Asherah Literature has been divided into two camps as a result of the relation between literary allusions to an asherah and archaeological discoveries of Judaean pillar-figurines. Ahab introduced his wife Jezebels pagan gods into Jewish worship by importing 450 prophets of Baal and 400 prophets of Asherah (1 Kings 18:146). And the prophets began to exalt the fullness of the Lord and they would do so at the idols expense. Archaeologists have been able to take a closer look at one of the United Kingdoms most famous shipwrecks. 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It was essentially a phallic symbol. Would you like us to send you a FREE new word definition delivered to your inbox daily? I don't believe her name is Asherah I think from what I've learned from Enoch and Jubilees Asherah was so supposed to have been married to a bad angel name Baraqiel or Baraqel it means Lightening Giver in Hebrew Baraqiel name was shortened I believe to Baal a weather deity like Zeus or Marmaduke in Babylon. Phallic Symbol Asherah Asherah, along with Astarte and Anath, was one of the three great goddesses of the Canaanite pantheon. http://www.transoxiana.org/0108/roberts-enheduana.html, He will bruise your head and you will bruise his heel (Genesis 3:15). The sacred pole of Samaria, moreover, which was erected during the reign of King Ahab (reigned 873852 B.C.E. The main reason Israel was exiled was because of her sins of idolatry: 2 Kings 17:16They rejected all the commands of the LORD their God and made two calves from metal. This site is a proud member of the Salem Web Network, a subsidiary of, Copyright 2023, Crosswalk.com. Predominantly, the pillar figurines were found in private homes, suggesting their domesticity. Asherah. There is some debate on whether these were actual living trees or wooden figures in the shape of trees. | The Word Ministries, http://www.jewishvirtuallibrary.org/jsource/judaica/ejud_0002_0011_0_09825.html, http://wol.jw.org/en/wol/d/r1/lp-e/1200273085, http://wol.jw.org/en/wol/d/r1/lp-e/1200270520, http://www.biblicalarchaeology.org/daily/ancient-cultures/ancient-israel/asherah-and-the-asherim-god…, http://www.transoxiana.org/0108/roberts-enheduanna.html, http://www.transoxiana.org/0108/roberts-enheduana.html. The Ugarit excavation of 1928 put Asherah, the goddess, on the map again, after having lost her place for thousands of years. This is stretching it a bit. In this context, these people were in captivity because of what they were doingit was a matter of cause and effect. The mention of these deities in the plural may indicate that each locality had its Baal and Asherah. Article Images Copyright . Information and translations of asherah pole in the most comprehensive dictionary definitions resource on the web. Our open community is dedicated to digging into the origins of our species on planet earth, and question wherever the discoveries might take us. You must break down their pagan altars and shatter their sacred pillars. According to the biblical record, these sacred poles or stylized trees associated with Asherah were erected by the Israelites throughout most of their history, especially during the premonarchic (tribal) period (Judg 6:2526, 28, 30)) and during the period of the divided monarchy, both in the northern kingdom of Israel (1Kgs 14:15; 16:33; 2 Kgs 13:6; 17:10, 16; 23:15; and parallel references in 2 Chronicles) and in Judah, in the south (1 Kgs 14:23, 15:13; 2 Kgs 18:4; 21:3, 7; 23:6, 14; and parallel references in 2 Chronicles). Sacrifice the bull as a burnt offering on the altar, using as fuel the wood of the Asherah pole you cut down. (NLT). New York: 2000. Its possible that the divine name Yahweh Elohim that appears in connection with the Garden of Eden in Genesis 2-3 may refer to Yahweh and His Asherah.. of Biblical Literature 105 (1986): 385408. Micah 5:14 shows God s anger towards them, [] #3. (NLT). And the history that we see of the Asherah pole is fitting for our own battle with idolatry. The Sacred Poles. (b) a construction similar, to the admittedly much later, Song of Songs 1:6 karmi elli. The Iliad can provide new insights on the role of motherhood among the ancient Greek gods, and by extension, amongst ancient mortal Greek women themselves. Dig into the illuminating world of the Bible with a BAS All-Access membership. But Israel disobeyed God and worshipped idols anyway, even bringing Asherah worship into the Temple in Jerusalem. Asherah veneration was explicitly forbidden in the Jewish law: You must never set up a wooden Asherah pole beside the altar you build for the LORD your God (Deuteronomy 16:21, NLT). The Queen Mother and the Cult in Ancient