Upon each hilltop, among rings of standing stones and simple wooden poles, they placed their altars.  The sweet smell of incense drifted among them, carrying their prayers heavenward.  Others gathered beneath the trees, finding solace among the rustling of the green leaves.  Across the land, families placed lovingly made clay effigies in their homes with the hope that they would bring fertility and abundance.  The children of Israel lifted their heads and called her name – Asherah.

The story of the Hidden Goddess begins in the ancient Canaanite city of Ugarit in present day Syria.  It was there, in 1928, that an accidental discovery would challenge everything scholars presumed to know about the birth of the Israelite faith.  While plowing an ordinary field, a farmer chanced upon a ancient tomb in a forgotten necropolis.  Over the next seven decades, archaeologists would uncover a city whose beginnings date back as far as 6000 BCE.  Within the city, a treasure trove of cuneiform tablets began to reveal the rich mythology of the Ugaritic people.  It was within these fragile tablets that the lost goddess Asherah was rediscovered and introduced to the modern world.

In the Ugaritic tales she is known as Athirat and is the consort to the great father god, El.  Multiple inscriptions tell us that her domain was the sea and all its abundance.  As the “creatress of the gods,” she birthed the Canaanite pantheon and served as wet nurse to the gods.  She was also known to favor worthy mortals and is often portrayed as a mediator between her husband and those that would seek his favor.  She was known to be both wise and kind, possessing the gift of foresight which she used to guide her mortal and immortal children.  Over time, she claimed the role of fertility goddess, aiding the  Canaanite women during the precarious days of pregnancy and childbirth.

Further evidence reveals that Athirat's influence stretched far beyond Ugarit and even Canaan itself.  In  Sumerian documents dating from approximately 1750 BCE (a full three centuries before the majority of the Ugaritic documents were written), she is referred to as Ashratum, the bride of Anu (El).  We find her in Southern Arabia, and in the Amarna tablets from Egypt.  Often, the manifestation of the goddess was particular to a specific location.  She is both the Asherah of Tyre and the Elath of Sidon, ancient Phoenician port cities in present day Lebanon that depended on the favor of “the lady of the sea.”

By the time the Israelites entered into Canaan after their long sojourn in the desert, worship of Athirat was already well established.  Although Moses had made a covenant between Yahweh and the children of Israel, the vast majority of the people were happy to cling to the old gods and customs just as their ancestors had done.  In Athirat, they found a loving and nurturing mother, very different from the distant and often angry Yahweh.  And, as it had happened countless times before, Athirat evolved among her new children and the Israelite goddess Asherah was born.

The discovery of the Ugaritic tablets was, of course, immediately controversial.  Scholars had long believed that the Biblical account of the founding of monotheism was an accurate record of historical events.  The Israelite faith had been declared superior to that of the dangerous pagan ways of the past.  Yahweh had emerged separately, in the earliest days of the patriarchs, and declared himself the One and Only.  Who then was this goddess among the children of Israel?  And what did her presence tell us about the foundations of the three great monotheistic religions of the world?

It is quite easy today, in a world ruled by monotheistic faiths, to forget that the foundations of those religions sprang from a world absolutely teeming with gods and goddesses.  We now know that much of the Bible was written sometimes hundreds of years after the events it recalls.  By that time, monotheism was well on its way to dominance, and the writers could mold the stories in a way that reflected their own beliefs.  The Israelites had not always been monotheistic, but the authors of the Bible wanted them to appear as such.  Hints of other deities and beliefs among the people were often downplayed, manipulated, or downright ignored.  Yahwistic monotheism may have been the ideal, but it would take centuries for it to be fully realized and accepted among the Israelites.

After the discovery of the texts in Ugarit, some scholars began to reexamine the accepted facts about the development of the Israelite faith.  Upon doing so, they began to uncover multiple accounts of the goddess hidden in plain sight within the Hebrew Bible.  Her story began to emerge as misinterpreted passages were read correctly for the first time in millennia.  Suddenly, stories that had once seemed out of place or incomplete, made sense in the context of polytheistic Israel.  Although it can be difficult to find in modern English translations of the Bible, Asherah appears some forty times within the Old Testament.  And often, what we aren't told is just as important as what is recorded.

