Did God have a wife? Scholar says that he did

MSNBC ^ | Viegas | Jennifer

[caldera599]

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.

[caldera599]

I can smell the rotten bologna from here in the states. What are they teaching over there at Oxford?

[Tennessee Nana]

Mormons say he did...several...

Plus they say their jesus did too..also several...

[A_perfect_lady]

I doubt anyone in the Middle East ever worshipped a woman. They hate women. And though it’s convenient to ignore, the Bible came from the same general area as the Koran.

[GeronL]

Why am I not surprised that MSNBC would pick this crap up?

[Jedidah]

Blasphemy.

Shameful to even post this trash.

[mamelukesabre]

this from wiki:

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 BCE, 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]

[mamelukesabre]

wrong. See post 6

[GeronL]

"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,"

Allah is not the same God we worship

[GraceG]

God “Had” a wife, but after all that nagging about this and that (This was why God was so upset during the Old Testament), that he erased her completely out of existence after he won Jesus in the custody battle, which made God happy enough that after 30 some odd years after sending his son to Earth he decided to forgive all those pesky sins that had been around during his marriage.

/sarcastic tag here

[Cicero]

Asherah was the Canaanite Mother Goddess, probably the same as Astarte and maybe Ishtar.

She was hardly "God's wife." There were times when some of the Jews turned to worshipping idols and pagan gods. In fact, that was the principle reason for the Babylonian Exile.

So, sure, no doubt some Jews turned away from the true God, and maybe some of them even said that Asharah was God's wife.

They were wrong. That had nothing to do with the true Jewish religion. To pretend otherwise is just another effort to undermine traditional religion, both Jewish and Christian, and to undermine the Bible.

[DungeonMaster]

Wiccans say He does.

[bigheadfred]

I doubt anyone in the Middle East ever worshipped a woman

That's just the islamomaniacs.

Read about Ninkasi...the goddess of beer...and rejoice...

[SunkenCiv]

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[oh8eleven]

Did God have a wife?
Don't forget, behind every successful man is a ...
LOL!

[Happy Rain]

God always manifests Himself to Man's understanding—Man's understanding advances with time as God wills.
So as to prevent confusion with the faithful as time goes by “the word” is the root we cling to even though the Devil is often the King of Cool and “why not?”

[ReverendJames]

Only if he was a Mormon god.

[Valpal1]

Yep, the Israelites occasionally succumbed to paganism, one of them was Asherah. It ticked God off and he was quite harsh with them over it.

Jezebel was eaten by dogs as a result of her commitment to Asherah worship.

[mamelukesabre]

The article is making a very basic error is logic. God was worshiped in ancient palestine. Asherah was worshipped in ancient palestine. God is male, asherah is female. The people that worshiped god are the same people that worshiped ashera(in some cases)

However, you cannot jump from this to the conclusion that god and asherah were a married couple.

ridiculous!

However, note that this error in logic is NOT proof that god does not have a wife. To jump to that conclusion would also be an error in logic as well. From the evidence provided in this article, god may or may not have a wife, and asherah may or may not be god’s wife.

[pallis]

There was the little matter of Israel worshiping foreign Gods, a failure of Salomon as he became corrupted by foreign wives and wealth. That should explain the Asherah tower.

[patlin]

Blasphemy, pure blasphemy!