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Did God Have A Wife?:

Archaeology And Folk Religion In Ancient Israel
Front Cover
15 Reviews
Wm. B. Eerdmans Publishing, 2005 - Religion - 344 pages
"Did God Have a Wife? is a richly illustrated, non-technical reconstruction of "folk religion" in ancient Israel, based largely on recent archaeological evidence, but incorporating biblical texts where possible even though they deal more with "book religion."
  

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Review: Did God Have a Wife?: Archaeology and Folk Religion in Ancient Israel

User Review  - Hawkgrrrl - Goodreads

This paints a fascinating picture of early Israelite religious practice that will come as a surprise to many non-scholars like me. There are also some interesting tidbits for Mormon readers in the ... Read full review

Review: Did God Have a Wife?: Archaeology and Folk Religion in Ancient Israel

User Review  - Diana - Goodreads

A fascinating and readable description of the religion of early Israel as revealed by archeology. So did God have a wife? The early (pre-exile) Israelites apparently thought so -- and were very fond of her. Read full review

All 13 reviews »

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Selected pages

Contents

Defining and Contextualizing Religion
1
Religion as Ultimate Concern
2
The Care and Feeding of the Gods
4
On Folk Religion
5
Toward a Methodology
8
Phenomenology of Religion
9
The Context of Folk Religion
12
Religion and the Good Life
29
Public OpenAir Sanctuaries
135
Monumental Temples
167
The Goddess Asherah and Her Cult
176
Votives Vows and Folk Religion
195
Characterizing Asherah and Her Cult
196
Asherah Womens Cults and Official Yahwism
209
Asherah in the Hebrew Bible
211
Asherah Yahweh and Syncretism
212

The History of the History In Search of Ancient Israelite Religions
32
The Myth and Ritual School
33
Old Testament Theology
35
Sociological Approaches
39
A Revival of Interest in Israelite Religion
40
An Overall Critique of Previous Scholarship
59
Sources and Methods for the Study of Ancient Israels Religions
63
The Biblical Texts and Their Limitations
64
Some Caveats
68
Nonbiblical Texts
73
Archaeology as a Primary Source for History and Religion
74
Who and Why
76
Setting the Archaeological Record Straight
79
What Archaeology Can and Cannot Do
81
Why Another History?
87
The Hebrew Bible Religious Reality or Theological Ideal?
90
Part I Cultic Terminology in the Hebrew Bible
92
Family and Household Shrines
95
Temples
96
Cult Paraphernalia in the Hebrew Bible
98
Part II Cultic Terminology in the Hebrew Bible
103
Some Caveats Regarding Sacrifice
104
Prayers and Vows
106
Festivals
107
Archaeological Evidence for Folk Religions in Ancient Israel
110
Local Shrines and Family Religion
111
An Excursis on Magic
125
Iconographic Evidence of the Goddess
219
Asherah and Womens Cults
236
Archaeological Correlates of Womens Cults
239
Other Ethnographic Parallels
247
From Polytheism to Monotheism
252
Holy Places in PreIsraelite Times
264
The Israelite Sacrificial System as Canaanite
266
The Calendar
267
The Question of Syncretism
269
Religion in Crisis
271
To Your Tents O Israel
280
The State Cult in the North
281
Judah and the Yahweh Alone Movement
285
The Fall of Judah and Religious Crisis
291
The Empty Land
293
Out of the Ashes
294
Why Monotheism? and Whither?
297
Archaeological Evidence for Reforms
299
The Afterglow
300
Asherah Abscondita and Jewish Mysticism
301
What Does the Goddess Do to Help?
304
Afterword and Foreword Again
314
Some Basic Sources
318
Index of Authors
334
Index of Subjects and Places
337
Index of Scripture References
341
Copyright

Other editions - View all

Did God Have a Wife?: Archaeology and Folk Religion in Ancient Israel
Did God Have a Wife?: Archaeology and Folk Religion in Ancient Israel
William G. Dever
Snippet view - 2008

Common terms and phrases

¾¾¾ 8th century b.c. Ackerman altar Anat ancient Israel ancient Israelite religion archaeological archaeological data archaeological evidence argue artifacts Asherah b#môt Ba{al beliefs and practices biblical scholars biblical texts biblical writers blessing Book religion Bronze Age Canaan Canaanite religion cent Chapter consort context cult of Asherah cultic culture Deuteronomistic Dever discussed divine edited el-Qôm especially fact female figurines feminist figurines gion goddess Asherah gods Hebrew Bible high places holy iconography images incense inscriptions Iron Age Jeremiah Jerusalem Jewish Judah Judean Keel and Uehlinger Kings Kuntillet Ajrûd Lachish later magic Meyers modern monarchy monotheism offering stands Old Testament Phoenician polytheism popular religion prayers prophets recent reforms religions of ancient religious revisionists rituals sacrifice Samaria scholarship Shechem shrines simply standing stones story Susan Ackerman symbol Ta{anach Temple Temple in Jerusalem term textual tion tomb tradition tree Ugarit votive vows women women’s cults worship Yahweh Yahwism Zevit

References to this book

From other books

The Mission of God: Unlocking the Bible's Grand Narrative
The Mission of God: Unlocking the Bible's Grand Narrative
Christopher J. H. Wright
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From Google Scholar

Gender and Archaeology in Israelite Religion
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In the name of love
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South Africa’s Axial Religious Transformation: The Utilization of ...
Maladaptive Pre-Axial Response Models, M Le Roux
The Religious Iconography of Israel and Judah ca. 1200-587 bce
Izak Cornelius - 2008 - Religion Compass
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About the author (2005)

William G. Dever is professor emeritus of Near Eastern archaeology and anthropology at the University of Arizona in Tucson. He has served as director of the Nelson Glueck School of Biblical Archaeology in Jerusalem, as director of the W. F. Albright Institute of Archaeological Research in Jerusalem, and as a visiting professor at universities around the world. He has spent thirty years conducting archaeological excavations in the Near East, resulting in a large body of award-winning fieldwork.

Bibliographic information

QR code for Did God Have A Wife?
TitleDid God Have A Wife?: Archaeology And Folk Religion In Ancient Israel
AuthorWilliam G Dever
Editionillustrated
PublisherWm. B. Eerdmans Publishing, 2005
ISBN0802828523, 9780802828521
Length344 pages
Subjects › 

Religion / Antiquities & Archaeology
Religion / History
  
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