Fertility Goddess Asherah: Was 'God's Wife' Edited Out of the Bible? Read more: http

[metta]

Fertility Goddess Asherah: Was 'God's Wife' Edited Out of the Bible?


http://newsfeed.time.com/2011/03/22/fertility-goddess-asherah-was-gods-wife-edited-out-of-the-bible/

 

[BearMagus]

This is so old.. This theory has been tossed around since the mid 1980s.There is no evidence except for on piece of ostraca that reads "YHWH and his Asherah" which is a very generic term at best.

 

[Harke the Boeotarch]

If God had a wife does that mean that he was cheating when he got Mary pregnant with Jesus.

The Jewish religion of that time allowed men to have several wives at once.

This is so old.. This theory has been tossed around since the mid 1980s.

Yes. I saw the reruns on European tv in the early nineties.

 

[BlondeCanadian]

There was always a fertility goddess. They predate almost all religions and usually when a new religion was established they adopted her into the pantheon.. Like the Snake Goddess that they sort of half heartedly turned into Hera.

 

[barnbuddy]

we certainly know that certain gospels were left out of the current "new testement," so I wouldn't be surprised if there were revisions to the "old testament" as well.

over thousands of years, there have been multiple translations, bad copies etc....remember, the original bible stories were probably spoken verses. when it was commited to parchment it was written in an ancient language that was probably difficult to read when Jesus was born.

each generation reinterprets "holy" texts to suit their purposes. a few months ago, I heard some TV christian tell an audience that Jesus was "really" a small businessman (as a carpenter,)and he understood the problem of excessive taxation. but the gospel only mentions that Joseph, Mary's husband, was a carpenter, and nothing about how Jesus made a living. in fact, all you readin the texts is that he lived off charity, like the Budda.

wouldn't it suck to be sent to hell (eternal torment and torture, etc....) because you studied a bad translation of the bible?

 

[RobinGoodfellow]

barnbuddy: Heh.

There was always a fertility goddess. They predate almost all religions and usually when a new religion was established they adopted her into the pantheon.. Like the Snake Goddess that they sort of half heartedly turned into Hera.

Back up the bus. The problem is that we are discussing a religion where there is an actual commandment forbidding any other god than the one. He may have dated her at some point, but I don't think that they are still dating openly...

RG

 

[BlondeCanadian]

That is basically semantics, What is the difference between God and his lesser saints than say Zeus and his lesser deities?... Do saints not get churches that they are patrons are and causes?.. They probably portrayed this asherah person as a saint and said she was the patron saint of childbirth and the harvest or something

 

[Nomenclature]

That is basically semantics, What is the difference between God and his lesser saints than say Zeus and his lesser deities?...

Saints aren't gods/goddesses or deities; they're humans - without sin - who have died, but had done good deeds while they were here.

 

[chatolandia]

I wouldn't be surprised that the relationship existed in ancient times.

Religions do not develop in a bubble, and Asherah/Ishtar was the most important Goddess of the region... so I am pretty sure the very early Israelite worshiped her

and the knew about the sacred prostitutes of Ishtar, they are mentioned quite often in the old testament.

 

[HoodedRat]

I would be surprised if the jealous, temperamental, childish, vindictive, psychophatic deity described in the OT was capable of attracting or maintaining a wife.

Surely any self-respecting goddess around at the time could have done so much better for herself. After all the the bronze-age middle east was crawling with rival local tribal wanna-be gods she would've had no need to settle for the appalling Mr Yahweh.

 

[levenshulme31]

So the world's favourite imaginary friend had his own imaginary friend. How cute.

 

[RobinGoodfellow]

1) Just because a god or goddess was mentioned in The Bible does not mean the person was thought of in positive light. Just ask Baal....

2)

Humans without sin... my, what a concept. What happened to original sin then? So the supposition is that anyone can (and many do) perform good deeds while they are alive, but only those born without sin are qualified to be saints. Indeed.

There was that whole "Jesus died for your sins" thing....and "died without sin" is an over-simplification...

RG