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Asherah
Lady Asherah (of the) Sea or Day Great Mother
Other names	Athirat
Major cult center	Middle-East Formerly Jerusalem
Symbol	Tree
Consort	El (Ugaritic religion) Yahweh (Israelite religion) Amurru (Amorite religion) Anu (Akkadian religion) 'Amm (Qatabanian religion) Assur (Assyrian religion) Elkunirsa (Hittite religion)
Offspring	70 sons (Ugaritic religion) 77 or 88 sons (Hittite religion)

Asherah (/ˈæʃərə/; Hebrew: אֲשֵׁרָה, romanized: ʾĂšērā; Ugaritic: 𐎀𐎘𐎗𐎚, romanized: ʾAṯiratu; Akkadian: 𒀀𒅆𒋥, romanized: Aširat; Qatabanian: 𐩱𐩻𐩧𐩩 ʾṯrt) was a goddess in ancient Semitic religions. She also appears in Hittite writings as Ašerdu(s) or Ašertu(s) (Hittite: 𒀀𒊺𒅕𒌈, romanized: a-še-ir-tu₄), and as Athirat in Ugarit. The majority of scholars hold that Yahweh and Asherah were a consort pair in ancient Palestine and Judah, while others disagree.

Name

Etymology

Some have sought a common-noun meaning of her name, especially in Ugaritic appellation rabat athirat yam, only found in the Baal Cycle. But a homophone's meaning to an Ugaritian doesn't equate an etymon, especially if the name is older than the Ugaritic language. There is no hypothesis for rabat athirat yam without significant issues, and if Asherah were a word from Ugarit it would be pronounced differently.

The common NW Semitic meaning of šr is "king, prince, ruler." The NW Semitic root ʾṯr (Arabic أثر‎) means "tread".

Grammar

The -ot ending "Asherot" is found three times in the Tanakh, with -im "Asherim" making up the great majority. The significance is unclear, as the interaction of gender and number in Hebrew is not robustly understood. Not all scholars find HB references with final t plural. Archaic suffixes like –atu/a/i became Northwest Semitic -at or -ā latter written -ah in transcription. That is, merely terminally alternate spellings like Asherat and Asherah reflect contextual rather than existential variation.

Title

Her name is sometimes ’lt "Elat", the feminine equivalent of El. Her titles often include qdš "holy" and baʽlat, or rbt "lady", and qnyt ỉlm, "progenitress of the gods."

Interpretation

Due to certain ambiguities in surviving attestations of Asherah, whether she is to be considered a deity or a symbol is not universally agreed upon. While some consider Asherah to be a defined deity, others call her a "mere cultic object". de Vaux says Asherah was "both," and Winter says the goddess and her symbol should not be distinguished.

Beside the obvious connections between goddesses who sometimes cannot be distinguished, some scholars have found an early link between Asherah and Eve, based upon the coincidence of their common title as "the mother of all living" in Genesis 3:20 through the identification with the Hurrian mother goddess, Hebat. Olyan notes that Eve's original Hebrew name, ḥawwā, is cognate to ḥawwat, an attested epithet of Tanit in the first millennium BCE, though other scholars dispute a connection between Tanit and Asherah, and between Asherah and Eve. A Phoenician deity Ḥawwat is attested in the Punica tabella defixionis.

There is further speculation that the Shekhinah as a feminine aspect of Yahweh may be a cultural memory or devolution of Asherah. Another such aspect is seen in the feminine (grammatically or otherwise) treatment of the Holy Spirit or Sophia. Goddess "aspect creep" can even lap upon male figures like Jacob or Jesus.

Iconography

A variety of symbols have been associated with Asherah. The most common by far is that of the tree, an equivalence seen as early as Neolithic times.

Cultic objects dedicated to Asherah frequently depict trees, and the terms asherim and asheroth, regularly invoked by the Hebrew Bible in the context of Asherah worship, are traditionally understood to refer to sacred trees called "Asherah poles". An especially common Asherah tree in visual art is the date palm, a reliable producer of nutrition through the year. Some expect living trees, but Olyan sees a stylized, non-living palm or pole. The remains of a juniper tree discovered in a 7,500 year old gravesite in Eilat has been considered an Asherah tree by some.

Asherah's association with fertility was not limited to her association with trees; she was often depicted with pronounced sexual features. Idols of Asherah, often called ’Astarte figurines’, are representative of Asherah as a tree in that they have bodies which resemble tree trunks, while also further extenuating the goddess' connection to fertility in line with her status as a "mother goddess". The "Judean pillar figures" universally depict Asherah with protruding breasts. Likewise, the so-called Revadim Asherah is rife with potent, striking sexual imagery, depicting Asherah suckling two smaller figures and using both of her hands to fully expose her vagina. Many times, Asherah's pubis area was marked by a concentration of dots, indicating pubic hair, though this figure is sometimes polysemically understood as a grape cluster. The womb was also sometimes used as a nutrix symbol, as animals are often shown feeding directly (if a bit abstractly) from the pubic triangle.

