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. ]. By bringing together top experts and authors, this archaeology website explores lost civilizations, examines sacred writings, tours ancient places, investigates ancient discoveries and questions mysterious happenings. [8] This role gave her a similarly high rank in the Ugaritic pantheon. inscriptions from the Sinai; the late-thirteenth-century B.C.E. Two Millennia, The Shalvi/Hyman Encyclopedia of Jewish Women, Copyright 19982023, Jewish Women's Archive. Was her worship confined to folk religion only, or was her influence felt in the book religion of the Hebrew Bible as well? Prior to this, we have abundant evidence that other gods and goddesses were worshipped in Israel in addition to (or sometimes instead of) YHWH. Norimitsu Odachi: Who Could Have Possibly Wielded This Enormous 15th Century Japanese Sword? After all, Asherahs place in the pantheon is alongside Yahwehs, the supreme deity. of Biblical Literature 105 (1986): 385408. That usage reflects a chain of associations. The Israelites also worshiped Asherah from as early as the time immediately following the death of Joshua (Judges 2:13). The Ugarit excavation of 1928 put Asherah, the goddess, on the map again, after having lost her place for thousands of years. Yet despite these and other references associating Asherah with apostasy (for example, Exod 34:13; Deut 7:5; 12:3; Judg 3:7; 1 Kgs 18:19), and despite the fact that the Israelites are explicitly forbidden in Deut 16:21 to erect one of Asherahs sacred poles beside an altar of YHWH, there are multiple indications in biblical tradition that many in ancient Israel did regard Asherahs cult icon as an appropriate sacred symbol within the religion of YHWH. Asherah poles do not make an appearance. WebSummary: An Asherah pole is a sacred tree or pole that stood near Canaanite religious locations to honor the Ugaritic mother goddess Asherah, consort of El. But Israel disobeyed God and worshipped idols anyway, even bringing Asherah worship into the Temple in Jerusalem. 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. As much as the ruling elite tried to inhibit Asherah and Yahwehs marriage, their union appears solidified in an ancient blessing seen with some regularity at a number of excavation sites in the region. Reassessment of Asherah: A Study According to Textual Sources of the First While sorting through some 280,000 artifacts excavated from land reserved for a highway construction project running from Cambridge to the village of Huntingdon in eastern England, archaeologists affiliated with the Museum of London Archaeology discovered a miniature comb that was incredibly ancient and also made from a most unusual material. I am reading aerato lamo assuming: (a) an original r got corrupted to d (see Cross-Freedman ibid. According to The Bible, an image of Asherah stood in the Temple in Jerusalem for about two-thirds of its existence. Understandings and Misunderstandings about the Ancient Practice of Sacred Prostitution, 7,500-year-old Juniper Stump Is Believed Oldest Goddess Asherah Idol, Tracing The Footprints Of The Philistines To Minoan Knossos On Crete, The Resurrection of Asherah, Mother-Goddess of Humankind, Unravelling the Roots of Hera, the Wrathful Goddess of Marriage. ), 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. A small votive statue of the Mother Goddess of Asherah. Would the Israelites have known of this worship before entering the Canaanite areas? No where in the Bible does it say God had a wife.. Do not take what great people have written in books and say it is right. Both of these phrases are stereotypically used by the biblical writers to describe sites of idolatrous worship, implying, as does Judges 6, that the worship of Asherah was an apostate behavior in Israel and improper for followers of YHWH. Thus Asherahs children at Ugarit can be called her pride of lions; the goddess is called lady of the serpent in second-millennium B.C.E. It was essentially a phallic symbol. Predominantly, the pillar figurines were found in private homes, suggesting their domesticity. In the final revision of the history of the first temple period, Asherah is only a foreign deity that needed to be banned, though the Samaritans and Edomites still worshiped her after the Jews returned from captivity in Babylonia. When Abraham first entered the cave, he saw a light, then dust scattered, revealing two graves. The Talmudic explanation of Binah is understanding one thing from something dissimilar. It is related to the word Bein meaning between. Thus, Binah implies distance and separation. Language that speaks of God as mother, for example (as in Deut 32:18; Num 11:1213; Isa 