An Asherah pole was a sacred tree or pole that stood near Canaanite religious locations to honor the pagan goddess Asherah, also known as Astarte. While the exact appearance of an Asherah pole is somewhat obscure, it is clear that the ancient Israelites, after entering the land of Canaan, were influenced by the pagan religion it represented.
In the Bible, Asherah poles were first mentioned in Exodus 34:13. God had just remade the Ten Commandment tablets, and Moses had requested God graciously forgive the Israelites for worshiping the golden calf. Verse 10 begins the covenant God made: if the Israelites obey Him, He will drive out the tribes living in Canaan. But they must cut down the Asherah poles. Deuteronomy 7:5 and 12:3 repeat the command nearly verbatim, while Deuteronomy 16:21 commands the Israelites not set up any wooden Asherah poles of their own. Two books later, In Judges 3:7, “The sons of Israel did what was evil in the sight of the LORD, and forgot the LORD their God and served the Baals and the Asheroth.”
Gideon became the first to fight against the infestation of Asherah poles, although, in his fear, he chopped his father’s Asherah pole down at night (Judges 6:25-27). The books of 1 & 2 Kings and 1 & 2 Chronicles tell a long story of one king chopping down Asherah poles and another building them back up. King Manasseh of Judah went so far as to install a pole in the temple of the Lord (2 Kings 21:3, 7). In the midst of a great cleansing, King Josiah took out the Asherah pole and ground it to powder, further defiling it by spreading the dust over graves (2 Kings 23:6).
Most areas in that time and place had a god and goddess designated as responsible for the well-being of crops and livestock. Likely, in the constant evolution of pagan gods and goddesses, Asherah was one of the names given for a fertility goddess in the region. Asherah’s consorts varied, depending on the cultic beliefs of the people—sometimes Asherah was said to consort with the Canaanite creator-god, El; or with the god of fertility, Ba’al; or, horrifically, with the Lord God Himself. Asherah poles were wood poles (sometimes carved, sometimes not) or trees planted by the “high places” where pagan worshipers sacrificed, although the specific purpose of the poles is not clear. It’s interesting to note that, while the once-essential “Asherah” has morphed from goddess to wooden pole to obscurity, Father God, Creator of the universe, has never changed.
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Good study
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Thank you, as always, slim. I am sincerely pleased you have enjoyed it.
May the God of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob bless you and yours….. always.
Yours in Christ;
Michael
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The Lord bless you as well Michael
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I don’t believe Asherah and Astarte were the same deity
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Hello, Simon.
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).
I am sorry, Simon, but it is true. They were one in the same.
I thank you for your comment. It is greatly appreciated.
May the God of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob bless you and yours.
Yours in Christ;
Michael
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Asherah = Ashtoreth (although ultimately there is a singular / plural issue here). I think it is not clear whether Astarte-Ishtar is the same deity.
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Hello, Simon.
I welcome any thoughts or comments on whether these two, though named by different countries, were not the same deity. I am very much interested in what your reasoning is for your disbelief of the plurality.
Thank you, Simon, for your comments. I await your thoughts.
May the God of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob bless you and yours.
Yours in Christ;
Michael
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I won’t pretend anything is terribly clear about the boundaries between deities known by multiple names. An additional complexity is actually gender change too – Ishtar for example probably has a male form associated with the Morning Star as well.
I am very interested in Asherah and have spend a considerable period of time studying her. Now, there are dangers of assuming that there is no contradictory evidence etc but Asherah / Athirat appears to be the wife-consort of El. In the Ugaritic texts it is quite clear that she is a separate deity from Astarte – infact Astarte is one of 70 offspring of El and Asherah.
I don’t doubt that some Biblical writers and prophets deliberately ‘confused’ the two. But they don’t begin with the same letter in Semitic languages, they don’t start with the same sound. They are mentioned separately in the OT I think.
Of course as time goes on and legends build up the picture becomes confusing. there is a certain moment throughout the Eastern Med and Levant / ME when the older order of gods gives way to a new order – we see this Mesopotamia with the rise of Marduk, with the Olympians in Greece etc but also in the Canaan area with Baal and Yam and, indeed with Yahweh, who is clearly an incomer. The interesting thing is that Asherah seems to survive this juncture and she is clearly still part of everyday life circa 600 BC.