Israel. Journal You bet. Jewish Women's Archive. Asherah is not Eve, nor is she the wife of God for God does not have a wife ( Jesus has a Bride ie the Church) . What Is an Asherah Pole and Does it Have Biblical Significance? While Ashtoreth appears to have figured as the wife of Baal, Asherah may also have been so viewed. I've have been recently studying Cast Out Bible Books like for example Enoch an in Enoch 1 The Book of Watchers (200 Evil-Angel), Enoch was given a grand tour of Heaven accompanied by some good Angels He made it all the way to the throne room of God and made known The Holy Trinity I AM Yahweh, The Holy One and The Elect One Who is Christ the Reedemer in fact Enoch bears witness in Heaven watching The Ancient of Days going by an The Son of Man Christ follows close behind with 10000 Angels accompanying them both. They forgot about the LORD their God, and they served the images of Baal and the Asherah poles (Judges 3:7, NLT). Not only was the queen mothers position in the palace generally paralleled by Asherahs position as mother goddess in the heavens, but also the queen mothers status as the wife of the kings father suggests an affinity to Asherahs cult. What does it mean that God is a jealous God? While sorting through some 280,000 artifacts excavated from land reserved for a highway construction project running from Cambridge to the village of Huntingdon in eastern England, archaeologists affiliated with the Museum of London Archaeology discovered a miniature comb that was incredibly ancient and also made from a most unusual material. WebRegarding Asherah: "In the Middle East the Goddess of the GROVE was Asherah, whose GROVES were found "on every high hill and under every green tree" 1 Kings 14:23. During the period of the Judges, it is noted that the apostate Israelites went serving the Baals and the sacred poles [the Asherim]. (Jg 3:7, ftn; compare 2:13.) 7 Things I Would Do Differently if I Were Raising My Children California - Do Not Sell My Personal Information. Under This can easily happen in either the old Hebrew or the Aramaic script. Atlanta: 1988. The discussion of these texts revealed that scholars differ about the interpretation (of the Kuntillet el-'Ajrud inscriptions), reading either 'Asherata' or 'his Asherah' and also about the question whether only the sacred pole is implied. Scant referrals in the Bible alert to the presence of a vilified female deity destined to be banished into oblivion. : Monotheism in Ancient Israel and the Veneration of the Goddess Asherah (Biblical Seminar ) by Bob Becking, Meindert Dijkstra, Marjo C. A. Korpel, Karel J. H. Vriezen, Sheffield Academic Press 2001, p. 117. what does an asherah pole look like Baal, the chief of the Canaanite pantheon, was the god of storm and bringer of rain. He was recognized as the sustainer of the fertility of crops, animals, and people. I will tell your enemies to take you as captives to a foreign land. WebIts symbol was the stem of a tree deprived of its boughs, and rudely shaped into an image, and planted in the ground. (2Ch 33:11-13, 15, 21-23) This made it necessary for righteous King Josiah, who succeeded Amon to the throne, to pull down the houses of the male temple prostitutes that were in the house of Jehovah, where the women were weaving tent shrines for the sacred pole.2Ki 23:4-7. In their mythology, the Canaanites (or Israelites of a certain Canaanite cult) sometimes paired Asherah with Yahweh, as though she was Yahwehs wife. what does an asherah pole look like Is an Asherah Pole Ever Mentioned in the Bible? So it seems they were not merely wooden poles, but probably quite large carved images. What is an Asherah pole But is removal and uprooting all that is required? WebThe branch He mentions is probably an Asherah, a tree or a wooden pole that stood for the fertility goddess. Considered the moon-goddess, Asherah was often presented as a consort of Baal, the sun-god ( Judges 3:7, 6:28, 10:6; 1 Samuel 7:4, 12:10 ). WebAsherah poles were a representation of a Asherah, a Canaanite fertility goddess and consort of the gods. Therefore, Asherah worship often took place in forested areas, under a tree, or in an area marked by a carved "Asherah pole," such as the one made by the evil King Manasseh ( 2 Kings 21:7 ). You have proven without doubt the disobedience of the chosen people of , to run after the gods of other nations. Another translation of carved Asherah pole is graven image of the grove (KJV). (Ex 34:13; De 12:3) They may have simply been uncarved poles, perhaps even trees in some instances, for Gods people were instructed: You must not plant for yourself any sort of tree as a sacred pole.De 