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A chipped brown ceramic jug on which is painted thin-line ibexes and a tree that looks a lot like a menorah (uh, do with that whatever you want). Over it is written, in ancient Near Eastern script, A gift. An offering to my Lady Elat.
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From the 13th C. BCE, found at Tell el-Duweir/Lachish, in what would eventually become the Kingdom of Judah but was then a Late Bronze Age Canaanite settlement. This is Life as a Sacred Text 🌱, an everybody-celebrating, justice-centered voyage into ancient stories that can illuminate our own lives. It‘s run on a nonprofit , so it’s 100% NAZI FREE. More about the project here , and to subscribe, go here : Sign up for Life is a Sacred Text. Life is a Sacred Text is about truth & transformation, with ancient stories serving as mirrors & lights. Collective liberation. Everybody-celebratory. No spam. Unsubscribe anytime. First of all: May's Zoom Salon is coming up! What We Say Tells Us Who We Are: Torah and Metaphor. Sunday June 8th, 2pm ET/1pm CT /11 am PT. We talk about sacred text as fire, as water, as the living tree. As the inverted mountain. As so many other things. Why? What does that tell us about who we are, and what we seek, how we see ourselves, about facing ultimate truth, and the difference between what we want and what we need. Join a rollicking journey through delightful, thought-provoking midrash that offer the soul nourishment we badly need today. (As always, cost should never be a barrier to Torah, info at bottom of email to get in touch if you want in but paying's not for you now.) Today we're going to talk a lot about an Ancient Near Eastern goddess whose name, in various forms, appears all over the Bible, and who also pops up in archeology– who was almost certainly a much bigger part of First Temple Israelite religion than we talk about– and who also may have an entirely different name than the one to which we are accustomed. Let's back up a bit. First of all, the Hebrew Bible contains something like 40 or more references, explicit or more veiled, to Asherah– what it calls the deity– or asherot– used to represent her worship. Things like this, from Deuteronomy 16: You shall not set up a sacred post (asherah)—any kind of pole/tree beside the altar of God your God that you may make (Deuteronomy 16:21) you shall tear down their altars, smash their pillars, cut down their sacred posts (asherot), and consign their images/idols to the fire. (Deuteronomy 7:5) Deuteronomy 7:1 tells us that the their" in this second verse is about. the Hittites, Girgashites, Amorites, Canaanites, Perizzites, Hivites, and Jebusites, seven nations much larger than you. Implying that this is a non-Israelite practice. Though, as we say, every sign has a story– this wouldn't be prohibited if there were zero Israelites doing these things. And, indeed, we find all over the Bible that the Israelites were, at various points, worshipping Asherah. Judges 2:13 tells us that they did so not long after they settled into the Promised Land, just a generation or two after the Exodus.* 2 Kings (16-23, variously) tells us that King Ahab of the northern kingdom of Israel (10th-9th c. BCE) got into Asherah worship, and the book also blames the fall of Israel to the Assyrians in 722 BCE on the Israelites' various idolatries, including use of asherim and that they "made an Asherah. " Meanwhile, in the southern kingdom of Judea, 2 Kings says that King Hezkiah (8th-7th c. BCE) cut down the asherot in Judea, that his son Manasseh reinstituted them, and, of course, we know that Manasseh's grandson Josiah smashed them when he ascended the throne. *As we've discussed, there isn't exactly scholarly consensus that the Exodus was a historical event, rather than a sacred myth. (Sorry.) Scholars have a range of opinions about the Book of Judges, from those whose read on the archeology is that the book may be from the era it describes to those who argue that it's from much later, more an insertion of mythic history akin to things that might get written today about the founding of the U.S., l'havdil. If you wanted to go with when Judges is said to take place, it's roughly 3000 years ago, give or take. At minimum, we've got a lot of Israelites and Judeans– including some kings! – engaging in these practices and worship, despite Hezekiah and, later, Josiah's, reforms. King Josiah, if you will recall, is likely very responsible for shaping Deuteronomy's narrative. We'll come back to that in a second. I've recently found some very compelling papers arguing that, in fact, her name wasn't originally Asherah, as she (and altars to her) are called in the Bible. Rather, across the region, including originally to those of Israel/Judea, she was likely known as Asherata. If this is true, it's probably the evolution of Iron Age Hebrew that caused her name to be edited to the more concise version with which many of us are more familiar. (Like how English evolved so Æthelthryth is now Audrey, Eadgyth is now Edith, etc– though this was about changes to feminine suffixes.) If this linguistic nerdiness is true, it impacts some translations, below. (When quoting from the Bible, I use the name-word used there). In Ugaritic,* Canaanite,* and other Ancient Near Eastern mythological texts and material culture, Asherata was regarded with high esteem, called “the begettor of the gods," the mother figure, and partner of the Creator, El. She's often depicted and described in connection with lions (symbolizing power), serpents (immortality, healing), and trees (fertility, probably). She is sometimes called Elat – the feminine of El , God– or Kadosh , holy. *In what's now Northern Syria. **In what's now Israel/Palestine, more or less, as we've discussed, it's likely that the first Israelites emerged out of Canaanite