arens%UCBKIM@ucbvax.UUCP (06/22/83)
Date: 15 Jun 83 23:57:23 PDT (Wed) From: arens@UCBKIM (Yigal Arens) Subject: Is the Bible not telling us the truth? Message-Id: <8306160657.2434@UCBKIM.ARPA> Received: by UCBKIM.ARPA (3.340/3.5) id AA02434; 15 Jun 83 23:57:23 PDT (Wed) To: net-religion@BERKELEY This may be of interest to net.religion readers: I'm reading an article in an Israeli paper about some relatively recent (a few years ago) archeological discoveries in the ruins of an ancient desert fortress called Kuntilat Ajrud. The ruins date back to the period of the first temple. Some of the discoveries (clothing remnants, written prayers, and more) indicate that the place served as a center of worship. Among the more interesting findings was a grain storage vessel that carried an inscription dedicating it to (excuse the wrong alphabet): "yhwh shmrn ul'ashrta". Below the inscription is a picture of two gods. The pictures are now believed to be of a male and female god with heads of calves, and the inscription is interpreted as meaning "to yahweh of Samaria and his Ashertu". Asirtu is the Ugaritic name of the goddess Ashera mentioned several times in the Bible as a Caananite goddess. This is taken to indicate that the practice of worshiping the Jewish god Yahweh *together* with his female companion was common and accepted, contrary to the impression given in the Bible that the Israelites who didn't sin worshiped a single god. Also, this indicates a fact hinted in the Bible itself, that there was some disagreement about whether the god had no form or the form of a calf (those familiar with the Bible will recall how whenever the Israelites misbehaved the first thing they did was build the image of a calf). The Kingdom of Israel (in Samaria) worshipped a yahweh who had the shape of a calf. The discrepancy between this and the Bible stories is described as the result of the (accepted) fact that the Bible was rewritten and edited in the first century BC, or so. The editors were people who had an interest in presenting all of Jewish history as conforming to their beliefs. The article said that the Israeli archeologist Ze'ev Meshel published a paper about this find in an American archeological journal which they don't name. It says the article appeared about two years ago. Does anybody know any more about this? Yigal Arens UC Berkeley (soon USC)