One of the earliest mentions of Asherah takes place in the Book of Judges.  In Judges 6:25 Yahweh speaks to a man named Gideon, telling him “tear down your father's altar to Ba'al and cut down the Asherah pole beside it.”  Fearing the wrath of the men of the city, Gideon waited until dark to carry out the Lord's order.  The next morning, when the destruction was discovered, the men demanded to know who had committed the heinous crime.  When they discovered it was Gideon, they marched to his father's house and demanded, “Bring out your son.  He must die, because he has broken down Ba'al's altar and cut down the Asherah pole beside it” (Judges 6:30).  It is only through the intercession of Joash, Gideon's father and chieftain, that his life was spared.

This event, although quite simple, reveals much about the polytheistic practices of the people of Israel.  Throughout the Hebrew Bible, Ba'al the Canaanite storm god, takes center state in the fight for the hearts of Israel.  Originally the son of Athirat (Asherah) and El, the cult of Ba'al was already well established throughout Canaan when the Israelites arrived.  Like the worship of Asherah, Ba'al was readily embraced by the Israelites.  For the next several hundred years, Ba'al would be at the heart of the battle between the polytheistic past and the monotheistic future.  Most often, Asherah can be found in context with Ba'al.

The text tells us clearly that the altar and Asherah pole belonged to Joash, Gideon's father.  Asherah poles, although time and weather conditions have eradicated any archaeological trace of them, are understood to have been wooden poles erected in honor of the goddess.  From her earliest incarnations, Asherah was always associated with trees and sacred groves.  Asherah poles may have been a stylized image of the goddess herself or fashioned to look like a living tree.  It's also possible that groups of these poles were used to form a sacred grove of sorts when living trees were not present.  Most often though, Asherah poles were placed next to altars, possibly in a bid to honor and evoke the goddess.  Joash, having erected both an altar to Ba'al and an Asherah pole, was quite possibly a priest of both.  At the very least, he was a proponent of their cults and had created a communal space for them within his city where his people could gather to worship the deities.

The altar and pole were obviously very important to Joash's people as they demanded nothing less than Gideon's life for their destruction.  The Israelites were devoted to Ba'al and Asherah, and they would not relinquish their beliefs easily.  Unfortunately, this clash with Gideon was simply a precursor to what would follow.  Although it would be several generations before another Yahwistic reformer would challenge the authority of the god and goddess, the war against polytheism had only just begun.

Although Asherah's Biblical story doesn't pick up again until the Book of 1 Kings, her worship remained an integral part of the lives of the common Israelite.  Her presence was so ingrained into the cultural landscape of early Israel, that most would have seen her as a necessary aspect of daily life.  Each time a child was born, she was celebrated.  Every bountiful harvest of fish or grain, she was thanked.  For the common people, her role as the loving mother goddess was much more accessible than the distant father god Yahweh.  In the beginning, worship of Asherah was largely a communal affair practiced primarily among the rural Israelite people.  But although her story went quiet for a while, her influence continued to grow and would eventually permeate the loftiest of halls and the holiest of sanctuaries.

Around the year 970 BCE, Solomon, son of the revered King David, took the throne in Israel.  Just before his death, David charged Solomon with obedience to Yahweh saying, “Observe what the Lord your God requires: walk in obedience to him, and keep his decrees and commands, his laws and regulations as written in the Law of Moses” (1 Kings 2:2-3).  As a reward for abiding by his laws, Yahweh had promised that the line of David would endure forever.  Solomon readily agreed and pledged to obey the covenant made with his father's God.  He quickly discovered, however, that obedience to Yahweh's staunch decrees would not be easy.  The Biblical writers record, “Solomon showed his love for the Lord by walking according to the instructions given him by his father David, except that he offered sacrifices and burned incense on the high places” (1 Kings 3:3).  Solomon even visited Gibeon, the “most important high place” and offered a thousand burnt sacrifices.  Afterwards, Yahweh appeared to Solomon and granted him the gift of wisdom to rule over his people fairly.

