Re: Hyers' Dinosaur Religion (was: HYAR'S...; Hyers' Article-Cods Wallop)

Ted,

Thanks for following up. I see now that the 2 Kings passages could refer to Asherah as Yahweh's consort, although I'd always interpreted them instead as placing Asherah, etc., _alongside_ Yahweh--like Moses' bronze serpent (2 Kings 18:4). This consort concept would suggest that Yahweh lost his distinctiveness among at least some of the idolaters and became just another "chief god." That's of course not an impression you'd ever get from the Bible. The prophets give the impression that the people _rejected_ Yahweh to chase after foreign gods--worshiping first one, then the others, not worshiping Yahweh and foreign gods simultaneously, all as members of the same club. If Yahweh indeed had been a member of the club, wouldn't he have had his own idol? If not, he'd be the only one without. I still find the concept difficult. Of course, from Yahweh's point of view, for people to regard him as a member of the club would be tantamount to rejection, while for the people to throw out the Asherahs and the other club members might constitute returning to him.

I have difficulty with your brother's interpretation of the sites at Dan and Bethel. Each site seems to have been dominated by a golden calf (1 Kings 12), a fact that's hard to square with having one site for Yahweh and the other for Asherah, who was represented by a wooden pole. Jereboam's announcement (1 Kings 12:28) seems to imply that his new gods were to _replace_ Yahweh. Would he have had the gall to name his calves "Yahweh"?

Don

  ----- Original Message -----
  From: Ted Davis<mailto:tdavis@messiah.edu>
  To: dfwinterstein@msn.com<mailto:dfwinterstein@msn.com>
  Cc: asa@calvin.edu<mailto:asa@calvin.edu>
  Sent: Sunday, February 29, 2004 2:22 PM
  Subject: Re: Hyers' Dinosaur Religion (was: HYAR'S...; Hyers' Article-Cods Wallop)

  I had promised to ask my brother (an expert on archaeology in the ancient
  near east) about Dever's comments on God's consort among the Hebrews.
  Here's his reply:

  The Biblical references are always couched as if Asherah were only an
  object representing the goddess. Dever suggests this was to "clean up" the
  references. 2 Kings 17:10, 16 gives asherah worship as a reason for the
  deportation of Israel. Archeological eveidence from the iIron II Period is
  clear. (period of the Divided Monarchy) Kuntillet Ajrud, a Judean fortress
  in the Iron Age has an inscription accompanying a depiction of male and
  female deities mentions "May X be blessed by Yahweh of Samaria and his
  Asherah". A tomb inscription from the 7th c BC at Khirbet el Qom also has
  the phrase "Yahweh and his asherah". I think the two cult centers set up
  at Dan and Bethel by Jeroboam were dedicated t o Yahweh and asherah, one to
  each of them,and that this is the ultimate sin Jeroboam and the northern
  kingdom are accused of in Kings. There is no proof of this however but may
  be the reference in 2Kings 23:15. The elephantine temple was dedicated
  duuring the Persian period to Yaho (Yahweh) and other deities. I cannot
  recall if asherah was among them. Dever dug Khirbet el Qom, hence his
  interest. This causes apoplexy among the orthodox jews, but it all supports
  the Biblical depiction of a people gone astray, "awhoring after false gods"

  Dever has a short article on this in the newly published Near Eastern
  Archaeology Reader, Eerdmans 2003. I also have an article in it on
  Levantine archaeology.

  "I" in this final sentence of course, means my brother, Thomas Davis.
Received on Tue Mar 2 02:25:17 2004