Asherah

For the small research submarine, see Asherah (submarine).

Asherah (/ˈæʃərə/;^[2] Hebrew: אֲשֵׁרָה, romanized: ʾĂšērā; Ugaritic: 𐎀𐎘𐎗𐎚, romanized: ʾAṯiratu; Akkadian: 𒀀𒅆𒋥, romanized: Aširat;^[3] Qatabanian: 𐩱𐩻𐩧𐩩 ʾṯrt)^[4] is the great goddess in ancient Semitic religion. She also appears in Hittite writings as Ašerdu(s) or Ašertu(s) (Hittite: 𒀀𒊺𒅕𒌈, romanized: a-še-ir-tu₄).^[5] Her name was Aṯeratum to the Amorites,^[6][7] and Athiratu in Ugarit. Significantly, Yahweh and Asherah were a consort pair in ancient Israel and Judah.^{[8][9][10][11]}

Asherah אֲשֵׁרָה‎
Lady Day^[1] Goddess of fertility
Other names	Athirat
Major cult center	Middle-East Formerly Jerusalem
Symbol	Sacred tree, yoni
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)

Name

Etymology

Some have sought a common-noun meaning of her name, especially in Ugaritic appellation rabat athirat yam. 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.^[1] The title rabat athirat yam is only found in the Baal cycle.

The common NW Semitic meaning of šr is "king, prince, ruler."^[12] The NW Semitic^[13] root ʾṯr (arabic أثر‎) means "tread".

Grammar

The -ot ending "Asherot" is found three times in the Tanakh,^[14] with -im "Asherim" making up the great majority.^[15] The significance is unclear, as the interaction of gender and number in Hebrew is not robustly understood.^[16] 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.^[17]

Title

Her titles often include qdš "holy", or elat, ba'alat, or rabat,^[18] all meaning Lady or goddess, qnyt ỉlm, "creator of the gods."^[19][20]

Goddess or symbol

The Asherah in question is sometimes called a mere cultic object,^[21] but de Vaux says "both,"^[13] and Winter says the goddess and her symbol should not be distinguished.^[22]

 

Flat lighting and en face presentation can lessen the visual effect of the Judean pillar figure's directly protruding breasts

Interpretation

Beside the obvious connections between goddesses who sometimes can't 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^[23] through the identification with the Hurrian mother goddess, Hebat.^[24][25] Olyan says Eve (hawwa) is an attested epithet of Tannit/Asherah in the first millennium BCE.^[26][27] Hebrew chwwh is related to Aramaic chwyh and Phoenician chwt "snake".^[28] A more Phoenician pronunciation Ḥawwat is Eve 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.^[29] Another such aspect is seen in the feminine (grammatically or otherwise) treatment of the Holy Spirit or Sophia.^[30] Goddess "aspect creep" can even lap upon male figures like Jacob^[31] or Jesus.^[32]

Iconography

There are many symbols associated, but the symbols equivalent to the Goddess have been taken for some time to be the sacred tree and the pubic triangle.^[33]

Small figures

Main articles: Judean pillar figure and Revadim Asherah

Symbolism

Cakes

The cakes baked for the Queen of Heaven in Jeremiah are called Kawwanim.^[34] It's likely a loan word from the Akkadian kamanu, "cake." Some have suggested the cakes were made "in her image" by use of molds, like the buxom and hippy clay molds found at Mari.^[35] Ugaritic and Hebrew dblt means a similar fig and sometimes raisin cake.^[36]

Snakes

 

Goddesses and snakes together from prehistory^[37][38]

Snakes are associated with transformation, completeness, immortality, ocracles,^[39] as well as water, the abyss, "bitter" poison, and healing. Mentions go together in places including Ugarit^[40][41] and Papyrus Amherst 63.^[42]

Yoni

 

Several of these pendants^[a] employ a metonymic representation in which limited parts of the goddess (ie head, breasts, and pubic triangle stand for the whole.^[43]

Vaginal symbols are often used in goddess art.^[44][45] The ubiquitous pubic triangle indicates Asherah and depicts hair. Pubic hair is often indicated by concentrations of dots or dashes.^[46] Sometimes a triangle is portrayed polysemically as a grape cluster or the yoni shape as the wings of a soaring eagle. See photo with gold jewelry. Some call it omega: "It is possible that the Ω... symbolized the womb."^{[21]: 26 [45]} But the womb could be a nutrix symbol, as animals are often shown feeding directly if a bit abstractly from a pubic triangle.^[47]

Palm

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^{[48][page needed]}.

