Yahve'nin Eşi Aşera Kimdi?

[Muhyiddin Arabi]

İngilizce Transkirpt

Western monotheism has arrived at the concept of a singular god often by two distinct means. One by addition from nothing. Theologians and philosophers start from no gods and argue for the existence of one such being and then the impossibility of there being any other such beings. These arguments stretch all the way back into the ancient Greek world and have endured through the works of theologians through the centuries. However, another mechanism has also been long at work in monotheism. This is monotheism through subtraction. That is to say starting with a popoly of divine beings and very slowly demoting them consolidating them and erasing them such that only one supreme being remains. And something like this process certainly happened among the ancient Israelites with various divine beings such as L Bal Mo Yam Lotan. All of these beings ultimately vanishing off through demotion consolidation and eraser through the millennia. But perhaps the one most conspicuous god lost in the process of the elevation of Yahweh as the sole cosmic deity was the eraser and demonization of what was likely or perhaps the wife consort Asher. Yeah it seems that the national god of the ancient Israelites may have or even likely had a wife or a consort and she may have been systematically demoted and then ultimately erased from history. But what do we actually know about this goddess Asher? And what is the evidence that she was in fact the wife of Yahweh, the wife of the deity that simply became God? Make sure to subscribe here to Esoterica for weekly explorations of topics in esoteric history or just lesser known dimensions of religious history. And if you'd like to support the work of providing evidencebacked and free accessible content like this episode I'd hope you consider checking out some of the cool merch that we have or supporting us on our Patreon. If you're new to the study of esotericism make sure to check out my study guide for a reliable lay of the land. And if you're interested in actual hi storical books on topics in the occult and the mystical check out Esoterica Rare Books our bookshop. You can find all those links in the description and in the pin comment below. But now let's explore Asher the lost wife of God. I'm Dr Justin Sledge and welcome to Esoterica where we explore the arcane in history philosophy and religion. This episode is actually part of an ongoing series here on the channel of the history of the ancient Israelite god Yahweh. Now I've already done a couple of episodes about the origins of Yahweh and the development toward monotheism if you want to check out those videos before getting to this one. But in a painfully brief summary of those episodes Yahwei seems to have been a deity imported into the Canaanite pantheon from the south at some point in the late Bronze or early Iron Age who would then go on to meteoric success as the national god of the Israelites and for billions of people just well God. This warrior storm deity would be assimilated to the chief of the Canaanite pantheon L just God set into conflict with another storm deity Baal with elements of both incorporated into the composite picture of Yahweh as he appears in Israelite cultic and religious life. Following the destruction of the northern Israel kingdom in 722 B.CE and Judea in 586 B.CE It appears that Yahweh hetheism or monolatry would eventually transform into something like monotheism during the Babylonian exile. Again this is all just a very very short summary of a much more complex process that I've actually outlined in much more detail in those previous episodes on Yahweh. So again make sure to check those out. But let's rewind a second. Recall how Yahweh would become assimilated into the larger Canaanite pantheon especially by being conflated to a significant degree with the grandfatherly chief of that pantheon L whose name just means well God. Basically if you've ever imagined God as a kind of bearded old man sitting on a throne you're basically actually imagining the Can aanite God L and in some sense not the youthful warrior god Yahweh. But this assimilation had a kind of strange effect to it. A bug or a feature depending on how you want to look at it. Our earliest linguistic and epigraphic evidence actually presents Yahweh as again a youthful warrior storm god manifesting as a powerful thunderstorm. He's sometimes referred to as the rider on the clouds. But as a youth this deity doesn't appear to have a consort or a wife. Much like the Canaanite god Bal who mostly actually just hangs out and by hangs out with I mean rampages with his fierce virgin sister Anat. In fact Bahal doesn't even have his own house until much later in the development of his myth cycle. Apparently living in his parents' basement or or something. Get a job B. But early on Yahweh was in a similar situation. He was a divine bachelor. But with his assimilation to the fatherly deity L Yahweh seemingly inherits as it were the consort wife of L known in Ugaritic mythology as Atherat and cognate i n Hebrew as Asher. But this was a complicated relationship to say the very least and it ultimately ended in divorce between Yahweh and Asher with Asher becoming just someone that Yahweh used to know. Indeed of the 40 or so mentions of Asher in the Israelite literature of the Hebrew Bible what we overwhelmingly learn is that some Israelites made shared cultic space for both Yahweh and Asher in some form. And others especially the ones that were editing the Hebrew Bible as it's come down to us especially the Deuteromist they found this a cultic outrage an an abomination that should be driven from Israelite cultic practice. But before getting to the Israelites let's explore the development of Asher in the centuries before Israelites and indeed in the centuries before even Yahweh appeared on the scene. But to start what does this name Ashira Ashu Asheru Atherat as it appears in the various forms in the ancient near east what does this name even mean? Well that question remains pretty vexed by sc holars. An earlier generation of scholars held that the name was some version of auyami something like she who treads upon the sea. But this form is actually never attested and it seems too late a form considering just how early she actually appears in the historical linguistic record. Further another reading attempts to see this as a root that means something like wife or consort. But again this form also isn't attested and it doesn't have any precedent in Semitic languages otherwise. However a form that is attested in Phoenician Aadian Aramaic and Ugaritic is something like alf tav which does mean something like holy place or sanctuary. And thus her name actually may mean something like she of the sanctuary. Though again the exact meaning of her name rose mysterious much in fact like the name Yahweh. We don't really understand completely how this name Yahweh developed either. But so far as we can tell Asher first appears in history in a Sumerian votive offering to Hamarapi in the mid 18th cen tury B.C.E. Yeah that Hamarapi Hamarapi's code Hamarapi. And so this is about 800 years or so prior to the earliest possible mention of an Israelite polity or the appearance of Yahweh as a god on the Mishelli. But in this vote of offering we have a mention of Asher in her Aadian name form Ashu where we learn that she is thought of as the lady of the mountain. She has a kind of erotic aspect to her. She's known as the lady of voluuptuousness and happiness. She's considered to be the daughter-in-law of the heavenly Sumerian deity An. She shares some of the epithets of Ishtar and that she is thought of as an Amorite deity. The Amorites were a northwestern Seemetic people bordering on the old Babylonian Empire to the west and eventually to the Israelites to the northeast. Indeed Hamarapi himself was actually an Amorite. So maybe that's part of the reason why we see Asher here. Further it also appears that she was the consort of the head of the Amorite pantheon Amuru. a title of whom was Lord of the mo untain the Belshadi a similar epithet that Yahweh will eventually acquire as El Shadai god of the mountain. Further in the text she's also known as the lady of patient mercy who prays reverently for her spouse his lady further cementing her position as the consort of the