Who on Earth is Asherah?

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deserthermit

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I don’t mean to sound blasphemous, but did the Israelites really worship a Goddess alongside G-d? I almost laughed out loud when someone told me this. What’s the real story behind this?
 
you might ask the person who told you this to provide a source, otherwise, just keep laughing. It is documented in scripture, namely by the prophets who preached against the practice, that Hebrews, against the Law, married women from pagan religions, that those women frequently brought their pagan gods and practices into the community with dire effects.
 
puzzleannie said:
you might ask the person who told you this to provide a source, otherwise, just keep laughing. It is documented in scripture, namely by the prophets who preached against the practice, that Hebrews, against the Law, married women from pagan religions, that those women frequently brought their pagan gods and practices into the community with dire effects.
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So there never was a “Hebrew Goddess” then. I thought as much and thanks:) I think my friend read it in that book called “The Holy Blood and the Holy Grail”. I couldn’t find anything in the bible that even remotely mentions this. I tried telling him that it was only a scam to make a quick buck…🤷
 
The goddess, the Queen of heaven whose worship Jeremiah so vehemently opposed, may have been Asherah or possibly Astarte. Asherah was worshipped in ancient Israel as the consort of El and Judah as the consort of Yahweh and Queen of Heaven (the Hebrews baked small cakes for her festival):

“Seest thou not what they do in the cities of Judah and in the streets of Jerusalem? The children gather wood, and the fathers kindle the fire, and the women knead their dough, to make cakes to the queen of heaven, and to pour out drink offerings unto other gods, that they may provoke me to anger.”
—Jeremiah 7:17–18
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Asherah#cite_note-0
 
Valke2 said:
The goddess, the Queen of heaven whose worship Jeremiah so vehemently opposed, may have been Asherah or possibly Astarte. Asherah was worshipped in ancient Israel as the consort of El and Judah as the consort of Yahweh and Queen of Heaven (the Hebrews baked small cakes for her festival):

“Seest thou not what they do in the cities of Judah and in the streets of Jerusalem? The children gather wood, and the fathers kindle the fire, and the women knead their dough, to make cakes to the queen of heaven, and to pour out drink offerings unto other gods, that they may provoke me to anger.”
—Jeremiah 7:17–18
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Asherah#cite_note-0
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So she IS mentioned in the bible … Some of the people must’ve assimilated her from other pagan religions. The more conservative Jews couldn’t have been too thrilled that the people were straying from the path. But the conservative Hebrews never had more than one G-d … at least I think so.
 
The worship of Baal, Asherah, and other gods and goddesses was one of the problems that plagued the people of Judah and Israel. God had called them to be his people, but many of them were not always faithful and lusted after false gods. The prophets kept calling them back and when they did not listen, God punished them. The ten Northern tribes were particularly rebellious.
 
deserthermit said:
But the conservative Hebrews never had more than one G-d … at least I think so.
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They did. The ancient Semites had a whole pantheon – Baal the crop god, Asherah the fertility goddess, Nechushtan the trickster, and many others. Monotheism didn’t spring up out of nowhere, it was developed as the worship of YHWH came to the fore and rejected other deities. Abraham was not the first Jew, but the first Jewish monotheist.
 
Well, let us not forget that our first parents were too… till the fall …Abel most likely was

also …Seth …Enoch …Noah …Shem … …

What is surprising is how fast and vigorous the bad leaven of polythiesm spread …and how vigorously God kept His chosen people from being overwhelmed by it - esp. in the critcal truths , such as the veneration that was to be owed to the bl.Mother not be polluted by persistent pagan goddess worship …and idolworship not take hold , to confuse the Real Presence !
 
