Well, it's only been about 2,500 years in the making, but finally the wife of God is getting her due. Many of us have known for decades what Discovery "News" is now reporting. Of course, it hasn't been polite for the mainstream media to reveal such important faith-challenging facts, so it was up to people like Barbara Walker (and me) to be on the front lines all these years. I wrote about this subject in the 90s, including in my book The Christ Conspiracy, published in 1999. Could it be that we just might have gotten some other things right as well? I wonder if anyone in the MSM will ever ask for our opinions on these subjects.
That being vented, it's a good article - and about time.
God's Wife Edited Out of the Bible -- Almost
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."
"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....
Further Reading
Why the BBC's new face of religion believes God had a WIFE
Goddess Studies
The Christ Conspiracy
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|2011-03-18 14:26:37 arhata - God's Wife
Maybe we should just eliminate the 'male God' for a few thousand years and give her a chance to see what she can do
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|2012-01-17 04:22:59 danison
May I ask,.... What is the gender of life and lights?
Is not male (masculine gender) and female (feminine gender) just labels
of certain features and characteristics or attributes?
The Supreme Creator/Power/Authority is labelled Heavenly Father
because that which sets the creation in motion are powers that are
active, initiative, dynamic, giving, etc.. are positive attributes considered
masculine. Attributes such as faith, hope, love, beauty, etc., are considered feminine. These even evolved into names of goddesses.
Has not the Heavenly these attributes? Does this mean that the Supreme Father of life and lights a bisexual? Though I can be wrong, I do not think so.....
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|2011-03-21 15:04:51 BRAHMASTRAFemale personification of divinity is not something new. It is in vogue in all ancient religions which are still in existence like Vedic Hinduism, Judaism, Zoroastrianism, Buddhism, etc. In Hinduism, female power is denoted by tri-shakti, i.e., three personifications of the Supreme Mother Goddess as Durga, Lakshmi and Saraswati. All these Goddesses were married and their respective husbands were the tri-murti, i.e., male personification of the Supreme God-head, viz., Shiva (as destroyer), Vishnu (as preserver) and Brahma (as creator). Judaism also represents divinity as female in the Kabbalah traditions. Insofar as 'newer' religions are concerned, Christianity talks of divinity existing in one Supreme God referred to as 'Holy God' or 'Holy Father'. This God's son is Lord Jesus Christ, referred to as 'Son of God' in the Holy Bible. This Jesus' mother is known as 'Virgin Mary', whose only child, he incidentally is. Virgin Mary is highly venerated in Christian traditions, cutting across denominational barriers and her worship is also permitted, though optional. She is referred to as 'Holy Virgin' or 'Saint Mary'. Her husband, known as 'Joseph the carpenter', is referred to as 'Saint Joseph'. The Son of God, despite being a bachelor, celibate with no blood-line and supposedly endowed with a sense of justice, is only considered as supernatural, as his parents are also considered supernatural. He is however not recognised as divine in Christian tradition. There is reference in the Holy Bible to another Jesus Christ, referred to as 'Son of Man'. He was the original founder of Gnostic Christianity and the founder of present day Christianity, known as St.Paul, was his follower. All the apostles mentioned in the Holy Bible were his followers. He and his wife Mary Magdalene, were considered semi-divine in Christian traditions. However, after the coming of Emperor Constantine the Great, efforts were made to give the 'Son of God' a boost and devalue other icons.
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|2011-03-21 15:47:37 Kinderling - UnderstandingThe reason The Female God died out was because humans gained understanding and no longer submitted to nature. The Male God removal however, is the mastery of self, and by all accounts, barring forms of gnosticism, this has not happened.
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|2011-09-04 09:08:33 swpIshtar Asherah are the Egyptian pagan fertile goddess mentioned in the bible......God needs no helpmate. He is Complete. To say otherwise is ignorant at the very least blasphemous and utterly what i like to call WRONG. perhaps you should stop listening to that liar the devil and get right with God.