Amorite high god. Further god lists such as the an equals anum series or the tint tier equals Babilu or the Nepur god list all detail just various positions with various Semitic epithets which are now linguistically assure of the god Asher. They list her along with various other spirits and entities and indicate that she did have a temple in Babylon known as the house of the luxury of the land. Indeed her name is listed as part of the Akitu or the Sumerian Acadian New Year processions at the temple of Anu at Uruk though her name is just listed along with a bunch of other deities. So she's not especially interesting in this text. Cylinder seals which are these little tiny rolling seals that help to mark out um authority and d ocuments also testify to the importance of her name acting as a kind of theoiform in several different known examples. Another text referred to her as the lady of the step. This is another epithet probably associated with both her Amorite origins but also it might have some afterlife connotations as well. She's mentioned in at least two other divinatory or esoteric text. One in which we learn there existed an um man asherat or an asher wizard asher wizard responsible for some sort of divination. But in short we don't really learn all that much about her at this earliest period. She seems to have been the consort of the Amorite high god thought of as the daughter-in-law of the Sumerian deity of heaven an thus she enjoyed some popularity as such. She had at least one temple in Babylon and may have had some connection to divinatory practices though what god didn't have some connection to divinatory practices that was extremely common in this period. A bit later on she appears in a Hittite text. The Hittites were an Indo-Uropean-speaking people in Anatolia what is now Turkey who flourished from sometime around 1700 to,200 B.CE. The Bronze Age collapse got rid of them. Though the Hittite text seems to be a translation of another West Seemetic text. In fact the Hittites were some of the first folks interested in something like religious studies studying preserving numerous non-Hittite religious texts from their neighbors. In fact an otherwise unknown Indo-Uropean language was recently discovered among these Hittite religious studies collections. So that's kind of neat. But this text is a mythic narrative in which a Hittite version of Asher Asheru attempts to seduce an otherwise unnamed storm god seemingly Baal. But he rebuffs her and he reports her salacious activity to her husband El Cornisa whose name is actually a composition of the Semitic phrase something like L creator of the earth who informs the storm god to sleep with her after all in order to humiliate her. The storm god does so mocking that he's actually killed 77 out of her 88 children. And this causes her to go into a cycle of mourning for seven years. The text then breaks off with El Cornisa now plotting with Asheru against the storm god who now has Ishtar's help somehow with the text breaking off again into fragments. But again we find Asher as a consort to the chief god here Elcarnisa displaying an erotic element with a storm god but now bearing divine children and in a um complicated relationship with with that storm god. But of course our greatest source for understanding the goddess Asher is from the Ugaritic archives which were destroyed and then preserved precisely by that destruction sometime around 1185 B.CE during the Bronze Age collapse the same collapse that took out the Hittites and probably created the power vacuum that allowed for the rise of smaller polities like the Israelites. There we find three chief sources for information on Asher known in Ugaritic as Atherat. The Kerro or Kerta myth the B aal cycle and then just a miscellaneous grab bag of various mentions. The myth or epic of Kerta or Kerro follows that unfortunate son of L who's been widowed seven times. He's now childless and he's the last of his family line. Desperate for an heir L in a dream instructs him to wage war against the city of Udum to force the king there to give his daughter or granddaughter it's not clear in the text Hara to him in marriage. And ultimately he stomps along the way to a shrine of Atherat offering her gold and silver if he's to be successful. And ultimately he is successful and he and Haria are married and have two sons and six daughters. However Kerta ultimately renegs on his promise to the goddess Atherat to pay her that gold and silver as tribute after his marriage and all hell breaks loose. Aarat promptly curses him and apparently his eldest son Yatsib who Atherat herself had nursed with a terrible fever illness. His children intercede on his behalf with the gods and eventually L does side wit h Kerta noting that the vow he made in the beginning was ludicrous in the first place. Eventually that eldest son attempts to overthrow Kto who then Ka curses before the text finally breaks off with Ka and his fate ultimately unknown. Though some scholars do believe that ultimately all of his children die along with him aside from a last daughter who becomes his heir. But Atherat's role in this text seems again to be that of the consort of the high god L but also conspicuously responsible for somehow attaining a royal heir at her own shrine. Indeed she even acts as their wet nurse. The children of Kya are nursed by Atherat something along the lines of the fearsome god Anat. But she's also clearly powerful. Atherat's very clearly powerful and she won't stand her promises that she dos out to be betrayed. While L seems to be the chief actor in some sense in another sense the real power behind the throne at least as it were at least in terms of the production of divine progeny seems to be aat. Of c ourse the Bal cycle is perhaps the most famous text of the Canaanite religion as it survives to us and it gives us our best insight into the religious sensibilities of that region and the late bronze age. Here we have the rise of Baal his war with the sea and death yum and moat the creation of his palace and the ultimate triumph of his will as the ruler of the gods. In fact I done a whole episode on Baal and the Baal cycle if you want to learn more about this ancient Canaanite deity. And it's in this cycle that we learn the most about ancient Atherat ancient Asher. And in the contest with Baal and the sea Yam she's actually referred to as a goddess and is sympathetic with the sea. It's actually one of her sons. And indeed one of her epithets is Atherat of the Sea. And she seems to be at least once described as seemingly doing her laundry in the sea winking seductively at L though remaining very ladylike and domestic taking with her the signs of domestic propriety her spindle warl. But her rela tionship with Baal is unsurprisingly complex and she seems to often be actively resisting him. And that makes some sense given that she is the mother of all the gods including Yam and Mo the sea and even death and the consort of L. All of which are subject to hostility by Baal. Indeed Yam will be defeated by Bahal Death will be met with a kind of dant and l eventually will be overthrown in the Bal cycle with Bal becoming the lord of all the gods hence his name Baal. Thus the Rabbitu or the queen mother as she's known in Ugaritic logically has a tense relationship with the storm god. And that's just what we see when the horrible Anat and Bal approach her such that she will intercede on Bal's behalf for the construction of Bal's own palace. She recoils in horror. Her voice breaks and her face breaks out in anxious sweat at the sight of this fearsome brother and sister duo. However her dignity is preserved as she travels to the tent of L. There she rides astride a donkey while the fearsome virgin Anat is made to walk alongside on foot. Ultimately Aurorat's position to L is granted and Kthar Vakasis grants the great palace of Bal to be built. But again Bal and Atherat only reach a kind of dant with her with her rejoicing when moat or death seemingly strikes down Bal in their contest. Indeed with Bal dead she as Rabitu or queen mother is actually able to elect one of her sons as the new head of the divine family a situation that she clearly enjoys. And she elects Aar the Terrible Aar the Terrible. But Bal emerges from death and slaughters the many children of Atherat leaving an unclear number alive if