The people of Israel again did what was evil in the sight of the LORD and served the Baals and the Ashtaroth, the gods of Syria, the gods of Sidon, the gods of Moab, the gods of the Ammonites, and the gods of the Philistines. And they forsook the LORD and did not serve him.
– Judges 10:6 (ESV)
Archaeological evidence of idol worship from the area of ancient Israel in recent years continues to give us better understandings of folk religion during Israel’s early history. In some circles, these finds are being used for claims that the biblical account is unreliable and does not fit real history.But this begs the question, does this evidence really contradict what the Bible says about idol worship among the Israelites?
The setting was Jerusalem’s Albright Institute in June of this past summer. Filmmaker Timothy Mahoney was interviewing the widely respected Austrian Egyptologist Manfred Bietak. For most of his career, Bietak was known for directing the excavations at Tell el-Daba. This was the site of Avaris, an ancient city in Egypt’s Nile Delta that lay underneath the southern district of the city of Ramesses, the location the Bible mentions as a center of Israelite activity in the centuries before the Exodus.
Over 30 seasons of digging at Tell el-Daba, archaeologists found evidence showing the site began and quickly expanded during Egypt’s 12th and 13th dynasties to become the most populated city of its day. After Egypt’s power fell, the city became known as Avaris, the capital city of the foreign Hyksos who ruled much of northern Egypt for more than a century during Egypt’s Second Intermediate Period before being ousted by the first New Kingdom pharaohs of the 18th Dynasty.
It was the early history of the Avaris site that matched the Bible’s account of Joseph and the early Israelites so well. This is what drew Mahoney to Avaris to speak with Bietak in 2002, as part of his search for evidence matching the Exodus. Twelve years later, this investigation would be documented in the film Patterns of Evidence: The Exodus. It was the interview with Bietak that had caused a major challenge for Mahoney. When he asked Bietak if he had uncovered any evidence that could be connected to the Israelites, Bietak responded “So far, not.” Bietak would go on to give several descriptions of evidence that seemed to match the biblical account, but then said, to connect these with the Israelites was a “weak affair.”
Those words would haunt Mahoney, and yet also motivate him to continue his search for answers to this problem. Now, 16 years later, he was able to once again question Bietak about his findings and the reasons he rejects any connection between the Israelites and the early history of Avaris. Certainly, as seen in that first film, the major reason for not making the connection is chronology. For Bietak, as with most scholars, the early history of Avaris is just too old to connect to the accepted dates for when the Israelites were supposed to be there. But in this recent interview Bietak revealed another reason, though he was referring to a time slightly later in the history of Avaris, when the Hyksos were ruling the city.
The discussion went like this:
BIETAK: They had temples with patterns, which can be found in Mesopotamia, even in southern Mesopotamia.
MAHONEY: Those temples are telling you the Avaris people were not associated with the early Israelites?
BIETAK: No. This type of broad room temple is often dedicated to northern Syrian storm gods whereas the female goddess, who may have been Ishtar, was started by Canaanites. But the combination of these two types of temples is to be found mainly in Mesopotamia. And so, we think that this shows us where the spiritual roots of these people were, who decided to live in Tell el-Dab’a. …We have a seal cylinder with a representation of a Ba’al as overlord of the sea. Behind him is the weather bull, under him is the snake, representing the sea, also a goat.
So for Bietak, evidence that these people worshipped Mesopotamian and Syrian gods disqualifies them for being considered the Israelites of the Bible, who are distinctly known as worshipers of the one God Yahweh.
Two points can be made here. First, it should be noted that according to the Bible, Abraham’s family had its roots in Mesopotamia, including Haran in northern Syria (today, just across the border in southern Turkey) before moving to Canaan. Abraham’s son Isaac got his bride from Haran where many of his relatives were living. Abraham’s grandson Jacob also returned to live 20 years in Haran where 11 of his 12 sons were born (including Joseph).
