Here Elijah discusses the claims from several modern scholars regarding how God was worshipped & understood in Ancient Israel - & what that means for the legitimacy of modern Christianity.

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Does God Have a Wife?

Ancient authors have provided us with many glimpses into who God is. For thousands of years, human beings have speculated a million and one things about him - with one being "Did God Have a Wife?" Join us on our journey to find the truth.

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Join Theos! For a more in-depth treatment of this subject, subscribe and watch the entire course video. "Be prepared to give an answer to everyone who asks you to give the reason for the hope that you have." (1 Peter 3:15)

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What is the Meaning of Lord God?

At times the Bible can be confusing as different Bibles translate texts uniquely. Referring to Yahweh as the Lord God in the Bible is often due to ancient Semitic traditions. While at first, there was only a small minority worshiping Yahweh, the Israelite religion began to spread far from their local area. In order for them to voice their belief that Yahweh's supreme over all other Gods, Lord God was to be used. Interestingly, the ancient Israelites increasingly viewed Yahweh's name as being too sacred for human beings to simply mention, so using the term Lord God was used to show respect and humility.

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Who is the Holy Spirit?

While Judaism, Christianity, and Islam all believe in strict monotheism, meaning belief in one God - they all believe in the Holy Spirit as well. The Holy Spirit is essentially a source of divine force or influence from God over the Universe.

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Who is God's Wife?

A Mixing Of Canaanite Cultism and Judaism

Ancient Semitic religions also worshipped Asherah - one of the three great Goddesses of the Canaanite pantheon. Asherah is a powerful fertility Goddess and there is evidence that at one point in Israelites' history, an "Asherah pole" became part of their worship.

Asherah poles were a handmade handmade wooden idols, or a sacred tree, enforcing Asherah's association as a tree symbol or the "Tree of Life." We see from the ten commandements in Exodus 20 that God does not allow worship of other gods:

"Thou shalt have no other gods before me. Thou shalt not make unto thee any graven image, or any likeness of any thing that is in heaven above, or that is in the earth beneath, or that is in the water under the earth. Thou shalt not bow down thyself to them, nor serve them: for I the Lord thy God am a jealous God, visiting the iniquity of the fathers upon the children unto the third and fourth generation of them that hate me;" (Exodus 20:3-5, KJV)

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We see Asherah mentioned a suprising amount in scripture, from commandments to not raise an Asherah pole, to examples of when rulers did exactly that and the swift consequences the nation reaped as a result. Repeatedly throughout scripture, the worship of Asherah is portrayed as being against the Jehovah God.

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"Ahab also made an Asherah pole and did more to arouse the anger of the LORD, the God of Israel, than did all the kings of Israel before him." (1 Kings 16:33)

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Research from Oxford scholar Francesca Stavrakopoulou suggests that Asherah's tree symbols were said to have been "...chopped down and burned outside the Temple in acts of certain [male] rulers who were trying to 'purify the cult, and focus on the worship of a single male God, Yahweh."

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This removal of the Asherah poles is also recorded in scripture when God stirred the Israelites into revival, repentance, and renewed relationship with him.

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"And Abijah rested with his ancestors and was buried in the City of David. Asa his son succeeded him as king, and in his days the country was at peace for ten years. Asa did what was good and right in the eyes of the Lord his God. He removed the foreign altars and the high places, smashed the sacred stones and cut down the Asherah poles... He removed the high places and incense altars in every town in Judah, and the kingdom was at peace under him...No one was at war with him during those years, for the Lord gave him rest." (2 Chronicles 14:1-6)

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Stavrakopoulou's theories are based on figurines unearthed primarily in an ancient Canaanite coastal city named Ugarit, in what is currently known as Syria. She cites a Hebrew inscription that asks for a blessing from Yahweh and Asherah as evidence that the two are a divine pair.

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She finds this evidence also strongly suggests that in ancient Israel, Asherah was worshiped alongside Yahweh. Additionally, in the Book of Kings, it's stated that a statue of Asherah was housed in Yahweh's temple and that "...female temple personnel wove ritual textiles for her" (2 Kings 23:7) as another act of worship.

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Is God's Wife Mentioned in the Hebrew Bible?

So while some scholars think that God had a wife, it is clear from the scriptures that the worship of any god other than Yahweh was prohibited.

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These Hebrew inscriptions related to the Old Testament that hint at Asherah as the wife of God support the Bible's description of how evil kings brought the worship of Asherah into the temple. In fact, "Asherah" is mentioned over 43 times in scripture.

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Before the time of the Kings, in the book of Judges, we see that Gideon's first act before he led Israel to Battle against the Midianites, was to destroy the Asherah pole.

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"That same night the Lord said to him, “Take the second bull from your father’s herd, the one seven years old. Tear down your father’s altar to Baal and cut down the Asherah pole beside it." (Judges 6: 25)

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So we can see that she was often worship as the consort of Baal, and this was then incorporated alongside the worship of Jehovah.

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"[King Manasseh] took the carved Asherah pole he had made and put it in the temple, of which the LORD had said to David and to his son Solomon, “In this temple and in Jerusalem, which I have chosen out of all the tribes of Israel, I will put my Name forever." (2 Kings 21:7)

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The scriptures weave a narrative around these kings as having their reign cut short, and being replaced with a king who tears down the idol worship and restores the true worship of Jehovah. Unfortunately both Israel and Judah were carried away to captivity as judgement for their idol worship.

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Who Was Asherah?

Asherah was a Semitic god who was worshipped as Baal's consort by the Canaanites and the Amorites. The Jews often worshipped her alongside Jehovah, creating a false religion that their nation was judged for.

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Who Was Yahweh?

Ancient Israelites worshipped Yahweh, the biblical pronunciation of "YHWH", which was the name revealed to God's companion, Moses. The Bible makes it clear that while Yahweh created marriage in Genesis 1:28, he was never married, nor does God have a wife.

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Why Was God's Wife Removed From the Bible?

Asherah was not removed from Biblical narratives.

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The president of both the Arizona Center for Judaic Studies and the Albright Institute for Archaeological Research, J. Edward Wright, states that "Traces of her [Asherah] remain, and based on those traces, archaeological evidence and references...we can reconstruct her role in the religions of the Southern Levant."

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While these scholars refer to "traces" of Asherah in scripture, we can find a great deal of narrative related to her worship and the contrast the Israelites faced between choosing between the worship of Asherah, and that of their one true God who led them out of Egypt and to the promised land.

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Does God Have a Wife?

While a lot of scholars insist the Yahweh-Asherah connection is real, they are viewing it through the lens of archeological findings that demonstrate the times that Israelites worshipped false gods.

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In trying to give God a wife, these scholars are forced to side with the evil kings in the Bible. Many of these kings committed atrocities, including human sacrifice.

So despite the effort to encourage a new religion that worships "Yahweh and his Asherah", these researchers are only continuing to catalog man's sinful story and our need for a Savior.

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