Mirdath said:
They did. The ancient Semites had a whole pantheon – Baal the crop god, Asherah the fertility goddess, Nechushtan the trickster, and many others. Monotheism didn’t spring up out of nowhere, it was developed as the worship of YHWH came to the fore and rejected other deities. Abraham was not the first Jew, but the first Jewish monotheist.
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To apply “jew” to Abraham seems a bit anachronistic, doesn’t it? 🙂

Most people think that monotheism developed FROM polytheism. That is of course precisely backwards.
 
CatsAndDogs said:
To apply “jew” to Abraham seems a bit anachronistic, doesn’t it? 🙂

Most people think that monotheism developed FROM polytheism. That is of course precisely backwards.
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Huh?

Abraham was called out of the polytheistic pagan world by the one God. God called Abraham into a covenant relationship. So I wouldn’t say that monotheism ‘developed’ as much as it was revealed.
 
Mirdath said:
They did. The ancient Semites had a whole pantheon – Baal the crop god, Asherah the fertility goddess, Nechushtan the trickster, and many others. Monotheism didn’t spring up out of nowhere, it was developed as the worship of YHWH came to the fore and rejected other deities. Abraham was not the first Jew, but the first Jewish monotheist.
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I think the term Jew came from the name Judah, one of Jacob’s sons. So Abraham could be called the father of the Jews. IMO the semitic people that Abraham came out of can’t properly be called Jews or Israelites.
 
deserthermit said:
So she IS mentioned in the bible … Some of the people must’ve assimilated her from other pagan religions. The more conservative Jews couldn’t have been too thrilled that the people were straying from the path. But the conservative Hebrews never had more than one G-d … at least I think so.
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The Jewish faith didn’t permit the worship of false gods. The Jews who were worshiping the pagan gods of their wives were abandoning their heritage. Jeremiah was calling them back.
 
One should never underestimate the ability of old beliefs and superstitions to persist in any group - think of how many people of various religions read their horoscopes or have ‘lucky’ objects?
 
CatsAndDogs said:
To apply “jew” to Abraham seems a bit anachronistic, doesn’t it? 🙂
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Yeah, you got me there – still, point made, I think :o

The other gods didn’t just fade away instantly, though. Even when they weren’t worshiped, they were still around, whether they were considered demons, false gods, or even servants of the one God. Remember the bronze serpent Moses made to cure those affected by the plague of snakes? That was Nechushtan.
 
Claire_from_DE said:
Quote:
Originally Posted by CatsAndDogs
To apply “jew” to Abraham seems a bit anachronistic, doesn’t it?

Most people think that monotheism developed FROM polytheism. That is of course precisely backwards.

Huh?

Abraham was called out of the polytheistic pagan world by the one God. God called Abraham into a covenant relationship. So I wouldn’t say that monotheism ‘developed’ as much as it was revealed.
Click to expand...
Polytheism developed FROM monotheism because man decided to try to “curry favor” from various “idols” (creations) who gave favors for worshipping them above God, which God allowed to show these men the consequences of consorting with demons.

There have always been a VERY TINY thread of true monotheists within the VAST majority of polytheists. But the monotheists came first, and were overwhelmed in number in about 20 minutes.
  • The baby is a near beatific monotheist.
  • The child is a monotheist who has developed a sense for the angels.
  • The early adolescent is a monotheist who has developed a sense for the angels and the demons.
  • The late adolescent is a polytheist who flits about worshipping one then another demon, denying God is anything but a demon masquerading as an angel.
  • The adult is a repentent polytheist who yearns to be a monotheist again and fights with his accumulated demons with help from his childhood angels.
  • The wise person is a monotheist who knows the dangers of the demon-creatures and the love of the one uncreated God.
 
Adam and eve had ot be montheistic. Slowly, men became one of a few other things as well: polytheistic, henotheisitic, or atheistic/agnostic/self-worshipping.

Abraham was either monotheistic or henotheistic leading to monotheistic.

The snake issue is another one all together, one that I am not sure about the position of the link.

I had read about asherah in a book called something like “When god was a woman.” It was a bunch of crazy stuff then too.
 
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