any. Indeed this section seems to echo part of that Hittite epic that I just mentioned a bit ago where the storm god brags about killing 77 of the 88 children to mock the goddess. But how or if these texts are connected isn't in the least bit clear. But the authorat of the B cycle is clearly one of her being the lady of the sea. This connection with the sea however isn't really clear. She's t he Rabbitu or the queen mother and thus the mother of the gods as consort of El. She also has a clearly erotic nature but also pretty clearly domestic washing divine laundry and bearing her spindle whirl. Her connection with Baal and Anat is tense to say the least and she certainly doesn't seem to be interested in seducing him as it occurs in the Hittite narrative. Though while she's clearly connected to progeny of the gods and of royal figures there's actually very little evidence of her as a general fertility or mother goddess whether it's people or agricultural either. Though such a conclusion wouldn't be unreasonable if we're being honest. In addition to these cycles described by Ellie Melik they're all written by one scribe. Actually about a dozen or so other smaller fragmentaryary myths ritual texts and god lists also survive from Uger and they preserve some further information about AIAT as well. Though to be honest nothing much is added to what we've already learned. Atherat is the pro genitor of the gods. She nurses various divine beings. She possesses a maternal aspect. She was actively the object of worship at Ugger with various sacrifices including animal sacrifices. Though I should mention that a previous generation of scholars have often linked her with lions and serpents. You still see this repeated online in places but more recent scholarship has projected this iconography as basically a case of mistaken identity. Of course Asher is most wellknown from the appearance of that term in the Hebrew Bible or the Christian Old Testament. But as we'll see exactly what the Asher of the Hebrew Bible is or wasn't isn't really clear at all. mentioned about 40 times in the Israelite library known as the Hebrew Bible Asher is also known in the feminine plural ashro and in the masculine plural asharim. Yeah the masculine plural. And it seems to refer to a range of things trees poles some type of specific wooden objects perhaps a statue along with perhaps a handful of reference to a g oddess in this case. Further the references to the Asher aren't evenly distributed with most of them occurring in the Deuteronomistic historians specifically to explain the wrath of Yahweh or to call for religious reform given that these apparently wooden objects are appearing in cultic sites or bamote or high places. These asharim or asherot could be made or even planted suggesting they were something like trees or bushes and could be hewed down and subject to burning indicating perhaps their wooden nature. This association with trees by the way would continue in Greek and Latin translations of the Hebrew Bible where they were variously rendered as something like groves. So the idea that the Asher become sacred groves in the Septuagent. Such an understanding would actually be expressed in rabbitical Judaism as well. The Mishna at Avodazar 3:7 concludes that the Ashira is just a tree under which there is an idol placed or per Rabbi Shimon it's just any tree that's worshiped at all. But note i n all those cases the Asher is not a goddess. In many cases they're just mentioned along the Asher are just mentioned alongside the destruction of altars to foreign gods are simply Yahweh shrines outside the Jerusalem temple. Though there was an asher in the Jerusalem temple. grammatically speaking they often occur in the plural with a definite article. The Asher the Asher most of them are references to the Asher wrote are not specifically referring to a personal goddess but seemingly to some cultic object which however may have been associated with that goddess. We just don't know. However this is just as I said less than clear. In some cases Baal and Asher although again often in the grammatical plural Baleim Asharim are together mentioned as if they may be forms of those respective gods. But again why are they in the plural? In fact scholars have even noticed that many of the postexilic texts often refer to the term ashira which is feminine in gender with a masculine plural ending asharim as a form of perhaps spiteful misgendering or maybe just because they forgotten that the word originally referred to a goddess at all. Asher as a goddess might have just been forgotten by that point. However glimpses of the goddess might persist. Maka is actually removed from being queen mother for making a horrid thing for the Ashira by her son Assa who cuts down that horrid thing and then burns it in the Kedron Valley. Does the relationship of Maka as queen mother have some sort of relationship to the horrid thing she made for the Asher? Also again she's the Rabbitu in the Ugaritic mythology. She's herself a queen mother. Is there some connection here? Well the question is as mysterious as it is tantalizing. In the prophetic duel between Elijah and the prophets of Baal we also learn that there are some prophets of Asher but many scholars think this may have just been a scribal mistake as the prophets of Asher ultimately just disappear from the duel later on in the text. 2 Kings 17:16 also makes a singular mention of Asher again is some kind of cult object. And later in 2 Kings 18:4 we have the Asher being destroyed with the bronze serpent of Moses because people were offering incense to them. So again what exactly this is is it a goddess or an image of a goddess or a tree? None of this is clear. By Josiah's time we learn of an Asher in the Jerusalem temple which he drugg out and burned in the Kidedron Valley. If the mentions of Asher in Deuteronomy and in Kings do so much to a face Asher as a goddess so much more so than that of the chronicler who may be actively offiscating just that history or frankly just doesn't even know it at all. While the dutonomist may be condemning and pyicizing against Asher or her cultic symbols the chronicler either has just actively engaged in full eraser of her or again that history is just totally lost to them with now all mentions of Asher occurring either in the feminine or masculine plural forms or now all plural. The prophets who are famous for t heir partisanship of Yahweh are surprisingly silent on the question of Asher or the Asher with only four such mentions in all of the prophetic literature. Isaiah reflects back on the presence of the Asheras and on a future without them. Jeremiah invokes the language of Hosea actually and is also seemingly looking backwards to past signs and Mikah is actually looking forward to a future destruction of the Asher and the cities that house them. Though speaking of Hosea some scholars have actually read the second chapter of that book as a kind of get a kind of bill of divorce between Yahweh and Asher. Though this reading is contentious and I don't think it's been accepted by the consensus of scholars. Most scholars reading that as a bill of divorce between Yahweh and Israel. Regardless with some 40 mentions of Ashira in various forms in the Hebrew Bible we learn virtually nothing about any goddess here. Most mentions are of some cultic object or objects perhaps a tree or a pole placed on altars o r near altars including in the Jerusalem shrine. The word often occurs in the plural sometimes with even the definite article and even in the masculine plural with the definite article again perhaps as sardonic mockery. Perhaps only three maybe five at a stretch but probably just three seem to imagine Asher as a goddess unlike Bahal which was certainly considered to be a god. And perhaps by them she was just forgotten or never really an important local deity. Again Ugger is really far to the north and quite a bit back in time. But certainly we have no traces of her being a mother or fertility goddess despite her association with trees which remains ambiguous. Indeed many scholars doubt on contextual and linguistic grounds there just just any goddess mentioned in the Hebrew Bible at all. Though that's to be severely contradicted by the wealth of archaeological evidence which seem to indicate some kind of goddess was worshiped in the region. Though