The Ancient Tradition

00:00

Music

00:10

Listening to the Ancient Tradition.  A Wonk Media Production.  Music provided by Joseph McDade.  Here’s your host, Dr. Jack Logan.

00:25

Welcome to The Ancient Tradition.  I’m your host, Jack Logan.

00:31

Welcome to the program. It’s great to have all of you listening in today. As always, welcome to all of our new listeners. It’s great to have you listening in. And of course, welcome back to all of our longtime listeners. Of course, we love having you back. I’ve got a long one for us today. We’re going to pick up right where we left off  in our last episode. If you remember, I mentioned that one of the things that really struck me when I first started diving into religious traditions,

01:01

especially those found in the ancient world, was the persistent and what I consider fascinating notion that God, especially the high God, was married. The ancients taught that God ruled as a king in the heavens with his consort, his wife, the Queen of Heaven, and together they reigned from their sacred palace temple located symbolically at the top of the sacred mountain that marked the

01:29

the center, the sacred center of all creation, their kingdom. In our last episode, we found that in the ancient texts, the Sumerian high god On was married to Ki  and the ancient Egyptian high god Atum was married to Usaz, who we learned from the ancient Egyptian pyramid and coffin text was symbolized by a tree, an acacia tree.

01:57

In today’s episode, we’re going to take a look at a couple of other high gods and see what we can learn about their marital status from the ancient record. We’re going to start by jumping into the ancient Canaanite literature. The Canaanites were an ancient people who lived in the region known as Canaan, which today encompasses modern day Israel, Palestine, Lebanon, Syria, and Jordan.

02:24

We refer to this area as the Southern Levant. People lived in this area during the Bronze Age, which dates to roughly 3500 to 1150 BC. Now, city-states didn’t begin to emerge in this area until the middle of the Bronze Age, between about 2000 and 1550 BC.

02:50

And the people that we know as the Canaanites  actually refers to a Semitic speaking people who lived there during the Late Bronze Age between 1550 and 1200 BC.  Most of our literature about the Canaanites comes out of this  age, the Late Bronze Age, and they come primarily from the palace and temple archives that were found  at the city of Ugarit.

03:17

And that’s located near the modern day city of Roshamra. And that’s in Syria. And this is why scholars refer to the Canaanite literature as the Ugaritic literature. It’s in this literature that we learn that the Canaanite high god El, E-L, just like we see all across the ancient world, was married.  And who do the Canaanites tell us he was married to? They tell us he was married to a woman by the name of

03:47

Adirat, A-T-I-R-A-T, which is rendered  athirat or ashur-to in transliteration. You might be more familiar with her  Hebrew name, which is rendered  ashura. So we go from athirat to ashura. We can learn quite a bit about El’s consort, Adirah, by the names and the titles that the Canaanites gave her.

04:16

The most common title, one that appears 21 times in the Ugaritic literature  is  Rabitu Ratu Yam. It’s my favorite because when it’s translated into English, we have Rabitu, which is translated by scholars as lady or the great lady. It actually literally translates as female  great one, which emphasizes both her sex and her

04:45

chief status. Now this is significant because if you recall in cuneiform tablets from Mesopotamia, the king of the land was called Lugol, where Loo meant man and Gol meant great. So when we put the two together, Lugol, you’d get great man. In ancient Mesopotamia, Lugol or great man was the name that the people gave to a powerful leader or the head of a family. In English,

05:14

Scholars render Lugal king. So when we see here in the Ugaritic literature that Adirat was given a similar title, the great lady, we get the same connotation. Rabito was actually the feminine form of great or chief. So Adirat could be rendered the great lady or the chief lady. And like in Mesopotamia, this title signified a powerful ruler or head of the family.

05:43

but this time it’s female. So like what’s done with Lugal in the Mesopotamian literature, Rabito can be rendered into English as queen  or matriarch. Now the second part of Adarath’s title,  Rabitu Aratu Yam, is Aratu. Some scholars translate this as a genitive particle, meaning of, but other scholars,

06:07

And this is based on a prominent Northwest Semitic tradition where titles were written in the form of a short sentence. Translate aratu in its verb form, meaning to walk on or tread on or trample. Which to this point would give her the title, the queen who treads or tramples. Well, treads or tramples what? Well, the last part of her title is yam, Y-A-M-M.

06:36

You long time listeners should know what yam means. It means sea. And it’s most often used to refer to the awful sea monster or sea serpent yam who resided in the chaotic primordial waters or sea. So when we put all three parts of the high god El’s wife’s title together, Rabitu Aratu Yam, it renders something along the lines of  the great lady or queen

07:06

who tramples or treads on the sea dragon, which is the translation that  W.F. Albright, former WW Spence Professor of Semitic Languages at John Hopkins University argued in his book, Yahweh and the Gods of Canaan. Now,  I of course  absolutely love that the most frequent title we find for otter-ot

07:33

The high god El’s wife in the Ugaritic literature is something along the lines of the queen who tramples the sea dragon. And that’s because this title ties her to so many of the other stubborn bits we’ve discussed on this program. I love how her title captures the theology of the ancient tradition in a nutshell. And I also find this title fascinating because we’re talking about the queen of heaven here.

08:02

and not the King of Heaven. In so many of the ancient texts that we’ve covered on the program, the battle with the sea monster is  largely told in male terms. For example, this past week, I made my daughters watch  the first Hobbit movie with me, Peter Jackson’s The Hobbit, The Unexpected Journey, because they had never seen it.  And I can’t have that, especially since J.R.R. Tolkien’s writings contain so many of the elements of the ancient tradition.

08:33

It had been a really long time since I’d seen it, definitely before we started this podcast. So  I was struck this past weekend when the old white bearded dwarf Balin recounted the story of the dwarf Thorin’s battle with the terrible monster, the leader of the orcs, the gruesome pale orc  Azog.  In this battle scene, the hideous orc

09:02

decapitates Thorin’s grandfather who was the reigning king of the dwarfs and he swings it triumphantly in the air and then he hurls it to the ground and this incites all of the rest of the hideous orcs. Thorin watches this in horror. It appears as if the dwarfs are on the verge of utter defeat. Thorin screams out in defiance and then he races towards the grotesque Azog.