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Hello, Simon;
There is one statement of which you mentioned: ” Ugaritic texts” and “Ishtar for example probably has a male form associated with the Morning Star as well.”
Asherah, in Semitic mythology, is a mother goddess who appears in a number of ancient sources. She appears in Akkadian writings by the name of Ashratum/Ashratu, and in Hittite as Asherdu(s) or Ashertu(s) or Aserdu(s) or Asertu(s). Asherah is generally considered identical with the Ugaritic goddess ʼAṯirat.
I still must hold to the premise that they are one in the same, Simon. I do welcome further discussions on this, and other, topics.
Several quick notes concerning Ishtar:
Ishtar was the Mesopotamian goddess of love, beauty, sex, desire, fertility, war, combat, and political power, the East Semitic (Akkadian, Assyrian, and Babylonian) counterpart to the Sumerian Inanna, and a cognate of the Northwest Semitic goddess Astarte and the Armenian goddess Astghik. Ishtar was an important deity in Mesopotamian religion from around 3500 BCE, until its gradual decline between the 1st and 5th centuries CE with the spread of Christianity. I hope some of this helps…..
May the God of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob bless you and yours.
Yours in Christ;
Michael
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The one who is most interesting is perhaps the very violent Anat(h) who appears in the Cycle of Ba’al but seemingly not elsewhere. Gods change names of course, even the one unnamed in your greeting because he appears initially as El Shaddai?
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Welcome, Simon;
Your note on Anath [anat,] “in the Cycle of Ba’al” is but half complete. True she was a goddess of war (amongst other things). Here are some notes on her.
Anath was a chief West Semitic goddess of love and war, the sister and helpmate of the god Baal.
Considered a beautiful young girl, she was often designated “the Virgin” in ancient texts. Probably one of the best-known of the Canaanite deities, she was famous for her youthful vigor and ferocity in battle; in that respect she was adopted as a special favorite by the Egyptian king Ramses II (reigned 1279–13 bc). Although Anath was often associated with the god Resheph in ritual texts, she was primarily known for her role in the myth of Baal’s death and resurrection, in which she mourned and searched for him and finally helped to retrieve him from the netherworld.
Egyptian representations of Anath show a nude goddess, often standing on a lion and holding flowers. During the Hellenistic Age, the goddesses Anath and Astarte were blended into one deity, called Atargatis. Here again we see a clear association between ” goddesses Anath and Astarte” as being one in the same.
The “unnamed God,” appearing in my greeting, is more than identified We only need to look at the Third Chapter of Exodus for it…. Also, in the Third Chapter of Exodus, the 6th verse, you find God saying ” “I am the God of your father, the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob.”
In the Judeo-Christian-Islamic religious/cultural tradition, spanning several millennia and the vast majority of the western world, there is only one acknowledged personal name for God. There are many descriptions (the almighty, the beneficent, etc) but only one personal name of God. The Islamic tradition speaks of the “100 names of Allah”, but these are actually titles. The word “Allah” is Arabic for “God”, which is English for the Hebrew word “Elohim”.
In the entire world’s religions there is no revelation or rationalization of God as clear and powerful as the Name that He spoke to Moses. And this personal name is directly related to God’s Real name. In short, the Name God revealed to Moses is the most powerful religious truth in the world, a huge canopy under which all other religions and truths reside. Here are the relative passages of Exodus 3:1-15
1 Now Moses was pasturing the flock of Jethro His father-in-law, the priest of Midian; and He led the flock to the west side of the wilderness, and came to Horeb, the mountain of God.
2 And the Angel of the Lord appeared to him in a blazing fire from the midst of a bush; and He looked, and behold, the bush was burning with fire, yet the bush was not consumed.
3 So Moses said, “I must turn aside now, and see this marvelous sight, why the bush is not burned up.”
4 When the Lord saw that he turned aside to look, God called to him from the midst of the bush, and said, “Moses, Moses!” And Moses said, “Here I am.”