But to whom did Solomon make his sacrifices to in the high places?  The Biblical writers saw this act as a transgression against Yahweh, but then Yahweh seemingly rewarded Solomon for his actions.  Not only did he grant Solomon wisdom and discernment, he blessed him with riches and honor.  The Bible is full of contradictions, but this one seems quite telling when compared to what many modern scholars now believe.  It was to Asherah, the wife of Yahweh, that Solomon made his offerings to.

Undoubtedly, stating that the One and Only God of Israel once had a wife or consort is nothing short of blasphemous in the eyes of many of the faithful.  The idea has been vehemently denied since the first group of scholars dared to broach the subject.  It wasn't until a discovery in the mid-1970s that mainstream Biblical scholars began to take a closer look at the relationship between Yahweh and Asherah.  It was then, at the site of Kuntillat Ajrud in the northeast Sinai, that two large storage jars known as pithoi were discovered.  While these types of jars are relatively common, it was the inscriptions that caught the attention of the archaeologists and researchers.  One read, “Amaryau said to my lord...may you be blessed by Yahweh and by his Asherah. May he bless you and keep you, and be with my lord.”  Another inscription from the same site read, “I have blessed you by Yahweh...and his Asherah.”  Nine miles away at a site west of Hebron, another inscription was uncovered that read, “Uriah the rich has caused it to be written: Blessed be Uriah by Yahweh and by his Asherah; from his enemies he has saved him.”  But what exactly do the inscriptions mean?

As it usually happens with controversial topics, researchers often interpret the discoveries differently.  Some argue that the Asherah referred to in the inscriptions are nothing more than wooden poles, ignoring that the poles are themselves representations of the goddess.  Even if the inscriptions reference nothing more than a cultic item known as an Asherah, they still connect the goddess to the worship of Yahweh.  And they place her in a very interesting position.

Throughout the ancient world, gods and goddesses had always been paired into couples.  The Ugaritic texts tell us that Athirat, an early incarnation of Asherah, was the consort of the god El.  Yahweh absorbed many of El's aspects as he usurped the traditional pantheon.  Is it so difficult to believe that he would not also take El's bride for his own?  For the people of ancient Israel, steeped in the world of polytheism, it would have been completely natural for Yahweh to be paired with a female deity.  And there can be little doubt that it was Asherah that the people chose to reign next to their God.

Fulfilling one of Yahweh's earlier promises to David, in the fourth year of his reign Solomon began construction of a grand temple in Jerusalem.  When it was completed seven years later, Solomon dedicated the temple to God, declaring him superior to all other gods in heaven or on earth (1 Kings 8:23).  Yahweh repeatedly reminded Solomon of the provisions of his agreement with David – as long as Solomon and the people of Israel remain dedicated to Yahweh, he would provide for and protect them forever.  But Solomon loved many foreign women.  He took wives from other peoples, an act expressly forbidden by Yahweh in fear that “they will surely turn your hearts after their gods” (1 Kings 11:2).  Ignoring Yahweh's warning, Solomon honored his wives by building temples to their native gods throughout Jerusalem.  “As Solomon grew old, his wives turned his heart after other gods, and his heart was not fully devoted to the Lord his God, as the heart of David his father had been” (1 Kings 11:4).  By building and dedicating these temples, it was Solomon himself that brought the worship of Asherah out of the countryside and into the capital city of Jerusalem.

Solomon's devotion to other gods and goddesses greatly angered Yahweh.  In his rage he promised to tear the kingdom from Solomon's hand and deliver it to one of his servants.  He raised enemies to move against Israel, including one of Solomon's own officials, Jeroboam.  Speaking through the prophet Ahijah of Shiloh, Yahweh promised Jeroboam “you will rule over all that your heart desires; you will be king over Israel” (1 Kings 11:37).  Jeroboam was also warned, just as Solomon had been, that he must keep the commandments of Yahweh if he desired a lasting monarchy.  Solomon attempted to have Jeroboam killed, but he fled to Egypt and remained there until the king died around 931 BCE.