I and other scholars suspect that the discussio n of the cult object and the goddess are probably just conflated in the discussion of the Asher in the Hebrew Bible. the most important such reference seems to be that horrid thing made by Queen Assad's mother Makkah. Again perhaps reflecting Asher herself as a queen mother at least in some kind of past life. But around the same time that Asher is being demoted erased and forgotten in Judea she seems to have been enduring just fine south of the region in what is now pre-Islamic Arabia. There's a collection of about a dozen monumental inscriptions in three of the major dialects of that language which have survived and invoke Atherat as part of the astral triad of that region. Though with the lunar deities such as Wad and Am Atherat may have been a kind of solar deity though this is far from certain. Most of these inscriptions are just mentions of her name with regards to dedication votive offerings some temple restorations and perhaps rededications. There's perhaps a month dedicated to her and then just fia forms and names. While these South Arabian inscriptions tell us a little about Atherat and her worship in the region they are in fact testimony to her cult persisting well south before the rise of Islam. And in effect that would be all that we would know in terms of ancient Asher in the world. But two extraordinary incriptions discovered in the 20th century have seemed to have raised the shocking possibility that despite the seeming cover up or eraser of Asher in the Hebrew Bible that she was in fact the wife or the consort of Yahweh. The site ated okcom was found shortly after being robbed and was published by deor and can be dated to sometime in the middle of the 8th century B.CE. Tomb 2 famous for its magic hand engraving contains an inscription that reads something like Uryyahu the honorable has written this. Blessed is be buryahu by Yahweh and because from his oppressors by his Yahweh he has saved him. Written by onyahu by his asher and then and his acher. This fragmentarya ry inscription is made all the more difficult by all the scratches and the soft stone around that abound in the area. One man's scratches and other man's paleo Hebrew. But what we seem to have in this description is a mention of someone by the name of Yoryahu that Yahweh the forum is in his name being blessed and saved by both Yahweh and the unusual form by his asher. Now as you can imagine this inscription has invited numerous readings translations and interpretations. But at the core there seems to be general scholarly consensus that both Yahweh and his asher are objects of praise by Yuryahu. The question is what is going on with that pronomial suffix that his of his asher? More on that in just a minute. A slightly earlier inscription found way out in the Sinai at Countit Adrude has a similar inscription and is found on two large vessels or pithoy and says something like says Ashi the king say to soand so and to Yavasa and to blessed are all of you to Yahweh of Samaria and to his asher. With the other reading something like Amar Yav says to his Lord it is well with you I bless you by Yahweh of Tan and by his asher. May he bless you and keep you and be with my Lord. Here we have localized versions of Yahweh though the sinai is pretty far removed from Samaria again followed with that asher in that pronomial suffix form his asher. Further Pithos A features numerous images including bovine nursing imagery which sometimes is associated with Asher and L two seemingly seated entities with Egyptian bestlike features near a seated heart player. Just how the imagery interacts with the inscriptions isn't clear and there's a lot of debate. But what might all of this actually mean in terms of Yahweh and Asher? The inscriptions seem to represent Yahweh and his Asher doling out blessings. One inscription echoes the language of the priestly benediction in fact. But exactly what is the asher of these inscriptions? Well first off there aren't really any known cases where a proper name takes such a prenomial suffix in classical Hebrew. So arguments have been made to just this effect. This just isn't a proper noun or a name. We're not dealing with a goddess in this situation. And thus she can't be wed or a consort to Yahweh. And thus in line with all of this the concept that the Asher is some kind of cult artifact or some other kind of object in association with Yahweh. But do cultic objects provide blessings? While objects like the altar and the ark of the covenant in the Hebrew Bible do take such a prenomial suffix they can't do it in such a way that they give out blessings persons give out blessings and perhaps through the ark Yahweh dispenses blessings but the bless the ark is itself not doing the blessing and yet given the iconography there seems to be a kind of seated monarch and consort imagery at hand which would indicate that we're not only reading about Yahweh but actually seeing Yahweh and his asher in this imagery but again this is all just up for debate and trust me it is ve ry much being debated and will continue to be. Though regardless we don't really learn anything new about Ashira from these inscriptions. And the question of if these are inscriptions or evidence for Ashira as a kind of consort of Yahweh remain completely unresolved. However and I'm slow to editorialize here on the channel but if I'm being honest if these inscriptions just didn't mention Yahweh specifically let's say they just read L and his Atherat Rah and his Hathor or Zeus and his Hera. And I know those aren't exactly perfect or even good parallels. Would anyone bat an eye? My worry is that theological bias and frankly scholars just being precious about this deity Yahweh are interfering with what seems to be the most simplest reading imaginable. Yahweh and his apparent wife or consort Asher are being sought out for blessings by pilgrims and by the dead in these inscriptions. That seems to be the clearest reading. Yes the prenomial suffix issue is real no doubt but this is also 8th century BC E Hebrew with much of the classical Hebrew that we rely on by comparison being a good bit later. Maybe we just need a different understanding of how Hebrew grammar worked at this linguistic time period. And both inscriptions use the same language which may indicate that it was a kind of ritual or stereotype use to begin with. I suppose I just honestly wonder if there weren't some kind of theological a priori dedication to monotheism would there be any debate here at all? I just don't think so. Interestingly enough with all this debate on Asher and Yahweh what's ironically clear is that Asher is both earlier and better attested epigraphically than Yahweh. By the time Yahweh entered history on the Misha Asher had already been attested for some 800 years. Thus for much of history Yahweh was just a footnote in Asher's history and not the other way around. And thus Israelite history may have a history of erasing and forgetting Asher the divine queen mother as much as it has centering and worshiping Yahweh. But the repressed always has a way of returning. The safer zohar the most important expression of the kabala has an absolutely startling passage at 149a wherein it argues that the prohibition on worshiping Asher was only to prevent a kind of one-sided appreciation of the divine. Rather Asher is simply the female aspect of asher the spherote of potency. Yes. Thus Baal literally husband and Asher are the divine husband and wife after all. Yeah. Shockingly the Zohor is actually arguing that Asher is in fact the female divine presence known as the Shina. And thus to worship the divine in the divine fullness both the masculine and the feminine must be joined together into a divine totality. And Asher once belittled and mocked through misgendering and erased from Israelite history is returning from her theological exile at the very heart of Jewish mysticism. Asher has thus come home. The literature on Asher is extensive but I'll include a reading list that informed this episode in the descript ion. And of course we're not yet at all done with Yahweh. The apocalyptic Yahweh at least remains on the horizon. So we're going to return to this God very soon. Until then I'm Dr Justin Sledge and thank you for watching Esoterica where we explore the arcane in history philosophy and religion