Oak

Trees inconsistently translated as oak, terebinth, poplar contain the divine name El (elah, elim, elon, allah) and are sometimes utterly homophonous with 'Elat.^[49] There is a plausible etymological relationship between ʾElat and אלה terebinth.^[50][51]

Almond

Like the oak, almonds have an etymology with a possible goddess link by homophony. "Two strains grow in Israel: amygdalus communis var. dulcis, which has pink blossoms and sweet fruit, and amygdalus communis var. amara, with white blossoms and bitter fruit.^[52] Yarden points out that the name itself is curious. The Latin name amygdala probably derives from a Semitic root, meaning ’great mother’, which was in Mesopotamian amagallu, and in Sumerian AMA.GAL. In Hebrew it would have been ’em g^edola."^[53] The almond may have its fertile association from its early blooming, which also gave it its other Hebrew name shaqed or vigilant/watcher. (A note on the word is here.^[54]) The name "luz" means both almond and Betyl.

Other Trees

Some sacred trees may have been left to archaeology.^[55]

Joan Taylor says the trees of the Lachish ewer may be Asherim.

The imagery of Asherah poles also inspired the design of the menorah and the burning bush narrative, as described in the Book of Exodus.^[56]

Pottery

 

"The dedicatory inscription on the Lachish ewer [shows] the word Elat positioned immediately over the tree, indicating the... tree as a representation of the goddess Elat."^[18]

Main article: Lachish ewer

As further proof, Hestrin noted^[57] that in a group of other pottery vessels found in the Fosse Temple 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. Moreover, the numerous clay images of a goddess, often called ’Astarte figurines’, found in Israelite levels of many sites are representative of Asherah as a tree. These figurines have bodies which resemble tree trunks.^[58]

Mistress of animals

 

The master of animals motif can include chimeric beasts, in this case - a "Throne of Astarte" fron Cyprus

See also: Master of animals and Potnia Theron

The Master of animals and mistress of lions motifs are "almost undoubtedly depictions of the goddess Asherah."^[59] The lioness made a ubiquitous symbol for goddesses of the ancient Middle East that was similar to the dove^[60] 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".^[60]

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. Fravel's 1000-page dissertation ends philosophically and enigmatically with the pronouncement "Es gibt keine genuine Ascheraikonographie."^{[clarification needed][61][62]}

By region

Sumer

A limestone slab for Hammu-rapi was dedicatted to the goddess Ashratum, wife of Mardu/Amurrum in Sippar. He complements her mountain connection as lord of the mountain or bel shadī. Ashratum's name is cognate with Ugaritic ʾAṯirat. Hammu-rapi presages similar use with words like voluptuousness, joy, tender, patient, mercy to commemorate setting up a "protective genius" (font?) for her in her temple.^[63] Necessity alone corroborates that this was a different goddess from the more familiar versions as Sumerian hegemony was quite early.

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.^[64]

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".^[65]

* EA 60 ii	um-ma ^IÌR-^daš-ra-tum
* EA 61 ii	[um-]ma ^IÌR-a-ši-ir-te ÌR-[-ka4

Each is on line ii within the letter's opening or greeting sentiment. Some may transcribe Aširatu or Ašratu.^[64]

Ugarit

In Ugaritic texts, Asherah appears as ʾṯrt^[66] (Ugaritic: 𐎀𐎘𐎗𐎚), anglicised ʾAṯirat or Athirat. She is called ʾElat,^[b] "goddess", the feminine form of ʾEl (compare Allāt); she is also called Qodeš, "holiness",.^[c] There is reference to a šr. ‘ṯtrt.^[67] Gibson says sources from before 1200 BC almost always credit Athirat with her full title rbt ʾṯrt ym (or rbt ʾṯrt).^[68][d] However, Rahmouni's indexing of Ugaritic epithets states the phrase occurs in only the Baʿal Epic.^[69] Apparently of Akkadian origin, rabat means "lady" (literally "female great one").^[69] 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",^[70] alternatively, "she who walks on the sea",^[1] or even "the Great Lady-who-tramples-Yam".^[71] which invites relation to a Chaoskampf in which neither she nor Yam is otherwise implicated. One scholar 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.^[72] 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 1997 finds many 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".^[73] The common Semitic root ywm (for reconstructed Proto-Semitic *yawm-),^[74] 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,^[75] 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.