Remarking on the Lachish ewer, Hestrin noted that in a group of other pottery vessels found in situ, the usual depiction of the sacred tree flanked by ibexes or birds is in one goblet replaced by a pubic triangle flanked by ibexes. The interchange between the tree and the pubic triangle prove, according to Hestrin, that the tree symbolizes the fertility goddess Asherah. Hestrin draws parallels between this and representations of Hathor as the sycamore tree goddess in Egypt, and suggests that during the period of Egyptian rule in Palestine the Hathor cult penetrated the region so extensively that Hathor became identified with Asherah. Other motifs in the ewer such as a lion, fallow deer and ibexes seem to have a close relationship with the iconography associated with her.

Asherah may also have been associated with the ancient pan-Near Eastern "Master of animals" motif, which depicted a person or deity betwixt two confronted animals. According to Beaulieu, depictions of a divine "mistress of lions" motif are "almost undoubtedly depictions of the goddess Asherah." The lioness made a ubiquitous symbol for goddesses of the ancient Middle East that was similar to the dove and the tree. Lionesses figure prominently in Asherah's iconography, including the tenth-century BC Ta'anach cult stand, which also includes the tree motif. A Hebrew arrowhead from the eleventh century BC bears the inscription "Servant of the Lion Lady".

The symbols around Asherah are so many (8+ pointed star, caprids and the like, along with lunisolar, arboreal, florid, serpentine) that a listing would approach meaninglessness as it neared exhaustiveness. Frevel's 1000-page dissertation ends enigmatically with the pronouncement "There is no genuine Asherah iconography".

By region

Sumer

An Amorite goddess named Ashratum is known to have been worshipped in Sumer. Her Amorite provenance is further supported by her status as the wife of Mardu/Amurrum, the supreme deity of the Amorites.

A limestone slab inscribed with a dedication made by Hammurabi to Ashratum is known from Sippar. In it, he complements her as "lord of the mountain" (bel shadī), and presages similar use with words like voluptuousness, joy, tender, patient, mercy to commemorate setting up a "protective genius" (font?) for her in her temple.

Though it is accepted that Ashratum's name is cognate to that of Asherah, the two goddesses are not actually identified with one another, given that they occupied different positions within their pantheons, despite sharing their status as consort to the supreme deity.

Akkad

In Akkadian texts, Asherah appears as Aširatu; though her exact role in the pantheon is unclear; as a separate goddess, Antu, was considered the wife of Anu, the god of Heaven. In contrast, ʿAshtart is believed to be linked to the Mesopotamian goddess Ishtar who is sometimes portrayed as the daughter of Anu.

Points of reference in Akkadian epigraphy are collocated and heterographic Amarna Letters 60 and 61's Asheratic personal name. Within them is found a king of the Amorites by the 14th-century name of Abdi-Ashirta, "servant of Asherah".

Each is on line ii within the letter's opening or greeting sentiment. Some may transcribe Aširatu or Ašratu.

Ugarit

In Ugaritic texts, Asherah appears as ʾṯrt (Ugaritic: 𐎀𐎘𐎗𐎚), anglicised ʾAṯirat or Athirat. She is called ʾElat, "goddess", the feminine form of ʾEl (compare Allāt); she is also called Qodeš, "holiness". There is reference to a šr. ‘ṯtrt. Gibson says sources from before 1200 BC almost always credit Athirat with her full title rbt ʾṯrt ym (or rbt ʾṯrt). However, Rahmouni's indexing of Ugaritic epithets states the phrase occurs in only the Baʿal Epic. Apparently of Akkadian origin, rabat means "lady" (literally "female great one"). She appears to champion her son, Yam, god of the sea, in his struggle against Baʾal. (Yam's ascription as god of the sea may mislead; Yam is the deified sea itself rather than a deity who holds dominion over it.) So some say Athirat's title can be translated as "Lady ʾAṯirat of the Sea", alternatively, "she who walks on the sea", or even "the Great Lady-who-tramples-Yam." This invites relation to a Chaoskampf in which neither she nor Yam is otherwise implicated. Park suggested in 2010 that the name Athirat might be derived from a passive participle form, referring to the "one followed by (the gods)", that is, "progenitress or originatress", which would correspond to Asherah's image as the "mother of the gods" in Ugaritic literature. This solution was a response to and variation of B. Margalit's of her following in Yahweh's literal footsteps, a less generous estimation nonetheless supported by DULAT's use of the Ugaritian word in an ordinary sense. Binger finds some of these risibly imaginative, and unhappily falls back on the still-problematic interpretation that Ym may also mean day, so "Lady Asherah of the day", or, more simply, "Lady Day". The common Semitic root ywm (for reconstructed Proto-Semitic *yawm-), from which derives (Hebrew: יוֹם), meaning "day", appears in several instances in the Masoretic Texts with the second-root letter (-w-) having been dropped, and in a select few cases, replaced with an A-class vowel of the Niqqud, resulting in the word becoming y(a)m. Such occurrences, as well as the fact that the plural, "days", can be read as both yōmîm and yāmîm (Hebrew: יָמִים), gives credence to this alternate translation.

