(Essay 1) The Queen of Heaven: Depictions of Asherah in Ancient Israel by Francesca Tronetti Ph.D.

            Christianity teaches its followers about God the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit.  The deity is described as a father to his children and the world. In churches across America, the people are taught that there are no female aspects of the Divine.  There is an overall lack of independent feminine presence in the teachings of the biblical texts. That is not to say that there are no female characters in the Bible; there are many named women in the books. Still, these women are rarely discussed as central characters, and instead, they are referenced in context with their male family members or husbands.  This male-centered reading of the Bible makes it the perfect instrument of patriarchy.  It becomes a sacred text and guide which has ignored or downplayed the very existence of women. However, dedicated scholars of the Bible know that there are independent women in the Bible and that some of these women are what we identify as demi-gods.

            In a class I took, we discussed passages of the Bible dealing with the creation of humans and the nature of the Divine. The discussion which most impacted me was about Asherah, a Goddess who some scholars assert is the wife of YHWH.  Asherah or the asherah is mentioned approximately 40 times in the Hebrew Bible, most often in connection with YHWH. I will discuss several aspects of Asherah in this article: the worship of Asherah alongside YHWH, the portrayal of Asherah as the consort of YHWH, worship of Asherah by the queen mothers. I want to understand whether Asherah was viewed as a goddess in her own right, or if the name refers to a cultic symbol of a goddess associated with YHWH. 

            A close reading of the biblical texts and recent archaeological evidence suggests that the ancient Israelites did not initially follow a monotheistic religion. It is logical to assume the if the people worshipped a pantheon of deities, a few would likely be female. Based on other polytheistic beliefs, we can conclude that one of these goddesses would have held the position of Mother Goddess. There also exists archaeological and literary evidence suggesting that Israelite women held a significant position in the religious practices of their communities through their cultic worship.  To understand what position Asherah occupied in the religious beliefs of the ancient Israelites, we first need to know where the goddess Asherah came from.

Asherah in the Ancient World

Asherah is believed to be one of the names given to an ancient and widely worshipped goddess.  Wiggins found evidence of Asherah and a similar goddess in Ugaritic, rabbinic and biblical sources, South Arabian, Mesopotamian and Hittite material, and Aramaic, Hebrew, and Phoenician inscriptions.  The essential Northwest Semitic source of writing concerning Asherah is the Ugaritic texts from Ras Shamra located on the Syrian Coast.  These texts refer to Asherah as ‘atrt’ which is pronounced as Athirat.  In these writings, Athirat is the consort of the supreme god El.  Supported by evidence from the Ugaritic texts, it has been suggested that the Canaanites worshipped a goddess called Asherah. And this worship was separate from their worship of the goddess Astarte.  These texts do indicate that Asherah was one of the primary female deities worshipped in ancient Canaan.  Scholars have generally accepted that it is the Canaanite goddess Asherah who is referred to in the Jewish Bible and the Christian Old Testament.

            There are references to a goddess found in the Elba text (ca. 2350 BCE).  P. Matthiae, who has studied the writing in detail, claims that Asherah is a “lesser but well-attested” deity.  However, the name Asherah does not appear in any of the Elba texts published so far. This has led other scholars to dispute Matthiae’s claim that the goddess is Asherah; instead, the book could refer to an unnamed Goddess or female Deity.

During the first Babylonian dynasty (1839-1531 BCE), there existed a goddess Asratum who was the consort of the god Amurra.  If Matthiae was correct in his supposition, and if there exists a phonetic link between the names Asratum and Asherah, then we can presume that Asherah is a recent name for a more ancient goddess.  The goddess is called Asherah by scholars because this is the name used in the biblical texts.  The Bible is a central religious text and has been read and studied by billions of people. Therefore, it is not surprising that she is known to many laypeople and scholars.

            The next question to consider is that of Asherah’s supposed connection to the Hebrew God YHWH. Current belief holds that the ancient Israelites worshipped a single god YHWH.  Scholars have determined that there was instead a pantheon of deities worshiped by the people of ancient Israel.  However, there was no centralized or systematized religious authority.  The deities were worshipped following the local tribal system and the ethnic identity of the people.

Mesopotamia was the homeland of Abram, later called Abraham, and was the home of the ancient Israelite people.  There the people worshipped multiple deities associated with many aspects of nature and creation.  It can be assumed that the ancient Israelites continued to worship several gods for some time after they left Mesopotamia.  Zevit’s analysis of the ancient Israelite religion determined that worship included “the commonality of intercessory prayer, the adoration of El, Baal, YHWH, and Asherah, the notion of divine causality in history, and the use of hymnic snippets in liturgical, cultic contexts.”  The Ugaritic texts and other extra-biblical sources assert that the ancient Israelites worshipped YHWH in addition to El, Asherah, Baal, and other deities.

            The earliest Israelite cult was centered on a divine royal household that had a similar order to the Ugaritic pantheon.  This pantheon was headed by the god El while his consort Asherah, Baal, YHWH, and other deities held secondary rank.  When Israel became a monarchy, YHWH, now Yahweh-El, as the Creator was elevated to the king of the gods while his consort Asherah and the sun, moon, and celestial deities held secondary rank.   It was not until the writing of Deuteronomic history (1250-922 BCE) that YHWH became God in the singular, and all other deities were suppressed, except the divine messengers and servants.