culture, setting up shop somewhere new and developing an indedpendant socio-religious identity. Which is. not irrelevant to the conversation today. This 1.75-foot-tall four-tiered terracotta stand, which may have been used to burn incense, was discovered at the city of Taanach, near Megiddo -- in the northern kingdom of Israel, in the 10th c. BCE. On the lowest register, a femme figure grasps two lions, while two registers above, ibexes feed from a tree of life. This imagery is all associated with the goddess Asherata, the consort of the Canaanite god El and perhaps also of the Israelite deity (who some believe is depicted in the uppermost register as a solar disk on the back of a calf). Excavations at Kuntillet Ajrud, in the northern Sinai desert, dating to the late ninth century or early eighth century B.C.E. revealed various Israelite blessing and religious texts , including a clay storage container on which it is inscribed– using the holiest name for the divine, the Tetragrammaton, for God, above two gendered images, next to a third that appears to be playing the lyre. On the same container, there's an image of a stylized tree with ibexes and a lion, very similar to the Taanach piece, above. (Images of the Kuntillet Ajrud clay storage container below.) At the same site, they also found another container containing several inscriptions to. “[God's Name] and Asherata†is written across the top of this eighth-century B.C.E. drawing on a ceramic pithos, or storage jar, from Kuntillet ‘Ajrud in the eastern Sinai. Bottom image– you can see the shard and what the drawing looks like when rendered more starkly, including the two figures--one with a visible phallus, and one with breasts outlined--plus a third off to the side playing the lyre or somesuch. Archaeologist Uzi Avner writes, "Once the restoration of the right figure is removed, a male and a female pair clearly appears. In my opinion, the evidence . seems to support the interpretation of these figures as Yahweh and the goddess Asherah, wearing a bull and a cow masks." On top, on the other side of the pithos, we see ibexes and a tree over a lion, akin to the image on the Taanach stand, above. You may recall that we hear a lot about the tree and Asherata in the Bible, too. Image where the writing above the figures is clearer, here . get more nourishment for your heart soul and noggin! support making independent Torah accessible to tens of thousands! Level up your Life is a Sacred Text subscription now ! Slightly later– somewhere between 750-700 BCE– is another archeological find found in First Temple Judea proper, likely either just before or during Hezekiah's reign, also honoring God's Name "and Asherata ." A photo of this more "modern" find is below. Note that, as with the pottery shards above, we don't have the full inscription. But people's best guess on what they can read is: Uryahu, the prosperous, his inscription [or: an inscription].
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A chipped brown ceramic jug on which is painted thin-line ibexes and a tree that looks a lot like a menorah (uh, do with that whatever you want). Over it is written, in ancient Near Eastern script, A gift. An offering to my Lady Elat.
ENTER TO THE SITE
From the 13th C. BCE, found at Tell el-Duweir/Lachish, in what would eventually become the Kingdom of Judah but was then a Late Bronze Age Canaanite settlement. This is Life as a Sacred Text 🌱, an everybody-celebrating, justice-centered voyage into ancient stories that can illuminate our own lives. It‘s run on a nonprofit , so it’s 100% NAZI FREE. More about the project here , and to subscribe, go here : Sign up for Life is a Sacred Text. Life is a Sacred Text is about truth & transformation, with ancient stories serving as mirrors & lights. Collective liberation. Everybody-celebratory. No spam. Unsubscribe anytime. First of all: May's Zoom Salon is coming up! What We Say Tells Us Who We Are: Torah and Metaphor. Sunday June 8th, 2pm ET/1pm CT /11 am PT. We talk about sacred text as fire, as water, as the living tree. As the inverted mountain. As so many other things. Why? What does that tell us about who we are, and what we seek, how we see ourselves, about facing ultimate truth, and the difference between what we want and what we need. Join a rollicking journey through delightful, thought-provoking midrash that offer the soul nourishment we badly need today. (As always, cost should never be a barrier to Torah, info at bottom of email to get in touch if you want in but paying's not for you now.) Today we're going to talk a lot about an Ancient Near Eastern goddess whose name, in various forms, appears all over the Bible, and who also pops up in archeology– who was almost certainly a much bigger part of First Temple Israelite religion than we talk about– and who also may have an entirely different name than the one to which we are accustomed. Let's back up a bit. First of all, the Hebrew Bible contains something like 40 or more references, explicit or more veiled, to Asherah– what it calls the deity– or asherot– used to represent her worship. Things like this, from Deuteronomy 16: You shall not set up a sacred post (asherah)—any kind of pole/tree beside the altar of God your God that you may make (Deuteronomy 16:21) you shall tear down their altars, smash their pillars, cut down their sacred posts (asherot), and consign their images/idols to the fire. (Deuteronomy 7:5) Deuteronomy 7:1 tells us that the their" in this second verse is about. the Hittites, Girgashites, Amorites, Canaanites, Perizzites, Hivites, and Jebusites, seven nations much larger than you. Implying that this is a non-Israelite practice. Though, as we say, every sign has a story– this wouldn't be prohibited if there were zero Israelites doing these things. And, indeed, we find all over the Bible that the Israelites were, at various points, worshipping Asherah. Judges 2:13 tells us that they did so not long after they settled into the Promised Land, just a generation or two after the Exodus.