GOD HAS A WIFE?

GREAT BRITAIN –  Scholars are reportedly confirming that God (Yahweh) has a wife (Asherah).

Francesca Stavrakopulu, Professor, Department of Theology and Religion at the University of Exeter is one of the scholars that  is reigniting a push for the female deity named Asherah (also referred to as Asher).

This theory was first mentioned in 1967 in the works of Raphael Patai historian , has been exhaustively analyzed in the book of Professor Stavrakopulu and became the basis for a documentary being shown in Europe today.

The theory is based on texts found by archaeologists on Canaanite amulets and figurines found in ancient city of Ugarit in modern Syria. All these findings suggest that Asherah was a powerful goddess, responsible for fertility and worships by all people who also worshiped Yahweh.

Scholars examined vessels from the 8th Century BC as well as a  number of religious artifacts from the 18th century.   “Asherah was an equal to Yahweh and it wasn’t until the mid-19th century that  she started disappearing from texts,” said Professor Shloznikova of  the University of Moscow, who is also trying to bring Asherah back in the consciousness of the world.

Stavrakopulu points out that the statue of Asherah stood in the Temple and women who lived in the house, wrapped around her ritual garments. In her opinion, most of the references to Asherah were removed from the biblical texts in their editing (by the Irish), and the few that she found – have survived by accident.

Goddess Asherah is associated with the goddess known as Astarte or Istar, whose worship was extremely distributed in different regions of the Middle East.

Traditionally, all references to Asher translated as the mention of the sacred tree. There is a mention about how in order to establish the cult of one god tree-Asher was carried out of the temple and burned. the view that the ancient Jews did not immediately come to monotheism and the strong influence of the surrounding heathen nations, quite common in Biblical studies. Thus, the pantheon of their neighbors the Phoenicians, or hanaaneytsev, as they called themselves, most likely corresponded to the pagan pantheon of Jews prior to the adoption of monotheism.

Many Asherah believers honor her with the traditional Asherah pole (seen here):

The Phoenicians worshiped Astarte as the most important goddess of the ancient Greeks even thought the entire country of Phoenicia, dedicated to Astarte. Astarte depicted as a naked woman, compressing the chest with his hands, or the queen, seated on a throne.

Will Asherah become an equal partner to God?  Scholars hope that will be the case.