The Worship of Asherah in Israel

            Evidence shows that Asherah was worshipped in Israel, and her worship appears to have been shared and widespread.  Smith notes that according to Olyan’s research, “….in the period of the Kings the devotion to the asherah in its Yahwistic context was acceptable to much (and perhaps most) of pre-exilic Israelite society”.  Worship of the Canaanite goddess Asherah was central to the folk religion of ancient Israel.  The mother goddess Asherah was worshipped throughout much of ancient Israel and Judah.  It is believed that the ancient Israelites embraced her as a spouse for YHWH, the supreme Israelite deity.  Dever asserts that Asherah’s primary function was to act as a protective deity for pregnant women.  To support this assertion, Dever discusses the cult sites of Dan, Kuntillet ‘Arjud, Schechem, and Arad as well as the pillar figurines, pictorial representations, and other artifacts found at the sites.  These findings are evidence for a widespread cult of Asherah and connect her worship, specifically to a woman’s cult.  Evidence for the existence of this cult can also be found in the Jewish Bible, though it is mostly through negative polemic.  The symbol for the Goddess Asherah often found at these sites was a wooden pole or a tree that represented the “tree of life.”  This “tree of life” originated in the ancient Near East sometime in the 3^rd millennium BCE.  By the 13^th century BCE, it had become the symbol of the goddess in ancient Israel.

            We can surmise that the asherah was more than a Canaanite import based upon analysis of the inscriptions and the biblical evidence.  The asherah appears to have been an accepted religious cultic symbol in ancient Israel during the pre-exilic period.  Biblical texts indicate that as time progressed, the asherah cult became partially or fully integrated into the worship of YHWH.   Deuteronomic history rarely criticizes the goddess; it focuses its attention on the cultic symbol of the asherah.  Biblical texts indicate that asherah worship continued during the period of Judges (1200-1000) and lasted to a few decades before the fall of the southern kingdom of Judah (587/586). 

Two passages[1] describe the asherah as a wooden post set up next to the altar of YHWH.  This indicates that devotion to the asherah was common among the ancient Israelites.  Frymer-Kensky writes that “The asherah was a cultic installation that appeared at Israel’s shrines together with a cultic stele and an altar. …These asherah were part of the local worship that was found in Israel ‘on every lofty hill and under every leafy tree”.

            Textual evidence supports the view that either a statue of Asherah or the cultic wooden pole the asherah was set up in the Temple of Solomon in Jerusalem.  Indications are that after the reforms of Asa Ma’acah’s cult statue of Asherah was replaced.  The biblical text is “…explicit that a third ‘asera, the one that replaced the statue Hezekiah destroyed, stood in the Jerusalem Temple.” 2 Kings 9-10 indicates that while reforms were opposing the worship of Baal between 842-815, there was no opposition to either Asherah or her cult symbol.

            The 19^th and early 20^th century saw a critical approach to the biblical scholarship being utilized by scholars.  During this time three views concerning the identity of Asherah developed.  The first equated the goddess Asherah with the Mesopotamian goddess Astarte or her symbol.  The second belief was that asherah was the name of a cult object but not the name of a deity.  Lastly, it was argued that Asherah was the name of both the goddess and the cult object, which symbolized her; however, she was not the goddess Astarte.  The last view is the most widely accepted by scholars because it is supported by a natural interpretation of the biblical texts and the evidence from the ancient Near East.

            The question of whether Asherah refers to a goddess or a cult object has fascinated scholars since the 19^th century.  The primary question is, “Did Israelites understand this word to refer to the goddess, or to a wooden object of some religious importance that was not a literal representation of the deity.”  Hadley follows the view that the Asherah worshipped by the ancient Israelites was the goddess Athirat in the Ugaritic texts.  She postulates that the asherah in the Jewish Bible is typically about the wooden cult symbol of the goddess, which scholars call the ‘asera; however, in a handful of cases, the usage refers to the goddess herself.  The goddess is identified in only a small number of biblical passages, whereas the object (the wooden pole) is the predominant topic of the readings.   Hadley argues that as the ancient Israelite religion changed over time, the goddess Asherah became the wooden cult symbol the asherah. 

            If the Biblical asherah is the cult symbol, we must wonder if the asherah was a living tree or a wooden pole or pillar erected next to the altar to YHWH. Olyan believed that “the asherah was a stylized tree, probably a representation of a date palm.” He chose to “investigate in some detail the relationship of the Asherah to the cult of YHWH, based on biblical evidence.”   There are some scholars who insist that asherah referred to a tree and will not discuss or defend their position.  Despite that, there is strong evidence that in the Old Testament and the Jewish Bible, the asherah was a wooden pole symbolizing the goddess Asherah.

            The most widely held view based on analysis of the biblical texts is that the asherah were wooden poles that were sacred symbols to the goddess Asherah.  A connection between the cultic object, the asherah, and the goddess Asherah is implied in 2 Kings 21:3[2].  If we accept that the cult object the asherah was a symbol of the goddess Asherah, then this would harmonize with a passage in Philo of Byblos in which he states that the Phoenicians “consecrated pillars and staves after the name [of their gods].”  The biblical evidence, supported by non-biblical sources, clearly indicates that Asherah referred both to an important Canaanite goddess and to the wooden cult object that symbolized her.  There are two theories as to how the ancient Israelites worshipped Asherah.  The first is that she was a deity worshipped alongside YHWH, the second that she was the consort of YHWH.

(To be continued)

(Meet Mago Contributor) Francesca Tronetti, Ph.D.

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[1] Deut. 16:21-22 You shall not set up a sacred post- any kind of pole beside the alter of the LORD your God that you may make- or erect a stone pillar; for such the LORD your God detests.  Judges 6:28 Early the next morning, the townspeople found that the altar of Baal had been torn down and the sacred post beside it had been cut down, and that the second bull had been offered on the newly built altar

[2] 2 Kings 21:3 He rebuilt the shrines that his father Hezekiah had destroyed; he erected altars for Baal and made a sacred post as King Ahab of Israel had done.