“Asherah”, known across the ancient Near East by various other names, such as Astarte and Ishtar, was an important deity. A fertility goddess, Asherah, known as Ishtar, was also thought to bestow life, health, and innumerable other blessings upon mankind.
What is the meaning of Asherah?
Asherah (/ˈæʃərə/), in ancient Semitic religion, is a mother goddess who appears in a number of ancient sources. She appears in Akkadian writings by the name of Ašratu(m), and in Hittite as Aserdu(s) or Asertu(s). Asherah is generally considered identical with the Ugaritic goddess ʼAṯirat.
What is Astarte/Ishtar?
There are several manifestations of Astarte/Ishtar in the Syria and Mesopotamia temples: Asherah is the mother goddess (wife of El) in the Canaanite pantheon, Anat was a youthful war-goddess; Ashtoreth was a goddess of love and lust.
Who was Asherah / Ashtoreth in the Bible?
Who was Asherah / Ashtoreth? Asherah, or Ashtoreth, was the name of the chief female deity worshiped in ancient Syria, Phoenicia, and Canaan. The Phoenicians called her Astarte, the Assyrians worshiped her as Ishtar, and the Philistines had a temple of Asherah ( 1 Samuel 31:10 ).
Is Asherah the same as Anu?
Asherah is generally considered identical with the Ugaritic goddess ʾAṯiratu. Asherah is identified as the consort of the Sumerian god Anu, and Ugaritic ʾEl, the oldest deities of their respective pantheons. This role gave her a similarly high rank in the Ugaritic pantheon.
Are Asherah and Astarte the same?
Although Astarte is often confused with Asherah in biblical commentary, the two were distinct goddesses, and the Asherah referenced in the Bible is the fertility pole (or sacred tree) of the goddess, not an allusion to Astarte, though some translations of the Bible seem to suggest this.
What kind of god is Asherah?
Asherah, along with Astarte and Anath, was one of the three great goddesses of the Canaanite pantheon. In Canaanite religion her primary role was that of mother goddess. Canaanites associated Asherah with sacred trees, an association also found in the Israelite tradition.
Is Asherah an Inanna?
Queen of Heaven was a title given to a number of ancient sky goddesses worshipped throughout the ancient Mediterranean and the ancient Near East. Goddesses known to have been referred to by the title include Inanna, Anat, Isis, Nut, Astarte, and possibly Asherah (by the prophet Jeremiah).
Who is Ishtar in the Bible?
As goddess of Venus, delighting in bodily love, Ishtar was the protectress of prostitutes and the patroness of the alehouse. Part of her cult worship probably included temple prostitution.
Did Yahweh divorce Asherah?
The present article responds to Whitt's ingenious proposal that Hosea dramatizes, in the speech recorded in Hos 2, the divorce which ends the marriage between Yahweh, the god of Israel, and the goddess Asherah, of Canaanite fame.
Is God's wife Asherah?
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. 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.
Who is the Queen of Heaven according to Bible?
Theological basis. Queen of Heaven (Latin: Regina Caeli) is one of many Queen titles used of Mary, mother of Jesus. The title derived in part from the ancient Catholic teaching that Mary, at the end of her earthly life, was bodily and spiritually assumed into heaven, and that she is there honored as Queen.
What religion believes in God's wife?
A programme on BBC2 has made news for presenting scholar Francesca Stavrakopoulou's theory that "God had a wife". The reactions from the religious and academic world were varied, but for Mormons, it can best be summed up as, "Yeah.
What does Asherah mean in the Bible?
Definition of Asherah : a sacred wooden post, pole, or pillar that stood near the altar in various Canaanite high places and that symbolized the goddess Asherah.
What is the name of god's wife?
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. God had a wife, Asherah, whom the Book of Kings suggests was worshipped alongside Yahweh in his temple in Israel, according to an Oxford scholar.
Is Ishtar the Queen of Heaven?