Another primary epithet of Athirat was qnyt ʾilm, which may be translated as "the creator of the deities". In those texts, Athirat is the consort of the god ʾEl; there is one reference to the 70 sons of Athirat, presumably the same as the 70 sons of ʾEl. Among the Hittites this goddess appears as Ašerdu(s) or Ašertu(s), the consort of Elkunirsa ("El, the Creator of Earth") and mother of either 77 or 88 sons.

In Israel and Judah

The conception of Asherah as the partner of Yahweh has stirred a lot of debate. While the consensus view is that Asherah is separate from Yahwism, most scholars have argued that Yahweh and Asherah were a consort pair according to some religions in the region.

Inscriptions

Possible evidence for her worship includes an iconography and inscriptions at two locations in use circa the 9th century. The first was in a cave at Khirbet el-Qom.

The second was at Kuntillet Ajrud. In the latter, a jar shows bovid-anthropomorphic figures and several inscriptions that refer to "Yahweh of Samaria and his Asherah" and "Yahweh of Teman and his Asherah." However, a number of scholars hold that the "asherah" mentioned in the inscriptions refers to some kind of cultic object or symbol, rather than a goddess. For instance, some scholars have argued that since cognate forms of "asherah" are used with the meaning of "sanctuary" in Phoenician and Aramaic inscriptions from the same period, this may also be the meaning of the term in the two Hebrew inscriptions. Others argue that the term "asherah" may refer to a sacred tree or grove used for the worship of Yahweh as this is the meaning that the Hebrew term has in the Hebrew Bible and in the Mishnah.

In one potsherd there appear a large and small bovine. This "oral fixation" motif has diverse examples, see figs 413–419 in Winter. In fact, already Flinders Petrie in the 1930s was referring to Davies on the memorable stereotype. It's such a common motif in Syrian and Phoenician ivories that the Arslan Tash horde had at least four; they can be seen in the Louvre.

Sacred prostitution

Early scholarship emphasized somewhat mutually-negating possibilities of holy prostitution, hieros gamos, and orgiastic rites. It has been suggested by several scholars that there is a relationship between the position of the gəḇīrā in the royal court and the worship (orthodox or not) of Asherah. The Hebrew Bible frequently and graphically associates goddess worship with prostitution ("whoredom") in material written after the reforms of Josiah. Jeremiah, and Ezekiel blame the goddess religion for making Yahweh "jealous", and cite his jealousy as the reason Yahweh allowed the destruction of Jerusalem. Although their nature remains uncertain, sexual rites typically revolved around women of power and influence, such as Maacah. The Hebrew term qadishtu, formerly translated as "temple prostitutes" or "shrine prostitutes", literally means "priestesses" or "consecrated women", from the Semitic root qdš, meaning "holy". However, there is a shrinking scholarly consensus that sacred prostitution existed, and some argue that sex acts within the temple were limited to yearly sacred fertility rites aimed at assuring an abundant harvest.

In the Hebrew Bible

There are references to the worship of numerous deities throughout the Books of Kings: Solomon builds temples to many deities and Josiah is reported as cutting down the statues of Asherah in the temple Solomon built for Yahweh (2 Kings 23:14). Josiah's grandfather Manasseh had erected one such statue (2 Kings 21:7).

The name Asherah appears forty times in the Hebrew Bible, but it is much reduced in English translations. The word ʾăšērâ is translated in Greek as Greek: ἄλσος (grove; plural: ἄλση) in every instance apart from Isaiah 17:8; 27:9 and 2 Chronicles 15:16; 24:18, with Greek: δένδρα (trees) being used for the former, and, peculiarly, Ἀστάρτη (Astarte) for the latter. The Vulgate in Latin provided lucus or nemus, a grove or a wood. From the Vulgate, the King James translation of the Bible uses grove or groves instead of Asherah's name. Non-scholarly English language readers of the Bible would not have read her name for more than 400 years afterward. The association of Asherah with trees in the Hebrew Bible is very strong. For example, she is found under trees (1 Kings 14:23; 2 Kings 17:10) and is made of wood by human beings (1 Kings 14:15, 2 Kings 16:3–4). The farther from the time of Josiah's reforms, the broader the perception of an Asherah became. Trees described in later Jewish texts as being an asherah or part of an asherah include grapevines, pomegranates, walnuts, myrtles, and willows. Eventually, monotheistic leaders would suppress the tree due to its association with Asherah.

Deuteronomy 12 has Yahweh commanding the destruction of her shrines so as to maintain purity of his worship. Jezebel brought hundreds of prophets for Baal and Asherah with her into the Israelite court.

William Dever's book discusses female pillar figurines, the queen of heaven name, and the cakes. Dever also points to the temple at Tel Arad, the famous archaeological site with cannabanoids and massebot. Dever notes: "The only goddess whose name is well attested in the Hebrew Bible (or in ancient Israel generally) is Asherah."