45:910, 49:15; 66:13), probably represents the assimilation of Asherahs maternal characteristics to YHWH. Why Do We Need to Be Crucified with Christ? ). Article Images Copyright . WebAsherah the Name of a Syrian Goddess. She was removed as queen mother and Asa cut down the Asherah and burned it in the river. They would mockingly show the inadequacy of worshipping sticks of wood (that you have to craft) that you created while rejecting the living God. Totem Poles, Christmas Trees and Obelisks Part If Jezebel had the goddess Asherah Astarteas the one she worshiped.. One should know it was nothing to do with The Lord God most High Jehovah. What Is an Asherah Pole It surprises me to see so many people deny this information with fervor. In the Scriptures, the Hebrew word for Asherah is used both for the goddess herself and for the poles erected in her honor. (b) a construction similar, to the admittedly much later, Song of Songs 1:6 karmi elli. How do we know? what does an asherah pole look like Thegoal of Ancient Origins is to highlight recent archaeological discoveries, peer-reviewed academic research and evidence, as well as offering alternative viewpoints and explanations of science, archaeology, mythology, religion and history around the globe. The 4.What Is an Asherah Pole and Does it Have Biblical Significance? The word itself is pronounced Ash-Ruh. Ash, like the stuff you have in the bottom of your fireplace, and ruh like the first part of Scooby-Doos ruh-roh. But what is it and what is the significance of it? If you mean pieces of wood set up beside pagan altars on high hills, then that seems to have been pretty rooted out. He cut down her obscene pole and burned it in the Kidron Valley (1 Kings 15:1213, NLT; see also 2 Chronicles 15:16). "Who Is Asherah in the Bible?" 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. AtAncient Origins, we believe that one of the most important fields of knowledge we can pursue as human beings is our beginnings. May they all topple at the feet of Christ. Unfortunately, we do not know what place these held within the worship of Asherah, nor do we have any lasting depiction of these idols. Asherah inscription from Khirbet el-Qom, about twenty-five miles southwest of Jerusalem, contains similar language in 1 Kgs 15:13 and 2 Kgs 18:4, 21:7, and 23:6 (with parallels in 2 Chronicles) indicate that at least during certain points in the ninth, eighth, and seventh centuries B.C.E., Asherahs sacred pole was perceived as an appropriate icon to erect in Jerusalem, even in YHWHs temple. Help us elevate the voices of Jewish women. The Moora Mystery: What Happened When a Girl Stepped into the Moor 2,500 Years Ago? Plaque depicting Asherah. [9] Deuteronomy 12 has Yahweh commanding the destruction of her shrines so as to maintain purity of his worship. Would you like us to send you a FREE new word definition delivered to your inbox daily? WebAsherah poles were a representation of a Asherah, a Canaanite fertility goddess and consort of the gods. When northern Israel was dispersed into the nations by the Assyrians in 722 BCE, they carried this "tree" custom with them. If a correspondence holds, then the trees of life and of knowledge in the Eden narrative may also reflect Asherah imagery. The discussion of these texts revealed that scholars differ about the interpretation (of the Kuntillet el-'Ajrud inscriptions), reading either 'Asherata' or 'his Asherah' and also about the question whether only the sacred pole is implied. geographic south pole. First Person: Did the Kingdoms of Saul, David and Solomon Actually Exist? And the prophets began to exalt the fullness of the Lord and they would do so at the idols expense. Wiggins, Steve A. Mary Fairchild is a full-time Christian minister, writer, and editor of two Christian anthologies, including "Stories of Calvary.". However, we need to understand that they were committing their idolatry in private. What did the Nazis begin using gas chambers instead of mobile killing units and shooting squads after a while. Though we have only 3 archaeological references that are indicative of a priestly blessing in the name of Yahweh and His Asherah, the prevalence of this goddess in ancient Israel was downplayed by the author of Deuteronomy, which recieved its final composition in the second temple period after the Jews eradicated all traces of this goddess. For you are a holy people, who belong to the LORD your God. The Sacred Poles. From the Israel Museum via Wikimedia Commons. Asherah, ancient West Semitic goddess, consort of the supreme god. Nefer Say Nefer - Was Nefertiti Buried in the Valley of the Queens? Her principal epithet was probably She Who Walks on the Sea.. Indeed, unearthing