History’s Vanquished Goddess: ASHERAH
Analyzing archaeological and historical aspects of pre-biblical religious traditions, this book focuses on the lost history of the Hebrew Goddess Asherah.
Following a trail of archaeological discoveries, the forgotten story of God’s wife, the Hebrew Mother Goddess Asherah, is slowly reconstructed in this extensive study with over 550 archaeological drawings and 1,183 references.
Mentioned over 40 times in the Hebrew Bible, the archaeological evidence identifies Asherah as Yahweh’s primary wife.
As the shovels of archaeology resurrect what the pens of history forgot, Asherah’s lost history unfolds in this 316 page study. $24.99 20% discount at this Amazon site - enter discount code 3BFCDQSB.
The Hebrew Goddess
The Bible reveals “that the worship of Asherah, which had been popular among the Hebrew tribes for three centuries,was introduced into the Jerusalem Temple by King Rehoboam, the son of Solomon, in or about 928 BCE. . . . of the 370 years during which the Solomonic Temple stood in Jerusalem the statue of Asherah was present in the Temple, and her worship was a part of the legitimate religion approved and led by the king, the court, and the priesthood, for no less than 236 years (almost two-thirds of the time).” - The Hebrew Goddess
Did God Have a Wife? Archaeology and Folk Religion in Ancient Israel
“. . . it is clear, as most other scholars now acknowledge, that Asherah was a full-fledged deity, and that her cult did flourish in ancient Israel alongside the cult of Yahweh, even as part of it.”
Did God Have a Wife? Archaeology and Folk Religion in Ancient Israel by William G. Dever
Gods, Goddesses and Images of God in Ancient Israel
According to Gods, Goddesses and Images of God In Ancient Israel, ancient images often depicted female goddesses with vegetation and/or water symbols.
The goddess-and-vegetation/water symbols were actually personifications of generative life forces and sustenance.
In the Syro-Palestinian area "the image of a goddess served as an amulet which was venerated as a creator of vegetation, if not of life itself.”
Only One God? Monotheism in Ancient Israel and the Veneration of the Goddess Asherah
“The view of ancient Israelite religion as monotheistic has long been traditional in Judaism, Christianity and Islam, religions that have elaborated in their own way the biblical image of a single male deity.
But recent archaeological findings of texts and images from the Iron Age kingdoms of Israel and Judah and their neighborhood offer a quite different impression.”
Only One God? Monotheism in Ancient Israel and the Veneration of the Goddess Asherah
Photo and book description from amazon.
The Religions of Ancient Israel:A Synthesis of Parallactic Approaches
Professor of Biblical Literature and Northwest Semitic Languages at American Jewish University, Ziony Zevit states that the Kuntillet Ajrud “data affirm that the link between YHWH and Asherah was part of Israelite mythology.”
-The Religions of Ancient Israel:A Synthesis of Parallactic Approaches
Asherah: Goddesses in Ugarit, Israel and the Old Testament
Although not one goddess of “Ugarit, ‘Israel’ and the Old Testament,” Asherah is the “number one goddess in the relevant cultures.” - Tilde Binger author of Asherah: Goddesses in Ugarit, Israel and the Old Testament
Yahweh's Wife: A Study of Yahweh, Asherah, Ritual Sodomy and Temple Prostitution
Yahweh's Wife: Sex in the Evolution of Monotheism : A Study of Yahweh, Asherah, Ritual Sodomy and Temple Prostitution by Dr. Arthur Ide
Referencing biblical texts, Dr. Arthur Ide describes how Asherah, the last of the goddesses to survive in Judah/Ancient Israel, was systematically eliminated by Yahwistic priests intent upon a monotheistic religion.
Asherah and the Cult of Yahweh in Israel
As archeology and ancient texts provide a more accurate history, we learn Asherah is Eve.
According to Asherah and the Cult of Yahweh in Israel author Saul M. Olyan, Eve is an “attested epithet” of Asherah’s during the first millennium BCE.*
Extrapolating further upon the Eve-Asherah identification, Olyan
suggests Asherah’s historical serpent association references a previous
myth embedded within the Adam and Eve/Garden of Eden narrative: “One
suspects that an early myth associating the serpent/sea dragon and
Asherah has been lost. Perhaps a reflex of this myth is preserved in the
Eden story in Genesis.”
*additionally, the goddesses Asherah and Eve are both analogous to the goddess Tanit/Tannit.
Olyan was writing for the Monograph Series by the Society of Biblical Literature. It was published by Scholars Press in 1988 and reviewed in the Journal of the American Oriental Society in 1990. This pedigree, along with other biblical scholars, pretty much establishes it as fact unless some contradictory data surfaces some time in the future.