Asherah

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.^[1]

The common NW Semitic meaning of šr is "king, prince, ruler."^[13] The NW Semitic^[14] root ʾṯr (arabic أثر‎) means "tread".

Grammar

The -ot ending "Asherot" is found three times in the Tanakh,^[15] with -im "Asherim" making up the great majority.^[16] The significance is unclear, as the interaction of gender and number in Hebrew is not robustly understood.^[17] 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.^[18]

Title

Her titles often include qdš "holy", or elat, ba'alat, or rabat,^[19] all meaning Lady or goddess,^[20] and qnyt ỉlm, "creator of the gods."^[21]

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".^[22] de Vaux says Asherah was "both,"^[14] and Winter says the goddess and her symbol should not be distinguished altogether.^[23]

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^[24] through the identification with the Hurrian mother goddess, Hebat.^[25][26] Olyan notes that Eve's original Hebrew name, ḥawwā^h, is cognate to ḥawwat, an attested epithet of Tannit/Asherah in the first millennium BCE.^[27][28] Other scholars dispute the connection between Tanit and Asherah and between Asherah and Eve.^[29] 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.^[30] Another such aspect is seen in the feminine (grammatically or otherwise) treatment of the Holy Spirit or Sophia.^[31] Goddess "aspect creep" can even lap upon male figures like Jacob^[32] or Jesus.^[33]

A variety of symbols have been associated with Asherah. The most common by far is that of the tree,^[34] an equivalence seen as early as Neolithic times.^[35]

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.^{[36][page needed]} The remains of a juniper tree discovered in a 7,500 year old gravesite in Eilat has been considered an Asherah tree by some.^[37]

Asherah's association with fertility was not limited to her association with trees; she was often depicted with pronounced sexual features.^[38] Idols of Asherah, often called ’Astarte figurines’, are representative of Asherah as a tree in that they have bodies which resemble tree trunks,^[39] 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.^[40] Many times, Asherah's pubis area was marked by a concentration of dots, indicating pubic hair,^[41] though this figure is sometimes polysemically understood as a grape cluster.^[38] 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.^[42]

Remarking on the Lachish ewer, Hestrin noted^[43] 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."^[44]The lioness made a ubiquitous symbol for goddesses of the ancient Middle East that was similar to the dove^{[45][page needed]} 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".^{[45][page needed]}

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".^[46][47]

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.^[48]

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.^{[49][page needed]}

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.^[50]

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".^[51]

Each is on line ii within the letter's opening or greeting sentiment. Some may transcribe Aširatu or Ašratu.^[50]

Ugarit

In Ugaritic texts, Asherah appears as ʾṯrt^[52] (Ugaritic: 𐎀𐎘𐎗𐎚), anglicised ʾAṯirat or Athirat. She is called ʾElat,^[a] "goddess", the feminine form of ʾEl (compare Allāt); she is also called Qodeš, "holiness".^[b] There is reference to a šr. ‘ṯtrt.^[53] Gibson says sources from before 1200 BC almost always credit Athirat with her full title rbt ʾṯrt ym (or rbt ʾṯrt).^[54][c] However, Rahmouni's indexing of Ugaritic epithets states the phrase occurs in only the Baʿal Epic.^[55] Apparently of Akkadian origin, rabat means "lady" (literally "female great one").^[55] 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",^[56] alternatively, "she who walks on the sea",^[1] or even "the Great Lady-who-tramples-Yam."^[57] 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.^[58] 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".^[59] The common Semitic root ywm (for reconstructed Proto-Semitic *yawm-),^[60] 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,^[61] 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,^[d][62] which may be translated as "the creator of the deities".^[54] 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.^[10][11][12] Many have written about it, and many scholars conclude that Yahweh and Asherah were indeed a consort pair among the ancient Israelites.^[6][7][8][9]

Inscriptions

Prime evidence for 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.^[66]

The second was at Kuntillet Ajrud.^[67][68][69] In the latter, a jar shows bovid-anthropomorphic figures and several inscriptions^[45][70] that refer to "Yahweh of Samaria and his Asherah" and "Yahweh of Teman and his Asherah."^[71] Some scholars hold that the "asherah" mentioned in the inscriptions refers to a cultic symbol, rather than a goddess.^[72]