ṯr is Ugaritic for bull.^[76] Another primary epithet of Athirat was qnyt ʾilm,^[e][77] which may be translated as "the creator of the deities".^[68] 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

Main articles: Ancient Semitic religion and Canaanite pantheon

The conception of Asherah as the partner of Yahweh has stirred a lot of debate.^[78][79][80] Many scholars have written at length about the possibility, and the majority conclude that Yahweh and Asherah were indeed a consort pair among the ancient Israelites.^{[8][9][10][81]}

 

Khirbet el-Qom's hand is a symbol of Asherah as a protector,^[82] but there is no scholarly hypothesis on why it appears upside-down.

Prime evidence for worship includes an iconography and inscriptions at two locations in use in the 8-9th century. The first was in a cave at Khirbet el-Qom.^[83]

The second was at Kuntillet Ajrud.^[84][85][86] In the latter, a storage jar shows bovid-anthropomorphic figures and several inscriptions^[60][87] that refer to "Yahweh of Samaria and his Asherah" and "Yahweh of Teman and his Asherah."^[88]

Main article: Kuntillet Ajrud inscriptions

In one potsherd there appear a large and small bovine.^[89] This ambiguous-suckling motif has diverse examples, see figs 413-419 in Winter.^[90] In fact, already Flinders Petrie in the 1930s was referring to Davies on the memorable stereotype.^{[91][full citation needed]} Numerous Canaanite artworks depict a woman wearing a bouffant wig similar to the Egyptian goddess Hathor. Again Petrie and his public domain Hyksos-era Gaza volumes showed early examples of Canaanite-Egyptian art including same.^[92]

Early scholarship emphasized somewhat mutually-negating possibilities of holy prostitution, hieros gamos, and orgiastic rites.^[93] It has been suggested by several scholars^[94][95] that there is a relationship between the position of the gəḇīrā in the royal court and the worship (orthodox or not) of Asherah.^[96] 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. As for sexual and fertility rites, it is likely that once they were held in honor in Israel, as they were throughout the ancient world. 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 qds meaning "holy".^[97] However, there is a growing scholarly consensus that sacred prostitution never existed, and that sex acts within the temple were strictly limited to yearly sacred fertility rites aimed at assuring an abundant harvest.^[98]

In the canon

 

References were long obfuscated

 

1900, grove at Brook Kedron, Jerusalem, Gertrude Bell^[99]

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).^[100]

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.^[101] 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.^[102] Eventually, monotheistic leaders and the culture would begin failing to distinguish a precious or suspicious tree from an Asherah.

Asherah was patronized by female royals such as the Queen Mother Maacah (1 Kings 15:13). The women of Jerusalem attested, "When we burned incense to the Queen of Heaven and poured out drink offerings to her, did not our husbands know that we were making cakes impressed with her image and pouring out drink offerings to her?" Another raisin-cake reference is found in Hosea. (Jeremiah 44:19 and Hosea 3:1). This passage corroborates a number of archaeological excavations showing altar spaces in Hebrew homes.

Deuteronomy 12 has Yahweh commanding the destruction of her shrines so as to maintain purity of his worship.^[103] Jezebel brought hundreds of prophets for Baal and Asherah with her into the Israelite court.^[104]

William Dever's book Did God Have a Wife? adduces further archaeological evidence—for instance, the many female pillar figurines unearthed in ancient Israel, as supporting the view that during Israelite folk religion of the monarchical period, Asherah functioned as a goddess and a consort of Yahweh and was worshiped as the queen of heaven, for whose festival the Hebrews baked small cakes. Dever also points to the discovery of multiple shrines and temples within ancient Israel and Judah. The temple at Tel Arad (famous archaeological site with cannabanoids) is particularly interesting for the presence of two or three massebot, standing stones representing the presence of deities. Although the identity of the deities associated with the massebot is uncertain, Yahweh and Asherah or Asherah and Baal remain strong candidates, as Dever notes: "The only goddess whose name is well attested in the Hebrew Bible (or in ancient Israel generally) is Asherah."^[105]

In Egyptian sources

 

In Egypt, the body of the goddess can be "in" the tree. In other cultures' art, you see a small tree on the goddess's body.