09:32

wielding his sword and his shield. The repulsive orc, who’s at least five times taller than Thorin, swings his giant club at Thorin and this knocks his sword and his shield to the ground. So Thorin is utterly defenseless. Without a sword and shield, there’s really no way that he can survive the next blow that comes. The fearsome Azog raises his massive club

10:01

over his shoulder. He’s channeling all of his strength and then he brings it crashing down  towards Thorin’s head. Thorin’s defeat seems assured, yet in that moment Thorin grabs something. He grabs something near him and he uses it to protect him from Azog’s blow. Do you know what he grabs? Do you know what it is? Well listen to this clip and see.

10:31

You long time listeners are going to find this super, super interesting  and theologically profound. Here’s the clip.

10:44

began.

10:47

be heading the king.

11:04

Thorin’s father  was driven mad by grief.  He went missing,  taken prisoner or killed.  We did not know.

11:15

We were leaderless.  Defeat  and death are  upon us.

11:26

is when  I saw him.

11:32

A young  dwarf prince  facing down  the pale orc.

11:43

You alone  have used this  terrible phone.

11:57

wielding nothing but an open branch  as a shield.

12:15

The Defiler

12:20

Turin  would not be so easily broken.

12:31

How did Thorin survive the battle with the Pale Orc? Well, Balon tells us that Thorin grabbed the branch of an oak tree. The branch of an oak tree to protect him. Balon says, quote,

13:01

be so easily broken. Don’t think for a second that J.R.R. Tolkien didn’t know what he was doing when he wrote that Thorin used the branch of an oak to save him that day. Because Tolkien absolutely did. If you remember, Tolkien drew heavily from the Norse legend of Sigmund, where if you’ll remember, Sigmund the king’s son was the only one who could pull the sword from the barn stoker tree. The special weapon he needed to defeat

13:30

the dragon  and which represented a branch of the tree. know, Tolkien absolutely knew what the oak tree represented symbolically and he purposely used it right here in The Hobbit as a way to both reveal and conceal the theology. It’s pretty fantastic. So what did the oak tree represent symbolically? Well, I’m not going to go over it again here. We’ve discussed the oak tree.

13:59

several times on the podcast, including in our last episode, so you long-time listeners should know. If you’re a new listener, there are loads of back episodes that are worth listening to if you’d like to know what the oak tree represented symbolically. After Thorin uses the oaken branch to protect himself from the fearsome orc’s fatal blow, Thorin grabs a sword and he charges towards the pale oak

14:28

and he severs his arm. The orc stumbles backwards and collapses to the ground. So Thorin thinks he’s probably on his way to dying. Thorin triumphantly raises his sword and he charges with full courage towards the army of raging orcs who await him. The army of dwarfs are inspired by this  and they raise their swords in alliance with Thorin and they charge towards the orcs.

14:58

Great battle ensues. But it’s what the old white beard dwarf Balin says next that reveals Tolkien’s familiarity with the theology taught within the ancient tradition. Listen to what Balin says.

15:23

I thought to myself

15:29

There  is one  who I could follow.

15:35

There is one.

15:50

I love that Balin says, quote, there is one that I could follow. There is  one  I could call king.  This is the theology of the ancient tradition in a nutshell.  Upon defeating the hideous pale orc with the branch of an oak tree, Thorin is now worthy to be called king. In the movie, when Balin says these words,

16:19

The camera shows Thorin climbing to the top of a hill, which is not insignificant. The branch  of the oak tree in one hand and a special sword in the other hand. Both symbolize the same thing. The clip’s worth watching, so if you’d like to see it, you can find it on the webpage for this episode. Now know that was a bit of a detour, but it illustrates that

16:45

Much of the Dragon Slayer kingship theology has been expressed in male terms. So it’s quite significant that in the Canaanite texts, the high god’s  wife  is spoken of in these same terms. That she too is a Dragon Slayer. She is the great lady or queen who tramples the sea monster.

17:11

Now, some scholars object to the translation of the title Rabito Aratu Yam on the grounds that there is nothing in the Ugaritic literature themselves that talks of Atara actually engaging battle with Yam. I might find this argument persuasive  if it weren’t for the fact that there is an account in the Ugaritic ball cycle of a female god battling and victor-

17:39

notoriously defeating the Sea Dragon Yam, which is clear evidence that female gods could, and I would argue from a theological standpoint, have to be dragon slayers too. So to translate Rabito Aratu Yam  as the queen who tramples the Sea Dragon would  not only not be anomalous, it would do more to legitimize her position at the top of the pantheon.

18:08

as El’s wife, the Queen of Heaven, than almost any other epitaph that Canaanites could give her. We’re going to return to Adiracht in a minute, but before you do, who is this other female god who victoriously conquered the Sea Dragon?  What do we know about her? Well, her name was Anat,  A-N-A-T, and she’s a very important figure in the Ugaritic literature. She’s not only important because she’s Baal’s fiercest ally,

18:37

But for the purposes of this episode, she’s important because she’s believed by many scholars to be the consort or wife of Baal, the hero son of the High God El. Now,  not all scholars agree with this conclusion, but despite this, there’s actually considerable contextual evidence in the Ugaritic literature

19:03

to support the notion that she is Baal’s wife. And we’re gonna explore that evidence in detail much, much later down the line. When we get to the episode where Anat  mourns over Baal’s death and wages war against the god Mote, the god of death, who’s another manifestation of the dragon archetype. It’s Anat’s defeat of Mote that frees Baal from death.

19:32

and by which he’s resurrected. A narrative that’s strikingly similar to the ancient Egyptian account of Osiris’s wife, Isis, restoring Osiris to life after his death. Now at the pace I’m going though, we probably won’t get to that for quite a while. It’s worth noting though that it’s Baal’s wife, Anat, who is the female god who is described in the Ugaritic literature as a dragon slayer.