Ishtar, called the Queen of Heaven by the people of ancient Mesopotamia (modern Iraq), was the most important female deity in their pantheon.
Are Isis and Ishtar the same?
And they all seem to lead to the Sumerian Goddess Inanna, also known as Ishtar (in Assyria) and Isis (in Egypt). These stories were perpetuated for centuries, and eventually reused in the Bible.
What are Asherah powers?
Reality Warping: Asherah is able to control and bend reality to her whims, capable of altering something as tangible as physics and the universe to something inconceivable like logic. Because of this immense ability, many younger gods are often led to believing her to possess complete "omnipotence power".
What religion believes in God's wife?
A programme on BBC2 has made news for presenting scholar Francesca Stavrakopoulou's theory that "God had a wife". The reactions from the religious and academic world were varied, but for Mormons, it can best be summed up as, "Yeah.
What does Asherah mean in the Bible?
Definition of Asherah : a sacred wooden post, pole, or pillar that stood near the altar in various Canaanite high places and that symbolized the goddess Asherah.
What does the name Asherah mean?
she who treads on the seaThe name Asherah is girl's name meaning "she who treads on the sea". Asherah is probably one of the most ancient of mother goddess symbols, recorded in the pantheons of several civilisations from the tenth century BCE.
What was the worship of Asherah?
Worship of Asherah was noted for its sensuality and involved ritual prostitution. The priests and priestesses of Asherah also practiced divination and fortune-telling. The Lord God, through Moses, forbade the worship of Asherah.
Why is Asherah called a grove?
Because of the association with carved trees, the places of Asherah worship were commonly called “groves,” and the Hebrew word “asherah” (plural, “asherim”) could refer either to the goddess or to a grove of trees. One of King Manasseh’s evil deeds was that he “took the carved Asherah pole he had made and put it in the temple” ( 2 Kings 21:7 ).
What is the meaning of the carved Asherah pole?
Another translation of “carved Asherah pole” is “graven image of the grove” (KJV). Considered the moon-goddess, Asherah was often presented as a consort of Baal, the sun-god ( Judges 3:7, 6:28, 10:6; 1 Samuel 7:4, 12:10 ). Asherah was also worshiped as the goddess of love and war and was sometimes linked with Anath, another Canaanite goddess.
What is the name of the goddess that was worshiped in ancient Syria?
Asherah, or Ashtoreth, was the name of the chief female deity worshiped in ancient Syria, Phoenicia, and Canaan. The Phoenicians called her Astarte, the Assyrians worshiped her as Ishtar, and the Philistines had a temple of Asherah ( 1 Samuel 31:10 ). Because of Israel’s incomplete conquest of the land of Canaan, ...
Who was the god of the Sidonians?
Later, Jezebel made Asherah -worship even more prevalent, with 400 prophets of Asherah on the royal payroll ( 1 Kings 18:19 ).
Who Was Ishtar in the Bible?
Ishtar, otherwise known as Asherah in the Bible, plays a huge role in pagan pantheons and also ends up swaying Israel to follow after pagan practices during the time of the kings. Let’s take a look at what the Bible has to say about her.
What Is the Difference between Ishtar, Easter, and Eostre?
Now that we’ve established the differences between Easter and Ishtar, we need to unmask the third similar word (and deity), Eostre. Let’s establish some definitions of these three and go from there.
What is the name of the goddess that is associated with Easter?
Ishtar, a Semitic goddess of love and war, who played a huge role in the Babylonian pantheon—in fact when Daniel and the other captives marched into Babylon, they would’ve seen the Ishtar Gate, a structure dedicated to this goddess—has similar name roots to the word Easter. And even if Ishtar and Easter have nothing to do with one another, some people like to say that another pagan deity, Eostre, has something to do with the holiday.
What did the Israelites serve before the time of the kings?
Even before the time of the kings, the Israelites serve Baal and Ishtar. A frequent motif in the Old Testament happens where they forget the Lord, worship foreign gods, and reap the consequences (often getting taken captive or taken over by a foreign nation).
