The above clip from the YouTube channel MythVision is a somewhat speculative documentary about the goddess Ashera, often seen as Yahweh´s wife in modern critical scholarship on the Old Testament.
MythVision believes that Ashera, while first attested in Sumerian sources, was originally a Canaanite goddess seen as the wife of the high god El. Ashera reached Sumeria by way of Amurru (presumably Transjordan). Worship of Ashera is condemned in the Bible by post-exilic Jewish priests who wanted a strict monotheism around Yahweh. However, the scholars quoted by MythVision believe that Ashera-worship never quite disappeared. It was only hidden.
Ashera was associated with trees, specifically almond trees. Trees were depicted in the Jewish Temple. Also, the menorah is - according to this theory - actually a stylized almond tree. Aaron´s staff (a cultic object in the Temple) could be an old symbol for Ashera. The staff has an almond-shaped head and is adorned with flowers. Of course, it could also be a fallic symbol!
Hosea says that Yahweh has divorced Israel, but some scholars believe that the real meaning of the prophecy is that the Lord had rather divorced Ashera, since it´s highly anomalous for a nation to be referred to as God´s wife! When Ashera´s devotees started worshipping Baal, Yahweh repudiated her. And in the Book of Proverbs, God´s Wisdom (personified as a woman) is described as a weaver. Some speculate that Ashera may have been the goddess of weaving...
MythVision ends with pointing out that Jesus is sometimes depicted with an almond-shaped halo.
Interesting.
See also here:
När jag hade hund var det en svart kungspudel-tik som hette Ashera som var fasligt förtjust i min charmige gatukorsnings-hane . Hon bet sin egen matte när hon inte tilläts para sig med min hund. Själv såg jag passivt på. Man är väl inte rasist.
ReplyDeleteI vilket fall borde jag frågat om namnvalet. Tror matten var judisk men hon var väldigt new-ageig och feministisk i stilen och verkade fasligt intelektuell. Var nog ett gernomtänkr namnval.
Aha, intressant! Ja, det måste ha varit väldigt medvetet. Lite som att döpa sin katt efter den judiska dödsängeln?
ReplyDeleteJapp, fast det är nog mången katt som fått heta Azrael pga av katten i smurfarna.
ReplyDelete