Biblical Hebrew Forum

[Robert Heard <Christopher.Heard AT pepperdine.edu>]

Dora Smith wrote:
>And graffitti scrawled everywhere - in and out of Jerusalem - blessing
>Yahweh and Ba'al and their jointly held wife, Asherah.

Dora, I believe you are far overstating the archaeological case for 
this particular data. As I recall, there are a _handful_ of graffitti 
from Yavneh-Yam and Kuntillet 'Ajrud that pronounce a blessing by 
"Yahweh [of Teman/Samaria] and his asherah." I am not even sure the 
"and his asherah" part occurs alongside the localization phrases. 
Anyway, we're talking 3-5 bits of graffitti or onomastica, as I recall. 
And there is a _heated_ debate in the scholarly literature over whether 
"asherah" in this context refers to the goddess Asherah or to a cultic 
object.

F$.02,
Chris Heard

(I left my signature in my other e-mail client)

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--
R. Christopher Heard
Assistant Professor of Religion
Pepperdine University
Malibu, CA 90263-4352
http://www.heardworld.com
http://www.iTanakh.org