[Muhyiddin Arabi]

Türkçe çevirisi:



Batı monoteizmi (tektanrıcılığı), tek bir tanrı kavramına genellikle iki ayrı yoldan ulaşmıştır.


Birincisi, yoktan ekleme yoludur. İlahiyatçılar ve filozoflar, hiçbir tanrının olmadığı bir noktadan başlar, böyle bir varlığın mevcudiyetini ve ardından buna benzer başka varlıkların olmasının imkansızlığını savunurlar. Bu argümanlar Antik Yunan dünyasına kadar uzanır ve yüzyıllar boyunca ilahiyatçıların çalışmalarıyla günümüze kadar gelmiştir.

Ancak, monoteizmde uzun süredir işleyen başka bir mekanizma daha vardır. Bu, çıkarma yoluyla monoteizmdir. Yani, bir dolu ilahi varlıkla (bir panteonla) işe başlayıp, onları çok yavaş bir şekilde rütbelerini düşürerek, birleştirerek ve silerek, geriye sadece tek bir yüce varlığın kalmasını sağlamaktır.

Antik İsrailliler arasında; El, Baal, Mot, Yam, Lotan gibi çeşitli ilahi varlıklarla kesinlikle buna benzer bir süreç yaşandı. Tüm bu varlıklar binyıllar içinde rütbe düşürülmesi, birleştirilmesi ve silinmesi yoluyla nihayetinde ortadan kayboldu. Ancak Yahve'nin tek kozmik tanrı olarak yükselişi sürecinde kaybolan en belirgin tanrı, muhtemelen Yahve'nin karısı veya eşi (konsortu) olan Aşera'nın (Asherah) silinmesi ve şeytanlaştırılmasıydı.

Evet, görünen o ki antik İsraillilerin ulusal tanrısının bir karısı veya eşi olması mümkündü, hatta muhtemeldi; ve bu eş sistematik olarak rütbesi düşürülmüş ve nihayetinde tarihten silinmiş olabilir.

