# Asherah and the Search for our Spiritual Ancestors In his book *The Hebrew Goddess*, Raphael Patai sums up the struggle between the Israelite kings in regard to the presence of the Asherah in the Temple in the following words: ## 1 Source 1: Patai on the Asherah in Judah ![[Patai - The Asherah in Judah]] *Study Question*: What was normative Hebrew practice, to worship the Asherah in the Temple or to destroy it? ## 2 Source 2: Judges 3: 1-9 **Introduction** Patai's perspective on the Asherah is not how the Deuteronomist (Dtm) sees it. According to many (but not all) scholars, the Dtm is an author or school of thought that wrote and edited significant portions of the Bible, including Deuteronomy, Joshua, Judges, Samuel and Kings. It is generally thought that Dtm's authors lived after the destruction of the First Temple in 586 BCE, and they wrote the Deuteronomist History (DH) to explain why God destroyed Jerusalem. In a nutshell, God destroyed Jerusalem in their opinion because the Israelites shared family and cultic life with the neighboring peoples, to whom they were closely related. The Dtm believed that Israel was meant to exterminate these neighbors, not live and love with them. It is clear from the Bible that throughout Israelite history, many Israelites saw no contradiction in marrying a Siddonian, worshipping the Asherah, and remaining faithful to YHVH. According to Patai's count, for most of the years the Temple in Jerusalem stood, it was home to the Asherah. But this reality became a terrible sin in the eyes of the Dtm, and the reason for the destruction of Jerusalem. They wrote much of the Deuteronomistic history from this perspective (in the biblical books mentioned above). Let us read these texts against the grain, and see if we can discover other voices. ![[Jds 3 1-8]] *Study Notes and Questions:* In this text, we see the basic logic of the Dtm: Israel married and worshipped with the *goyim*, and so God shmiced them by sending a King called Cushan-rishathaim to attack them. But if we met the Israelites in verses 5-6, would they describe themselves as having forgotten YHVH? Archeology and the biblical narrative testify that Israelites often worshipped YHVH together with other deities and other peoples. How is it that they didn't see a contradiction? Lets imagine that some of these YHVH worshippers were among the people of verses 5-6. What would they say in response to the narrators conclusion in verse 7? ## 3 Source 3: Solomon's House of Prayer for All People Wiki: The conventional dates of Solomon's reign are derived from [biblical chronology](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Biblical_chronology "Biblical chronology") and are set from about 970 to 931 [BCE](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Common_Era "Common Era"). ![[I Kings 11 1-13]] *Study Notes and Questions*: This text represents the Dtm's answer to the question: Why was David's house divided? It was because of Solomon's foreign influences and religious pluralism. What should we believe in this story? 1) Did Solomon do these things, hear God reprimand him, and thus would agree with the narrator's condemnation? 2) Or might we say he would have agreed with the narrator that establishing shrines in the hills around Jerusalem would be an abomination, but that he didn't do it, and the narrator just made this up to retroactively justify the division of David's House? 3) Or might we say that Solomon did erect the shrines, but does not think he was reprimanded by God, and would reject the narrator's condemnation if he read it? Maybe he would say he was realizing the ideal behind Isaiah's later vision: ![[Isaiah 56 7]] ## 4 Source 4: Josiah Destroys Solomon's Shrines **Introduction** During the reign of [King Josiah](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Josiah) (c. 640–609 BCE), a book was found in the Temple. Many scholars believe that it was some version of the Book of Deuteronomy. Its discovery resulted in a rampage of seemingly religiously inspired violence. Josiah's voice is important for us to hear. If you don't have time to read the whole text, just read the parts in bold. What do you think of Josiah's policies? After reading the text below, return to Source 1 above. How do Josiah's policies look in that context? ![[I Kings 22 10 - 23 21 English Shorter Version]] *Now re-read Patai above. Where are our biblical spiritual ancestors?*