a goddess who has been buried for close to two millennia has its distinct disadvantages. Iron Age Comb Made from Human Skull Discovered Near Cambridge, Caesars Savage Human Skewers Unearthed In German Fort, The Evidence is Cut in Stone: A Compelling Argument for Lost High Technology in Ancient Egypt. What causes infertility and how the IVF works? Asherah Their father was El, and it is from this deity that the name Elohim is derived, meaning God or gods (70 gods or offspring of El). Nearly all instances of Asherah in the Bible refer to a sacred pole constructed by human hands and erected in honor of the fertility goddess. Correction: According to Ephraim Stern in Pagan Yahwehism; The Folk Religion of Ancient Israel in the May/June 2001 issue of BAR (p.28), it was the Jews in Judea (former Judahites) and the Samaritans (former mixed population settled in Samaria by the Assyrians) who discontinued the use of the clay goddess figurines, while it was the Idumaens (former Edomites) who also dwelt in the province of Judah and Galileans (populated by mostly Phoenicians) that continued the worship of the goddess during the period of the post-Exilic Persian Empire. Sacrifice the bull as a burnt offering on the altar, using as fuel the wood of the Asherah pole you cut down. (NLT). Day, John. Scant referrals in the Bible alert to the presence of a vilified female deity destined to be banished into oblivion. 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? It has been suggested that the poles represented the female principle, whereas the pillars represented the male principle. Asherah Its our plight that moved the heavensit is the LORD Himself who would come and rescue us. Canaanites associated Asherah with sacred trees, an association also found in the Israelite tradition. (Viewed on March 4, 2023) . Abraham prepares a calf for the visitors (Genesis 18:7) which happens to be the symbol of the fertility god Baal, who is noticably absent from the Tale of Aquat, perhaps off on a journey or just retired (1 Kings 18:27): For perhaps hundreds of years before Abraham migrated to what would become known as Israel, Asherah was revered as Athirat, Earth Mother and Fertility Goddess. The Bereans "received the word with all readiness, and searched the Scriptures daily to find out whether these things were so" (Acts 17:10-11). We see her worship in the form of a tree and right next to the altar. The Untersberg is a great mountain straddling the Austro-German border opposite Salzburg. It could be that Astarte was a wife of Baal, or they are just praised together. Archaeological discoveries from the late 1970s and early 1980s have further indicated that, at least in the opinion of some ancient Israelites, YHWH and Asherah were appropriately worshipped as a pair. At this point it is important to make a distinction between the book religion of the ruling classes in the metropolis and folk or popular religion as it was practiced in rural communities for which most Israelites were a part. Most believe she was the wife of the supreme god El and the mother of Baal. Under Atlanta: 1988. The cryptic blessing is in an early rendition of Deuteronomy 33.2-3, when Asherahs influence had not yet been fully subordinated. You have it right! Maybe you should read the Bible a little more for better understanding? Their children form the pantheon of the gods, who are said to number seventy; a Hittite myth similarly mentions the seventy-seven and eighty-eight children of Asherah. I can have my cake and eat it too. the cross is a representation of Jesus to Christians. Lachish ewer dedicated to Asherah is decorated with images of sacred trees. But there is more than removal of idols (more than keeping yourself from temptation) that must take place if real holiness and dedication are to be the result. The Iliad can provide new insights on the role of motherhood among the ancient Greek gods, and by extension, amongst ancient mortal Greek women themselves. King Manasseh even placed there a carved image of the sacred pole, evidently a representation of the goddess Asherah. Its possible that the divine name Yahweh Elohim that appears in connection with the Garden of Eden in Genesis 2-3 may refer to Yahweh and His Asherah.. From the site of Kuntillet Ajrud, in the eastern Sinai, come three ninth- or eighth-century B.C.E. What was an Asherah pole http://www.transoxiana.org/0108/roberts-enheduana.html, He will bruise your head and you will bruise his heel (Genesis 3:15). Tim Keller says it well: idols cannot simply be removed. But the gospel teaches something different. Micah 5:14 shows God s anger towards them, [] #3. The good kings took them out of Israelite worship, and the wicked kings