20:02

We actually have an account of this in cuneiform tablet PRU, which was found in the Royal Palace of Ugarit and it’s  tablet 2.3 and it’s found in lines 8 to 9, which read, in the land of Mahanim, he, and he here refers to the dragon, swirled the sea. His double tongue  licked the heavens. His twin tails churned up the sea.  She,

20:31

and she here refers to Anat, fixed  the un-muzzled dragon. She bound him to the heights of Lebanon. Lebanon here is the cultural localization of the sacred mountain. Here we clearly see that Anat herself fixes or binds the dragon. Richard J. Clifford says this of the goddess Anat on page

20:57

59 of his book, The Cosmic Mountain in Canaan and the Old Testament. Quote, from a speech of a knot we learn that soften. Now soften is the name the Canaanites gave to the sacred cosmic mountain, which is important because the battle that takes place between a knot and the dragon takes place on the top of this mountain. And why is this significant? Well, because the top of the mountain is the dwelling place of the gods. It’s the location of God’s sacred

21:26

temple sanctuary. It’s the primordial hillock in the ancient Egyptian literature  and the Garden of Eden in the Judeo-Christian literature. It’s at the top of this mountain that a knot binds the dragon. So  note how all three of these civilizations attest that the dragon be at the evil set in ancient Egypt like we talked about in our last episode.

21:55

the evil serpent  in the Judeo-Christian Garden of Eden or the evil yam in the Ugaritic literature is described as being present  in God’s sacred temple sanctuary. That clearly speaks to a common source. We shouldn’t be surprised that the awful dragon, as awful as he was and is, was present in God’s temple sanctuary at the top of the cosmic mountain. Cause if you recall,

22:23

The ancient texts tell us that the dragon wasn’t always awful. They tell us that he was originally a member of the council of the gods, one of the high gods beloved sons until that is he wanted to usurp God’s power and dominion and steal the throne until he rebelled against the high God. An act  which we see here led to a battle on the top of Mount Soffin, a battle that took place in God’s temple sanctuary.

22:54

I point this out so that you have some context for why a knot’s battle with the dragon takes place on Mount Soffin. And also so you can see the continuity in the accounts across the ancient Near East. Let’s continue reading what Richard J. Clifford has to say about a knot’s battle with the dragon. Quote, from a speech of a knot, we learn that Soffin is the scene of another furious combat. On one occasion, she

23:23

This is Anat, is provoked to describe her past battles for Baal against the monsters. Now Clifford’s going to go on here and quote what Anat has to say in the Ugaritic texts, which are found on cuneiform tablets three and four. Quote, did I not crush the beloved of El, Yam? Did I not destroy El’s stream, Rabim?

23:51

stream here refers to Yam as the waters. Here she explains why she went to battle. Because the dragon and his minions wanted to drive her husband, Baal, from God’s temple sanctuary on the top of the mountain.

24:19

Here we see that the dragon Yam and his minions wanted to kick ball off his throne in the heavens from his dais, from his powerful seat.

24:32

from this text, it’s clear that the dragon and his minions wanted to get rid of Baal  and that Baal’s wife,  took the battle to the awful dragon and his awful followers. In this text, Anat is clearly described as a dragon slayer. Throughout the Ugaritic texts, Anat is described as a mighty warrior, a mighty war goddess, which is not surprising considering this battle with the sea dragon.

25:01

She’s a spiritual warrior. In the text, she’s referred to by the high God L as his quote, daughter. And as you’re going to see in a couple of minutes, one of her well-attested epitaphs is found 10 times in the Ugaritic literature. And it’s quite important. And it’s the epitaph, Yabamat  Liam, where Yabamat is generally understood to mean sister-in-law or daughter-in-law. And Liam,

25:31

means people’s nations or clans. So the title would mean something like sister-in-law of the clans or nations. Many scholars contextually translate Yabomet as progenitrist instead of sister-in-law to emphasize her role as the progenitor or mother of a family line of clans or nations. A scholar by the name of Joshua Fox wrote an entire article on this epitaph which you can find

25:59

in the International Yearbook of the Archaeology of Syria and Palestine, Volume 30, where he argues that Anat’s epitaph, Yambet-Liam, is the female counterpart to Baal’s epitaph, Yambu-Lilum, which means brother-in-law or progenitor of the gods or progenitor of the sons of God. In either case, these epitaphs emphasize that Anat and Baal

26:29

are the progenitors, the father and mother of an important family line or nation. Fox writes, quote,

26:58

there are accounts  in the ancient literature of females who both battled the dragon and were understood to hold exalted positions.  We know from the Ugaritic ball cycle that Baal destroyed the sea monster Yam with a pair of clubs that were specially crafted by the craftsman god, Cothr Wacossus. Following Yam’s defeat, the text tells us that kingship was given to Baal.

27:26

KTU 1.2.4, lines 32 to 34 read,  Lo and behold, Yam is dead and Baal now reigns as  sovereign. In Cuneiform tablet 2.3, the  divine craftsman Cawther Wacossus tells Baal, quote, Thou shalt take thine eternal kingdom, thine everlasting dominion.

27:57

if Anat’s to be understood as Baal’s wife.  This would mean that Baal and Anat reigned together as sovereigns, as king and queen over an eternal kingdom, an everlasting dominion. In Cuneiform tablet KTU 1.108, she’s given a sequence of epitaphs which conform with this interpretation, which include, quote, the mistress of kingship, the mistress of dominion.

28:27

the mistress of the high heavens  and the mistress of the kept headdress or crown. Aisha Ramuni, author  of the Divine Epitaphs in the Ugaritic Alphabetic Texts, says on page 109 that all of Enoch’s epitaphs, quote, express Enoch’s power and authority within the Ugaritic pantheon.

28:55

And I’d say they’re amazing titles because they place the theology of the ancient tradition on full display. As I mentioned, there’s considerable evidence in the Ugaritic literature to suggest that Anat is Baal’s wife. And I’ll share a little bit more of that at the beginning of our next episode. But just as a quick example in Cuneiform tablet 4AB and RS319, Baal and Anat are described as

29:23

having sexual intercourse and in Cuneiform tablet 4AB3, knot gives birth to their baby, a baby that the text refers to as a wild  bull, which is a fitting image given that the bull was one of the most prominent symbols for a male god in the ancient world, as we’ve pointed out several times on the program. In Cuneiform tablet 4AB3, it reads, quote,

29:53

She, this refers to a knot, goes up to Arar, up to Arar and soften. That’s the sacred mountain. In the Pleasance,  the Mount of Possession, the Mount of Possession here refers to the sacred palace temple or kingdom that Baal inherited for slaying the sea serpent Yam.  She, a knot, cries aloud to Baal, receive Baal.

