Constitutional Law
Part 2: “What Were They Thinking?”
Digression: “A History of Government in 6 Revolutions: From the Paleolithic to Philadelphia”
110. Inventing God and Law: That Old-Time Religion
Title: Part D: That Old-Time Religion
Panel: A vertical shot with a ridge of mountains against the sky in the distance. In the midground are the walled city of Jerusalem as it looked in the early Iron Age after the Bronze Age Collapse, and its surrounding hills. There is a bright white temple at the highest point of the city, which apart from the white gates separating the temple and government areas from the residential, is various shades of terracotta. Gates in the walls open onto worn footpaths that zigzag and wend their way through the hills. The city’s reservoir is to the left of one of these gates. On hilltops nearing the foreground are different kinds of open-air shrines, each with one of Asherah’s stylized poles next to it. In the foreground is an early version of a stone “horned” altar, beside which is another Asherah tree with a snake figure draped over it. Inset into this part of the scene are three examples of Asherah figurines from the time period. One Asherah is a bas-relief figure of a smiling nude woman standing on a turquoise ram, holding turquoise deer in her hands, and flanked by turquoise serpents. Another Asherah is a rudimentary clay figure of a smiling woman with curly hair, supporting her bare breasts in her hands. The third Asherah is a golden figurine of a smiling long-haired slender woman with three beams, perhaps of light, radiating from her head.
NARRATION:
The land to Isra-El’s south had never been quite as politically organized. Jerusalem was only a minor hilltop town. Such tiny kingdoms as did exist were down in valley towns like Beersheba. But during the 8th century BC, the kings of Jerusalem began to consolidate that region into the kingdom of Yehudah (Judah), its government centered, of course, on Jerusalem’s temple.
NARRATION (text bubble has an arrow pointing to the temple):
Its holiest chamber housed idols of Yahweh and Asherah…
NARRATION:
…but also the sun god’s chariot and horses! Plus idols of Ba’al and other gods of the “heavenly host.”
The temple also housed male (!) cult prostitutes, as well as women who wove garments for the statue of Asherah.
The altar for sacrifices to Yahweh was only one of several altars in the temple complex.
Shrines adorned “high places” wherever you looked—hilltops, temples, atop city gates and palace rooftops, etc.—many staffed by priests appointed by local towns.
Not only to Yahweh.
There were shrines to Ba’al, the sun, the moon, each of the constellations, and to patron gods protecting farmers, fishermen, shepherds, travelers, homes, builders, lovers—more than seventy deities in a hierarchy of four ranks.
And Asherah was everywhere. You’d find her figurine or her stylized tree next to every altar.
This does not look topographically like Jerusalem. The Temple Mount, is, after all, a peak. Of a rather narrow and steep hill.
I’ve never been there, so I just relied on whatever references I could find for what it looked like back in the old iron age. I guess they weren’t that reliable! ;)
The city itself looks about right, just the way it is relative to the hills surrounding it looks wrong.
You can find a topographical map of Jerusalem at [link] or [link].
Awesome, thanks! Both of those helped me visualize it much better.
Edit—I’ve fiddled with the picture a little. Don’t know if I’ve improved it, but I have definitely fiddled with it.
Are the icons of Asherah based on real life artifacts, or your imagination? Is Asherah the origin of the name Sarah?
They’re all based on real artifacts. There are lots of them!
As for the name, there are several recent articles and books making the case that the biblical Sarah, Abraham’s wife, is indeed Asherah—rewritten to suit the new monotheism! The stories of Sarai/Sarah and Abram/Abraham may well be bowdlerized stories of Asherah and Yahweh, confusingly slapped together by multiple inconsistent authors, with a bit of Mesopotamian influence thrown in. Who knew? The evidence these scholars present seems compelling to me, but my opinion is kinda worthless, as I’ll never have the necessary linguistic background to even begin to critique them intelligently.
Can you cite evidence for the idea that there were multiple altars and idols in the Jerusalem temple? Honest question, I’m just wondering how we know.
The glib answer would be to say that in the Bible the second book of Kings, chapter 23, describes them in some detail. But of course it’s rarely a good idea to take anything in the Old Testament at face value, especially not as a historical resource. Researching it objectively can be challenging, though, as so much scholarly work does take it at face value, and even ostensible objective analyses often boil down to little more than restating what’s described in 2 Kings 23. However, there has been archaeological work that does seem to confirm that this stuff actually happened, and other textual analyses and historical studies of religion and culture in that part of the world that give it credence. You might start with Scripture and Other Artifacts: Essays on the Bible and Archaeology in Honor of Philip J. King,, specifically Dever’s chapter “The Silence of the Text: An Archaeological Commentary on 2 Kings 23,” which came out in 1994 and should give you a good base for looking up subsequent research.
Thanks, that was very helpful.
My pleasure!