either erected them or continued the worship of these idols unabated. They portray a woman clutching her exaggerated breasts as if offering them to a nursing child. This does not necessarily denote a church steeple wherein its purpose was to set the building apart from others as a place of worship and not an item to be worshiped. The Asherah pole was often mentioned in the Old Testament as one of the ways the Israelites sinned against the Lord and worshiped other gods. Asherah worship turned good people into sex addicts. Does it make any difference? Asherah, along with Astarte and Anath, was one of the three great goddesses of the Canaanite pantheon. Are the Misty Peaks of the Azores Remnants of the Legendary Atlantis? Perhaps Im opening a Pandoras Box, but this goddess never really was eradicated from Judaism because the sacred tree of Asherah was so universal in ancient times so that (almost) everyone would understand that the position of the Tree of Life in the middle of the garden (Genesis 2:9) referred to the all-pervading cultural influence where this iconic image appeared everywhere like the pithos from Kuntilet Ajrud depicting two ibexes flanking a stylized tree and on the cult stand from Tanaach on the third tier from the bottom that features two goats flanking a tree, with both examples having depictions of lions that are identified with Asherah. Tracing the history of Asherah poles is an interesting study. Scripture does tell us however that the Asherah or groves were usually set up near Baal images, and that Asherah and Baal together symbolized both male and female sexual properties. Asherah of the Sea, as she is called there, was the consort of the old god El, the head of the pantheon, and she was the creator of the gods, their mother (Did God Really Have a Wife? by Shmuel Ahituv, BAR, Sept./Oct. Judges 6:26 describes the destruction of an Asherah pole by using it to fuel the fire of a sacrificial offering to the Lord: Then build an altar to the LORD your God here on this hilltop sanctuary, laying the stones carefully. And nowhow much close can be Yahweh to Baal ? The Lord warns the people of Israel, portending the consequences of their idolatry: 1 Kings 14:15Then the LORD will shake Israel like a reed whipped about in a stream. and frequently mentions that they stood on every high hill and under every green tree (1 Kgs 14:23; 2 Kgs 17:10; 18:4; 21:3; 23:1314; 2 Chr 14:3; 17:6; 31:1; 33:3, 19; 34:3; Jer 17:2). She was occasionally called Elath (Elat), the Goddess, and may have also been called Qudshu, Holiness.. Asherah This daily newsletter provides a starting point for personal study, and gives valuable insight into the verses that make up the Word of God. Baal, the chief of the Canaanite pantheon, was the god of storm and bringer of rain. He was recognized as the sustainer of the fertility of crops, animals, and people. Probably orange. Asherah pole Asherah was known as the Mother or Creator of all the gods. One of these Pagan Phoenicians was "Jezebel" (Izebel), who married Ahab, king of Israel (Samaritan king). In Proverbs Wisdom is often referred to as Her at some point in 1st King's and 2nd Chronicles God became enraged for Judah and Israel's defiant worship of the Queen of Heaven in the form of Idolatry the 2nd Commandment from God in Exodus Chapter 20 and Deutronomy chapter 5 Thou Shall Not make unto the any Graven Image neither what is in the Air, what is in the Sea, what is on the Land He Shall Not Bow before them. But, you see, here in the dark nobody sees me bowing down and worshipping these idols.". BC., Museum of Israel. Fairchild, Mary. ( Looklex Encyclopaedia ), Top Image: Veiled Mother of the World (Deriv.) In their minds, they thought it did not make any difference; it was not hurting anyone. Hezekiah also cut down the Asherah but Manasseh, his wicked son, rebuilt the high places that Hezekiah his father had destroyed andmade an Asherah, as Ahab king of Israel had done (2 Kings 21:3). WebIts symbol was the stem of a tree deprived of its boughs, and rudely shaped into an image, and planted in the ground. Tradition has it that Abraham chased the calf until it led him to the Cave of Macpelah which he later purchased from the Hittites, and they also worshipped a storm god that they borrowed from the Hurrians, Teshub. The Queen Mother and the Cult in Ancient Israel. Journal She has an M.A. As Owen would say, Do you mortify; do you make it your daily work; be always at it whilst you live; cease not a day from this work; be killing sin or it will be killing you. We see from history that when the Israelites refused to cut down the Asherah poles it was an indicator that their hearts were not fully given over to the Lord.