Do Easter and Ishtar have similar names?
In short, no. The names do share a similar resemblance, but not overly so. Where we run into an issue is with Eostre, but we’ll explore that in the next section. According to CARM, although Easter and Ishtar share name similarities, and symbols of fertility, the roots of Easter’s name more likely to stem from Eostre.
When was the first Easter?
We have records of the first Easter celebrations happening in the 2 nd century AD.
Do Easter eggs have fertility?
However, we do have to consider that Easter does often have Easter eggs. And many sculptures of Ishtar, from archeological excavations, have shown the goddess to be covered in eggs, a symbol of fertility. Beyond that, the two don’t share many similarities, and we can only point to correlation, not causation here.
Overview
In Eastern Semitic texts
Ugarit sources from before 1200 BC almost always credit Athirat with her full title rbt ʾaṯrt ym (or rbt ʾaṯrt). The phrase occurs 12 times in the Baʿal Epic alone. The title rbt is most often vocalised as rabītu, although rabat and rabīti are sometimes used by scholars. Apparently of Akkadian origin, rabītu means "(great) lady". She appears to champion her son, Yam, god of the sea, in his struggle against Baʾal. Yam's ascription as 'god of' the sea in the English translation is somewha…
Significance and roles
Asherah is identified as the consort of the Sumerian god Anu, and Ugaritic ʾEl, the oldest deities of their respective pantheons. This role gave her a similarly high rank in the Ugaritic pantheon. Deuteronomy 12 has Yahweh commanding the destruction of her shrines so as to maintain purity of his worship. The name Dione, which like ʾElat means 'goddess', is clearly associated with Asherah in the Phoenician History of Sanchuniathon, because the same common epithet (ʾElat) …
In Egyptian sources
Beginning during the Eighteenth Dynasty of Egypt, a Semitic goddess named Qetesh ("holiness", sometimes reconstructed as Qudshu) appears prominently. That dynasty follows expulsion of occupying foreigners from an intermediary period. Some think this deity is Athirat/Ashratu under her Ugaritic name. This Qetesh seems not to be either ʿAshtart or ʿAnat as both those goddesses appe…
In Israel and Judah
Between the tenth century BC and the beginning of their Babylonian exile in 586 BC, polytheism was normal throughout Israel. Worship solely of Yahweh became established only after the exile, and possibly, only as late as the time of the Maccabees (2nd century BC). That is when monotheism became universal among the Jews. Some biblical scholars believe that Asherah at one time was worshipped as the consort of Yahweh, the national god of Israel.
Worship and suppression
Episodes in the Hebrew Bible show a gender imbalance in Hebrew religion. Asherah was patronized by female royals such as the Queen Mother Maacah (1 Kings 15:13). But more commonly, perhaps, Asherah was worshiped within the household and her offerings were performed by family matriarchs. As the women of Jerusalem attested, "When we burned incense to the Queen of Heaven and poured out drink offerings to her, did not our husbands know that w…
Iconography
Some scholars have found an early link between Asherah and Eve, based upon the coincidence of their common title as "the mother of all living" in the Book of Genesis 3:20 through the identification with the Hurrian mother goddess Hebat. There is further speculation that the Shekhinah as a feminine aspect of Yahweh, may be a cultural memory or devolution of Asherah.
In Christian scripture, the Holy Spirit is represented by a dove—a ubiquitous symbol of goddess re…
In Arabia
As 'Athirat', she was attested in pre-Islamic south Arabia as the consort of the moon-god 'Amm.
A stele, now located at the Louvre, discovered by Charles Huber in 1883 in the ancient oasis of Tema, northwestern Arabia, and believed to date to the time of Nabonidus's retirement there in 549 BC, bears an inscription in Aramaic that mentions Ṣalm of Maḥram, Shingala, and Ashira as the deities of Tema.