30:39

So here Anat goes to the sacred mountain and she proclaims glad tidings that a wild bull, young god has been born to Baal and then Baal rejoices.

30:52

This passage comes right after Balin and Ahnott had had sexual intercourse. The two had begun their roles as the progenitor and progenitress of God’s  orination. Before we move on, I’ve got a couple more things that I’d like to highlight about the Canaanite high god El’s wife, Adiracht. In the Ugaritic literature, Adiracht is given the epitaph, Kha’nit-alim, where

31:19

K’neet means to create, to produce, or to begat. And ilim means gods. So, K’neet ilim  means the creator or begater of the gods. This epitaph clearly emphasizes her procreative role as the mother, the begater of divine offspring.  El cannot produce offspring without her. Her presence is  indispensable to the continuation of the divine family.

31:49

This could possibly go without saying, but I want to make sure that you’re not missing the profound nature of what the ancients are teaching us here. They’re teaching us that God is not a solitary being. They’re teaching us that God has a family, that God is a family man, that he’s married, that he has a wife, that he has children, that the divine realm is a two-parent household.

32:16

The ancients are telling us that the divine realm  is familial, relational, and sexed. Adorat’s epitaphs reveal that it’s through her union with El that divine royal offspring are born and that the divine family is possible. Now the most important thing that I wanted to point out about El’s wife Adorat  is that she’s referred to in the literature as Kadesh.

32:45

QDS. In Cuneiform Tablet 16.1.11, line 22, it reads, Atterat is called Kudzu, which is the same as Kadesh. A scholar by the name of John Day out of Oxford University says this of the meaning Kadesh. And this is written in his article, Asherah in the Hebrew Bible and Northwest Semitic Literature, published in volume 105.

33:14

the Journal of Biblical Literature. And this is found on page 388.  Quote, the goddess authorized called on a number of occasions kudzu, a name meaning holiness or sanctuary. I think it’s really telling that God’s wife has given the epitaph holiness  or sanctuary. The root of kudzu, Kadesh,

33:42

is used in a lot of different Semitic languages, but it’s always used to convey a couple of ideas. Consecration, sanctity,  and separation from the profane. When it’s used as a noun, kudzu means holiness, a holy place, a sanctuary, or a temple. In fact, the Aramean word for temple  is kudza.

34:11

Day notes Adorah’s association with a sanctuary or a temple on page 389. says,  what are the major occasions  in which Adorah appears in the Ugaritic texts? Most prominently, she appears in the text concerning Baal’s desire for a house, which is a temple. The title kudzu clearly speaks to the profound sanctified nature of God’s wife.

34:39

It emphasizes her  sacred status among the gods. It emphasizes that she is the personification of holiness. She is holiness. What I really find compelling is the identification  of God’s wife  with sacred space.  On page 389, Day  notes that her proper name, Adorat, denotes holy place or sanctuary.

35:09

Day writes, and he’s speaking of her name, Adirot. Quote, what is its entomology? An earlier suggestion of Albright was that the name Adirot means holy place sanctuary. And this view is held today by such scholars as H. Geese and J.C. DeMore. In support, it is noted that the Semitic root TR, place,  came to denote holy place.

35:39

sanctuary and this meaning is attested for in the Akkadian Asirtu, Essertu, Issertu, and Ashretu, Phoenician SRT, Aramaic TR and TRT, and Ugaritic ATR. The goddess Atharat is called on on a number of occasions kudzu a name meaning holiness or sanctuary.

36:07

And so it is argued that it would be very fitting if the name Atharat bore a similar meaning. In other words,  is telling us that  El’s wife’s proper name  Atharat  and her title Kutsu both mean the same thing, sanctuary or temple. God’s wife is the personification of a sanctuary. She’s so holy that she is sacred space.

36:36

is a sanctuary, a temple. This is going to be very important towards the end of today’s episode when we get into the early Christian literature. Okay, up to this point in our discussion on God’s marital status, we’ve seen that among the ancient Mesopotamians, Egyptians, and Canaanites, that the high god was unequivocally married. So what about among the ancient Hebrews? Was the high god of the Old Testament, El, married? Well,

37:06

It depends on who you ask. Generally speaking, if you ask modern day adherents of the Judeo-Christian tradition, you get a pretty resounding no. But when you ask biblical scholars, those scholars who have spent their careers carefully examining the biblical texts, the history and the archaeology of the Israelites, you get a different answer. Do you remember Dr. Stavro Kapulou, the Oxford trained professor who we talked about on the program?

37:37

Well, listen to what she says about the marital status of God in the Bible. Quote, after years of research specializing in the history and religion of Israel, I have come to the colorful and what would seem to some uncomfortable conclusion that God had a wife. Dr. Staffer Kapulu isn’t the only biblical scholar that’s come to this conclusion. In fact,

38:03

There’s a significant and growing body of scholarship and scholars who argue, and this comes directly from archaeological evidence, artifacts that have been unearthed,  as well as direct passages in the Bible that refer to Asherah. If you remember, Asherah is the Hebrew form of Atarat, the name of the Canaanite high god El’s wife, who we’ve just been talking about, the woman who is so sacred and holy that her proper name and her epitaph, Kudzu,

38:33

actually mean sanctuary or temple. So let’s look at the archaeological evidence. Archaeologists have found thousands of female figurines. They’re known as Judean pillar figurines across Israel. These figurines date to the Iron Age II period, which spans from 1000 to 586 BC, the same time known as the Israelite first temple period, the time of King Solomon’s temple.

39:03

The largest concentration of these figurines was found in and around Jerusalem. Now there are a lot of reasons why scholars believe that these figurines are representations of Asherah. There’s two main reasons why. The first is because there’s some strong iconographic parallels between the pillars  and the Levantine goddesses. Most notably the prominent depiction of their breasts.

