. 2, Doubleday (1992), pp. 160–168; Mark S. Smith, The Origins of Biblical Monotheism: Israel’s Polytheistic Background and the Ugaritic Texts, Oxford University Press (2001) pp. 151–154
  9. ^ Othmar Keel, Christoph Uehlinger, Gods, Goddesses, and Images of God in Ancient Israel, Fortress Press (1998); Mark S. Smith, The Origins of Biblical Monotheism: Israel’s Polytheistic Background and the Ugaritic Texts, Oxford University Press (2001)
  10. ^ Ze’ev Meshel, Kuntillet ‘Ajrud: An Israelite Religious Center in Northern Sinai, Expedition 20 (Summer 1978), pp. 50–55
  11. ^ John Day, Yahweh and the Gods and Goddesses of Canaan, Sheffield Academic Press (2002) pp. 50–51
  12. ^ William G. Dever, Did God Have A Wife?: Archaeology and Folk Religion in Ancient Israel, Eerdmans Publishing (2005)
  13. ^ Judith M. Hadley, The Cult of Asherah in Ancient Israel and Judah: Evidence for a Hebrew Goddess, Cambridge University Press (2000) pp. 122–136
  14. ^ William G. Dever, Did God Have a Wife?, Eerdmans (2005). ISBN 0-8028-2852-3. – see reviews of this book by Patrick D. Miller, Yairah Amit.
  15. ^ Ahituv, Shmuel. "Did God Have a Wife?" Biblical Archaeology Review, 32(5), 62–66, Sep/Oct 2006. (accessed 3/8/2011)
  16. ^ Mark S. Smith, The Early History of God, Yahweh and Other Deities in Ancient Israel, Eerdmans (2002), p. xxxii–xxxvi
  17. ^ John Day, Yahweh and the Gods and Goddesses of Canaan, Sheffield Academic Press (2002) pp. 50–52
  18. ^ André Lemaire, "Who or What Was Yahweh’s Asherah?" BAR 10(6), Nov/Dec 1984
  19. ^ Kuntillet ‘Ajrud, Mercer Bible Dictionary, Mercer University Press (1991) pp. 494–494
  20. ^ Othmar Keel, Christoph Uehlinger, Gods, Godesses, and Images of God in Ancient Israel, Fortress Press (1998) p. 237
  21. ^ John Day, Yahweh and the gods and goddesses of Canaan. Sheffield Academic Press (2002). ISBN 978-0-8264-6830-7 p.146
  22. ^ Bible's Buried Secrets, Did God have A Wife, BBC, 2011.
  23. ^ Ibidem.
  24. ^ K. van der Toorn, Bob Becking, Pieter Willem van der Horst, Dictionary of deities and demons in the Bible, p.99
  25. ^ K. van der Toorn, Bob Becking, Pieter Willem van der Horst, Dictionary of deities and demons in the Bible, p.101
  26. ^ K. van der Toorn, Bob Becking, Pieter Willem van der Horst, Dictionary of deities and demons in the Bible, p.102
  27. ^ K. van der Toorn, Bob Becking, Pieter Willem van der Horst, Dictionary of deities and demons in the Bible, p.103

Related publications

  • Tilde Binger: Asherah: Goddess in Ugarit, Israel, and the Old Testament (Sheffield Academic Press,1997) ISBN 1-85075-637-6.
  • William G. Dever: Did God Have A Wife? Archaeology And Folk Religion In Ancient Israel (Wm. B. Eerdmans Publishing Company 2005)
  • Judith M.Hadley: The Cult of Asherah in Ancient Israel and Judah (U of Cambridge 2000)
  • Jenny Kien: Reinstating the Divine Woman in Judaism (Universal 2000)
  • Asphodel P. Long: In a Chariot Drawn by Lions (Crossing Press 1993).
  • Raphael Patai: The Hebrew Goddess (Wayne State University Press 1990 and earlier editions)
  • William L. Reed: The Asherah in the Old Testament (Texas Christian University Press, 1949).
  • Joan E. Taylor: "The Asherah, the Menorah and the Sacred Tree," Journal for the Study of the Old Testament 66 (1995) 29–54.
  • Steve A. Wiggins: A Reassessment of "Asherah": A Study According to the Textual Sources of the First Two Millennia B.C.E. (Kevelaer: Verlag Butzon & Bercker; Neukirchen-Vluyn: Neukirchener Verlag, 1993). Second edition: (Piscataway, NJ: Gorgias Press, 2007) ISBN 1-59333-717-5.

External links

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