Aşera Kimdir?

Peki, bu tanrıça Aşera hakkında aslında ne biliyoruz? Ve onun gerçekten de Yahve'nin, yani basitçe "Tanrı"ya dönüşen ilahın karısı olduğuna dair kanıtlar nelerdir?

Esoterica'ya hoş geldiniz, ben Dr. Justin Sledge. Bu bölüm aslında kanalda devam eden antik İsrail tanrısı Yahve'nin tarihi serisinin bir parçasıdır. Yahve'nin kökenleri ve monoteizme doğru gelişimi hakkında daha önce birkaç bölüm yapmıştım. Ancak acı verici derecede kısa bir özet geçmek gerekirse: Yahve, Geç Tunç veya Erken Demir Çağı'nda güneyden Kenan panteonuna ithal edilmiş bir tanrı gibi görünüyor. Daha sonra İsraillilerin ulusal tanrısı olarak meteorik bir başarı elde edecek ve milyarlarca insan için sadece "Tanrı" olacaktı.

Bu savaşçı fırtına tanrısı, Kenan panteonunun başı olan El (ki adı sadece "Tanrı" anlamına gelir) ile özümsenecek, başka bir fırtına tanrısı Baal ile çatışmaya girecek ve her ikisinin unsurlarını, İsrail kültürel ve dini yaşamında görünen Yahve'nin bileşik resmine dahil edecekti.

MÖ 722'de Kuzey İsrail Krallığı'nın ve MÖ 586'da Yahuda'nın yıkılmasının ardından, Yahve-cilik (Yahwism) veya monolatri (tek tanrıya tapınma ama diğerlerini reddetmeme), Babil Sürgünü sırasında monoteizm (tektanrıcılık) gibi bir şeye dönüşecekti.


El ve Yahve'nin Birleşmesi

Bir saniye geri saralım. Yahve'nin, o panteonun büyükbaba figürü olan şefi El ile önemli ölçüde birleştirilerek daha geniş Kenan panteonuna nasıl asimile olduğunu hatırlayın. Temel olarak, Tanrı'yı ​​bir tahtta oturan sakallı yaşlı bir adam olarak hayal ettiyseniz, aslında genç savaşçı tanrı Yahve'yi değil, Kenan tanrısı El'i hayal ediyorsunuz demektir.

Ancak bu asimilasyonun garip bir etkisi vardı. Buna nasıl baktığınıza bağlı olarak bir hata veya bir özellik diyebilirsiniz. En eski dilbilimsel ve epigrafik kanıtlarımız aslında Yahve'yi yine genç bir savaşçı fırtına tanrısı olarak, güçlü bir fırtına şeklinde tezahür ederken sunar. Bazen "bulutların sürücüsü" olarak anılır. Ancak bir genç olarak, bu tanrının bir eşi veya karısı yok gibi görünmektedir. Tıpkı çoğunlukla vahşi bakire kız kardeşi Anat ile takılan (ve takılmaktan kastım yakıp yıkan) Kenan tanrısı Baal gibi. Hatta Baal'in, mit döngüsünün gelişiminde çok sonrasına kadar kendi evi bile yoktur; görünüşe göre ailesinin bodrumunda falan yaşıyordur. Bir iş bul Baal!

Başlangıçta Yahve de benzer bir durumdaydı. İlahi bir bekardı. Ancak baba figürü tanrı El ile asimilasyonuyla Yahve, görünüşe göre El'in Ugarit mitolojisinde Atherat ve İbranice kökenli olarak Aşera olarak bilinen eşini/karısını "miras aldı". Ancak bu, en hafif tabiriyle karmaşık bir ilişkiydi ve nihayetinde Yahve ile Aşera arasında bir boşanmayla sonuçlandı; Aşera, Yahve'nin sadece "eskiden tanıdığı biri" haline geldi.

İbranice İncil'deki (Eski Ahit) literatürde Aşera'dan bahsedilen yaklaşık 40 yerden ezici bir çoğunlukla öğrendiğimiz şey şudur: Bazı İsrailliler hem Yahve hem de Aşera için ortak bir ibadet alanı ayırmışlardı. Diğerleri ise, özellikle İbranice İncil'i bize ulaştığı şekliyle düzenleyenler (Döteronomistler), bunu kült bir rezalet ve İsrail ibadet pratiğinden sürülmesi gereken bir iğrençlik olarak buldular.


Aşera Adının Kökeni ve Tarihçesi

İsraillilerden önce Aşera'nın yüzyıllar içindeki gelişimini inceleyelim. Aşera, Ashu, Asheru, Atherat... Bu isim ne anlama geliyor?

Bu soru akademisyenler için oldukça sıkıntılıdır.

Eski bir akademisyen nesli, adın "Deniz üzerinde yürüyen" anlamına geldiğini savundu, ancak bu form hiç doğrulanmadı.

Başka bir okuma, bunu "eş" veya "partner" anlamına gelen bir kök olarak görmeye çalışır, ancak bu da doğrulanmamıştır.

Ancak Fenike, Akad, Aramice ve Ugarit dillerinde doğrulanan bir form, "kutsal yer" veya "sığınak" anlamına gelen bir köktür. Yani adı "Mabedin Hanımı/Sahibesi" gibi bir anlama gelebilir. Yine de Yahve adı gibi, tam anlamı gizemini koruyor.

Bildiğimiz kadarıyla Aşera tarihte ilk kez MÖ 18. yüzyılın ortalarında Hammurabi'ye sunılan bir Sümer adak yazıtında görülür. Bu, İsrail siyasi yapısının veya Yahve'nin ortaya çıkmasından yaklaşık 800 yıl öncesidir. Bu adakta, Akadca ismi Ashratum ile anılır ve şunları öğreniriz:

"Dağın Hanımı" olarak düşünülür.