5 Then God said, “Do not come near here; remove your sandals from your feet, for the place on which you are standing is holy ground.”
6 He said also, “I am the God of your father, the God of Abraham, the God of Issac, and the God of Jacob.” Then Moses hid his face, for he was afraid to look at God.
7 And the Lord said, “I have seen the affliction of my people who are in Egypt, and have given heed to their cry because of their taskmasters, for I am aware of their sufferings.
8 “So I have come down to deliver them from the power of the Egyptians, and to bring them up from that land to a good and spacious land, to a land flowing with milk and honey, to the place of the Canaanite and the Hittite and the Amorite and the Perrizite and the Hivite and the Jebusite.
9 And now, behold, the cry of the sons of Israel has come to me; furthermore, I have seen the oppression with which the Egyptians are oppressing them.
10 Therefore, come now, and I will send you to Pharaoh, so that you may bring my people, the sons of Israel, out of Egypt.”
11 But Moses said to God, “Who am I, that I should go to Pharaoh, and that I should bring the sons of Israel out of Egypt?”
12 And He said, “Certainly I will be with you, and this shall be the sign to you that it is I who have sent you: when you have brought the people out of Egypt, you shall worship God at this mountain.”
13 Then Moses said to God, “Behold, I am going to the sons of Israel, and I shall say to them, `The God of your fathers has sent me to you.’ Now they may say to me, `What is His name?’ What shall I say to them?”
14 And God said to Moses, “I AM WHO I AM”; and He said, “Thus you shall say to the sons of Israel, `I AM has sent me to you.'”
15 And God, furthermore, said to Moses, “Thus you shall say to the sons of Israel, `The Lord, the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob, has sent me to you. This is My name forever, and this is My memorial-name to all generations.”
So there you have it. God’s personal name, as we translate its meaning in English, is “I am that I am.” Here are some other ways it has been translated:
Factually speaking God does not change His name. In the Judeo – Christian religion man names the various powers or attributes of God. God has never changed His name. God’s name, the I Am, reveals the fullness of His nature. All of God’s nature and attributes are embodied in His name.
To translate is to explain the meaning of one language using the words of another.
To transliterate is to spell a word using the letters of another language.
“I am” is the English translation of the meaning of God’s personal name. The English transliteration of God’s personal name is YHWH.
The four Hebrew letters transliterated YHWH are:
a Yod, rhymes with “rode”, which we transliterate “Y”
a He, rhymes with “say”, which we transliterate “H”
a Vav, like “lava”, which we transliterate “W” or “V”
another He
Originally Hebrew (we’re talkin’ over 3000 years ago) didn’t have any vowels, and was written right to left.
So let’s summarize. God’s name, as written in Hebrew right to left:
Spelled left to right:
Transliterated into English: YHWH
With vowels added: YAHWEH
Translated: I AM WHO I AM
YHWH / YAHWEH /
JEHOVAH: “LORD” (Deuteronomy 6:4; Daniel 9:14) – strictly speaking, the only proper name for God. Translated in English Bibles “LORD” (all capitals) to distinguish it from Adonai, “Lord.” The revelation of the name is first given to Moses in Exodus chapter 3.
I have a post of which you may enjoy and use for study, Simon. “What are the different names of God and what do they mean?”
I know that this is long and tedious; but, there is a lot of good study here. I trust it will be helpful to you and the other readers.
Simon, as always, your comments and questions are always greatly appreciated.
May the God of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob bless you and yours.
Yours in Christ;
Michael
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Hi – it was long, not tedious at all but took me a while to get around to reading
So, you think Astarte = Asherah = Anat?
That is messy from the perspective of the Cycle of Ba’al.
Yes agreed, Allah and Elohim are cognates. You will have noted that, whilst I am not disputing that Elohim is always followed by a singular verb, it is actually a plural form.
Again, I am aware of the ‘I am who I am’ thing. But Moses too has an interesting name does he not? Son of…. Son of who? The nameless one?
Correct ancient Hebrew had now vowels as such – same as Phoenician. And I am very aware about the YHWH thing.