Solomon's death marked the end of a unified Israel.  Just as Yahweh had warned Solomon, part of the country was torn from his son and successor, Rehoboam.  Refusing to accept Rehoboam's harsh rule, the northern tribes fulfilled Ahijah's prophecy and named Jeroboam king of Israel.  Rehoboam was left to rule the smaller and newly formed nation of Judah.  And although both nations had been commanded to serve no other god but Yahweh, worship of the goddess Asherah continued to grow.  Her influence would infiltrate palaces and temples alike and would be at the center of some of the most intriguing events recorded in the Old Testament.

Just as his father before him, Rehoboam found it difficult to turn away from the ancient customs of his ancestors.  The Biblical authors recorded, “Judah did evil in the eyes of the Lord.  By the sins they committed they stirred up his jealous anger more than those who were before them had done.  They also set up for themselves high places, sacred stones, and Asherah poles on every high hill and under every spreading tree” (1 Kings 14:22-23).  Maacah, Rehoboam's favorite wife, was a devoted follower of the mother goddess.  Under her influence, the worship of Asherah infiltrated the holiest of all places – Solomon's Temple.

Asherah's statue stood at the altar of Yahweh, within the Temple of Jerusalem, throughout Rehoboam's reign.  It remained in its place of honor throughout the short reign of his son, Abijah, as well.  However, when Asa took the throne after the death of Abijah, Judah experienced its first Yahwistic reform.  Asa diligently followed the laws given to the Israelites by Yahweh: “He removed the foreign altars and the high places, smashed the sacred stones and cut down the Asherah poles.  He commanded Judah to seek the Lord, the God of their ancestors, and to obey his laws and commands.  He removed the high places and incense altars in every town in Judah, and the kingdom was at peace under him” (2 Chronicles 14:3-5).  He also stripped Maacah of the power she had exerted over Rehoboam and Abijah “because she had made a repulsive image for the worship of Asherah” (1 Kings 15:13).  It is recorded that Asa himself removed the statue from the Temple and burned it in the Kidron Valley.

Asa's extensive reforms, including the deposing of Maacah, are recorded in both the book of 1 Kings and 2 Chronicles.  In each book, directly following the account of Asa removing the Asherah from the Temple, the Biblical authors add, “Although he did not remove the high places, Asa's heart was fully committed to the Lord all his life”.  (1 Kings 15:14; 2 Chronicles 15:17)  This is, of course, a direct contradiction to the verse that describes the destruction of the high places (2 Chronicles 14:2).  How do we account for this discrepancy?  How could Asa do what was right in the eyes of Yahweh without destroying the high places associated with worship of the goddess Asherah?

Asa's heart may have belonged to Yahweh alone, but it's obvious to scholars that the people of Judah did not share his monotheistic convictions.  As soon as one shrine or altar fell, another took its place.  The people clung to their goddess, resurrecting her each time she was cut down.  Asa may have removed Asherah from the Temple, but he could not remove her from the hearts of the Judeans.  And oddly, the Biblical writers don't seem overly concerned with the actions of the people or that Asa did not remove the high places permanently from Judah.  He is still considered a good and faithful king that ruled his people in accordance to Yahweh's laws.  Perhaps this is because the worship of Asherah was seen, at least among the majority of Judeans, as complementary to the worship of Yahweh.  Some may have even seen the worship of Asherah as an essential, balancing part of Yahwism.

Just as in Judah, Asherah worship continued under Jeroboam's reign in Israel as well.  Yahweh, speaking through the prophet Ahijah, had promised Jeroboam that he would rule over all his heart desired (1 Kings 11:37) as long as he walked in obedience and in accordance to the Lord's decrees.  But Jeroboam feared that his people would make pilgrimages to the Temple in Jerusalem and thus be swayed to abandon Israel for Judah.  To prevent this, Jeroboam set up two golden calves and said to his people, “It is too much for you to go up to Jerusalem.  Here are your gods, Israel, who brought you up out of Egypt.” (1 Kings 12:28)  He then built new shrines in the high places and appointed priests (including himself) to them.  And where there was an altar on a high place, the goddess Asherah was present.

Although Asherah isn't mentioned specifically, the Bible tells us that Jeroboam's successors walked in his sinful ways and angered Yahweh.  We can infer from these brief passages that worship of the goddess probably continued, unhindered and unaffected by the Yahwistic reform taking place in Judah under Asa and his heir, Jehoshaphat.  With the reign of Ahab in Israel, Asherah once again took center stage in a remarkable showdown with one of the Bible's most enigmatic figures.

