OK, believes “in” might be a stretch, but an atheist scholar does believe that the Judeo-Christian God may have been married, according to the U.K. Daily Mail.
That there were many gods (and goddesses) worshiped in ancient Israel is no surprise if you’ve read a bit of the Old Testament or are even familiar with the Ten Commandments. University of Exeter lecturer Francesca Stavrakopoulou, however, says that biblical and archeological evidence point to the Hebrew God being paired with a goddess who was worshiped in his temple in Jerusalem. The Daily Mail quotes another article she wrote:
“In the Book Of Kings, we’re told that a statue of Asherah was housed in the temple and that female temple personnel wove ritual textiles for her.
In fact, although the Bible condemns all of these practices, the biblical texts suggest that goddess worship was a thriving feature of high-status religion in Jerusalem.
What, then, was her relationship to Yahweh? Ancient texts, amulets, and figurines unearthed here reveal that she was a powerful fertility goddess.
But perhaps most significant of all, Asherah was also the wife of El, the high god at Ugarit – a god who shares much in common with Yahweh. Given the evidence within the Bible that she was worshipped in the temple in Jerusalem, might she have played the role of a divine wife in ancient Israel too?”
Is this fallacy to be dismissed, an oddity from history, or a threat to our monotheism? Or could it be an admission that religion evolves with our understanding of God and a good reason to stop calling YHWH “he”?
