What is an Asherah Pole Asherah and the Asherim: Goddess or Cult Symbol (1930) by Russian esoteric Christian Nicholas Roerich. It was closely associated with the worship of Baal: The Israelites did evil in the LORDs sight. When Asa reigned in Judah, He banished the male and female shrine prostitutes from the land and got rid of all the idols his ancestors had made. For my anger blazes like a fire that will burn forever. (NLT). http://www.transoxiana.org/0108/roberts-enheduana.html, He will bruise your head and you will bruise his heel (Genesis 3:15). Asherah Inscription: Uriyahu the prince wrote it: Blessed be Uriyahu by Yahweh and his Asherah, for from his enemies he has saved him." But the most abundant of these are her pillar figurines which were popular from the 10th through the 7th centuries BC. Root them out of the land. The bible itself denounced the Israelites several times for their polytheistic tendencies they worshipped the idols left by both Gideon and Moses (Moses brazen serpent), An article on the slow change among the Israelites going from saying, "Our god is the best god" to "Our god is the only god" would probably go well with this one, There is a footnote on the explanation of this thesis. An Asherah pole, like the ones found here, often represented trees associated with this mother goddess, but some archeologists believe they used living trees for these objects of religion. 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Required fields are marked *. Furthermore, this objection is no longer valid if one accepts that 'asherah', like Babylonian istaru might also mean a synonym or title for a goddess, in particular, the divine spouse. Meinhardt Dukstra El, the God of Israel Israel the people of YHWH: On the Origins of Ancient Israelite Yahwism in Only One God? The city of Tyre on the Mediterranean coast was home to the best cedars of Lebanon and seemed to have been an important center for the worship of Asherah. The Ras Shamra texts identify this goddess as the wife of the god El, the Creator of Creatures, and refer to her as Lady Asherah of the Sea and Progenitress of the Gods, this also making her the mother of Baal. [9] Deuteronomy 12 has Yahweh commanding the destruction of her shrines so as to maintain purity of his worship. The sacred pole of Samaria, moreover, which was erected during the reign of King Ahab (reigned 873852 B.C.E. Asherah is not Eve, nor is she the wife of God for God does not have a wife ( Jesus has a Bride ie the Church) . By way of contrast, the intellectual community in the metropolis produced a text, which was written entirely from the perspective of the upper or ruling classes. Upon entering the region, the ancient Israelites soon adopted her and gave her the Hebrew equivalent name of Asherah. ), was allowed to remain standing by the reformer King Jehu (1 Kgs 16:33; 2 Kgs 13:6), even though Jehu was generally at pains to remove all non-Yahwistic cults and cult imagery from the land. Atlanta: 1988. John W. Ritenbaugh When you visit this site, it may store or retrieve information on your browser, mostly in the form of cookies. 31 December 1999. They forgot about the LORD their God, and they served the images of Baal and the Asherah poles (Judges 3:7, NLT). One possibility is that in royal circles, especially in the southern capital city of Jerusalem, the cult of Asherah was particularly attractive to the kings mother. No dew, no rain; no welling up of the deep, no sweetness of Baals voice. See what over 150,000 subscribers are already receiving each day. rim) is thought to refer to (1) a sacred pole representing Asherah, a Canaanite goddess of fertility (Jg 6:25,26), and (2) the goddess Asherah herself. Both the Greek and Latin translations of the Bible, moreover, render the words asherah and asherim as grove or wood.. 