In the photo: Figurine of Ashera
Last weekend, the English-speaking public was literally blown up by the news of a sensational exposure, which is going to make a British scientist Dr. Francesca Stavrokopoulou. On Tuesday, the BBC will air the next episode of her popular science show, "Buried Bible Secrets". In it, Francesca is going to talk about the wife of the Jewish god (Yahweh - Jehovah).
“Jews, Muslims and Christians are alike in one thing - God is one. The Creator is alone, he is not the first of many. But as a result of long-term research in the history and religion of Israel, I came to a funny and, perhaps, not the most pleasant conclusion - he had a wife, the scientist says. She also mentions the name of the companion of the one whose name the Jews do not pronounce - Ashera.
Dr. Stavrokopoulou notes that this was the name of the powerful goddess of fertility of the ancient Ugaritic culture, which was located in the territory of modern Syria. Another piece of evidence is a clay tablet found on Sinai, which mentions "the Almighty and his Asher." The author of the program claims that in the Old Testament itself, despite the editorial "purges", mentions of a female deity are also preserved.
It should be noted that the tablet referred to by Stavrokopulu was discovered by Israeli archaeologists in the Sinai town of Kuntilet Ajrud back in 1975. Scientists have found another similar monument in the vicinity of Hebron. And clay figurines depicting the goddess of fertility are found all over the eastern coast of the Mediterranean.
Most scholars agree that the struggle between monotheism and the remnants of paganism among the tribes of Israel was a long process. For several centuries, along with the cult of the Most High, there was the worship of local deities, among which was Ashera. Judaism won the final victory only by the 6th century BC. It is not surprising that even the word "Elohim", which is called the Most High in Hebrew, has a plural ending.
The first version that the ancient Jews worshiped a married couple was expressed by the Israeli scientist Raphael Patai in the book "The Jewish Goddess", which was published back in 1967. In the decades that followed, scholarly works such as When God Was a Woman by Marilyn Stone and Did God Have a Wife? William Dever. Their authors set themselves the task of restoring popular ideas about religion that existed three thousand years ago.
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According to Patay, the Jews simply could not do without the powerful female deity that existed among the peoples around them. First of all, the cult of fertility is associated with this deity. During the period of codification of Scripture, the male priests who edited the text destroyed most of the references to a female deity.
But some evidence of the former power of the woman goddess still remains in the Bible. The figures of cherubim guarding the Ark of the Covenant seem to be especially remarkable researchers. According to biblical descriptions, they are convinced, cherubim clearly express the female sexuality.
Even forty years after the publication of Pathai's book, his theory has more opponents than supporters. For example, Dr. Shamir Yona, who heads the Department of Bible Studies at Ben-Gurion University in the Negev, is convinced that the evidence found so far is insufficient to draw any definite conclusions.
“Thirty-five years ago, a plaque with the inscription 'The Almighty and his Asher' was indeed discovered in Sinai. Therefore, many researchers decided that the Lord had a wife. But their opponents put forward a hypothesis according to which "Ashera" is not a goddess, but some special place in the Temple. Another version claims that this was the name of the sacred tree. The word “Asherah” is also found in the Bible, but not in the meaning of the wife of the Most High,”he said.
Another archaeological find that can be considered as confirmation of the theory of Pataya is located near the city of Arad in southern Israel. Here scientists have discovered an ancient Jewish sanctuary, which is a miniature copy of the Jerusalem temple. In the Holy of Holies of the Arad temple there are two tablets - a larger and a smaller one.
Supporters of the "conjugal hypothesis" are convinced that these are the idols of the Almighty and Ashera. They consider the Arad temple to be the only surviving and undeniable evidence of the ancient Jewish cult of a female deity. Mankind was lucky, they say, while all other temples were destroyed by the Jewish kings, who sought to transfer the entire cult to Jerusalem, this sanctuary was simply filled up.
Dr. Shamir Yona does not share this belief. “There are indeed two tablets in Tel Arad, but there is no unequivocal evidence that the gods-spouses were worshiped here. So it's too early to put an end to the dispute. And this is not about believers rejecting the conclusions of scientists - the researchers themselves have not come to a final conclusion. To put an end to this dispute, some revolutionary findings will be required. But they are not there yet,”he said.
According to believers, the main problem of researchers is that they take the Holy Scriptures literally, while the Bible is a world of images. In addition, in Judaism, there is often no "canonical" interpretation of a particular problem - there are rabbis who think one thing, and there are rabbis who think differently.
One of the most authoritative leaders of the conservative community in Israel, Rabbi Michael Graetz, who was the deputy editor-in-chief of the Judaica encyclopedia, told NEWSru.co.il about various interpretations of the feminine divine principle. Our interlocutor noted that in the Scriptures the Most High is often metaphorically described as a woman. So, in the book of the prophet Isaiah, the creation of the world is compared with childbirth, and the Lord with a woman in labor.
“The masculine and feminine components of the divine essence are spoken of mainly in the Midrash. As the sages write, Adam, created in the image and likeness of the Lord, originally contained both a man and a woman - after all, Eve was separated from him. From this researchers can conclude that since such an Adam is like the Lord, then the Almighty also contains both principles, said Rabbi Graetz.
According to our interlocutor, we can say that God was really married - with the people of Israel. The sages describe the Jewish people as the bride of the Most High, and the giving of the Torah as a wedding, that is, the divine essence, as it were, “copulates” with its people.
“The pinnacle of this is the Kabbalistic texts, in which the personification of the feminine component of the divine takes place, which received the name“Shekhinah”. Kabbalists paid much attention to this issue. But it is worth remembering that Kabbalists do not speak their own about the Lord, for them he is “Ein Sof” - infinity. They are engaged in various manifestations of his unknowable divine essence, which are revealed to people,”said the rabbi.
“So in religious texts one can find evidence of the female component of the Almighty, but to claim that he was married is still an exaggeration. Even at the dawn of the Jewish cult, he did not have a real wife. He is married to Israel. A covenant is a marriage contract. Even when it comes to the feminine qualities of God, the Bible does not mention his separate, feminine personality,”concluded Rabbi Graetz.