Biblical Hebrew Forum

["Dave Washburn" <dwashbur AT nyx.net>]

> Well, I guess I was assuming that the reference to "Yahweh and his
> Asherah", heading a drawing of a god and a goddess, wasn't exactly up to
> the standards of prophetic monotheism :-).  I know that phrase has been
> interpreted in different ways, but isn't the most straightforward to
> understand it as a reference to Yahweh and his consort Asherah, who are
> pictured in the drawing below the inscription?
> 
Another part of the problem is how to interpret the phrase YHWH 
Shomeron.  I've seen it "Yahweh the guardian," Yahweh of Samaria" 
and various others.  I don't think it's unreasonable to assume that 
other peoples might have picked up Israel's YHWH and added him 
to their own pantheons, and we know from the biblical history that 
Israel had a long history of departing from monotheism, so I suspect 
that the inscriptions come from one of those times, or from one of 
those other pantheons.  We certainly can't construct too much, 
especially covering a long period of time, based on this one small 
discovery.

Along the same lines, I have read somewhere about another 
inscription from KA that mentions El and Baal; does anybody have 
info on that one?

Dave Washburn
http://www.nyx.net/~dwashbur
This time, like all times, is a very good one if we but know what to do 
with it.
                  -Emerson