Biblical Hebrew Forum

["Dora Smith" <villandra AT austin.rr.com>]

Yahweh wasn't married to Asherah.

OK.

Yours,
Dora Smith
Austin, Texas
villandra AT austin.rr.com
----- Original Message -----
From: "Dave Washburn" <dwashbur AT nyx.net>
To: "Jim West" <jwest AT highland.net>
Cc: <b-hebrew AT lists.ibiblio.org>
Sent: Monday, August 08, 2005 10:27 AM
Subject: Re: [b-hebrew] Josiah's book of the Law


> A good trick, since there was no temple in Ezekiel's day as far as we
know.
> The key phrase here is "in a vision."  I would think it's rather obvious
that
> this is figurative language.  Moreover, we know from Kings - as I believe
I
> already said - that various images, idols and altars had been set up in
the
> temple in Josiah's time.  Getting rid of them was part of his recorded
> reform.  But Jim, it would be good to read what I actually wrote.  Dora
said
> there was "graffitti [sic] scrawled everywhere...blessing Yahweh and Ba'al
> and their jointly held wife, Asherah."  First of all, the connection to
Ba'al
> in the Kuntillet Ajrud inscription is tenuous at best, and second, to my
> knowledge, that's the only inscription found so far that describes Asherah
as
> a consort (if that's what "his Asherah" means) of YHWH.  You can drag in
> various figurative visions and things like this, but I was addressing one
> specific statement about one specific inscription.  Frankly, we have no
idea
> whether this "vision" of Ezekiel's described something literal or served
as a
> metaphor for Judah's unfaithfulness.  You clearly want to take it
literally;
> do you do the same thing with the wheels within wheels in the earlier
> chapters?  Weird figurative imagery is one of the hallmarks of Ezekiel in
> general.
>
> On Monday 08 August 2005 08:29, Jim West wrote:
> > Dave, you are wrong about this.  In Ezekiel there are a number of
> > passages where Ezekiel goes, in a vision, into the Temple, and sees
> > what's going on behind "closed doors".  There he observes all manner of
> > inscriptions and drawings of bugs, beasts, animals and idols.  Not only
> > were there inscriptions to other gods in Jerusalem- they were in the
> > temple itself.  See Ezekiel 8, for instance.
> >
> > Best,
> >
> > Jim
> >
> > Dave Washburn wrote:
> > >>And graffitti scrawled everywhere - in and out of Jerusalem - blessing
> > >>Yahweh and Ba'al and their jointly held wife, Asherah.
> > >
> > >Um, no.  There's one inscription, rather vague, and it was definitely
not
> > > in Jerusalem.
>
> --
> Dave Washburn
> http://www.nyx.net/~dwashbur
> "Well, if I'd wanted a safe life, I guess I wouldn't have
> married a man who studies rocks." - Betty Armstrong (Fay Masterson)
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