16:21. Nearly all instances of Asherah in the Bible refer to a sacred pole constructed by human hands and erected in honor of the fertility goddess. Christian Truth. Fairchild, Mary. Put simply, an Asherah pole is a wooden idol (likely in the shape of a tree) used to worship the goddess Asherah. Source: northernway.org, By Mary Naples, Contributing Writer, Classical Wisdom Weekly, Anya Leonard is the co-founder and Director of Classical Wisdom Weekly. But this revival would only last about as long as Asaas only a short time thereafter Ahab made an Asherah and did more to provoke the LORDto anger than all the kings of Israel who were before him.. Both the Greek and Latin translations of the Bible, moreover, render the words asherah and asherim as grove or wood.. Ugaritic and other Canaanite materials further associate Asherah with lions (indicating power), serpents (representing immortality or healing), and sacred trees (signifying fertility). The Hittites also had a pair of bull gods named Hurri and Surri and Hurri is obviously connected to the Hurrians, or mountain folk, while the name Surri is derived from the word Sar which means lord, king, perhaps referring to a ruling class. In some translations, Asherah is taken to refer to a tree or grove. In Proverbs Wisdom is often referred to as Her at some point in 1st King's and 2nd Chronicles God became enraged for Judah and Israel's defiant worship of the Queen of Heaven in the form of Idolatry the 2nd Commandment from God in Exodus Chapter 20 and Deutronomy chapter 5 Thou Shall Not make unto the any Graven Image neither what is in the Air, what is in the Sea, what is on the Land He Shall Not Bow before them. Even their children go to worship at their pagan altars and Asherah poles, beneath every green tree and on every high hill. A teacher walks into the Classroom and says If only Yesterday was Tomorrow Today would have been a Saturday Which Day did the Teacher make this Statement? He will uproot the people of Israel from this good land that he gave their ancestors and will scatter them beyond the Euphrates River, for they have angered the LORD with the Asherah poles they have set up for worship. In the above article the author mentions Asherah as being the mother of the 70 gods of the Canaanite pantheon. Maybe you should read the Bible a little more for better understanding? Archaeologists argue that these statues depict the goddess Asherah. However Asherah (as wikipedia said) was wife of sumerian god Anu, whileAstarte is known from the mythic Baal Cycle, which is a story of Baal fighting with Yam, god of the sea in cannanite mythology. If a correspondence holds, then the trees of life and of knowledge in the Eden narrative may also reflect Asherah imagery. Let us know. Help us elevate the voices of Jewish women. She is most commonly depicted as a carved wooden image rather than by a proper name, which is why the Bible usually mentions her in the grammatical form as either an adjective or a noun (compare 2 Kings 23:6 vs. And why is she often found paired with Yahweh, the Hebrew god? Asherah in the Hebrew Bible and Northwest Semitic Literature. Historians and archaeologists have pieced together Asherahs narrative and found large chunks of it interwoven in the artifacts from the region and in the scriptures of the Hebrew Bible itself. This is because southern royal ideology typically described the kings metaphorical father as YHWH. When you look at something logically, you have placed yourself at a distance from it (Innerspace by Aryeh Kaplan, p.58). The degraded worship of Asherah came to be practiced in the very temple of Jehovah. Asherah was also worshiped as the goddess of love and war and was sometimes linked with Anath, another Canaanite Did the Ancient Israelites Think Children Were People. He sacrificed his own son in the fire, practiced sorcery and divination, and even made a carved image of Asherah and set it up in the Temple (2 Kings 21:7, NLT). Thus it appears that, although generally the biblical writersespecially certain prophets (Isa 17:8; 27:9; Jer 17:2; Mic 5:14) and the authors responsible for Deuteronomy, Judges, 1 and 2 Kings, and 2 Chroniclesregarded Asherah worship as inappropriate, at least some and possibly many in ancient Israel incorporated the goddesss cult imagery and ritual into the cult of YHWH. Upon entering the region, the ancient Israelites soon adopted her and gave her the Hebrew equivalent name of Asherah. Instead, rural communities had their own religious beliefs using statuary and other artifacts. Were the pre-exilic Israelites and Judeans polytheistic ? Phallic Symbol The Ras Shamra texts identify this goddess as the wife