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.

[ReverendJames]

I figure any movie or series put out by the Left media is inaccurate and basically, as you wrote, ‘craptacular’. The DVD set I got from the library had two or four DVD’s. I managed to gag my way through the first one and took the set back the next day. You know how you yell at the TV sometimes? I was screaming at it.

[GeronL]

I bet. I couldn’t stomach much of the ABC Special I seem to recall.

[yefragetuwrabrumuy]

It is abundantly clear that a lot of the Hebrews strayed into pagan worship, time and again, be it Ashtaroth, Moloch, Baal, whatever. During the various diaspora, a lot of them probably embraced whatever the locals worshiped. A lot of Jews today are atheist socialists, or embrace eastern Asian religions.

It was a problem in Moses’ time, and it is a problem today. But confusing it with real Judaism is just hooey.

But MSNBC should talk. They worship Obama. That won’t last.

[skeptoid]

“Bride”, not wife as I recall.

[lastchance]

Do we not have a “warning idiot ahead” banner available?

[Venturer]

I agree, but so far at least, they claim it was a female.

[GeronL]

OK.... Ishtar was a sex cult that bore no resemblance to Christianity.

If they were claiming God had a wife in a way that bore a resembance to Christian or Jewish beliefs then there might be a real debate at least.

Sacred prostitution?? really??

[Cvengr]

God Incarnate is known to us as the Son of God and the Son of Man, Jesus Christ. He is not an adulterer. He remains faithful, though we might not.

His bride is chosen by the Father and is known as the Church. Christ and the Bride are one body, the body of Christ.

He only has one bride, although the first selected, prior to His First death, is associated as an adultress.

[TheOldLady]

How many gods does this scholar think that there are?

I was just thinking about you earlier today. I’m glad that you pinged me ‘cuz it’s nice to see you.

[GreenLanternCorps]

Aside from Cleopatra, there are the Roman (commonly called Byzantine) Empresses Zoe and Theodora.

Zewditu was reigning Empress of Ethiopia in the early 20th century.

Those areas are not in the Middle East proper, but are close.

Several Mid east sultanates were vassals of the British in the 19th and 20th centuries so you could count Victoria and Elizabeth II.

That’s about all I can come up with.

[yefragetuwrabrumuy]

Well, in truth, the ancient Hebrews were a bawdy bunch. In a way, the excesses of paganism, be it fertility rights with orgies, human sacrifice, and other abominations drove the Hebrews into a state of greater morality, in rejection of these things.

But they were always right next door to them. Roman times must have been very hard, because some Jews leaned towards Roman ways, and others embraced asceticism, often isolated in rural enclaves. Jesus entry into this would be uncomfortable, because most Jews were in one extreme or the other, lost in Romanism or Hebraic law minutiae.

[StonyBurk]

Had a wife as in that passage that suggests god divorced her.

[Olympiad Fisherman]

Very well said.

In Hosea, the people of Israel are compared to Gomer the whore because the nation worshipped the false nature god Baal as god. The metaphor actually goes the other way. God was married to Israel through the Mosaic Covenant, but they went ahworing away after Baal instead.
See this particular article to bring up this whole debate up to date - http://www.theignorantfishermen.com/2010/12/baalisms-suicidal-nature-worship-and.html. Baalism was an early version of environmentalism. By the way, before the time of Hosea, Jezebel’s fascist-Baalist green police chased the prophet Elijah out of the country for a time - http://www.rmarkmusser.com/enviro.asp.

[Empireoftheatom48]

Bride=Wife

[newguy357]

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]

Oh, well if WIKI says it, then that definitely takes precedence over Jewish beliefs of the last four millennia. What madness.

Widespread polytheism in and around Israel during the period of the monarchy!? Oh, how shocking! It disproves that the Jews were monotheistic!

What idiocy. The Bible itself talks about this polytheism. How is this new? Hint: it's what pissed God off. We know the people were polytheistic--they were punished for it. We also know they weren't supposed to be polytheistic.

There's a pretty important different between how people live and how their belief system tells them to live...sadly. That doesn't change anything about the nature of the belief system, however.

[mamelukesabre]

What exactly are you disagreeing with(from wiki)? I don’t understand your rant.

[TheDingoAteMyBaby]

Salome Alexandra was an Israelite regnant queen.

[DaveTesla]

I don't understand how people could be so foolish.

Semiramis, Nimrods wife was also known as the pagan goddess Asherah.
Her evil Mother child occult consisted of her and her child Tammuz.
Together they start the first recorded occult that worshiped evil.

Together they represented Satan's alternative to God's way.
This is why God destroyed Babylon after their assault
against God.
The only way Semiramis could be God's wife is if your gods
were Baal and Moloch or plainly, Lucifer.

[Soothesayer]

Then why is he being so merciful towards the vermin at MSNBC? I haven’t heard of any talking heads being eaten by dogs lately. Although it might be that their repulsive taste is too much for the dogs...

ok I answered my own question again...

[Old Student]

One of the Jewish archaeologists, one of the Mazar’s, IIRC, has written about “Yahweh's Asherah” inscriptions on some of the antiquities found in Israel. Took the class where we read the book possibly 4 or 5 years ago. I'll go look and see if I can find it, and give you a reference, so you can check it out yourself.

Here are some googled references to it, if that helps:

http://www.basarchive.org/sample/bswbPrintPage.asp?PubID=BSBA&Volume=20&Issue=3&ArticleID=1

And here is a link to a copy of one of the articles describing (and showing) the inscription.

I don't read archaic Hebrew, so can't comment on the accuracy of the translation...

And IIRC, Mazar said in his book that belief in the Asherah was also stamped out.

HTH!