So when looking for a time period that fits the biblical story, evidence that a population was connected to Mesopotamian and Syrian culture (as well as Canaanite) should not be thought to exclude the Israelites, but should be considered a point supporting a possible Israelite connection. Because the family had lived in those areas in the centuries before they came to Egypt, they certainly would have picked up and maintained many aspects of the cultures of the lands they lived in.
A second point to consider is the question of whether the Bible portrays the people of Israel as being solely devoted to Yahweh throughout their history, or did they mix the worship of Yahweh with the worship of other gods from the nations around them? Any student of the Bible should know that it actually describes the typical condition among the ancient Israelites being widespread idol worship and unfaithfulness to God.
Persistent idolatry is actually the reason given in the Bible for their eventual defeat and expulsion from the land of Israel at the hands of the Assyrians (for the northern kingdom of Israel) and the Babylonians (for the southern kingdom of Judah). So the presence of evidence showing the worship of Canaanite, Syrian and Mesopotamian gods should, again, not be used as a reason to dismiss the Israelites as a candidate for the people living at Avaris.
Idol Worship in Israel a Problem for the Bible?
This issue connects to another related situation going on in the world of archaeology for the ancient land of Israel. Extensive evidence of idol worship in Israel from the period of the judges and kings has long been known. This evidence continues to grow. Past Thinker Updates have reported on the finds of a pagan ritual hall at Tel Burna and a toilet in a shrine at the city gate of Lachish that matches Hezekiah’s war on idolatry.
The discovery of blessings found on the remains of storage jars that associate Yahweh and Asherah caused a particularly large stir. Inscriptions related to this formula were found in the northeast Sinai region and at another site just west of Hebron, Israel from around 700 BC. Earlier texts, figurines and amulets from the coastal city of Ugarit also seem to fit the pattern. The inscription on one storage jar reads “I bless you by Yahweh of Samaria and by his Asherah.” In 2008 America’s premier archaeologist Bill Dever came out with a book titled, Did God Have a Wife?
This idea was repeated in the 2011 BBC series, “Bible’s Buried Secrets” by Francesca Stavrakopoulou, who is from Oxford and the Department of Theology and Religion at the University of Exeter. In an article written for Discovery and NBC News to promote the series, Stavrakopoulou had this to say about the inscriptions and Asherah, which she believes to be a powerful fertility goddess, “After years of research specializing in the history and religion of Israel, however, I have come to a colorful and what could seem, to some, uncomfortable conclusion that God had a wife.”
These types of statements seem to be crafted to create maximum controversy. A more precise statement regarding this theory would have noted instead that in the pantheon of ancient Canaan the chief god had a consort or wife, and it appears that this thinking was picked up by people living in Israel who tied the goddess Asherah to their God Yahweh. The article does not bring up those scholars who dispute the conclusions of scholars like Dever and Stavrakopoulou for one reason or another.
What becomes more disturbing is the skewed framing of this topic, both within the Discovery article and in others over the years. The subtitle of the article is “Word of “Asherah” was nearly edited out of the Bible, researcher concludes.” And sure enough, within the article are quotes from J. Edward Wright, president of The Arizona Center for Judaic Studies and The Albright Institute for Archaeological Research who said, “Asherah was not entirely edited out of the Bible by its male editors. Traces of her remain.” He went on, “Many English translations prefer to translate ‘Asherah’ as ‘Sacred Tree.’ This seems to be in part driven by a modern desire, clearly inspired by the biblical narratives, to hide Asherah behind a veil once again.”
The article provides no evidence for this proposed editing.
In the same article, Aaron Brody, director of the Bade Museum and an associate professor of Bible and archaeology at the Pacific School of Religion, piles on. “Mentions of the goddess Asherah in the Hebrew Bible (Old Testament) are rare and have been heavily edited by the ancient authors who gathered the texts together,” he said. In his view, a more universal vision of strict monotheism only developed after the Babylonian captivity. This line of thinking naturally leads to the idea that the Bible cannot be used as a reliable source for our understanding of history or the development of religion.