Once again, it would be the favorite wife of the king, this time a Sidonian princess, that helped propel worship of Asherah into Israel's capital city, Samaria.  Her name was Jezebel, wife of Ahab and daughter of Ethbaal the king of Sidon.  In Sidon, worship of Elath (Asherah) was an ancient and well-established norm, dating back at least five hundred years before the birth of Jezebel.  To strengthen Israel's alliance with Sidon, and in an effort to please his wife, Ahab “set up an altar for Ba'al in the temple of Ba'al that he built in Samaria,” and he “also made an Asherah pole and did more to arouse the anger of the Lord, the God of Israel, than did all the kings of Israel before him” (1 Kings 16:32-33).

Disgusted and outraged by the apparent sinfulness of Ahab and the false gods of Jezebel, the prophet Elijah set out to prove that Yahweh alone was the God of Israel.  Elijah issued a challenge to Ahab, demanding that he “summon the people from all over Israel to meet me on Mount Carmel.  And bring the four hundred and fifty prophets of Ba'al and the four hundred prophets of Asherah, who eat at Jezebel's table” (1 Kings 18:19).  Once assembled, Elijah set out the rules for his challenge: “Get two bulls for us.  Let Ba'al's prophets choose one for themselves, and let them cut it into pieces and put it on the wood but not set fire to it.  I will prepare the other bull and put it on the wood but not set fire to it.  Then you call on the name of your god, and I will call on the name of the Lord.  The god who answers by fire – he is God”  (1 Kings 18:22-24).

As expected, Elijah is triumphant in his challenge.  Ba'al did not answer the calls of his priests, but Yahweh easily and dramatically lit the fire of sacrifice, despite the water Elijah had ordered poured over the altar.  Having witnessed this awesome display of dominance, the people of Israel fell to their knees and proclaimed Yahweh as God.  Elijah then ordered that the prophets of Ba'al, all 450 of them, be taken into the Kishon Valley and slaughtered.

But what of the 400 prophets of Asherah also called to the confrontation of gods at Mount Carmel?  Incredibly, there is no record of what befell Asherah's faithful.  Elijah ensured that each and every priest of Ba'al was executed, but it would seem that Asherah's priests were spared.  Why would Elijah, a staunch Yahwist reformer, allow the worship of a pagan goddess to continue after his awe-inspiring defeat of Ba'al?

As with many of the reformers throughout the Hebrew Bible, Elijah's focus was on the destruction of the cult of Ba'al, the rival of Yahweh.  It was Ba'al that threatened to usurp Yahweh's prominence and therefore, had to be stopped.  But Asherah was not Yahweh's rival, nor was she perceived as a threat to Yahwists.  Perhaps it was because Asherah was viewed as an inevitable counterpart to the Lord of Israel.  She quietly established the balance of male and female power in heaven.  Elijah may not have approved of her existence, but he certainly appeared tolerant of her presence among the Israelites.  Because they were not slaughtered along the banks of the Kishon with the priests of Ba'al, we can assume that Asherah's prophets were allowed to continue their devotion to the goddess even as Elijah worked to bring Israel back to Yahweh.

As the epic clash between Elijah and the priests was happening in Israel, in Judah, Asa's son Jehoshaphat continued the work that his father had begun.  It is recorded in 2 Chronicles 19:3 that Jehoshaphat had removed the Asherahs from the countryside once again.  Although Asa had attempted to rid Judah of the goddess already, her faithful were persistent.  When one sacred grove was destroyed, another was planted.  For every Asherah pole felled, one stood ready to take its place.

Ten years after the death of Jehoshaphat, the cult of Asherah still flourished in Judah.  It was around that time that the seven year old Joash became king of Israel.  Under the tutelage of the priest Jehoiada, Joash “did what was right in the eyes of the Lord” (2 Kings 12:2), which included the restoration of the Temple at Jerusalem.  But things quickly changed after the death of Jehoiada.  Joash, just like his forefathers, had not removed the high places from Judah (2 Kings 12:3).   With Jehoiada gone, Joash called an assembly of his officials from throughout the land.  They implored him to restore the ancient religions, and with Joash's blessing “they abandoned the temple of the Lord, the God of their ancestors, and worshiped Asherah poles and idols” (2 Chronicles 24:18).  Scholars believe that under Joash the statue of Asherah was restored to the inner sanctuary of the Temple.  For the next hundred years, she would stand undisturbed at the altar of Yahweh.