39:31

which emphasizes their role as a mother, a progenitress. And the second reason is because archeologists have actually found inscriptions that contain the phrase Yahweh and quote, his Asherah. The first inscription was found  in the West Bank near Hebron. It was found on a tomb wall. And then they found multiple inscriptions

39:58

in the northeastern part of the Sinai Peninsula, right near the Israeli border. They found one inscription on wall plaster and then they found two inscriptions on pithos. Pithos are large storage jars. All of these explicitly stated, quote, Yahweh and his Asherah. Now, all of these inscriptions are dated to the eighth century BC. For example, the inscription on Pithos A reads, quote,

40:28

by Yahweh of Temin and by his Asherah. Dr. William G. Deaver, a Harvard-trained expert in the history of the ancient Near East and the ancient kingdoms of Israel, wrote the following on page 30 of his article,  Asherah, Consort of Yahweh,  New Evidence. Quote, the conclusion of our survey.  And the article lays out all of the archeological and textual evidence.

40:57

is by now obvious.  I believe that the lady of Adroud, now Adroud is the town in the Sinai Peninsula where these were found, is not simply a representation of the great goddess, but can be identified specifically with Asherah. Her appearance, both seated on a throne and mentioned in a text coupling her with Yahweh,

41:24

and named as an agent of blessing strongly suggests that she was revered as the consort of Yahweh. As Dr. Stavro Coppulu mentioned earlier, the idea that the God of the Old Testament had a wife might feel strange or even uncomfortable to a lot of people today. But the truth is, as we pointed out in the last episode and in this episode,

41:52

the ancient Near East,  the high god is always  married. The anomaly is when the high god is  not married. Of course, there’s nothing prohibiting Jews and Christians today from believing in a god who is not married. That’s their prerogative. But what I’m trying to illustrate here is there is considerable archaeological evidence to argue that before the Babylonian exile, the ancient Israelites

42:22

knew of, made figurines of, and made offerings to Asherah, the Hebrew form of Atira, who was the wife  of El and Canaan, and of whom we find inscriptions that refer to her as Yahweh’s Asherah, his Asherah, in and around Israel. If this interests you, if you’re interested in learning more about this, there are a lot of books and articles that have been written on the subject, books

42:52

like When God Had a Wife,  The Fall and Rise of the Sacred Feminine in the Judeo-Christian Tradition by Lynn Picknett and Clive Prince, Did God Have a Wife  by William G. Deaver, The Hebrew Goddess by Rafael Ptai,  and Asherah, History’s Vanquished Goddess by Darlene Koznik. These books do a really nice job of laying out the evidence.

43:20

The BBC also published  a docu-series titled, Did God Have a Wife with Dr. Stavro Kapulou. And PBS published another docu-series by the same name with Dr. Deaver. If you’d like to watch either of those, I’ve posted a link to them on the webpage for this episode. In addition, if you’d like to see pictures of the Judean pillar figurines or the inscription of Yahweh and his Asherah, you can find them too on the webpage for this episode.

43:49

In terms of the biblical evidence, the name Asherah or Asereem is found 40 times in the Hebrew Bible. John Barclay Burns of George Mason University notes in his article, Female Pillar Figurines of the Iron Age, A Study in Text and Artifact found in volume 36 of Andrews University Seminary Studies, the following on page 24, quote, the majority of references to Asherah

44:19

would appear to indicate a cultic object. The figure was made of wood, planted or driven in the ground or erected  often beside an altar. In light of the textual evidence and in view of the connection of the goddess with a tree, Asherah was most likely an artificial and stylized sacred tree. What Burns is telling us here

44:48

is that the references to Asherah in the Hebrew Bible associate her with a cultic object, an artificial or stylized tree of some sort that was planted beside an altar. Now this is interesting.  Asherah’s association with a tree and an altar is stated explicitly in Deuteronomy chapter 16 verse 21, which reads, and this is the English standard version, quote,

45:18

You shall not plant any tree as an asherah beside the altar you build for the Lord your God. The Amplified Bible translation says this. You shall not plant for yourself an asherah of any kind of tree or wood beside the altar of the Lord your God, which you shall make. Okay, there’s a couple of things that are worth noting here. First note how in ancient Israel the symbol used

45:46

to signify Asherah, God’s wife, was a tree or a cultic object of some type that looked like a tree. This is in complete conformity with what we saw in ancient Egypt, where the high god Atum’s wife, you saw us, was symbolized by an acacia tree. Second, you’ll note  that the author of this text is telling the Israelites that they’re not supposed to do this. Create a stylized tree and place it beside the altar of Yahweh.

46:17

This is highly, highly suspect because during the first temple period, this is exactly what was placed near the altar in Yahweh’s temple, a stylized tree. You might be more familiar with it by its name, the menorah. In 1 Kings chapter seven, verse 49, we’re told that the menorah stood

46:45

before the inner sanctuary. But in the Christian New Testament in Revelation chapter 22 verse 2, John the beloved sees a vision of the Holy of Holies and in that vision he sees the tree of life planted there in the midst by the throne of God.

47:08

So what are we to make of the prohibition to this in Deuteronomy? If a tree was actually placed near the altar to Yahweh in King Solomon’s temple? Well, there’s a general consensus among biblical scholars that the book of Deuteronomy, where the prohibition is found, was composed or compiled during the late monarchical period and then later edited into its current form during the Babylonian exile.

47:37

The group of authors or editors who shaped the theological and literary perspective found in Deuteronomy are known among scholars as the Deuteronomists. The reason this is important is because scholars like Margaret Barker, who you can find on our companion website, theancienttradition.com under scholars, lays out a considerable amount of evidence that the Deuteronomists altered the text.

48:03

to radically reform and deliberately suppress the older Jerusalem temple tradition. She’s written a number of books on this subject, all of which are very good. As part of their editing agenda, Barker argues they deliberately eradicated Asherah from Israelite religion. This was done, she argues, as part of a larger strategy by the Deuteronomists.

48:32

to impose strict monotheism. If you aren’t familiar with a lot of the biblical scholarship that’s been produced in the past couple of decades, you may not be aware that there is pretty conclusive evidence that ancient Israel was a polytheistic religion before the Babylonian exile. The BBC documentary I mentioned earlier, hosted by Dr. Stavro Coppulu, lays this all out. Here’s what she says.

49:06

I’ve come to the very place where the Bible says monotheism was practiced.  This is probably where the Temple of Jerusalem once stood,  supposedly the sanctuary where only one God was revered.  And yet, if you examine the biblical texts,  you find within them clear references to more than one God  here in Jerusalem itself.  God, it seems,  didn’t always act alone.