And the people of Israel did secretly against the LORD their God things that were not right. They built for themselves high places in all their towns, from watchtower to fortified city. They set up for themselves pillars and Asherim on every high hill and under every green tree, and there they made offerings on all the high places, as the nations did whom the LORD carried away before them. And they did wicked things, provoking the LORD to anger, and they served idols, of which the LORD had said to them, “You shall not do this.”
– 2 Kings 17:9-12 (ESV)
But do these claims truly reflect what we see in the Scriptures? In reality, the various terms Asherah (and its plural, Asherim), Asheroth, Ashteroth and Ashtaroth are not rare, but are used 53 times in 13 books of the Hebrew Bible. This hardly seems like a closely guarded secret that was nearly edited out of the pages of the Bible. This excludes the numerous clear references related to sacred trees, groves and poles that may or may not be associated with the fertility goddess. Remember that the golden calf was likely thought to represent the presence of gods, so the same concept may have been involved with the relation between trees and the goddess Asherah. The god Baal is also very prevalent, being mentioned more than twice as many times as Asherah.
The views expressed in the Discovery News piece have been represented in many articles and television programs over the years while projecting the ever-growing tale that the Bible was involved in a cover up of the reality of pagan worship, especially of female deities, while doing everything possible to present a pure monotheistic approach. While some present the idea that the Bible portrays religion among the Israelites as strictly faithful monotheism from the beginning (with a few occasionally succumbing to the lure of paganism at the fringes), this just does not match what the Bible actually states.
Contrary to the claims of these scholars, the Bible does not try to cover up the reality of these facts. From the time of Abraham around 2,000 BC to the time of the final destruction of Jerusalem and the captivity in Babylon in 586 BC, the Bible repeatedly shines a light on the incessant worship of foreign gods among the people of Israel.
The Bible’s Report of Idolatry
(Read the below summary of the powerful pull that idolatry had on the people of Israel throughout the Old Testament OR skip to the conclusion)
A survey of just a fraction of the primary texts will help drive home the extent and clarity with which the biblical authors address the issue of idolatry.
Abraham is said to have come from a family of idol worshipers (Josh. 24:2), which makes his story of faithfulness more remarkable. Jacob’s family is twice mentioned as having foreign gods (Gen. 31:19, 31:30-35 and 35:2-3).
Although we don’t hear about it in the Book of Exodus, the Israelites served other gods while they lived in Egypt. Ezekiel gives a startling account of how God was angry with Israel before they left Egypt and commanded them to forsake the idols of Egypt. But Israel would not listen (Ezek. 20:5-11, 18, 21). Among the extensive laws given at Sinai is one that commanded that any Israelite who slaughtered an ox, sheep or goat for food in the camp to first bring it to the tent of meeting. This was done to stem the practice of bringing the animals out to the open field to sacrifice them to goat demons, as had been their practice (Lev. 17:3-4, 7). This shows that it must have been going on during the stay in Egypt. Even today, Satan and demons are often depicted as having horns and are associated with goat images.
After they left Egypt, God’s first commands at Sinai were to be faithful to him and not to make carved images to worship (Ex. 20:4-5 among many other later references) a clear indication that this was the natural bent. While God was giving these commands, the Israelites were busy forming a golden calf to worship (Ex. 32:7-8) – a carryover from their time in Egypt. After rebelling against God many times in the wilderness (Num. 14:22-23), when the Israelites camped across Jordan before invading the Promised Land, the daughters of Moab enticed many of the men to sacrifice to their gods, causing a great plague among the Israelites (Num. 25:1-3). Moses ended his ministry by saying of the Israelites that they had “been rebellious against the LORD from the day that I knew you” (Deut. 9:24). He predicted that after his death, things would become even worse (Deut. 31:16-20, 27).
