History's Vanquished Goddess: Asherah

by Darlene Kosnik

God s Wife: the Goddess Asherah, Wife of Yahweh. Although a disconcerting notion to some, a galaxy of ancient artifacts reveals that goddess worship existed in Ancient Israel and that Asherah was but one of Yahweh s wives. Following a trail of archaeological discoveries, the forgotten story of God s wife, the quintessential Hebrew Mother Goddess Asherah, is slowly reconstructed in this extensive study with over 550 archaeological drawings and 1,183 references. Mentioned over 40 times in the Hebrew Bible, the archaeological evidence identifies Asherah as Yahweh s primary wife and reveals she is the only surviving goddess in Palestine by the end of the 7th-6th centuries BCE. Asherah s stunning history unfolds as the shovels of archaeology resurrect what the pens of history forgot. *A subject pioneered by Raphael Patai s The Hebrew Goddess (1967) and William G. Dever s Did God Have a Wife? Archaeology and Folk Religion in Ancient Israel (2005).

Genres: Spirituality, Mythology

316 pages, Paperback

First published February 10, 2014

Reviews

[Brett Folkman · Rating 5 out of 5]

I LOVED all the images and research. While Darlene does stretch trying to force too many of the artifacts as Asherah, when most of them are in fact Astarte and NOT Asherah, it's still a wonderful compilation of so many ancient goddess images with supporting information. There has a been more published and this book isn't a stand a lone book on the topic. This is more of a fun flip through book AFTER you've read the serious scholarship about Asherah. I'd start with The Hebrew Goddess by Raphael Patai.