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发帖数: 801 | 1 http://news.discovery.com/history/god-wife-yahweh-asherah-11031
God's Wife Edited Out of the Bible -- Almost
God's wife, Asherah, was a powerful fertility goddess, according to a
theologian.
THE GIST
God, also known as Yahweh, had a wife named Asherah, according to a British
theologian.
Amulets, figurines, inscriptions and ancient texts, including the Bible,
reveal Asherah's once prominent standing.
God had a wife, Asherah, whom the Book of Kings suggests was worshiped
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 worshiped both Yahweh and Asherah. The theory has gained new
prominence due to the research of Francesca Stavrakopoulou, who began her
work at Oxford and is now a senior lecturer in the department of Theology
and Religion at the University of Exeter.
Information presented in Stavrakopoulou's books, lectures and journal papers
has become the basis of a three-part documentary series, now airing in
Europe, where she discusses the Yahweh-Asherah connection.
"You might know him as Yahweh, Allah or God. But on this fact, Jews, Muslims
and Christians, the people of the great Abrahamic religions, are agreed:
There is only one of Him," writes Stavrakopoulou in a statement released to
the British media. "He is a solitary figure, a single, universal creator,
not one God among many ... or so we like to believe."
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"After years of research specializing in the history and religion of Israel,
however, I have come to a colorful and what could seem, to some,
uncomfortable conclusion that God had a wife," she added.
Stavrakopoulou bases her theory on ancient texts, amulets and figurines
unearthed primarily in the ancient Canaanite coastal city called Ugarit, now
modern-day Syria. All of these artifacts reveal that Asherah was a powerful
fertility goddess.
Asherah's connection to Yahweh, according to Stavrakopoulou, is spelled out
in both the Bible and an 8th century B.C. inscription on pottery found in
the Sinai desert at a site called Kuntillet Ajrud.
"The inscription is a petition for a blessing," she shares. "Crucially, the
inscription asks for a blessing from 'Yahweh and his Asherah.' Here was
evidence that presented Yahweh and Asherah as a divine pair. And now a
handful of similar inscriptions have since been found, all of which help to
strengthen the case that the God of the Bible once had a wife."
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Also significant, Stavrakopoulou believes, "is the Bible's admission that
the goddess Asherah was worshiped in Yahweh's Temple in Jerusalem. In the
Book of Kings, we're told that a statue of Asherah was housed in the temple
and that female temple personnel wove ritual textiles for her."
J. Edward Wright, president of both The Arizona Center for Judaic Studies
and The Albright Institute for Archaeological Research, told Discovery News
that he agrees several Hebrew inscriptions mention "Yahweh and his Asherah."
"Asherah was not entirely edited out of the Bible by its male editors," he
added. "Traces of her remain, and based on those traces, archaeological
evidence and references to her in texts from nations bordering Israel and
Judah, we can reconstruct her role in the religions of the Southern Levant."
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Asherah -- known across the ancient Near East by various other names, such
as Astarte and Istar -- was "an important deity, one who was both mighty and
nurturing," Wright continued.
"Many English translations prefer to translate 'Asherah' as 'Sacred Tree,'"
Wright said. "This seems to be in part driven by a modern desire, clearly
inspired by the Biblical narratives, to hide Asherah behind a veil once
again."
"Mentions of the goddess Asherah in the Hebrew Bible (Old Testament) are
rare and have been heavily edited by the ancient authors who gathered the
texts together," Aaron Brody, director of the Bade Museum and an associate
professor of Bible and archaeology at the Pacific School of Religion, said.
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.
SLIDE SHOW: Sacred Techs: Religion and Spirituality 2.0
The ancient Israelites were polytheists, Brody told Discovery News, "with
only a small minority worshiping Yahweh alone before the historic events of
586 B.C." In that year, an elite community within Judea was exiled to
Babylon and the Temple in Jerusalem was destroyed. This, Brody said, led to
"a more universal vision of strict monotheism: one god not only for Judah,
but for all of the nations." | s*********a
发帖数: 801 | 2 这个耶和华的妻子是上世纪七十年代的考古发现，到上年才向大众公布，太晚了一点吧
？ | l*****a
发帖数: 38403 | 3 多谢，这可以解释很多疑问
The ancient Israelites were polytheists, Brody told Discovery News, "with
only a small minority worshiping Yahweh alone before the historic events of
586 B.C." In that year, an elite community within Judea was exiled to
Babylon and the Temple in Jerusalem was destroyed. This, Brody said, led to
"a more universal vision of strict monotheism: one god not only for Judah,
but for all of the nations." |
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