God had a wife, Asherah, whom the Book of Kings suggests was worshiped alongside
Asherah, along with Astarte and Anath, was one of the three great goddesses of the Canaanite pantheon. In Canaanite religion her primary role was that of mother goddess. Canaanites associated Asherah with sacred trees, an association also found in the Israelite tradition.
Much of the discussion about Heavenly Mother consists of references to the logic of the relationship – if God is the father of our spirits, as Mormons believe, then there would need to be a mother.
Baal was the god of rain, wind, and fertility. Because Canaan depended on rain to grow crops and survive, he was numero uno. Asherah, another popular deity in Canaan, was the goddess of motherhood and fertility. Depending on the tradition, she was either Baal's mother, lover, or both.
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). Trees described as being an asherah or part of an asherah include grapevines, pomegranates, walnuts, myrtles, and willows.
In the sixth chapter of the Book of Judges, God is recorded as instructing the Israelite judge Gideon to cut down an Asherah pole that was next to an altar to Baal. The wood was to be used for a burnt offering.
The present article responds to Whitt's ingenious proposal that Hosea dramatizes, in the speech recorded in Hos 2, the divorce which ends the marriage between Yahweh, the god of Israel, and the goddess Asherah, of Canaanite fame.
God had a wife, Asherah, whom the Book of Kings suggests was worshipped alongside Yahweh in his temple in Israel, according to an Oxford scholar. In 1967, Raphael Patai was the first historian to mention that the ancient Israelites worshipped both Yahweh and Asherah.
The goddesses Asherah, Anat, and Astarte first appear as distinct and separate deities in the tablets discovered in the ruins of the library of Ugarit (modern Ras Shamra, Syria). Most biblical scholars tend to regard these goddesses as one, especially under the title "Queen of heaven".
Thus, in the Ugaritic texts, el and his consort Asherah are clearly designated as the parents of the gods who are collectively designated as the "seventy children of Asherah" (II Anchor Bible VI 46), "the generation [circle, family] of El," (III K III 17–19), or the "circle of the sons of El," (2:17, 34; 107:2).
Asherah as a tree symbol was even said to have been "chopped down and burned outside the Temple in acts of certain rulers who were trying to 'purify' the cult, and focus on the worship of a single male god, Yahweh," he added.
The Bible mentions the Lilith only once, as a dweller in waste places (Isaiah 34:14), but the characterization of the Lilith or the lili (in the singular or plural) as a seducer or slayer of children has a long pre-history in ancient Babylonian religion.
"Christian tradition has long held that Jesus was not married, even though no reliable historical evidence exists to support that claim," King said in a press release.
As mother goddess she was widely worshiped throughout Syria and Palestine, although she was frequently paired with Baal, who often took the place of El; as Baal's consort, Asherah was usually given the name Baalat.
The Church as the Bride in Ephesians 5:22-33: The Church is called the Bride of Christ and Christ is declared the Head of the Church, His Bride. As individual believers and as the Church we have an intimate relationship with Christ. This is a relationship that is closer than an earthly husband and wife relationship.
Alternatively, it is possible that the name indicates some connection of Asherah with the sea. She has been identified by some with the Cyprian Aphrodite, the goddess intimately connected with harbors (as well as with love).
Lunar Constructs: Asherah can turn lunar energy into tools, objects, weapons and other items, create semi-living constructs and/or create structures/buildings of varying permanence. Asherah who have mastered this ability can use it for almost any situation, creating anything they need.
As the consort of Yahweh and the Supreme Goddess of Creation, Asherah is said to be every bit as powerful as God. As such She is commonly attributed to omnipotence, omnipresence, omniscience, omnibenevolence, and divine simplicity.
Asherah Origin and Meaning
The name Asherah is girl's name meaning "she who treads on the sea". Asherah is probably one of the most ancient of mother goddess symbols, recorded in the pantheons of several civilisations from the tenth century BCE.
In the Bible, the Iron Age text of 1 Kings 18:19 states that Asherah had prophets in Tyre just as the Canaanite god Baal had prophets. Additionally, 2 Kings 23:6 declares that the priests of Solomon's Temple brought out “all the objects made for Baal and Asherah and all the host of heaven”.
Jehovah (/dʒɪˈhoʊvə/) is a Latinization of the Hebrew יְהֹוָה Yəhōwā, one vocalization of the Tetragrammaton יהוה (YHWH), the proper name of the God of Israel in the Hebrew Bible/Old Testament.
Though Church teaching, in line with its Doctors, holds that God has no literal sex because God possesses no body (a prerequisite of sex), classical and scriptural understanding states that God should be referred to (in most contexts) as masculine by analogy.
The Mesha Stele bears the earliest known reference (840 BCE) to the Israelite God Yahweh.
The Ashera in Eilat was dated by radiocarbon analysis to 4540 B.C.E. It is the oldest “Ashera” found anywhere.
7500-year-old idol of Goddess Asherah located in Israel - Arkeonews.