* 2 Kings (16-23, variously) tells us that King Ahab of the northern kingdom of Israel (10th-9th c. BCE) got into Asherah worship, and the book also blames the fall of Israel to the Assyrians in 722 BCE on the Israelites' various idolatries, including use of asherim and that they "made an Asherah. " Meanwhile, in the southern kingdom of Judea, 2 Kings says that King Hezkiah (8th-7th c. BCE) cut down the asherot in Judea, that his son Manasseh reinstituted them, and, of course, we know that Manasseh's grandson Josiah smashed them when he ascended the throne. *As we've discussed, there isn't exactly scholarly consensus that the Exodus was a historical event, rather than a sacred myth. (Sorry.) Scholars have a range of opinions about the Book of Judges, from those whose read on the archeology is that the book may be from the era it describes to those who argue that it's from much later, more an insertion of mythic history akin to things that might get written today about the founding of the U.S., l'havdil. If you wanted to go with when Judges is said to take place, it's roughly 3000 years ago, give or take. At minimum, we've got a lot of Israelites and Judeans– including some kings! – engaging in these practices and worship, despite Hezekiah and, later, Josiah's, reforms. King Josiah, if you will recall, is likely very responsible for shaping Deuteronomy's narrative. We'll come back to that in a second. I've recently found some very compelling papers arguing that, in fact, her name wasn't originally Asherah, as she (and altars to her) are called in the Bible. Rather, across the region, including originally to those of Israel/Judea, she was likely known as Asherata. If this is true, it's probably the evolution of Iron Age Hebrew that caused her name to be edited to the more concise version with which many of us are more familiar. (Like how English evolved so Æthelthryth is now Audrey, Eadgyth is now Edith, etc– though this was about changes to feminine suffixes.) If this linguistic nerdiness is true, it impacts some translations, below. (When quoting from the Bible, I use the name-word used there). In Ugaritic,* Canaanite,* and other Ancient Near Eastern mythological texts and material culture, Asherata was regarded with high esteem, called “the begettor of the gods," the mother figure, and partner of the Creator, El. She's often depicted and described in connection with lions (symbolizing power), serpents (immortality, healing), and trees (fertility, probably). She is sometimes called Elat – the feminine of El , God– or Kadosh , holy. *In what's now Northern Syria. **In what's now Israel/Palestine, more or less, as we've discussed, it's likely that the first Israelites emerged out of Canaanite culture, setting up shop somewhere new and developing an indedpendant socio-religious identity. Which is. not irrelevant to the conversation today. This 1.75-foot-tall four-tiered terracotta stand, which may have been used to burn incense, was discovered at the city of Taanach, near Megiddo -- in the northern kingdom of Israel, in the 10th c. BCE. On the lowest register, a femme figure grasps two lions, while two registers above, ibexes feed from a tree of life. This imagery is all associated with the goddess Asherata, the consort of the Canaanite god El and perhaps also of the Israelite deity (who some believe is depicted in the uppermost register as a solar disk on the back of a calf). Excavations at Kuntillet Ajrud, in the northern Sinai desert, dating to the late ninth century or early eighth century B.C.E. revealed various Israelite blessing and religious texts , including a clay storage container on which it is inscribed– using the holiest name for the divine, the Tetragrammaton, for God, above two gendered images, next to a third that appears to be playing the lyre. On the same container, there's an image of a stylized tree with ibexes and a lion, very similar to the Taanach piece, above. (Images of the Kuntillet Ajrud clay storage container below.) At the same site, they also found another container containing several inscriptions to. “[God's Name] and Asherata†is written across the top of this eighth-century B.C.E. drawing on a ceramic pithos, or storage jar, from Kuntillet ‘Ajrud in the eastern Sinai. Bottom image– you can see the shard and what the drawing looks like when rendered more starkly, including the two figures--one with a visible phallus, and one with breasts outlined--plus a third off to the side playing the lyre or somesuch. Archaeologist Uzi Avner writes, "Once the restoration of the right figure is removed, a male and a female pair clearly appears. In my opinion, the evidence . seems to support the interpretation of these figures as Yahweh and the goddess Asherah, wearing a bull and a cow masks." On top, on the other side of the pithos, we see ibexes and a tree over a lion, akin to the image on the Taanach stand, above. You may recall that we hear a lot about the tree and Asherata in the Bible, too. Image where the writing above the figures is clearer, here . get more nourishment for your heart soul and noggin! support making independent Torah accessible to tens of thousands! Level up your Life is a Sacred Text subscription now ! Slightly later– somewhere between 750-700 BCE– is another archeological find found in First Temple Judea proper, likely either just before or during Hezekiah's reign, also honoring God's Name "and Asherata ." A photo of this more "modern" find is below. Note that, as with the pottery shards above, we don't have the full inscription. But people's best guess on what they can read is: Uryahu, the prosperous, his inscription [or: an inscription].
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