While Joash reigned in Judah, Jehohaz took the throne in the kingdom of Israel.  Jehohaz, as so many kings before him, “did evil in the eyes of the Lord” (2 Kings 13:2).  And although Jehohaz did petition Yahweh for help against the oppression of Israel by Hazeal, king of Aram, “they did not turn away from the sins of the house of Jeroboam, which he had caused Israel to commit; they continued in them.  Also, the Asherah pole remained standing in Samaria” (2 Kings 13:6).

By the time of Jehohaz, the cult of Ba'al in Israel had been effectively defeated.  A terrible and thorough massacre of the priests of Ba'al had occurred under Jehu, Jehohaz's father.  But once again, there is no mention of a similar fate among the priests of Asherah.  And if, as the Bible clearly states, the Asherah pole still stood in Samaria under Jehohaz, it is safe to assume that the cult of Asherah persevered.  Asherah remained an important and revered goddess, openly worshiped among both the common people and the royal court, until the Kingdom of Israel was conquered in 720 BCE by the Neo-Assyrian Empire.

As the northern kingdom of Israel was coming to an end, a zealous Yahwist reformer was taking the throne in Judah.  Hezekiah, doing what was right in the eyes of the Lord, “removed the high places, smashed the sacred stones and cut down the Asherah poles” (2 Kings 18:4).  He also ordered the cleansing and consecration of the Temple of Solomon, including the removal of “all defilement from the sanctuary” (2 Chronicles 29:5).  At Hezekiah's bidding, after decades of standing next to the altar of Yahweh, the statue of Asherah was removed from the inner temple.  Taking it and the golden serpent cast by Moses, the priests disposed of them in the Kidron Valley.  For his actions, the Biblical writers record that “there was no one like him (Hezekiah) among all the kings of Judah, either before him or after him” (2 Kings 18:5) and that “he was successful in whatever he undertook” (2 Kings 18:7).

Although Hezekiah followed the word of the God of Israel faithfully throughout the entirety of his life, his people still found it difficult to relinquish their fate to a single god.  Despite Hezekiah's reforms, and even though the prophets Isaiah and Micah vigorously decried the cult of Asherah, the majority of Judeans held fast to their ancient practices.

Almost immediately after the death of Hezekiah, his son and successor Manasseh set about to restore all that his father's reforms had destroyed.  He “rebuilt the high places his father Hezekiah had demolished; he also erected altars to Ba'al and made Asherah poles” (2 Chronicles 33:3). It was during this time that Asherah was once again placed in the Temple of Jerusalem, returned to her place of honor next to the altar of Yahweh (2 Kings 21:7).  There she remained until another Yahwist reformer, Josiah, took the throne in 640 BCE.

In the 18^th year of Josiah's reign, a discovery heralded the end of polytheism among the people of Judah.  Asherah had survived Ahab, Elijah, Jehu, and Hezekiah.  But the newly found Book of Deuteronomy and its fanatical adherents would prove to be much more difficult to overcome.  Ordering the complete destruction of all of the nations that inhabited Canaan, Deuteronomy also proclaimed, “Destroy completely all the places on the high mountains, on the hills and under every spreading tree, where the nations you are dispossessing worship their gods.  Break down their altars, smash their sacred stones and burn their Asherah poles in the fire; cut down the idols of their gods and wipe out their names from those places” (Deuteronomy 12:2-3).

Just as Hezekiah had done, Josiah ordered the consecration of the Jerusalem Temple.  He ordered the priests to “remove from the temple of the Lord all the articles made for Ba'al and Asherah and all the starry hosts” (2 Kings 23:4).  Taking them again to the Kidron Valley, Josiah burnt all that was removed from the temple.  The ashes he gathered up and had them carried to Beth-el, a place long associated with idolatrous worship.  Next, he removed the Asherah pole itself from the inner temple, burnt it in the valley, and ground it to powder.  He then, for reasons unknown, took the ashes and scattered them over the graves of those that had worshiped the goddess (2 Kings 23:6; 2 Chronicles 34:4).  Finally, “he also tore down the quarters of the male shrine prostitutes that were in the temple of the Lord, and the quarters where women did weaving for Asherah” (2 Kings 23:7).