Philistine records

Various partial inscriptions found on destroyed seventh century BCE jars in Ekron contain words like šmn "oil", dbl "fig cake", qdš "holy," l'šrt "to Asherah", and lmqm "for the shrine". This has been taken as evidence that Asherah was worshipped in Philistia.

In Egyptian sources

Attempts to identify Asherah within the pantheon of ancient Egypt have been met with both limited acceptance and controversy.

Beginning during the Eighteenth Dynasty of Egypt, a Semitic goddess named Qetesh ("holiness", sometimes reconstructed as Qudshu) appears prominently. That dynasty follows expulsion of occupying foreigners from an intermediary period. René Dussard suggested a connection to Asherah in 1941. Subsequent studies tried to find further evidence for equivalence of Qetesh and Asherah, although Wiggins does not. His hesitance did not dissuade subsequent scholars from equating Asherah with Qetesh.

In Arabia

As ʾAṯirat (Qatabanian: 𐩱𐩻𐩧𐩩 ʾṯrt) she was attested in pre-Islamic south Arabia as the consort of the moon-god ʿAmm.

One of the Tema stones (CIS II 113) discovered by Charles Huber in 1883 in the ancient oasis of Tema, northwestern Arabia, and now located at the Louvre, believed to date to the time of Nabonidus's retirement there in 549 BC, bears an inscription in Aramaic that mentions Ṣelem of Maḥram (צלם זי מחרמ‎), Šingalāʾ (שנגלא‎), and ʾAšîrāʾ (אשירא‎) as the deities of Tema. It is unclear whether the name would be an Aramaic vocalisation of the Ugaritic ʾAṯirat or a later borrowing of the Hebrew ʾĂšērāh or similar form. In any event, Watkins says the root of both names is a Proto-Semitic *ʾṯrt. Pritchard excerpts the mention wšnglʔ wʔšyrʔ ʔlhy tymʔ and differs on the root's meaning.

The Arabic root ʾṯr (as in أثر‎ ʾaṯar, "trace") is similar in meaning to the Hebrew ʾāšar, indicating "to tread", used as a basis to explain Asherah's epithet "of the sea" as "she who treads the ym (sea)."

Asherah survived late in remote South Arabia as seen in some common era Qatabanian and Maʕinian inscriptions.

Equation with Shapshu

The Ugaritic texts reveal significant parallels between the goddesses Athirat and Shapshu, suggesting a possible identification. Both are referred to as "The Lady" (rbt), a title signifying supreme authority in the pantheon, and they are described as mothers of the gods, key figures in creation, and central to maintaining cosmic order. Athirat’s epithet rbt ˀaṯrt ym has traditionally been interpreted as "Lady Athirat of the Sea," but recent analyses propose that ym might mean "day" instead of "sea." This reading aligns with Athirat’s name (ˀaṯrt), meaning "the one who goes," reflecting the sun’s journey across the sky.

Another significant reason for this conflation would be a passage found in Ugaritic inscription K1.23 which describes the myth known as The Gracious and Most Beautiful Gods. In this text, twins Shahar (dawn) and Shalim (dusk) are described as offspring of El through two women he meets at the seashore. The brothers are both nursed by "The Lady", likely Asherah and in other Ugaritic texts, the two are associated with the sun goddess Shapshu.

See also

Deities

• Al-Lat
• Ashima
• Ašratum
• Ashtar-Chemosh
• ʿAṯtar
• Hathor
• Inanna (Ishtar)
• Ishara
• Ishtarat
• Išartu
• Qetesh (Qudshu)
• Queen of Heaven (antiquity)
• Shapshu

Other

• Kuntillet ʿAjrud - inscriptions
• Nehushtan
• Revadim Asherah - Bronze age figures
• Judean pillar figure - Iron age figures
• Semitic neopaganism
• Shekhinah
• Tel Arad
• Asherah pole
• Xoanon
• Fig-cake (fruit)
• Ashteroth Karnaim