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.^[106] His hesitance didn't dissuade additionally subsequent scholars from equating Asherah and Egyptian qds.^[18]

In Egypt the imprecise term "tree goddess" might find some coherence, as in art the tree form was sometimes primary, unlike in the Levant. In Egypt, famous art shows a teat coming from a tree.^[107] (This is Goldwasser's goddess category IVa.)^[108] In Revadim (Revadim Asherah) or Ugarit, in contrast, a small tree branch is seen on the thigh or belly. (This is Shai's "pubis of life."^[109]) In each, the alternate aspect is subsumed emblematically.^[110]

A certain (PNs) Ashera and a Haya-Wr (Eve-Light) are mentioned in the Papyrus Brooklyn.

In Arabia

As ʾAṯirat (Qatabanian: 𐩱𐩻𐩧𐩩 ʾṯrt) she was attested in pre-Islamic south Arabia as the consort of the moon-god ʿAmm.^[111]

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. This ʾAšîrāʾ may be Asherah. 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.^[112]

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).^[113]"^[114]

Asherah survived late in remote South Arabia as seen in some common era Qatabanian and Maʕinian inscriptions.^[115]

See also

Deities

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

Other

• Kuntillet ʿAjrud - inscriptions
• Nehushtan
• Revadim Asherah - Bronze age figures
• Judean pillar figure - Iron age figures
• Semitic neopaganism
• Shekhinah
• Tell Ashtara
• Tel Arad
• Asherah pole
• Ashteroth Karnaim