Josiah's brutal suppression of polytheism did not stop with the purging of the Temple.  He then went out into the countryside, destroying and desecrating the sacred sites and high places, including the Temple of Ashtoreth built by Solomon.  The Bible records that “Josiah smashed the sacred stones and cut down the Asherah poles and covered the sites with human bones” (2 Kings 23:14).  He then turned his sight onto the high place created by Jeroboam, destroying the altar, burning the Asherah, and even defiling the tombs of the dead.

Spurred on by the words of Deuteronomy, Josiah did more than any other king before him to quell the power of the ancient deities.  His wrath was swift and thorough.  But it was also fleeting.  Josiah, like so many before him, had overlooked the power of the goddess Asherah.  He failed to recognize the devotion of her followers or the blessings she bestowed on her people.  He had destroyed her physical representations, but he had not abolished her spirit.  Soon after Josiah's death, her people once again reclaimed what had been torn from them.  For wherever a hill stood or a tree grew, the goddess Asherah was there.

But despite her tenacity, and the devotion of her faithful, the days of the goddess were numbered.  Indeed, the days of Judah itself were coming to a close.  Twenty two years after Josiah's death, Nebuchadnezzar of Babylon besieged Jerusalem and the kingdom of Judah fell.  Many were forcibly relocated leaving much of the land desolate.  After the destruction of the Temple and the Babylonian conquest, Asherah is only mentioned among the many sins that had led to the fall of Israel and Judah.  In some revisions and translations of the Bible, her name is not mentioned at all.  She is downgraded to no more than a wooden pole without meaning or a pagan grove of trees without purpose.

Writing long after the events they describe, the Deuteronomists (the name given to the group of writers responsible for the books of Joshua, Judges, Samuel, Kings, and Jeremiah) simply buried the goddess among a host of generic offenses.  It's possible that by the time the books were first written down, much of Asherah's worship and history had already been forgotten.  But it is far more likely that the Deuteronomists simply did not want to draw attention to her more than was absolutely necessary.  They purposely denied the reader any detail into the beliefs and practices of the common people of Israel.  No rites of Asherah were ever recorded, or it they were, none have survived.  There is no description, other than the burning of incense, that recounts the rituals that took place on the high places or beneath the green trees.  But we know, beyond any reasonable doubt, that the Israelites clung to the goddess Asherah throughout the entire history of ancient Israel.  When the Israelites crossed into Canaan after their long sojourn in the desert, Asherah had been waiting on them.  And she remained with them throughout the Babylonian destruction of Jerusalem and beyond.

Raphael Patai, author of The Hebrew Goddess, sums up Asherah's presence beautifully: “Of the 370 years during which the Solomonic Temple stood in Jerusalem, for no less than 236 years (or almost 2/3 of the time) the statue of Asherah was present in the Temple, and her worship was part of the legitimate religion approved and led by the king, the court, and the priesthood and opposed by only a few prophetic voices crying out against it at relatively long intervals.”  Asherah's worship permeated all aspects of life and survival for the Israelites.  It would have been difficult, if not impossible, for them to imagine existence without her.  There is simply no other explanation for the perseverance of her influence even as Yahweh sought to amass all the power of the heavens for himself.

In the end, Yahweh won the battle for supremacy.  And even though at no point was the existence of other deities denied, Yahweh was proclaimed the Almighty.  Asherah, and countless other deities, were buried beneath the weight of monotheism.  There can be, however, little doubt about the immense importance she played in the lives of the average Israelite.  For six centuries, she was the doting mother of Israel, watching over and guiding her children despite those that rose up against her.  Although there is much still to learn and discover, Asherah speaks to us of a rich and vibrant past long forgotten.  A past where, for a time, a powerful goddess stood next to the God of Israel as his equal.

Laurie Martin-Gardner

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