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(Ex 34:13; De 12:3) They may have simply been uncarved poles, perhaps even trees in some instances, for Gods people were instructed: You must not plant for yourself any sort of tree as a sacred pole.De 16:21. Two Millennia, The Shalvi/Hyman Encyclopedia of Jewish Women, Copyright 19982023, Jewish Women's Archive. The relation of the literary references to an asherah and archaeological finds of Judaean pillar-figurines has engendered a literature of debate. COPYRIGHT 2023 BIBLICAL ARCHAEOLOGY SOCIETY 5614 Connecticut Ave NW #343, Washington DC 20015-2604. They set up an Asherah pole and worshiped Baal and all the forces of heaven. A number of modern Bible translations, though, have rendered the original-language word as sacred pole(s) [or post] but transliterated it when the reference is apparently to the goddess. She was occasionally called Elath (Elat), the Goddess, and may have also been called Qudshu, Holiness.. On occasion in Ugaritic myth, Asherah performs the maternal role of wet nurse. One of these Pagan Phoenicians was "Jezebel" (Izebel), who married Ahab, king of Israel (Samaritan king). (1Ki 14:22-24; 2Ki 17:10) Only seldom did kings such as Hezekiah (and Josiah) come along, who removed the high places and broke the sacred pillars to pieces and cut down the sacred pole.2Ki 18:4; 2Ch 34:7. You so want to say God (Yaweh) had a wife. The main reason Israel was exiled was because of her sins of idolatry: 2 Kings 17:16They rejected all the commands of the LORD their God and made two calves from metal. By and large, the biblical writers were unhappy that Asherah shared the same platform with their male deity, Yahweh, and repeatedly tried to dissuade their pairing. What was an Asherah pole Reassessment of Asherah: A Study According to Textual Sources of the First Ancient Origins 2013 - 2023Disclaimer- Terms of Publication - Privacy Policy & Cookies - Advertising Policy -Submissions - We Give Back - Contact us. ], the goddess Asherah) or his asherah (meaning YHWHs sacred pole that represents the goddess Asherah and that sits in his temple or beside his altar). God says that their wickedness was the same as sticking that idol (and what they were doing) right in His noseright in His face. A Hebrew word occurring frequently in the Bible (R. V.) and signifying, except in a few late passages noted below, a wooden post or pole planted near the altars of various gods. The relation of the literary references to an asherah and archaeological finds of Judaean pillar-figurines has engendered a literature of debate. In 1 Kings 14, we see that Jeroboam and his followers would be judged by the Lord because they have made their Asherim, provoking the LORD to anger. The same judgment would befall Maacah, the mother of Asa, because she had made an abominable image for Asherah. Even the angle at which she holds the torch is extraordinarily parallel much like a pole. The account of the visitation by angels at the terebinth of Mamre (cult shrine centered on a sacred tree) has its parallel in the Tale of Aquat, who like Isaac, was blessed by a divine entity. However, as the book religion solidified, Asherah became increasingly marginalized in the scriptures to the point of being reduced to her cult objectthe stylized tree or wooden pole which became known as asherah or asherim. WebAn Asherah pole is a sacred tree or pole that stood near Canaanite religious locations to honor the Ugaritic mother goddess Asherah, consort of El. What Is an Asherah Pole and Does it Have Biblical Significance? But, you see, here in the dark nobody sees me bowing down and worshipping these idols.". The inscription reads: I have blessed you by Yahweh.and his Asherah. Not only was this engraving found in the 9th-8th century BC Israelite caravanserai, Kuntillet Ajrud, the same text was found in a number of sites thought to be Yahweh sanctuaries, such as in Samaria, Jerusalem, Teman, and in the Biblical kingdom of Judah, at the ancient burial site of Khirbet el-Qom, dating to 750 BC. Combine a one-year tablet and print subscription to BAR with membership in the BAS Library to start your journey into the ancient past today! Asherah worship turned good people into sex addicts. The initial objection to the rendering 'his Asherah' that a possessive pronoun could not be attached to a proper name, is increasingly proved to be unfounded by a great deal of comparative material (Especially P. Xella, 'Le dieu et sa desse: I'utilisation des suffixes pronominaux avec des thonymes d'Ebla Ugarit et Kuntillet 'Ajrud', UF 27 (1995), pp. (2Ch 33:11-13, 15, 21-23) This made it necessary for righteous King Josiah, who succeeded Amon to the throne, to pull down the houses of the male temple prostitutes that were in the house of Jehovah, where the women were weaving tent shrines for the sacred pole.2Ki 23:4-7. The Berean: Daily Verse and Comment Sign up for the Berean: Daily Verse and Comment, and have Biblical truth delivered to your inbox.
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