49:34

I saw Yahweh sitting on his throne,  with all the host of heaven standing beside him, to the left of him and the right of him.

49:43

God has taken his place in the divine council.  In the midst of the gods, he holds judgment.  Let us make mankind in our image according to our likeness.  Who is like you, Yahweh, among the gods?  The Bible itself is telling us that Israel had its own divine council,  its own pantheon of gods.

50:07

In other words,  the religion of the Israelites was polytheistic,  just like that of the Canaanites.  It’s not the conventional view,  and it weakens further the foundations of monotheism.  But Herbert Neer, a professor of biblical history,  has researched the real beliefs and practices of the ancient Israelites.  He feels we’re blinded to the polytheism  in the Bible’s pages.  So do you think Israelite religion was polytheistic?

50:36

Of course I do think that,  and we have many traces of it conserved in the Old Testament.  Only if you read the Old Testament  through the lenses of monotheism, you should neglect several important texts and you could come to the conclusion  that  Abraham and Moses were monotheistic believers of Yahweh.  But as we now know, it was quite different.  In the Old Testament we have several texts which speak about a divine council, for example also in the Psalms and in the Prophets.

51:02

So there are divine beings helping Yahweh to fulfill his duties.  For example, if something has to be done on earth,  Yahweh has to send his messenger.  So when we read texts like,  who is like you or Yahweh among the gods,  this is a reference to the divine council, to a polytheism. Yes, and a very clear reference, of course. So polytheism was normal in ancient Israel too? Yes, it was normal like in any other ancient Near Eastern cultures.

51:31

If you’re a long time listener to the program, you know we’ve hit on much of what Dr. Stavro Coppulu and the other biblical scholars argue here. That ancient Israel was originally polytheistic or henotheistic. We talked about this in episode number 16, the council of the gods and in episode number 17, more than one God. In the Hebrew Bible, there’s evidence that in the early ancient Israelite religion, the Israelite God El

52:00

and the Israelite God Yahweh were two separate gods who were later merged into one. As we saw in the Septuagint in Deuteronomy chapter 32 verses 8 9, Yahweh was originally understood to be El’s son, a distinction that’s preserved in much of the New Testament, especially in the book of Hebrews, where God the Father is understood to be Christ’s actual father and Christ is understood to be God’s actual son.

52:28

And when we consider Asherah, like we’ve done in today’s episode, what we get is the Father, the Mother, and the Son. A family. This really comes to fruition in the New Testament when God the Father and the Virgin Mary have a son, Christ. It’s very, very difficult to reconcile Christ’s conception.

52:55

with the theology where God the Father and God the Son are the same thing. It takes a lot of mental gymnastics to make sense of God the Son conceiving himself with his mother Mary. I remind you that the notion that God the Father and God the Son are one being and the notion that God is sexless and without form are  later ideas.  In their original form,

53:25

God was a sext being who had a wife with whom he had a son. This is the form in the ancient world. In ancient Mesopotamia, the high god On was married to Key and they had a son Enki. In ancient Egypt, the high god Atum was married to Ussas and they had a son  Shu. In Canaan, the high god El was married to Atarat

53:54

and they had a son, Baal. This same family-based theology is clear to see in the New Testament when the text is not forced to conform with later ideas like strict monotheism, Trinitarian theology, or Plato’s philosophical ideas of a sexless,  formless God. Somehow I think a lot of Christians already know this.

54:23

And believe this, and that’s because of the way Mary, the mother of Jesus, is venerated. A couple of weeks ago, I was in the beautiful little town of Sitka, Alaska. If you’ve never been there, it’s worth visiting. In the center of the town sits a small cathedral, St. Michael’s Cathedral. It’s the oldest  Russian Orthodox cathedral in the United States. In the early 19th century, the Russians controlled the fur trade in what we now call Alaska.

54:53

and Sitka served as their headquarters. So while I was there, I dropped in and I was immediately struck by this large, beautiful icon of Mary. It’s called Our Lady of the Inexhaustible Cup.  In this image, which is a recent commission, Mary is depicted wearing a crimson cosmic robe. There are two  eight pointed stars

55:23

sitting on her shoulders. The robe veils her head and in the very center of the veil, the center of her forehead, sits a prominent eight-pointed star. Now we’ve discussed this several times on the program. The eight-pointed star is the symbol for deified beings, for gods, those who reside in the sacred center. If you’d like to learn more about this, give episode number 38.

55:51

and he went a little further, listen. What I found most striking though, was that Mary was depicted wearing a jeweled crown. She’s depicted as a queen. And with her cosmic robes, this surely conveys that she is the queen of heaven. A queen is one who rules over a kingdom.

56:18

The artist is anonymous.  This is common for icons, so we don’t know who created it. But based on the symbolism in the icon, the artist is conveying that Mary is both a god and a queen, both of which  defy orthodox theology. If Mary is the mother of Jesus, then we need to reassess whether God has a wife. I mean, in the New Testament,

56:48

Christ is conceived with a woman. He doesn’t do it alone. And if Mary is a God, then we have to reassess strict monotheism. And if Mary is a queen, she reigns over a kingdom, and then we need to reassess whether God reigns as a solitary being. All of these are modern day reassessments.

57:16

The ancients always taught these things. So  why is this icon sitting prominently in St. Michael’s Cathedral? I do not know. What it suggests to me is that deep down somebody already seems to know these things or believe these things. If you’d like to see a picture of Our Lady of the Inexhaustible Cup,  you can find it on the webpage for this episode.

57:45

As we saw in Canaan, the high god El and his wife Adorot had a son, Baal, who we learned earlier in today’s episode was also married. He was married, if you recall, to the goddess, Anat. If you remember, she’s the goddess in the Uridic-Baal cycle who battled and bound the sea dragon, Yam. Anat  is a dragon slayer. So you’ll also recall that Anat and Baal conceived and gave birth to a son, a young bull.

58:16

Continuing the Divine Family Line. This is interesting because in the early episodes of this podcast, we came across another female dragonslayer. I don’t know if you remember who she was. Though her dragon slaying was described in more conspicuously spiritual terms. In a Jewish text dated to between 100 BC and 100 AD known as the Book of Joseph and Azaneth.

