Biblical Hebrew Forum

["Ian Hutchesson" <mc2499 AT mclink.it>]

Hi Liz.

> I disagree that the people of pre-Exilic Judah were
> polytheistic. I don't know that the figurines represented
> Ashera or that they were worshipped.

If they weren't cultic figurines like all 
the others, what were they?

> I don't know who
> wrote the grafitti on the Kuntillit Adjrud pithoi. 

Or the Khirbet el-Qom inscription or at Deir 
el'Alla (with its shadayin gods), but then the 
archaeological record says that the inhabitants 
of the area were polytheistic and they were so 
even during the period when most people don't 
want them to have been, so with no 
archaeological evidence to support the case one 
asserts monotheism.

Who worshipped at the bamah just outside 
Jerusalem at Malhah (which is now a part 
southern suburbs)? (See de Vaux, Ancient 
Israel, p285.)

> I can tell
> you tho that there was only one matzevah at Arad, the
> other one you see in all the photos was part of the wall
> and had fallen into the cella area.

This is not how A.Mazar and others see it. 
There were in fact two altars in the temple. 
See Mazar's Archaeology..., Doubleday, p497.

"Placed inside the niche, against the rear 
wall, were two standing stones (massebot); 
one, painted red, was larger than the other. 
At the entrance to the Holy of Holies, there 
were two monolithic stone altars of different 
dimensions, each standing opposite the 
massebah of comparable size."

Piera Arata Mantovani writes in an Italian 
analysis, "The Arad Temple, annexed to the 
fortress, reflects a single phase (strata 
VII-VI): it was built at the beginning of 
stratum VII (1st half of the 7th c.) and 
remained in use until the final destruction 
of fortress VI, at the beginning of the 6th 
c... two stone stelae... two small stone 
altars..." 

It's also interesting to remember that the 
temple in Jerusalem was described as having 
two pillars [`mdym] in the porch.

> All the polemics that you read in Ezekiel, etc. are just their
> way of explaining the disasters. The temple was captured,
> the people deported -- ERGO they must have worshipped
> other gods.

What you need to do first before making such 
pronouncements is to date the text. It was 
written sometime after the fall of Jerusalem 
and before the citations from Qumran, perhaps 
before Ben Sira who knew of the prophet and 
maybe the book. Beyond that, the onus is on 
you to contextualize it, otherwise your ideas 
about significance can't even be considered,
for the fall of Jerusalem may have been used 
in that text as a trope for other 
circumstances.


Cheers,


Ian