Erotik bir yönü vardır; "şehvet ve mutluluğun hanımı" olarak bilinir.

Sümer gök tanrısı An'ın gelini olarak kabul edilir.

İştar'ın bazı sıfatlarını paylaşır.

Bir Amorit (Amurru) tanrıçası olarak düşünülür.

Ayrıca Amorit panteonunun başı olan Amurru'nun eşi gibi görünmektedir. Amurru'nun bir unvanı "Dağın Efendisi" (Bel Şadi) idi; bu, Yahve'nin sonunda "El Şadday" (Dağın Tanrısı) olarak edineceği benzer bir sıfattır.

Babil'de "Toprağın Lüksünün Evi" olarak bilinen bir tapınağı vardı. Silindir mühürler de onun önemine tanıklık eder. Başka bir metin ona "Bozkırın Hanımı" der. Ayrıca kehanetle ilgili metinlerde de geçer, ancak o dönemde hangi tanrının kehanetle ilgisi yoktu ki?



Hitit ve Ugarit Metinlerinde Aşera

Biraz daha sonra, bir Hitit metninde (MÖ 1700-1200 civarı) görünür. Bu metin, Hitit versiyonu olan Asherdu'nun, adı belirtilmeyen bir fırtına tanrısını (muhtemelen Baal) baştan çıkarmaya çalıştığı bir efsanedir. Baal onu reddeder ve kocası Elkunirsa'ya (El, Dünyanın Yaratıcısı) şikayet eder. Elkunirsa, onu aşağılamak için fırtına tanrısına onunla yatmasını söyler. Fırtına tanrısı bunu yapar ve onun 88 çocuğundan 77'sini öldürdüğünü söyleyerek alay eder.

Elbette, tanrıça Aşera'yı anlamak için en büyük kaynağımız, MÖ 1185 civarında Tunç Çağı Çöküşü sırasında yok edilen Ugarit arşivleridir. Burada üç ana kaynak buluyoruz:

Keret (veya Kirta) Efsanesi.

Baal Döngüsü.

Çeşitli metinler.

Keret Efsanesi'nde Atherat (Aşera), yine yüce tanrı El'in eşidir ancak aynı zamanda kendi tapınağında kraliyet varisi sağlamaktan sorumlu görünmektedir. Hatta bir süt anne görevi görür. Açıkça güçlüdür ve verilen sözlerin tutulmamasını hoş görmez.

Baal Döngüsü, Kenan dininin en ünlü metnidir. Burada Baal'in yükselişi, Deniz (Yam) ve Ölüm (Mot) ile savaşı anlatılır. Bu döngüde Aşera (Atherat) hakkında çok şey öğreniriz.

Deniz (Yam) ile olan mücadelesinde, Yam aslında onun oğullarından biri olduğu için ona sempati duyar. Sıfatlarından biri "Denizin Atherat'ı"dır.

Baal ile ilişkisi karmaşıktır ve genellikle ona direnir. Bu mantıklıdır çünkü o, Yam ve Mot (Ölüm) dahil tüm tanrıların annesi ve El'in eşidir; bunların hepsi Baal'in düşmanlığına maruz kalır.

Ona Ugarit dilinde "Rabbitu" veya "Ana Kraliçe / Valide Sultan" denir.

Baal ve Anat, Baal'in sarayı için arabuluculuk yapmasını istediklerinde dehşet içinde geri çekilir.

Genel bir bereket veya ana tanrıça olduğuna dair çok az kanıt vardır, ancak tanrıların atasıdır ve kralları emzirir. Daha önceki nesil akademisyenler onu aslanlar ve yılanlarla ilişkilendirse de, son araştırmalar bunun bir yanlış kimlik tespiti olduğunu öne sürüyor.



İbrani İncili'nde (Eski Ahit) Aşera

Aşera en çok İbrani İncili'ndeki adıyla bilinir. Ancak İncil'deki Aşera'nın tam olarak ne olduğu hiç de net değildir.

Yaklaşık 40 kez bahsedilir.

Hem dişil çoğul (Asherot) hem de eril çoğul (Asherim) olarak geçer.

Ağaçlar, direkler, belirli ahşap nesneler ve belki de bir heykel gibi çeşitli şeylere atıfta bulunuyor gibi görünür.

Çoğu referans, bu ahşap nesnelerin kült alanlarında veya "yüksek yerlerde" (bamot) ortaya çıkması nedeniyle Yahve'nin gazabını açıklamak veya dini reform çağrısı yapmak için Döteronomist tarihçilerde yer alır. Bu "Aşerim"ler dikilebilir, kesilebilir ve yakılabilirdi; bu da onların ahşap doğasını gösterir.

Bu ağaç ilişkilendirmesi, Yunanca ve Latince çevirilerde "koruluk" olarak çevrilmeleriyle devam etti. Hatta Rabbinik Yahudilikte, Mişna'da Aşera, altında bir put bulunan bir ağaç veya tapınılan herhangi bir ağaç olarak tanımlanır. Ancak dikkat edin, bu durumlarda Aşera bir tanrıça değildir.

Dilbilimsel olarak genellikle belirli bir tanımlıkla (The Asherah / O Aşera) çoğul olarak geçerler. Çoğu, kişisel bir tanrıçaya değil, o tanrıçayla ilişkili olabilecek bir kült nesnesine atıfta bulunur. Sürgün sonrası metinlerin çoğu, belki de alaycı bir yanlış cinsiyetlendirme olarak veya tanrıça olduğunu unuttukları için eril çoğul ekini kullanırlar.

