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Last viewed: 14 hrs ago
Uploaded: 16 May 2018 (8 years ago) · Shared: 17 May 2018
Duration: 4:55
Uploaded: 16 May 2018 (8 years ago) · Shared: 17 May 2018
Duration: 4:55
Youtube Description
YHWH...the God of the Israelites in the Hebrew Bible, and you shall have no other gods before him. But did some ancient Israelites worship anothergod, Asherah? Archaeological evidence suggests that some Israelites may have believed YHWH had a consort or wife.
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Sources:
William Devers, 'Did God Have a Wife?' Eerdmans, 2005.
William Dever, “Archaeology and Ancient Israelite Iconography: Did Yahweh Have a Face?” in A.M. Maeir and P. de Miroschedji (editor), 'I will Speak the Riddles of Ancient Times”: Archaeological and Historical Studies in Honor of Amihai Mazar,' 461.
Judith Hadley, 'The Cult of Asherah in Ancient Israel and Judah: Evidence for a Hebrew Goddess,' Cambridge University Press, 2000.
Critical Review of William Dever’s book: https://members.bib-arch.org/biblical-archaeology-review/32/5/15
Hershel Shanks, “The Persisting Uncertainties of Kuntillet ‘Ajrud,” https://members.bib-arch.org/biblical-archaeology-review/38/6/2?ip_login_no_cache=%EA~%7C%DC%F7%B6%07%FF
Dr. Erin Darby interview on pillar figurines: https://www.coursera.org/learn/bible-history/lecture/gZbL6/darby-interview
Source on standing stones: Stephen Herring, 'Divine Substitution,' 'Chapter 3: Iconic Israel: Divine Representation, Idol Polemics, and the Awareness of the Relationship between Image and Presence in the Hebrew Bible,' Vandenhoeck and Ruprecht, 2013.
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Who are ReligionForBreakfast?ReligionForBreakfast is an educational channel dedicated to the academic, nonsectarian study of religion. We strive to raise the level of conversation about religion on YouTube by exploring surprising facts about humanity's beliefs and rituals through an anthropological, sociological, and archaeological lens. Here at RFB we respect everyone: religious, non-religious, and everyone in between.
Who was Asherah?Asherah 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 Asratu, and in Hittite as Aserdu or Asertu. Asherah is generally considered identical with the Ugaritic goddess Atirat. Asherah is identified as the queen consort of the Sumerian god Anu, and Ugaritic El, the oldest deities of their respective pantheons, as well as Yahweh, the god of Israel and Judah. Despite her association with Yahweh in extra-biblical sources, Deuteronomy 12 has Yahweh commanding the destruction of her shrines so as to maintain purity of his worship.
What is Judaism?Judaism encompasses the religion, philosophy, culture and way of life of the Jewish people. Judaism is a monotheistic religion, with the Torah as its foundational text (part of the larger text known as the Tanakh or Hebrew Bible), and supplemental oral tradition represented by later texts such as the Midrash and the Talmud. Judaism is considered by religious Jews to be the expression of the covenantal relationship that God established with the Children of Israel. Judaism includes a wide corpus of texts, practices, theological positions, and forms of organization. Within Judaism there are a variety of movements, most of which emerged from Rabbinic Judaism, which holds that God revealed his laws and commandments to Moses on Mount Sinai in the form of both the Written and Oral Torah. The Jews are an ethnoreligious group and include those born Jewish and converts to Judaism. In 2012, the world Jewish population was estimated at about 14 million, or roughly 0.2% of the total world population. About 42% of all Jews reside in Israel and about 42% reside in the United States and Canada, with most of the remainder living in Europe.
Who is Yahweh?Yahweh was the national god of the Iron Age kingdoms of Israel (Samaria) and Judah. His exact origins are disputed, although they reach back to the early Iron Age and even the Late Bronze: his name may have begun as an epithet of El, head of the Bronze Age Canaanite pantheon, but the earliest plausible mentions of Yahweh are in Egyptian texts that refer to a similar-sounding place name associated with the Shasu nomads of the southern Transjordan. In the oldest biblical literature, Yahweh is a typical ancient Near Eastern "divine warrior", who leads the heavenly army against Israel's enemies; he later became the main god of the Kingdom of Israel (Samaria) and of Judah, and over time the royal court and temple promoted Yahweh as the god of the entire cosmos, possessing all the positive qualities previously attributed to the other gods and goddesses.
Who is GOD?In monotheism and henotheism, God is conceived as the Supreme Being and principal object of faith. The concept of God as described by theologians commonly includes the attributes of omniscience (infinite knowledge), omnipotence (unlimited power), omnipresence (present everywhere), omnibenevolence (perfect goodness), divine simplicity, and eternal and necessary existence. In theism, God is the creator and sustainer of the universe In deism, God is the creator, but not the sustainer, of the universe Monotheism is the belief in the existence of one God or in the oneness of God In pantheism, God is the universe itself In atheism, God is purported not to exist, while deemed unknown or unknowable within the context of agnosticism.