• Mythology
• Asia

Notes

1. Ugaritic 𐎛𐎍𐎚, ʾilt
2. Ugaritic 𐎖𐎄𐎌, qdš
3. Ugaritic 𐎗𐎁𐎚 𐎀𐎘𐎗𐎚 𐎊𐎎, rbt ʾṯrt ym
4. Ugaritic 𐎖𐎐𐎊𐎚 𐎛𐎍𐎎, qnyt ʾlm

References

1. ^ Binger 1997, p. 44.
2. "Asherah". The Columbia Electronic Encyclopedia. Columbia University Press. 2022. Retrieved 7 October 2022.
3. Day, John. "Asherah in the Hebrew Bible and Northwest Semitic Literature." Journal of Biblical Literature, vol. 105, no. 3, 1986, pp. 385–408. JSTOR. Accessed 5 Aug. 2021.
4. "Word list occurrences". DASI: Digital Archive for the Study of pre-Islamic Arabian Inscriptions. Archived from the original on 6 August 2021. Retrieved 6 August 2021.
5. 'Asertu, tablet concordance KUB XXXVI 35 - CTH 342 Archived 5 August 2021 at the Wayback Machine', Hittite Collection, Hatice Gonnet-Bağana; Koç University.
6. ^ Binger 1997, p. 108.
7. Dever, William G. (2008). Did God Have a Wife?: Archaeology and Folk Religion in Ancient Israel. Wm. B. Eerdmans Publishing. pp. 166–167. ISBN 978-0-8028-6394-2.
8. ^ Wesler, Kit W. (2012). An Archaeology of Religion. University Press of America. p. 193. ISBN 978-0761858454. Archived from the original on 10 January 2022. Retrieved 3 September 2014.
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10. ^ Wyse-Rhodes, Jackie (2015). "Finding Asherah: The Goddesses in Text and Image". In Hulster, Izaak J. de; LeMon, Joel M. (eds.). Image, Text, Exegesis: Iconographic Interpretation and the Hebrew Bible. Bloomsbury Publishing. pp. 71–90. ISBN 978-0-567-58828-9.
11. ^ Sass 2014, pp. 47–66.
12. ^ Puech, Émile (2015). "L'inscription 3 de Khirbet el-Qôm revisitée et l' 'Ashérah". Revue Biblique. 122 (1): 5–25. doi:10.2143/RBI.122.1.3149557. ISSN 2466-8583. JSTOR 44092312.
13. Pardee, COS I, p 277, DAWN AND DUSK
14. ^ Anthonioz, Stéphanie (2014). "Astarte in the Bible and her Relation to Asherah". In Sugimoto, David T. (ed.). Ishtar / Astarte / Aphrodite : Transformation of a Goddess. Orbis biblicus et orientalis. Vol. 263. Fribourg: Academic Press. pp. 125–139. ISBN 978-3-525-54388-7.
15. Judg. 3.7, 2 Chron. 19.3 and 3.3
16. Taylor 1995, pp. 39.
17. Pat-El, Na’ama (6 November 2018). Comparative Semitic And Hebrew Plural Morphemes. Cambridge Semitic Languages and Cultures Series (in French). Open Book Publishers. pp. 117–144. ISBN 9791036574214. Retrieved 11 November 2023.
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19. ^ Locatell, McKinny & Shai 2022, p. 580.
20. Locatell et al Apud KTU 1.3 I 23 "etc"
21. Context of Scripture I 1.87, pg = I:274 (§Author: Dennis Pardee. Editors Hallo, Younger, Orton, 2003. ISBN 90 04 135677 (VoL 1) ISBN 90 04 131051 (Set)).
22. Keel, Othmar; Uehlinger, Christoph (1 January 1998). Gods, Goddesses, And Images of God. Edinburgh: Bloomsbury Publishing. ISBN 978-0-567-08591-7.
23. Winter 1983, See §1.3.2 "Die Goettin & ihr Kultobjekt sind nicht zu trennen".
24. Kien 2000, p. 165.
25. Bach, Alice (1998). Women in the Hebrew Bible (1st ed.). Routledge. p. 171. ISBN 978-0-415-91561-8.
26. Redford, Donald B. (1992). Egypt, Canaan, and Israel in Ancient Times. Princeton University Press. p. 270. ISBN 978-0-691-03606-9.
27. Olyan 1988, p. 71.
28. 4 See KAT 89.1, rbt hwt “It, *rabbat hawwat ’ilat, “The Lady Hawwah, Elat,’” who is likely Asherah/Elat/Tannit. Elat is a well known epithet of Asherah both in the Bronze and Iron Ages. “The Lady” (rbt) is used frequently of Tannit in the Punic world. For another Punic attestation of hwt, see M. Lidzbarski, Ephemeris fuer semitische Epigraphik (GieBen: Topelmann, 1915) 3:285.
29. Day, John (2021). "The Serpent in the Garden of Eden: Its Background and Role". From Creation to Abraham: Further Studies in Genesis 1-11. Bloomsbury Publishing. p. 56. ISBN 978-0-567-70311-8.
30. Walker, M. Justin (2016). "The Wings of the Dove are Covered with Silver: The (Absent) Presence of the Goddess in Psalm 68". Ugarit-Forschungen. 47: 303. ISSN 0342-2356.