When Joshua and Israel renewed the covenant after the conquest, the people agreed to worship God alone. Joshua’s response was to implore them to “put away the foreign gods” that were among them (Josh. 24:14). The first generation in the Promised Land is said to have served the LORD (though not completely, as Joshua’s plea makes clear), but the people quickly went back to the gods of the people around them, and bowed down to the Baals and the Ashtaroth (Jud. 2:11-13).
This started a continuous cycle of the people abandoning the LORD, and God sending oppressors to chasten them. Then the people would cry out to God who would send a judge to save them. But as soon as the judge died, they turned back and were more corrupt than their fathers, without dropping any of their practices or their stubborn ways (Jud. 2:16-19). There are numerous references in the Book of Judges to this cycle. When the last judge, Samuel, performed a covenant renewal with Israel, he directed them to put away their foreign gods (1 Sam. 7:3-4). The people would soon reject the LORD as their ruler by asking for a king like all the nations around them. The LORD told Samuel that this was “according to all the deeds that they have done, from the day I brought them up out of Egypt even to this day, forsaking me and serving other gods” (1 Sam. 8:7-9).
Solomon was Israel’s wisest king who built and dedicated the Temple in Jerusalem. But late in his life, his wives are said to have “turned away his heart toward other gods and he went after Ashtoreth the goddess of the Sidonians, and after Milcom the abomination of the Ammonites. Then Solomon built a high place for Chemosh and Molech, on the mountain east of Jerusalem so his foreign wives could sacrifice to their gods” (1 Kings 11:4-8).
Once the kingdom was split into two (Judah and Israel), things became even worse. Jeroboam did not want his people to go to the Temple in Jerusalem to worship and be swayed to rejoin them. So he made two golden calves and put them up in Bethel and Dan and instituted new feasts along with a new priesthood apart from the Levites. He also made many temples and high places (1 Kings 12:28-31 and 13:33-34). The following 18 kings in Israel were all said to have done evil and followed in the ways of Jeroboam with too many references to list. This would end up cutting them off and destroying them from the face of the earth (1 Kings 13:34, 2 Kings 17:23).
Israel’s King Ahab erected an altar and house for Baal in the capital of Samaria (1 Kings 16:30-33). When the prophet Elijah confronted Ahab along with 450 prophets of Baal and 400 prophets of Asherah, Elijah asked all the people whether they were going to serve the LORD or Baal. The people did not answer him a word (1 Kings 18:19, 21). Later, Elijah lamented that he was the only faithful one left in Israel, but the LORD assured him that he had preserved a remnant that “had not bowed down to Baal or kissed him.” Yet the number of the remnant was only 7,000 in all of Israel, which means 99% were idol worshipers (1 Kings 19:10, 18). Israel was finally taken to Assyria for their apostasy (2 Kings 17:23).
It is tempting to think of Judah as the faithful kingdom compared to the northern kingdom of Israel. However, a closer look shows that this was not the case. The reforms of Jehoshaphat, Hezekiah and Josiah were the exceptions and not the rule. The fact that they removed the high places and broke the pillars and cut down the Asherah was commended, but it only goes to show how prevalent these things were in the land.
During the reign of Judah’s first king, the Bible says that, “Judah did what was evil in the sight of the LORD, and they provoked him to jealousy with their sins that they committed, more than all that their fathers had done. For they also built for themselves high places and pillars and Asherim on every high hill” (1 Kings 14:21-24).
The second king walked in all the sins that his father before him did (1 Kings 15:3). The third king put away the idols from the land, but he did not take out the high places (1 Kings 15:11-13). The same was true of the next king, Jehoshaphat (1 Kings 22:43, 46). So even during the reigns of the kings who were designated as doing “right,” false worship was still rampant in Judah.