In one potsherd there appear a large and small bovine.^[73] This "oral fixation" motif has diverse examples, see figs 413-419 in Winter.^[74] In fact, already Flinders Petrie in the 1930s was referring to Davies on the memorable stereotype.^{[75][full citation needed]} 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.^[76]It has been suggested by several scholars^[77][78] that there is a relationship between the position of the gəḇīrā in the royal court and the worship (orthodox or not) of Asherah.^[79] 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".^[80] 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.^[81]

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).^[83]

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.^[84] 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.^[85] 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.^[86] Jezebel brought hundreds of prophets for Baal and Asherah with her into the Israelite court.^[87]

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."^[88]

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.^[89]

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.^[90] His hesitance did not dissuade subsequent scholars from equating Asherah with Qetesh.^[19]

In Arabia

As ʾAṯirat (Qatabanian: 𐩱𐩻𐩧𐩩 ʾṯrt) she was attested in pre-Islamic south Arabia as the consort of the moon-god ʿAmm.^[91]

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.^[92] Pritchard excerpts the mention wšnglʔ wʔšyrʔ ʔlhy tymʔ and differs on the root's meaning.^[93][94]

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).^[95]"^[96]

Asherah survived late in remote South Arabia as seen in some common era Qatabanian and Maʕinian inscriptions.^[97]

Deities

• Ahituv, Shmuel (2014). "Notes on the Kuntillet 'Ajrud Inscriptions". In Eshel, Esther; Levin, Yigal (eds.). "See, I will bring a scroll recounting what befell me" (Ps 40:8): Epigraphy and Daily Life from the Bible to the Talmud. Vandenhoeck & Ruprecht. pp. 29–38. ISBN 978-3-647-55062-6.
• 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.
• Ornan, Tallay (2005). The Triumph of the Symbol: Pictorial Representation of Deities in Mesopotamia and the Biblical Image Ban. Saint-Paul. ISBN 978-3-525-53007-8.
• Park, Sung Jin (2010). "Short Notes on the Etymology of Asherah". Ugarit Forschungen. 42: 527–534.
• Park, Sung Jin (2011). "The Cultic Identity of Asherah in Deuteronomistic Ideology of Israel". Zeitschrift für die Alttestamentliche Wissenschaft. 123 (4): 553–564. doi:10.1515/zaw.2011.036. ISSN 0044-2526. S2CID 170589596.
• Patai, Raphael (1990), The Hebrew Goddess, Jewish folklore and anthropology, Wayne State University Press, ISBN 9780814322710, OCLC 20692501.
• Rahmouni, Aicha (2008), Divine Epithets in the Ugaritic Alphabetic Texts, translated by Ford, J. N., Leiden, NE: Brill, ISBN 9789004157699
• Reed, William Laforest (1949), The Asherah in the Old Testament, Texas Christian University Press, OCLC 491761457.
• Sass, Benjamin (2014). "On Epigraphic Hebrew ʾŠR and *ʾŠRH, and on Biblical Asherah". Transeuphratène. J. Elayi – J.-M. Durand (eds.). Bible et Proche-Orient. Mélanges André Lemaire. 3 vol. (Transeuphratène 44-46; Pendé: Gabalda, 2014). 46: 47–66 (with Pls. 4–5 on 189–190). ISSN 0996-5904.
• Stuckey, Johanna H. (1 January 2002). "The Great Goddesses of the Levant". Journal for the Study of Egyptian Antiquities. Retrieved 11 December 2023.
• Taylor, Joan E. (1995), "The Asherah, the Menorah and the Sacred Tree", Journal for the Study of the Old Testament, 20 (66), University of Sheffield, Dept. of Biblical Studies: 29–54, doi:10.1177/030908929502006602, ISSN 0309-0892, OCLC 88542166, S2CID 170422840
• Wiggins, Steve A. (1993), A Reassessment of 'Asherah': A Study according to the Textual Sources of the First Two Millennia B.C.E, Alter Orient und Altes Testament, Bd. 235., Verlag Butzon & Bercker, ISBN 9783788714796
• Wiggins, Steve A. (2007), Wyatt, N. (ed.), A Reassessment of Asherah: With Further Considerations of the Goddess, Gorgias Ugaritic Studies 2 (2nd ed.), New Jersey: Gorgias Press
• Winter, Urs (1983). Frau und Göttin (in German). Freiburg, Schweiz Göttingen: Vandenhoeck & Ruprecht. ISBN 3-525-53673-9.
• Wyatt, N. (2003), Religious Texts from Ugarit (2nd ed.), London: Sheffield Academic Press

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
• 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