Tell Halif
Kuntillet Ajrud
Pillar figurine 2162

Even if `asherah in the inscriptions is a reference to something other than the goddess (e.g., cult object or shrine), the following argument is still valid. Kuntillet `Ajrud served several religious traditions simultaneously and apparently equally well. Those who dedicated objects to Yahweh (and his 'asherah) found it appropriate to do so alongside other traditions. I.e., no matter the translation of `asherah there is (at least) tacit recognition of the validity of the other traditions (Baal and El.)

A question to be asked of the varying translations of the inscriptions is the following: does/can a cult object or shrine "bless" as the writer(s) of the inscriptions supposed "his `asherah" could do? Perhaps an object associated with Yahweh has that capacity; Tigay (1986:28) refers to objects, specifically a city and a temple, blessing in a Neo-Assyrian salutation which headed a letter; he mentions no Hebrew parallel. But even if a cultic object can bless, the mixture of `asherah as cultic object and `Asherah as goddess in the mind of the worshiper will have certainly obscured the distinctions modern translations want to maintain. Furthermore, located as it was in a building used by various religious traditions the identification of `asherah with `Asherah should surprise no one. See McCarter (1987).

See now the "common sense" interpretation of the phrase "his `a/`Asherah" urged by Dever (1999), in which he argues for the comon sense reading of "his `Asherah" as reference to the goddess.

 

Bibliography

Dever, William G. 1999. Arhaeology and the Ancient Israelite Cult: How the Kh. El-Qom and Kuntillet `Ajrud `Asherah' Texts Have CHanged the Picture in Eretz-Israel 26. Frank Cross Volume. Pp. 9-15.

McCarter, P. Kyle. 1987. Aspects of the Religion of the Israelite Monarchy: Biblical and Epigraphic Data in Ancient Israelite Religion in Essays in Honor of Frank Moore Cross. P. D. Miller, Jr., P. D. Hanson and S. D. McBride, edd. Philadelphia: Fortress Press.

Tigay, Jeffrey H. 1986. You Shall Have No Other Gods; Israelite Religion in the Light of Hebrew Inscriptions. Harvard Semitic Studies 31. Atlanta: Scholars Press.