Notes

1. Figs 5a-b
2. Ugaritic 𐎛𐎍𐎚, ʾilt
3. Ugaritic 𐎖𐎄𐎌, qdš
4. Ugaritic 𐎗𐎁𐎚 𐎀𐎘𐎗𐎚 𐎊𐎎, rbt ʾṯrt ym
5. 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, www.jstor.org/stable/3260509. Accessed 5 Aug. 2021.
4. "DASI: Digital Archive for the Study of pre-islamic arabian Inscriptions: Word list occurrences". dasi.cnr.it. from the original on 6 August 2021. Retrieved 6 August 2021.
5. 'Asertu, tablet concordance KUB XXXVI 35 - CTH 342 5 August 2021 at the Wayback Machine', Hittite Collection, Hatice Gonnet-Bağana; Koç University.
6. Lete, Gregorio del Olmo; Sanmartín, Joaquín (2004). A Dictionary of the Ugaritic Language in the Alphabetic Tradition. Vol. 67. Leiden: Brill. p. 128. ISBN 90-04-13694-0.
7. aṯrt (II) DN; El's wife (cf il (I); Hb ʔšrh, HALOT 99; DNWSI 129; Amor. ʔaš(i)ra(tum) Gelb CAAA 14 is how it's transliterated in DULAT.
8. Binger 1997, p. 108.
9. "BBC Two - Bible's Buried Secrets, Did God Have a Wife?". BBC. 21 December 2011. from the original on 15 January 2012. Retrieved 4 July 2012.
10. Wesler, Kit W. (2012). An Archaeology of Religion. University Press of America. p. 193. ISBN 978-0761858454. from the original on 10 January 2022. Retrieved 3 September 2014.
11. Mills, Watson, ed. (31 December 1999). Mercer Dictionary of the Bible (Reprint ed.). Mercer University Press. p. 494. ISBN 978-0865543737. from the original on 10 January 2022. Retrieved 5 November 2020.
12. Pardee, COS I, p 277, DAWN AND DUSK
13. 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.
14. Judg. 3.7, 2 Chron. 19.3 and 3.3
15. Taylor 1995, pp. 39.
16. 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.
17. "A New Analysis of YHWH's asherah". Religion and Literature of Ancient Palestine. 13 December 2015. Retrieved 24 December 2023.
18. Locatell, McKinny & Shai 2022, p. 580.
19. Auth cites KTU 1.3 I 23 "etc"
20. Ahituv 2014, p. 33.
21. Keel, Othmar; Uehlinger, Christoph (1 January 1998). Gods, Goddesses, And Images of God. Edinburgh: Bloomsbury Publishing. ISBN 978-0-567-08591-7.
22. Winter 1983, See §1.3.2 "Die Goettin & ihr Kultobjekt sind nicht zu trennen".
23. Kien 2000, p. 165.
24. Bach, Alice (1998). Women in the Hebrew Bible (1st ed.). Routledge. p. 171. ISBN 978-0-415-91561-8.
25. Redford, Donald B. (1992). Egypt, Canaan, and Israel in Ancient Times. Princeton University Press. p. 270. ISBN 978-0-691-03606-9.
26. Olyan 1988, p. 71.
27. 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.
28. "The Tree of Life, Asherah, and Her Snakes". Jehovah's Witness Discussion Forum. 10 June 2004. Retrieved 16 December 2023.
29. 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.
30. 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"
31. Wolfson, Elliot (18 April 2013). "The Face of Jacob in the Moon: Mystical Transformations of an Aggadic Myth". Academia.edu. Retrieved 31 December 2023.
32. Rainbow, Jesse (2007). "Male μαστoι in Revelation 1.13". Journal for the Study of the New Testament. SAGE Publications. 30 (2): 249–253. doi:10.1177/0142064x07084777. ISSN 0142-064X. S2CID 171035381.
33. Taylor 1995, pp. 29–54.
34. Jerm 7 18; 44 19
35. Day, Peggy Lynne (1989). Gender and Difference in Ancient Israel. Fortress Press. p. 115. ISBN 978-1-4514-1576-6.
36. Ugaritic Alphabetic, p 263
37. Die kykladische Sonnengöttin hatte eine ägäische Schwester, die Schlangengöttin Altkretas. Von ihr ist sogar der Name überliefert, der nach seiner Schreibung in Linear A als A−sa−sa−ra zu lesen ist.
38. Haarmann, Harald (8 June 2017). Das Rätsel der Donauzivilisation (in German). München: Verlag C.H.Beck. ISBN 3-406-70963-X.
39. Stuckey 2002, p. 35.
40. KOITABASHI, Matahisa (2013). "Ashtart in the Mythological and Ritual Texts of Ugarit". Bulletin of the Society for Near Eastern Studies in Japan. The Society for Near Eastern Studies in Japan. 55 (2): 53–62. doi:10.5356/jorient.55.2_53. ISSN 0030-5219.
41. Lete, Gregorio Del Olmo (2011). "KTU 1.82: Another Miscellaneous Incantation/Anti-Witchcraft Text against Snakebite in Ugaritic". Aula orientalis: revista de estudios del Próximo Oriente Antiguo. 29 (2): 245–265. ISSN 0212-5730.
42. Col XVI
43. Locatell, McKinny & Shai (2022), p. 583: Shai fig 5a.
44. It is interesting that the Hathor coiffe resembles the Ω symbol, it symbolized the womb.
45. Stuckey 2002, p. 56.
46. Locatell, McKinny & Shai 2022, p. 585.
47. Locatell, McKinny & Shai 2022, p. 584.
48. Olyan 1988.
49.   This article incorporates text from a publication now in the public domain: Singer, Isidore; et al., eds. (1901–1906). "OAK AND TEREBINTH". The Jewish Encyclopedia. New York: Funk & Wagnalls.
50. Locatell, McKinny & Shai 2022, p. 581.
51. Shai refers to Albright (1968), p. 189.
52. EncJud II col 666
53. Taylor 1995, pp. 47.
54. "shaked". Balashon. 8 February 2009. Retrieved 29 November 2023.
55. Rich, Viktoria Greenboim (16 May 2022). "7,500-year-old Burial in Eilat Contains Earliest Asherah". Haaretz.com. Retrieved 29 November 2023.