58:43

I mention this because these two female dragon slayers,  one the wife of the god Baal and the other a human being, whom  after she slew the dragon was anointed by God with the quote, unction of incorruption, which is a kingship or queenship rite. She was then clothed in a wedding robe, crowned with a gold wreath like a queen and married to Joseph of Egypt, where God

59:12

tells her in chapter 15 that she will be Joseph’s quote, beloved bride forever. Forever. God tells her that her marriage to Joseph will endure into the eternities. It will be an everlasting marriage. I mentioned Azanath because she’s not only a good example of a female dragon slayer, she’s also a good example of how dragon slaying, kingship, in this case queenship,

59:42

and marriage  are  all theologically interconnected. How they’re steps in a grand cohesive theology. In this text, Azaneth’s marriage to Joseph is the culminating  right. Now listen to what God tells Azaneth right after he anoints her with the unction of incorruption. This is found in chapter 16.

01:00:11

and been anointed with the unction of incorruption. Lo, now today thy flesh produceth flowers of life from the fountain of the Most High, and thy bones shall be made fat like the cedars of the paradise of delight of God, and unwarying powers shall maintain thee. Accordingly, thy youth shall not see old age, nor shall they beauty

01:00:40

fail forever. So what does God tell Azanith  right after he anoints her with the unction of incorruption? Well, he tells her that she is now like  a tree. Yep, a tree. God tells her that she is now like a tree that stands. A tree that stands where? A tree that stands  in paradise. Yep,

01:01:10

just like all of the other trees planted in paradise, like we discussed in our last episode. God says to Azanath, quote, thy bones  shall be made fat like the cedars of the paradise of delight of God. Now that Azanath has slayed the dragon and been anointed a queen, she’ll stand like a cedar tree  in paradise, where she will not age

01:01:40

nor will her beauty fail. Now note how all of this is then tied to marriage. God tells Azanith quote, God most high loveth her and all the angels revere her and I love her exceedingly for that she herself also is my sister. And lo for my part I go to Joseph. It’s talking about Joseph of Egypt here.

01:02:07

and will speak to him all these words concerning thee. And he will come to thee today and see thee and rejoice over thee and love thee and be thy bridegroom and thou shalt be his beloved bride forever.” So note there how God tells her that she can now be married to Joseph forever, for eternity.

01:02:33

which is really interesting because this text is believed to be a Jewish text. So here we have a Jewish text talking about marriages that last forever into eternity. Remember, she’s been anointed with the oil of incorruption, the oil of immortality. So when the text says forever, that’s what the text means. For eternity. This text,

01:03:00

clearly speaks of marriages lasting into and existing  in heaven. Now listen to what God tells her, quote,

01:03:28

and adorn thyself as a good bride and make thyself ready to meet him. And when the angel of the Lord in the shape of a man had finished speaking these words to Azanath, she rejoiced.” As a quick aside, did you catch that the text referred to God  as in the shape of a man? That’s what the text says. And again, this is believed by scholars to be a Jewish text.

01:03:57

In chapter 18, we read that Azanath does as God asks her, and adorns herself in the first robe, the ancient robe, which we’re told in the text turns out to be a robe like lightning. When the text refers to this robe as her quote, first robe  or  ancient robe, a robe that the text then tells us is like lightning,

01:04:24

Scholars think that this refers in some way to a former light or glory that Azenith  used to have in the first, which Isermais refers to the first time, which is super intriguing. The text tells us that she does this  and then adorns herself with precious stones and jewelry. After this, the text tells us, quote, and a golden wreath she put about her head.

01:04:52

She placed a golden crown atop her head. She’s a queen. She does all of this in preparation for her wedding to Joseph, which again, God tells her will last forever. The Slavonic version of the text actually states that she put on wedding remnant and decked herself like a bride for the wedding chamber. Keep the wedding chamber aspect of this passage in your back pocket because it’s going to be important at the very close of today’s episode.

01:05:20

What’s interesting is that right after this, Azanath sees a reflection of herself in a water basin. And she notes that her face  shines like the sun. There is a glory to her. But then listen to this. In the reflection, she sees herself once again as a  tree. And this is found in chapter 18.

01:05:47

In this text, she looks into the basin and she sees her eyes and her cheeks and her lips,  and then she sees her neck. And it says,  as an  all variegated Cyprus. Cyprus. A Cyprus, of course, is a tree. If you aren’t familiar with the word variegated, it usually means colorful, which is interesting because Cyprus trees are evergreens, so they’re never quote colorful. A variegated Cyprus.

01:06:15

usually refers to a cypress tree whose leaves have lightened. And when this happens, the leaves take on a golden hue. So note how when Azaneth looks into the basin, she sees that she looks like a golden  tree. This is fascinating. If you’d like to see a picture or two of variegated cypress trees, you can find them on the webpage for this episode.

01:06:44

After this, Azanath and Joseph are married. And the Pharaoh says to Joseph in chapter 21, quote,

01:07:12

is as the son of the Most High, and thou shalt be called his bride henceforth  and forever.” Note again how this text speaks to the notion of marriage lasting, quote,  unto time eternal. This is theologically breathtaking. Also noted in this text how Joseph is referred to as, quote, the son of the Most High.

01:07:41

This will be important down the line.  All in all,  note how Azenith’s triumph over the dragon is connected  not only to queenship, but to immortality where she’ll stand like a tree in paradise. And to marriage, a marriage to Joseph that the text tells us will last, quote, unto time eternal. The notion of a marriage that is eternal

01:08:10

makes sense if God, like the ancients teach, is himself married. If you’d like to listen to a full audio recording of the book of Joseph and Azanith, you can find it  on our sister podcast, The Ancient Tradition Audio-Rid. I want to conclude this episode by taking a look at the marital status of Christ in the early Christian writings. When we examine these texts, we find that there is not

01:08:38

a single passage in either the canonical or apocryphal writings that says Jesus was married. But at the same time, I’d also like to know that when we examine these texts, we don’t find a single passage in either the canonical or apocryphal writings that says Jesus is not married. Those who say Jesus was not married don’t have any more textual evidence to support their claim than those who say he was married.