Ancak tanrıçanın izleri devam edebilir. Kraliçe Maaka, "Aşera için iğrenç bir şey" yaptığı için oğlu Asa tarafından Ana Kraliçelikten azledilir. Asa bu iğrenç şeyi keser ve yakar. Maaka'nın Ana Kraliçe olarak konumu ile Ugarit mitolojisindeki "Rabbitu" (Ana Kraliçe) Atherat arasında bir bağlantı var mıdır?

İlyas ve Baal peygamberleri arasındaki düelloda "Aşera peygamberleri"nden de bahsedilir, ancak bunlar hikayeden kaybolur.

Özetle, İbrani İncili'nde bu tanrıça hakkında neredeyse hiçbir şey öğrenmiyoruz. Belki sadece 3 veya 5 pasaj Aşera'yı bir tanrıça olarak hayal eder. Diğerleri bir nesnedir. Birçok akademisyen, İbrani İncili'nde herhangi bir tanrıçadan bahsedildiğinden şüphe duysa da, bu durum bölgede bir tür tanrıçaya tapınıldığını gösteren zengin arkeolojik kanıtlarla çelişmektedir.


Arkeolojik Şok: "Yahve ve O'nun Aşera'sı"

Yahuda'da Aşera'nın rütbesi düşürülüp silinirken, güneyde İslam öncesi Arabistan'da gayet iyi durumda görünüyordu. Ancak 20. yüzyılda keşfedilen iki olağanüstü yazıt, İbrani İncili'ndeki silinmeye rağmen, Aşera'nın aslında Yahve'nin karısı veya eşi olduğu ihtimalini ortaya çıkardı.

1. Khirbet el-Qom Yazıtı (MÖ 8. Yüzyıl Ortaları): Mezar 2'de bulunan bir yazıt şuna benzer bir şey söyler: "Uryahu, zengin olan bunu yazdı. Uryahu, Yahve tarafından kutsansın ve baskıcılarından Yahve ve onun Aşera'sı tarafından kurtarılsın."

2. Kuntillet Ajrud Yazıtı (Biraz daha erken, Sina Çölü): İki büyük kap (pithos) üzerinde benzer bir yazıt bulunur: "...Samiriyeli Yahve'ye ve onun Aşera'sına kutsanmışsınızdır." Diğer bir okuma: "Teman'lı Yahve ve onun Aşera'sı ile sizi kutsuyorum."

Burada Yahve'nin yerelleştirilmiş versiyonlarını ve hemen ardından gelen o ilginç "onun Aşera'sı" (his Asherah) ifadesini görüyoruz. Ayrıca kapların üzerindeki çizimlerde, Aşera ile ilişkilendirilen emziren sığır imgeleri ve bir lir çalan kişinin yanında oturan, Mısır tanrısı Bes benzeri özelliklere sahip iki figür vardır.

Bu ne anlama geliyor? Yazıtlar, Yahve ve "onun Aşera'sının" kutsamalar dağıttığını gösteriyor. Peki bu Aşera nedir?

Buradaki temel tartışma, bu yazıtlardaki "onun Asherah'ı" ifadesindeki iyelik ekinin (pronominal suffix) ne anlama geldiğidir. Klasik İbranicede özel bir ismin bu tür bir iyelik eki alması bilinmediğinden, bazı akademisyenler bunun bir tanrıça adı değil, Yahweh ile ilişkili bir kült eseri (örneğin bir sunak veya kült direği) olduğunu savunur. Ancak, kült nesnelerinin kutsama verip vermediği de tartışmalıdır; kutsamaları genellikle kişiler yapar.


Görsel imgeler (ikonografi), oturan bir hükümdar ve eşi imajını andırıyor.

Dürüst olmak gerekirse, bu yazıtlarda Yahve adı geçmeseydi, mesela "Zeus ve onun Hera'sı" yazsaydı, kimse buna şaşırmazdı. Benim endişem, teolojik önyargıların ve akademisyenlerin Yahve konusunda fazla hassas davranmalarının, en basit okumayı engellemesidir: Yahve ve görünen o ki karısı/eşi Aşera, bu yazıtlarda hacılar ve ölüler tarafından kutsama için aranmaktadır. En net okuma budur.

Dilbilgisi sorunu gerçek, evet, ama bu MÖ 8. yüzyıl İbranicesi; güvendiğimiz klasik İbranice bundan epey sonradır.


Sonuç: Bastırılanın Geri Dönüşü

İlginç bir şekilde, Aşera hem Yahve'den daha eskidir hem de epigrafik olarak daha iyi kanıtlanmıştır. Yahve tarih sahnesine çıktığında Aşera 800 yıldır oradaydı. Dolayısıyla tarihin büyük bölümünde Yahve, Aşera'nın tarihinde sadece bir dipnottu, tersi değil.

İsrail tarihi, Aşera'yı silme ve unutturma tarihi olabilir. Ancak bastırılan her zaman geri dönmenin bir yolunu bulur. Kabala'nın en önemli eseri olan Zohar (Sefer ha-Zohar), 149a bölümünde kesinlikle şaşırtıcı bir pasaj içerir. Aşera'ya tapınma yasağının sadece ilahi olanın tek taraflı takdir edilmesini önlemek için olduğunu savunur. Aksine, Aşera, "potansiyel" küresi olan Sefirot'un dişil yönüdür. Evet, Zohar aslında Aşera'nın Şehina (Shekhinah) olarak bilinen dişil ilahi varlık olduğunu savunuyor.

Böylece, ilahi olanı tamlığıyla ibadet etmek için, hem eril hem de dişil, ilahi bir bütünlük içinde birleştirilmelidir. Bir zamanlar alay edilen, yanlış cinsiyetlendirilen ve İsrail tarihinden silinen Aşera, Yahudi mistisizminin tam kalbinde teolojik sürgünden geri dönmüştür. Aşera eve dönmüştür.