Big one for anyone who thinks monotheism came fast: 8th-century BC pottery from the Sinai carries an inscription reading "Yahweh and his Asherah." Asherah was a Canaanite fertility goddess worshipped across the ancient Near East for centuries, and the Book of Kings describes a statue of her kept outside the Jerusalem temple, alongside Yahweh worship. Oxford's Francesca Stavrakopoulou argues the evidence points to Asherah as Yahweh's original consort, with the single-god version arriving later. The video notes the shift to exclusive Yahweh worship dates to after 586 BC, when Babylon destroyed Jerusalem and exiled the population — and that surviving priests and scribes rewrote earlier texts to strip out the other gods. Tentative, but the archaeology is hard to dismiss 🏺🙏
8th-century BC Sinai pottery names Yahweh with Asherah; statue stood at Jerusalem temple
IsraelTheory
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Key facts
- The Hebrew Bible repeatedly depicts a divine council, with texts in Job, Deuteronomy and Isaiah showing God surrounded by other heavenly beings running the cosmos together
- Deuteronomy 32 states that the nations of the earth were divided up and assigned to the 'sons of God', with Israel's nation allotted to Yahweh
- Pottery inscriptions found in the Sinai desert, dated to the 8th century BC, read 'Yahweh and his Asherah'
- Asherah was a Canaanite fertility goddess and the most widely worshipped goddess across the ancient Near East for centuries
- The Book of Kings describes a statue of Asherah kept outside the Jerusalem temple, in the building where Yahweh was worshipped at the same time
- Oxford scholar Francesca Stavrakopoulou argues from the inscriptions and the archaeological record that Asherah was originally Yahweh's consort and that the single-god version came later
- Researcher Aaron Brody dates the shift to exclusive worship of Yahweh to after 586 BC, when Babylon destroyed Jerusalem and carried the population into exile
- The video states that priests and scribes who survived the Babylonian exile rewrote earlier texts, stripping out the other gods and elevating Yahweh to the only god
Sources
livius.org
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nbcnews.com
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oldtestamentquestions.com
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YHWH and his Asherah? – Biblical Archaeology ...jwwartick.com
He also argues that reading asherah as a cultic symbol in this inscription (and likely elsewhere) is reflective of “theological presuppositions” ...
GOD MALE AND FEMALE IN THE OLD TESTAMENTtheologicalstudies.net
Say to Y and Yau'asah and [to ZJ: I bless you by Yahweh, our guardian/of Samaria, and by his/its asherah/Asherah. goddess Isis
Is it true that there is an inscription that says that Yahweh ...christianity.stackexchange.com
In this video, around 1:08:40, Amihai Mazar, of the Hebrew University of Jerusalem, says: The name "Yahweh", as the name of an Israelite God, [...] appears ...
What would an inscription about a consort of Yahweh really ...christian-thinktank.com
(1) this translation from ABD has Yahweh saving Uriyahu from his enemies "BY" the asherah. This is an odd construction for expressing consort-status, and would ...
Of YHWH and Asheratah (Kuntillet 'Ajrud excerpts)mostlydeadlanguages.tumblr.com
Say to my lord, “Are you well? I bless you by YHWH of Teman and by Asheratah. May he bless and keep you, and may he be with my lord forever.
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