01:09:07

The old adage, the absence of evidence is not the evidence of absence is apropos here. The plain fact is that we just don’t know what Christ’s marital status was. There’s no textual evidence either way to definitively claim that he was or was not married. Historically speaking though, it’s important to point out that in the ancient world,

01:09:36

the son of the high god, like the high god himself  was  married. In ancient Egypt, Atum’s son Shu was married to Tefnut, and Osiris, the hero son, was married to Isis, and the archetypal earthly son Horus was married to Hathor. In Mesopotamia, An’s son Enki was married to Damkina,

01:10:06

And the hero son, Marduk, was married to Sarpunet. In Canaan, El-San-Bal, the hero son, like we noted in today’s episode, was married to Anat. And in ancient Israel, Yahweh, who’s mentioned in the Septuagint in Deuteronomy chapter 32, eight to nine, as one of the most high God’s sons, appears to be understood by early Israelites to be married to Asherah.

01:10:34

as is evidenced by the Judean pillar figurines and the inscriptions that refer to Yahweh and His Asherah. So if  I were to guess whether or not Christ, the hero son of El, God the Father, was married,  I would guess that he was. Because  that is what we find across the ancient world. The hero son was  married to…

01:11:03

Marriage as you can see was part and partial to the theology of the ancient tradition Before I close this out. I want to offer up one last thought about Christ’s marital status This is something that I’ve thought about for a while It’s something that I’ve never heard anyone else suggest Scholar or layman so keep that in mind Still the same. I think there’s something here If you’ll recall earlier in today’s discussion on otter off

01:11:34

the high god El’s wife. We noted that Atarat’s proper name, Atarat,  and the special epitaph that was given to her, kudzu, both meant the same thing, a holy place, a sanctuary, or a temple. From this we glean that God’s wife  is so holy that she herself  is holy space, that she’s the

01:12:03

personification of a sanctuary or temple. I find the identification of God’s wife with a temple incredibly compelling because when we examine the title assigned to Mary Magdalene in the early Christian tradition, we find  the same thing. The name Magdalene is not a surname.

01:12:31

It’s what’s called a toponymic identifier. It means of. It’s widely believed, and there’s a good reason for this, that the designation Magdalene means of Magdala, which refers to a first century Jewish village named Magdala, located on the western shore of the Sea of Galilee. Luke describes Mary Magdalene in chapter 23 verse 55 as, quote,

01:13:00

the woman which came with Jesus from Galilee. So it’s appropriate to conclude that she was from the village of Magdala in Galilee. This was a common naming convention used in the ancient world to distinguish individuals who shared the same first name.  So calling her Mary Magdalene would distinguish her from the other Marys in Christ’s circle. Mary Magdalene would be like saying Mary from the village of Magdala. Now,

01:13:30

I don’t contend with any of this, it’s sound. But I would argue from what we’ve seen in so many of the world’s ancient texts that we’ve covered on the program, that there’s more here than meets the eye. Remember,  symbols were intentionally used by the ancients in their writings to both reveal and conceal important sacred truths.  And I think that that is what is going on here.

01:13:58

See, the name Magdal originates from the Aramaic word magdala, which means tower. This is closely related to the Hebrew word migdal, which also means tower, and which comes from the root gadal, which means to be great or high. So here we see that Mary’s name Magdalene is associated with being great, high, and with a tower.

01:14:28

Well,  why is this significant? Well, it’s significant because in the Old Testament a tower was used to symbolize sacred space.  The  most sacred space in the entire Israelite world. The Israelite temple, the Temple of Yahweh. I’m going to illustrate this by turning to Isaiah chapter 5.

01:14:56

the parable of the Lord’s vineyard. Listen to the first couple of verses. And this is Isaiah speaking. My well-beloved, Isaiah is speaking of Yahweh here, hath a vineyard in a very fruitful hill. Note how this vineyard is on a hill. And he fenced it. Note how there’s a fence around Yahweh’s vineyard. This is the fence, the cosmic wall.

01:15:25

We spent episodes number 51, 52, and 53 talking about. And gathered out the stones thereof and planted it with the choicest vine. Note how Yahweh planted a vine inside the sacred space. This is the same as planting a tree or trees in the Garden of Eden. It’s talking about a person or people here. Now listen to this. And built a tower in the midst of it. A tower.

01:15:55

And where did he build this tower? The text says, in the midst. In the midst of the vineyard,  right in the middle, in the sacred center of the vineyard, God built a tower. What this means is that the tower  doesn’t exactly represent God’s temple. The whole vineyard represents God’s temple. The area fenced off from the dragon. So what does the tower represent?

01:16:26

Sometimes this tower is referred to as a watchtower because it’s the tower from which Yahweh watches over his vineyard. Again though, what does this tower represent? Well, the tower represents the innermost  sanctum of God’s temple, the place where God himself dwells. The tower represents the most  sacred place in the entire cosmos.

01:16:56

the Holy of Holies. Yeah, the Holy of Holies. So when I read in Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John that Jesus’s most intimate female disciple, Mary Magdalene’s epitaph, means tower, I pause. And I really pause when I couple this with the knowledge that in the Ugaritic literature, the high god El’s wife, Atarat,

01:17:23

was also given a proper name and the epitaph kudzu meaning temple or sanctuary. With both Adirad and Mary Magdalene, we’re getting an incredibly strong association between a female close to God and their name connotating sacred space, a temple or the Holy of Holies. In Greek, Mary isn’t referred to as Mary Magdalene.

01:17:52

She’s referred to as Mary the Magdalene. In its exoteric form, this would be Mary the woman of Magdala. In its esoteric form, from what we’ve seen in this episode, it would be Mary the Holy of Holies. Now,  I’m not exactly sure what this means  theologically, but it’s there.

01:18:21

We haven’t gotten into this in the program yet, but the innermost sanctum, the Holy of Holies in the ancient world was also associated with the marital bedchamber. So that’s worth considering too. At a minimum, I think it’s safe to conclude that these women were so holy that they themselves were the personification of a sanctuary.

01:18:49

Maybe it’s that they were so holy that they themselves were a holy of holies. That’s definitely what their epitaphs seem to imply, which to me  is just  mind blowing. I’ve got to leave it there. We’ll pick it up right here in our next episode. With that, I’ll leave you with the words of William Shakespeare,  knowledge  is the wing we’re with.

01:19:18

we fly to heaven.  I’m Jack Logan.

01:19:27

You’ve been listening to the Ancient Tradition.  A Wonk Media Production.