31. Amzallag 2023, p. 8: "Proverbs... includes references to a female divine being, and Asherah-like goddess personifying Wisdopm and present beside YHWH at the early time of creation"
32. Wolfson, Elliot (18 April 2013). "The Face of Jacob in the Moon: Mystical Transformations of an Aggadic Myth". Academia.edu. Retrieved 31 December 2023.
33. Rainbow, Jesse (2007). "Male μαστoι in Revelation 1.13". Journal for the Study of the New Testament. 30 (2). SAGE Publications: 249–253. doi:10.1177/0142064x07084777. ISSN 0142-064X. S2CID 171035381.
34. Taylor 1995, pp. 29–54.
35. Ziffer, Irit (2010). "Western Asiatic Tree-Goddesses". Ägypten und Levante / Egypt and the Levant. 20: 411–430. doi:10.1553/AEundL20s411. ISSN 1015-5104. JSTOR 23789949.
36. Olyan 1988.
37. Rich, Viktoria Greenboim (16 May 2022). "7,500-year-old Burial in Eilat Contains Earliest Asherah". Haaretz.com. Retrieved 29 November 2023.
38. ^ Stuckey 2002, p. 56.
39. Taylor 1995, p. 30.
40. Dever 2005, p. 188.
41. Locatell, McKinny & Shai 2022, p. 585.
42. Locatell, McKinny & Shai 2022, p. 584.
43. Hestrin, Ruth (1987). "The Lachish Ewer and the 'Asherah". Israel Exploration Journal. 37 (4). Israel Exploration Society: 215. ISSN 0021-2059. JSTOR 27926074.
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45. ^ Dever 2005.
46. Cornelius 2004, p. 28–29.
47. Aschera & der Ausschliesslichkeitsanspruch YHWH's, Frevel, 1995.
48. Context of Scripture II 2.107D, pg = II:257 (No author named; only ref: Sollberger and Kupper 1971: 219; Frayne 1990: 359-360).
49. Wiggins, Steve (2007). A reassessment of Asherah: with further considerations of the goddess. Piscataway, NJ: Gorgias Press. ISBN 978-1-59333-717-9. OCLC 171049273.
50. ^ Hess, Richard S. (1996). "Asherah or Asherata?". Orientalia. 65 (3): 209–219. ISSN 0030-5367. JSTOR 43078131.
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52. DULAT I p 128
53. the administrative text (KTU2 4.168: 4) https://www.jstage.jst.go.jp/article/jorient/55/2/55_53/_article/-char/en
54. ^ Gibson, J. C. L.; Driver, G. R. (1978), Canaanite Myths and Legends, T. & T. Clark, ISBN 9780567023513
55. ^ Rahmouni 2008, p. 278.
56. Rahmouni 2008, p. 281.
57. Wyatt 2003, p. 131ff.
58. Park 2010, pp. 527–534.
59. Binger 1997, pp. 42–93.
60. Kogan, Leonid (2011). "Proto-Semitic Lexicon". In Weninger, Stefan (ed.). The Semitic Languages: An International Handbook. Walter de Gruyter. pp. 179–258. ISBN 978-3-11-025158-6.
61. Numbers 6:5, Job 7:6
62. see KTU 1.4 I 23.
63. Smith, Mark S. (2002). The Early History of God: Yahweh and the Other Deities in Ancient Israel. The Biblical Resource Series. Chicago: Wm. B. Eerdmans Publishing Co. ISBN 978-0-8028-3972-5.
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65. Binger 1997.
66. See Keel & Uehlinger (1998), p. 40, fig. 31a, and lately Ornan (2005), pp. 160–163.
67. Goldwasser 2006, pp. 121–160.
68. Stuckey 2002.
69. Dever, William G. (1984). "Asherah, Consort of Yahweh? New Evidence from Kuntillet ʿAjrûd". Bulletin of the American Schools of Oriental Research (255): 21–37. doi:10.2307/1357073. ISSN 0003-097X. JSTOR 1357073. S2CID 163984447.
70. Meshel, Zev (1 January 1986), "The Israelite Religious Centre of Kuntillet 'Ajrud, Sinai", Archaeology and Fertility Cult in the Ancient Mediterranean, Amsterdam: B.R. Grüner Publishing Company, pp. 237–240, doi:10.1075/zg.15.24mes (inactive 3 December 2024), ISBN 978-90-6032-288-8, S2CID 211507289, retrieved 23 December 2023{{citation}}: CS1 maint: DOI inactive as of December 2024 (link)
71. Hadley 2000, pp. 122–136.
72. Bonanno, Anthony (1986). Archaeology and Fertility Cult in the Ancient Mediterranean: Papers Presented at the First International Conference on Archaeology of the Ancient Mediterranean, University of Malta, 2–5 September 1985. John Benjamins Publishing. p. 238. ISBN 9789060322888. Archived from the original on 18 January 2022. Retrieved 10 March 2014.