Is there not a problem with the very existence of tehom right at the start of Genesis? God does not create the universe ex nihil – it is not even claimed that he does.
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Hello, Simon and welcome;
Much of the stance and position you bring forth comes from past atheistic views. Which I might add are unsupported.
So let’s take a FILO approach.
Is there not a problem with the very existence of tehom right at the start of Genesis? God does not create the universe ex nihil – it is not even claimed that he does.
The view exists that tehom has a negative connotation. As word studies reveal, it is inaccurate to make a blanket assessment such as that. There are twelve occurences which can be cast in a negative tone. There are fourteen occurrences which are cast in a neutral tone. There are nine instances in which tehom actually is cast in a positive light. So each occurrence of tehom must be evaluated in its own context to see whether there is a negative, neutral, or positive connotation. Even in the negative contexts, tehom is not inherently evil. Rather it is an ethically neutral tool that God used to punish evil people. For example, when God caused the fountains of the great deep to burst open (Gen. 7:11), it was not tehom that was evil, but the people of the world who were evil. I have generally categorized incidents of judgment as carrying a negative connotation. Two exceptions are Isa. 51:10 and 63:13, which underscored the blessing of the Red Sea event for the nation of Israel. In particular, there is no convincing evidence that tehom in Genesis 1:2 is portrayed in a negative light. My word study helps to refute the Chaos Theory of Origins.
“Ex nihilo” is Latin for “from nothing.” The term “creation ex nihilo” refers to God creating everything from nothing. In the beginning, God created the heavens and the earth (Genesis 1:1). Prior to that moment there was nothing. God didn’t make the universe from preexisting building blocks. He started from scratch.
The Bible never expressly states that God made everything from nothing, but it is implied. In Hebrews 11:3 we read, “By faith we understand that the worlds were framed by the word of God, so that the things which are seen were not made of things which are visible.” Scholars take this to mean that the universe came into existence by divine command and was not assembled from preexisting matter or energy. Gen. 1:1-2 states that ” In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth. The earth was without form, and void; and darkness was on the face of the deep. And the Spirit of God was hovering over the face of the waters.”
To Christian believers the Word of God is divine and infallible. Thus the origins of our faith. “But without faith it is impossible to please Him: for he that cometh to God must believe that He is, and that He is a rewarder of them that diligently seek Him. Now without faith it is impossible to please God [Jehovah], for the one who draws near to Him must believe that He exists and rewards those who seek Him.
Hebrews 11:6
I trust, perhaps, some of this has helped.
Once again thank you for your comments. It is greatly appreciated.
May the God of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob bless you and yours.
Yours in Christ;
Michael
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I think you completely misunderstand me here. By Tehom I meant the Deep the Abyss, Tiamat. There is not nothing, things are only without ‘form’. So, there is instantly an issue between the Divine and the Metadivine – something which has bothered Jewish scholars for centuries. And face of the Deep is very awkward in its original form. I don’t mean to challenge anyone’s faith at all – far from it. I just never quite get this obsessive antipathy to Asherah, say. It’s not as though I foresee a major global Asherah revivalism starting. I am more worried about greed, globalisation and environmental degradation to be honest. Although all these things interest me….
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Simon;
Just one point. You are very much wrong about the name Moses It does not, in any form, mean “son of [?]” What it actually means is “drawn from the water.”
Hoping this clears up the matter.
May the God of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob bless you and yours.
Yours in Christ;
Michael
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Not true. Its the same in structure as rameses and tutmoses
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Hello, Simon and welcome;
The name Moses is an anglicized form of the biblical Hebrew Moshe (מֹשֶׁה). The name itself is of uncertain derivation. I think you are taking information from some etymologists who believe it is based on the Hebrew mashah meaning “drew out” while others believe it may derive from the Egyptian mes, meaning “son”. In Hebrew it means “drawn from the water”. As in he being taken from the Nile and adopted by the Egyptian princess.
May the God of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob bless you and yours.
Yours in Christ;
Michael
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I am just wondering if you know about the Semitic concept of PENE?
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No Simon, I am afraid I am not.
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