From: Robert Heard <Christopher.Heard AT pepperdine.edu>
To: b-hebrew AT lists.ibiblio.org
Subject: Re: [b-hebrew] Josiah's book of the Law
Date: Mon, 8 Aug 2005 10:27:17 -0700 (PDT)
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.