73. Ahituv 2014, p. 35.
74. Emerton, J. A. (1999). ""Yahweh and His Asherah": The Goddess or Her Symbol?". Vetus Testamentum. 49 (3): 315–337. doi:10.1163/156853399774228010. ISSN 0042-4935. JSTOR 1585374.
75. Lemaire, André (2024). "Judahite Hebrew Epigraphy and Cult". Jerusalem Journal of Archaeology. 7: 43–72. doi:10.52486/01.00007.3. ISSN 2788-8819.
76. Dever 2005, p. 163.
77. Winter 1983.
78. 1 NEWBERRY Beni Hasan i Pl xiii register 4 Cf PETRIE Deshasheh Pl v register 3 there is a very example in DAVIES Ptahhetep ii Pl xvii https://books.google.com/books/content?id=wkdFAAAAYAAJ&pg=PA19&img=1&zoom=3&hl=en&sig=ACfU3U11u8CT1WFcJ4vxFrwiXWvAs8n4_A&ci=101%2C1013%2C391%2C57&edge=0 https://books.google.com/books?id=wkdFAAAAYAAJ&q=licking+her+sucking
79. Patai 1990, p. 37.
80. Ackerman, Susan (1993). "The Queen Mother and the Cult in Ancient Israel". Journal of Biblical Literature. 112 (3): 385–401. doi:10.2307/3267740. JSTOR 3267740.
81. Bowen, Nancy (2001). "The Quest for the Historical Gĕbîrâ". Catholic Biblical Quarterly. 64: 597–618.
82. 1 Kings 15:13; 18:19, 2 Kings 10:13
83. Bird, Phyllis A. (2020). Harlot or Holy Woman?: A Study of Hebrew Qedešah. Penn State Press. p. 6. ISBN 978-1-64602-020-1.
84. Coogan 2010, p. 133.
85. Cf. Levenson, Jon D. (2014). Berlin, Adele; Brettler, Marc Zvi (eds.). The Jewish Study Bible (Second ed.). Oxford University Press. p. 72. ISBN 978-0-19-939387-9. Retrieved 29 July 2024. many scholars doubt that cultic prostitution as it is usually understood existed in ancient Israel.
86. "Photograph taken by Gertrude Bell in Israel, January 1900". Gertrude Bell Archive. 1 January 1900. Retrieved 18 January 2024.
87. "Genesis Chapter 1 (NKJV)". Blue Letter Bible. Archived from the original on 27 August 2016. Retrieved 14 August 2016.
88. "Asherah". www.asphodel-long.com. Archived from the original on 5 January 2006. Retrieved 14 February 2016.
89. Danby, Herbert (1933). The Mishnah: Translated from the Hebrew With Introduction and Brief Explanatory Notes. Oxford: Oxford University Press. pp. 90, 176. ISBN 9780198154020.
90. Deuteronomy 12: 3–4
91. Coogan, Michael (2010). God and Sex. Twelve. p. 47. ISBN 978-0-446-54525-9.
92. Dever 2005, p. 166.
93. Gitin, Seymour; Dothan, Trude; Naveh, Joseph (1997). "A Royal Dedicatory Inscription from Ekron". Israel Exploration Journal. 47 (1/2). Israel Exploration Society: 1–16. ISSN 0021-2059. JSTOR 27926455. Retrieved 19 February 2024.
94. Wiggins, Steve A. (1 January 1991). "The Myth of Asherah: Lion Lady and Serpent Goddess". Ugarit-Forschungen: Internationales Jahrbuch für ...
95. Jordan, Michael (14 May 2014). Dictionary of Gods and Goddesses. Infobase Publishing. p. 37. ISBN 9781438109855.
96. Watkins, Justin (2007). "Athirat: As Found at Ras Shamra". Studia Antiqua. 5 (1): 45–55. Archived from the original on 1 July 2019. Retrieved 10 July 2019.
97. J B Pritchard 1948 Palestinian figurines in relation to certain goddesses known through literature page 64. Further refers to Cooke in NSI pp 195 ff.
98. "A text-book of north-Semitic inscriptions : Cooke, G. A. (George Albert), 1865-1939 : Free Download, Borrow, and Streaming : Internet Archive". Internet Archive. 25 March 2023. Retrieved 20 February 2024.
99. (the Arabic root يم‎ yamm also means "sea")
100. Lucy Goodison and Christine E. Morris, Ancient Goddesses: Myths and Evidence (Madison: University of Wisconsin Press, 1998), 79.
101. Ahituv (2014), p. 33: lists dates from 5th C BCE to 6th C AD.
102. Sarlo, Daniel (1 January 2022). "The Equation of Athirat and Shapshu at Ugarit". Ugarit Forschungen.
103. Nougayrol, J., et al. 1968. Ugaritica. Volume 5. Paris.
104. van der Toorn, K.; Becking, Bob; Horst, Pieter Willem van der, eds. (1999). Dictionary of deities and demons in the Bible DDD (2nd extensively rev. ed.). Leiden ; Boston : Grand Rapids, Mich: Brill ; Eerdmans. ISBN 978-90-04-11119-6.

