Asherah
Ever
wondered 'If the God of the bible had a wife what would she look like?'
No? Well, anyway, here she is- Asherah. Back in the Hebrew day, Yahweh
was but one of a pantheon of gods including El, Baal and his missus
here.
Then, in a moment that would define the future, some time after
the Babylonian exile, the priests decreed Yahweh the one and only deity
and Asherah got her divorce papers (A garbled reference survives in the
bible about cutting down 'sacred tree poles', Asherah meaning 'sacred
tree').
Two questions immediately arise. i)- what would the
cultures, faith and art of Europe and Asia look like now, had Yahweh and
Asherah remained an item and ii): How much would Hello magazine have
paid for an exclusive photo spread at their new kitchen?
My take--which I can't back up, of course--is that during the Babylonian captivity, the Jews encountered Zoroastrian monotheism, got insecure, and said, "Oh, yeah, we're bad, we're monotheists, too. All our gods? Uh, different names, same dude. Yeah. That's our story, and we're sticking to it."
ReplyDeleteThat makes an astonishing amount of sense, actually. I've been scratching my head as to what the significance of the Babylon exile on what was a very singular occurrence in the ancient world could have been. Been staring me in the face.
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