56. Sommer, Benjamin D. (2011). The Bodies of God and the World of Ancient Israel. Cambridge University Press. pp. 44–49. ISBN 978-1107422261.
57. Hestrin, Ruth (1987). "The Lachish Ewer and the 'Asherah". Israel Exploration Journal. Israel Exploration Society. 37 (4): 215. ISSN 0021-2059. JSTOR 27926074.
58. Taylor 1995, p. 30.
59. Beaulieu 2007, p. 303.
60. Dever 2005.
61. Cornelius 2004, p. 28–29.
62. Aschera & der Ausschliesslichkeitsanspruch YHWH's, Frevel, 1995.
63. Context of Scripture II 2.107D, pg = II:257 (No author named; only ref: Sollberger and Kupper 1971: 219; Frayne 1990: 359-360).
64. Hess, Richard S. (1996). "Asherah or Asherata?". Orientalia. 65 (3): 209–219. ISSN 0030-5367. JSTOR 43078131.
65. Patai, Raphael (January 1965). "The Goddess Asherah". Journal of Near Eastern Studies. 24 (1/2): 37–52. doi:10.1086/371788. ISSN 0022-2968. S2CID 162046752.
66. DULAT I p 128
67. the administrative text (KTU2 4.168: 4) https://www.jstage.jst.go.jp/article/jorient/55/2/55_53/_article/-char/en
68. Gibson, J. C. L.; Driver, G. R. (1978), Canaanite Myths and Legends, T. & T. Clark, ISBN 9780567023513
69. Rahmouni 2008, p. 278.
70. Rahmouni 2008, p. 281.
71. Wyatt 2003, p. 131ff.
72. Park 2010, pp. 527–534.
73. Binger 1997, pp. 42–93.
74. 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.
75. Numbers 6:5, Job 7:6
76. Smith, Mark S. (2014). "Athtart in Late Bronze Age Syrian Texts". In Sugimoto, David T. (ed.). Ishtar / Astarte / Aphrodite : Transformation of a Goddess. Orbis biblicus et orientalis. Vol. 263. Fribourg: Academic Press. p. 46. ISBN 978-3-525-54388-7.
77. see KTU 1.4 I 23.
78. Sass 2014, pp. 47–66.
79. 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.
80. 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.
81. Mills, Watson, ed. (31 December 1999). Mercer Dictionary of the Bible (Reprint ed.). Mercer University Press. p. 494. ISBN 978-0865543737. from the original on 10 January 2022. Retrieved 5 November 2020.
82. Binger 1997.
83. Stuckey 2002.
84. 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.
85. 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.
86. 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, ISBN 978-90-6032-288-8, S2CID 211507289, retrieved 23 December 2023
87. Hadley 2000, pp. 122–136.
88. 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. from the original on 18 January 2022. Retrieved 10 March 2014.
89. Dever 2005, p. 163.
90. Winter 1983.
91. 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&printsec=frontcover#v=onepage&q=licking%20her%20sucking&f=false
92. "ERA 56 Petrie, Flinders - Ancient Gaza 4 (1934)". 23 December 2023.
93. Patai 1990, p. 37.
94. 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.
95. Bowen, Nancy (2001). "The Quest for the Historical Gĕbîrâ". Catholic Biblical Quarterly. 64: 597–618.
96. 1 Kings 15:13; 18:19, 2 Kings 10:13
97. Bird, Phyllis A. (2020). Harlot or Holy Woman?: A Study of Hebrew Qedešah. Penn State Press. p. 6. ISBN 978-1-64602-020-1.
98. Coogan 2010, p. 133.
99. "Photograph taken by Gertrude Bell in Israel, January 1900". Gertrude Bell Archive. 1 January 1900. Retrieved 18 January 2024.
100. "Genesis Chapter 1 (NKJV)". Blue Letter Bible. from the original on 27 August 2016. Retrieved 14 August 2016.
101. "Asherah". www.asphodel-long.com. from the original on 5 January 2006. Retrieved 14 February 2016.
102. Danby, Herbert (1933). The Mishnah: Translated from the Hebrew With Introduction and Brief Explanatory Notes. Oxford: Oxford University Press. pp. 90, 176. ISBN 9780198154020.
103. Deuteronomy 12: 3–4
104. Coogan, Michael (2010). God and Sex. Twelve. p. 47. ISBN 978-0-446-54525-9.
105. Dever 2005, p. 166.
106. Wiggins, Steve A. (1 January 1991). "The Myth of Asherah: Lion Lady and Serpent Goddess". Ugarit-Forschungen: Internationales Jahrbuch für ...
107. Due Uralte Sykomore & andere Erscheinung der Hathor. MOFTAH, RAMSES. Zeitschrift fuer Aegyptische Sprache und Altertumskunde #1-2. Fig 6 / Abb 6. Pg 45
108. Keel 1998, p. 37.
109. Locatell, McKinny & Shai 2022, p. 586.
110. Keel 1998, p. 47.
111. Jordan, Michael (14 May 2014). Dictionary of Gods and Goddesses. Infobase Publishing. p. 37. ISBN 9781438109855.
112. Watkins, Justin (2007). "Athirat: As Found at Ras Shamra". Studia Antiqua. 5 (1): 45–55. from the original on 1 July 2019. Retrieved 10 July 2019.
113. (the Arabic root يم‎ yamm also means "sea")
114. Lucy Goodison and Christine E. Morris, Ancient Goddesses: Myths and Evidence (Madison: University of Wisconsin Press, 1998), 79.
115. Ahituv (2014), p. 33: lists dates from 5th C BCE to 6th C AD.

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External links

 

Wikimedia Commons has media related to Asherah.

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
• at Archive.org

Kuntillet ʿAjrud inscriptions

• (Commentary on Yahweh's Asherah.)
• (This equates Asherah with an asherah.)

Israelite