Bibliography

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• Ahlström, Gösta W. (1963), Engnell, Ivan; Furumark, Arne; Nordström, Carl-Otto (eds.), Aspects of Syncretism in Israelite Religion, Horae Soederblominae 5, translated by Sharpe, Eric J., Lund, SE: C.W.K. Gleerup, p. 68
• Albright, W. F. (1968), Yahweh and the gods of Canaan: a historical analysis of two contrasting faiths, London: University of London, Athlone Press, pp. 105–106, ISBN 9780931464010
• Albright, William Foxwell (1969). The Proto-Sinaitic Inscriptions and Their Decipherment. Harvard University Press. ISBN 0-608-18593-0.
• Barker, Margaret (2012), The Mother of the Lord Volume 1: The Lady in the Temple, T & T Clark, ISBN 9780567528155
• Amzallag, Nissim (2023). Yahweh and the Origins of Ancient Israel. New York: Cambridge University Press. ISBN 978-1-009-31476-3. Retrieved 10 December 2023.
• Beaulieu, Stéphane (1 January 2007). "Eve's Ritual: the Judahite Sacred Marriage Rite". Concordia University. Retrieved 9 December 2023.
• Binger, Tilde (1997), Asherah: Goddesses in Ugarit, Israel and the Old Testament (1st ed.), Sheffield: Sheffield Academic Press, pp. 42–93, ISBN 9780567119766
• Cornelius, Sakkie (2004). "A Preliminary Typology for the Female Plaque Figurines and Their Value for the Religion of Ancient Palestine and Jordan" (PDF). Journal of Northwest Semitic Languages 30/1: 21–39. Retrieved 19 October 2023.
• Dever, William G. (2005), Did God Have A Wife?: Archaeology And Folk Religion In Ancient Israel, Wm. B. Eerdmans Publishing, ISBN 9780802828521
• Emerton, J. A. (1982). "New Light on Israelite Religion: The Implications of the Inscriptions from Kuntillet ʿAjrud". Zeitschrift für die Alttestamentliche Wissenschaft. 94: 2–20. doi:10.1515/zatw.1982.94.1.2. S2CID 170614720.
• Goldwasser, Orly (2006), "Canaanites Reading Hieroglyphs. Horus is Hathor? - The Invention of the Alphabet in Sinai", Egypt and the Levant, 16: 121–160
• Hadley, Judith M. (2000), The Cult of Asherah in Ancient Israel and Judah: The Evidence for a Hebrew Goddess, University of Cambridge Oriental publications, 57, Cambridge University Press, ISBN 9780521662352
• Keel, Othmar (1998). Goddesses and Trees, New Moon and Yahweh. Sheffield: Burns & Oates. ISBN 978-1-85075-915-7.
• Kien, Jenny (2000), Reinstating the Divine Woman in Judaism, Universal Publishers, ISBN 9781581127638, OCLC 45500083
• Locatell, Christian; McKinny, Chris; Shai, Itzhaq (30 September 2022). "Tree of Life Motif, Late Bronze Canaanite Cult, and a Recently Discovered Krater from Tel Burna". Journal of the American Oriental Society. 142 (3). doi:10.7817/jaos.142.3.2022.ar024. ISSN 2169-2289. (Access only by subscription or article purchase.)
• Long, Asphodel P. (1993), In a Chariot Drawn by Lions: The Search for the Female in Deity, Crossing Press, ISBN 9780895945754.
• Margalit, Baruch (1989), "Some Observations On the Inscription and Drawing From Khirbet El-Qôm", Vetus Testamentum, XXXIX (3): 371–378, doi:10.1163/156853389X00534, ISSN 0042-4935
• Myer, Allen C. (2000), "Asherah", Eerdmans Dictionary of the Bible, Amsterdam University Press
• Olyan, Saul M. (1988). Asherah and the Cult of Yahweh in Israel. Atlanta, Georgia: Atlanta, Ga. : Scholars Press. ISBN 978-1-55540-253-2.
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• Wyatt, N. (2003), Religious Texts from Ugarit (2nd ed.), London: Sheffield Academic Press

External links

Asherah

• Asphodel P. Long, The Goddess in Judaism – An Historical Perspective
• Asherah, the Tree of Life and the Menorah
• Jewish Encyclopedia: Asherah
• Rabbi Jill Hammer, An Altar of Earth: Reflections on Jews, Goddesses and the Zohar
• University of Birmingham: Deryn Guest: Asherah at Archive.org
• Lilinah biti-Anat, Qadash Kinahnu Deity Temple "Room One, Major Canaanite Deities"

Kuntillet ʿAjrud inscriptions

• Jacques Berlinerblau, "Official religion and popular religion in pre-Exilic ancient Israel" (Commentary on Yahweh's Asherah.)
• ANE: Kuntillet bibliography
• Jeffrey H. Tigay, "A Second Temple Parallel to the Blessings from Kuntillet Ajrud" (University of Pennsylvania) (This equates Asherah with an asherah.)

Israelite

• David Steinberg, Israelite Religion to Judaism: the Evolution of the Religion of Israel

• Asherah
• Ancient Israel and Judah
• Book of Deuteronomy
• Book of Jeremiah
• Deities in the Hebrew Bible
• Fertility goddesses
• Levantine mythology
• Mother goddesses
• Phoenician mythology
• West Semitic goddesses
• Arabian goddesses
• Queens of Heaven (antiquity)
• Ugaritic deities
• Lion goddesses
• Judaism-related controversies