R i g h t a r d i a: TIme: Hebrew Female goddess written out of the bible

Thursday, March 24, 2011

TIme: Hebrew Female goddess written out of the bible

Asherah statuette

There are many ancient texts, amulets and figurines unearthed primarily in an ancient Canaanite coastal city now in Syria about Jaweh's better half, Asherah.

Inscriptions on pottery found in the Sinai desert also show Yahweh and Asherah were worshipped as a pair, and a passage in the Book of Kings mentions the goddess as being housed in the temple of Yahweh.

Francesca Stavrakopoulou of the University of Exeter is suggesting the theory that God had a wife who was edited out of the Bible. She is hardly the first academic to write about this.

J. Edward Wright, president of The Arizona Center for Judaic Studies and The Albright Institute for Archaeological Research, backs Stavrakopoulou's findings, saying several Hebrew inscriptions mention "Yahweh and his Asherah."

Stavrakopoulou notes that "the Bible's admission that the goddess Asherah was worshiped in Yahweh's Temple in Jerusalem" is significant.

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

Most biblical historians contend that Elohim was the creator of both Jahweh and Asherah. It was also Elohim who created Adam, not Jahweh. Elohim also created Liilith, the first woman. Are you starting to get confused?

Some historians suggest Elohim was a hermaphrodite God that was both male and female and this is why the Hebrew word is often considered a plural form.

Asherah pole or shrine being destroyed

Asherah was mi\ore popular than Jaweh who was a spiteful god and Asherah pole shrines lined the roads in ancient Israel. Jewish women also had statutes of their godess in their kitchens.

Around 600 BCE King Joesph or Josiah decided to get rid of Asherrah and just wanted a single male god, Yahweh. No doubt the Jewish priests were delighted to help the king rid the kingdom of the female goddess.

In 622 the high priest Hilkiah persuaded King Josiah that a "hidden" text in the temple revealed the "true faith" of the "Yahweh only" movement. This is arguably the point where 'no other gods before me' became strict monotheism - no other gods at all!

Well, Asherah was a goddess, not a god, wasn't she?

However, many of the Asherah traditions are still maintained today in the Kabbalah.

Much of the Old Testament has been subsequently recomposed to portray the earlier history as monotheistic.

Poof, Judaism was now a monotheistic religion.

But what about Elohim? Rightardia believes Elohim was actually the Flying Spaghetti monster (FSM). The FSM is, in fact, the one true god.

Yes, Virginia, Judaism as did almost all other religions started out polytheistic.

sources