The very next king walked in the way of the kings of Israel, and put back all the Asherim and idols and added more to it (2 Chron. 21:6, 11). And so it went throughout the history of Judah. Temporary and partial reforms were followed by worse returns to idolatry that even invaded the Temple in Jerusalem. Not only did King Ahaz make metal images for the Baals, he burned his sons as an offering (2 Chron 28:2-4). Manasseh did the same. By the time of the last kings, altars for all the host of heaven were built inside house of the LORD. A carved image of Asherah was even set in the house of the LORD (2 Kings 23:4-8). This led the Bible to say, “Manasseh led them astray to do more evil than the nations had done whom the LORD destroyed before the people of Israel” (2 Kings 21:2-9).
The last we hear of the book of the Law of Moses is during the reign of Jehoshaphat, Judah’s fourth king (2 Chron. 17:9). Then it is discovered in a nook of the Temple in the days of Judah’s 16th king, Josiah, more than 250 years later (2 Kings 22:8, 13, 23:2). Josiah was convicted that Judah had broken the covenant, and he instituted a celebration of the Passover. The text says, “no such Passover had been kept since the days of the judges who judged Israel, or during all the days of the kings of Israel or of the kings of Judah” (2 Kings 23:22-24).
Of the Bible’s twelve Minor Prophets and the four Major Prophets, most were not sent to the northern kingdom of Israel, most were sent to Judah with the repeated refrain to return to the LORD or face judgment. Because of the evil Judah did, God promised to hand them over to their enemies, “because they have done what is evil in my sight and have provoked me to anger, since the day their fathers came out of Egypt, even to this day” (2 Kings 21:10-15). Josiah’s sons returned to all the evil ways of their forefathers and put back all the things Josiah had undone (2 Kings 23:32 and 2 Chron. 36:5-14).
Jeremiah, the last prophet in Judah before the captivity wrote in his book, “The sin of Judah is written with a pen of iron; with a point of diamond it is engraved on the tablet of their heart, and on the horns of their altars, while their children remember their altars and their Asherim, beside every green tree and on the high hills, on the mountains in the open country. Your wealth and all your treasures I will give for spoil as the price of your high places for sin throughout all your territory… For the sons of Judah have done evil in my sight, declares the LORD. They have set their detestable things in the house that is called by my name, to defile it. And they have built the high places of Topheth, which is in the Valley of the Son of Hinnom, to burn their sons and their daughters in the fire, which I did not command, nor did it come into my mind” (Jer. 17:1-3, 30-31).
Conclusion
The verdict of the Bible is clear, those who were true followers of Yahweh were swimming against the tide of the majority surrounding them. Because the Bible spends a lot of time talking about the ones who were faithful to one degree or another, many have missed the point that they were faithful amidst a culture that was going in the opposite direction.
Many outlets have touted the archaeological evidence of idol worship in Israel as somehow against the Bible’s account of Israel as worshipers of the single God Yahweh. However, this completely misses a central theme in the Bible’s account, a theme that must be ignored to maintain their view. While monotheism was a unique aspect of Israel’s worship and was what the Israelites were called to by the prophets and certain leaders, the picture painted by the Bible is far from the people of Israel having a unified and consistent focus on the worship of Yahweh.
On the contrary, the Bible does not cover up the fact that idol worship was not just taking place sporadically, or in one area, or in one period. From beginning to end (with exceptions), the history of the Israelites was marked by pervasive mixture of unfaithful worship of foreign gods. This is another unique hallmark of the Bible’s authenticity. No other ancient historical source painted such an unflattering picture of its protagonists.
With this issue, it can be seen that the problem is not with the Bible, but with the misrepresentation of it by some scholars and media outlets. Far from being evidence of the unreliability of the Bible, evidence of idol worship in Israel should be seen as one of the strongest evidences for the Bible’s accuracy. Something else that is interesting is that while some Israelites may have believed that Asherah was God’s wife, the Bible has a different view of who God’s wife really was and is. The Bible uses the imagery of God’s wife, not for Asherah, but instead for God’s people. Keep Thinking!
TOP PHOTO: The Golden Calf. (credit: James Jacques Joseph Tissot (French 1836-1902), Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons)