of the god El, the Creator of Creatures, and refer to her as Lady Asherah of the Sea and Progenitress of the Gods, this also making her the mother of Baal. Are the Misty Peaks of the Azores Remnants of the Legendary Atlantis? Thegoal of Ancient Origins is to highlight recent archaeological discoveries, peer-reviewed academic research and evidence, as well as offering alternative viewpoints and explanations of science, archaeology, mythology, religion and history around the globe. WebDramatically initiate end-to-end niches . Asherah No wonder those clay figurines were so popular, enabling immediate access to the goddess, while the serpent is planning his trap like acting inquisitive to find out which fruit is prohibited and she says something like Oh, I heard those cannabis cookies are a way too potent and those chocolate chip cookies are high in calories, and the serpent knows that the ingredient in chocolate makes her feel satisfied and she is not desiring for her husband (Genesis 3:16) It also states that God would put enmity between (bein) the woman and the serpent and between (bein) her descendants and serpent (Genesis 3:15), whose head is located at the lowest part of the human brain where the baser instincts are located. Many scholars believe that Asherahs tree functioned in the Garden of Eden parable. If nobody could see them doing it, they thought, "Hey, I'm getting away with the perfect crime. How do we know? What, then, was an Asherah pole? (1930) by Russian esoteric Christian Nicholas Roerich. "Who Is Asherah in the Bible?" What is the answer punchline algebra 15.1 why dose a chicken coop have only two doors? For my anger blazes like a fire that will burn forever. (NLT). She is often placed beside the chief male deity. Conversely, when destroyed, these cult symbols can be described as being cut down, hewn down, or uprooted; they can also be said to be burned, overturned, or broken. Like a pole or tree, they can be said to be planted, stood up, or erected. This is always the remedy for idolatry. Its our plight that moved the heavensit is the LORD Himself who would come and rescue us. Of all the people on earth, the LORD your God has chosen you to be his own special treasure. (NLT). Then, two things happened: either Chaos or Gaia created the universe as we know it, or Ouranos and Tethys gave birth to the first beings. These appendages of idolatry, likely phallic symbols, were associated with grossly immoral sex orgies, as is indicated by the reference to male prostitutes being in the land as early as Rehoboams reign. Every Action Has a Reaction. Required fields are marked *. What was an Asherah pole It could be that Astarte was a wife of Baal, or they are just praised together. Have We Turned Our Favorite Preachers and Teachers into Idols? : The wonderful possession I have reserved for you will slip from your hands. By the age of 10, most children in the United States have been taught all 50 states that make up the country. Archaeologists excavating an ancient cemetery in Israel have uncovered an idol which they believe dates the worship of the goddess Asherah back an incredible 7,500 years. That's why God got angry and for the record Jesus said that the Unpardonable Sin is Sinning against the Holy Spirit there is no coming back from that blunder. I watched a documentary on this made by PBS which is now on You Tube if i may say the name ? This daily newsletter provides a starting point for personal study, and gives valuable insight into the verses that make up the Word of God. The Canaanites often worshipped her via trees (Asherah poles) because of her association with the tree of life. (2022, November 28). Wife The Bible also connects sacred poles with the high places (open-air cult sites?) In the mid-1970s, a large pottery storage jar known as a pithos was found at Kuntillet Ajrud in the northeast part of the Sinai Peninsula. (NLT). WebAsherah is identified as the consort of the Sumerian god Anu, and Ugaritic El, [7] the oldest deities of their respective pantheons. She was removed as queen mother and Asa cut down the Asherah and burned it in the river. 1992. Even the angle at which she holds the torch is extraordinarily parallel much like a pole. So I wonder how much close that myth can be to the literary insciptions found in the Bible, and how much Asherah can be understood as Astarte, as both of those goddesses are goddesses of love, war and fertility. The cryptic blessing is in an early rendition of Deuteronomy 33.2-3, when Asherahs influence had not yet been fully subordinated. The year 1185 BC heralded a diaspora of the so-called Sea Peoples to the south-western coast of the Levantine.