Sárospataki Füzetek 17. (2013)
2013 / 1-2. szám - TANULMÁNYOK - Doedens, Jacob J. T.:Ókori izraelita politeista feliratok: Aséra mint JHVH felesége?
Dqedens, Jacob J. X An interpretation of I'srth as referring to the goddess Asherah or her cultic representation might be illustrated from 2 Kgs 10:18—28, where it is related how Jehu killed Baal worshippers en masse, but at the same time it is recounted in 2 Kgs 13:6 that during the reign of Jehoahaz, Jehu’s successor, “the Asherah remained standing in Samariah.” The inscriptions from ‘Ajrud, dating from the same period, might refer to this situation; the expression ‘(his?) Asherah’ referring to the statue standing in Samaria.72 It is also possible that the inscription reflects the situation during the reign of Manasseh, who according to 2 Kgs 21:7 placed a statue of Asherah in the Jerusalem temple.73 3.4 The Interpretation o/Tsrth as Referring to a Cult Symbol If it is possible to read the final h of I'srth as a possessive suffix, the word may also refer to a cult object, the more so because the use of a proper name with a possessive suffix is less usual.74 The word PHtűN! occurs in this manner in the Old Testament.75 It is disputed whether such a cult object76 was a living tree77 or only an object made from wood, but possibly both options existed together. 3.5 The Interpretation of the Drawings at Runtillet Ajrud According to Dijkstra, there is no connection between the drawings and the inscriptions at Ajrud.78 Others suggest that the drawings depict Asherah79 and per'2 So David Noel Freedman, “Yahweh of Samaria and His Asherah,” BA 50 no. 4 (1987): 248; Freedman refers to Amos 8:14, “those who swear •pipio nptOlsa, by the guiltiness of Samaria”, where the wording may be intended as a double entendre, a wordplay on pnpiO rntOK, ‘the Asherah of Samaria’. “Such puns and parodies on divine names, especially of repudiated gods, are known in the Bible”. 73 This connection with the Ajrud inscriptions is suggested by Jacob Milgrom, “The Nature and Extent of Idolatry in Eighth-Seventh Century Judah,” HUCA 69 (1998): 12. 74 Cf. J. A. Emerton, ‘“Yahweh and His Asherah’: The Goddess or Her Symbol?” VT49 no. 3 (1999): 319-335. 75 Cf. Deut 7:5; 12:3; 16:21; Judg 6:26; 1 Kgs 14:15.23; 2 Kgs 23:6.15; 2 Chron 17:6; 33:19; 34:3- 4.7; Isa 17:8; 27:9; Jer 17:2. 76 Cf. Day, Yahweh and the Gods and Goddesses of Canaan, 50—59. See also Keel and Uehlinger, Gods, Goddesses, 228-233. 7 This remained the view of rabbinical literature, see e.g. the Talmud Yerushalmi, Abod. Zar., 3:11-16. Cf. Gerd A. Wewers, Avoda Zara: Götzendienst (Übersetzung des Talmud Yerushalmi, Bd IV/7; Tübingen: J. C. B. Mohr (Paul Siebeck), 1980), 120-126. 8 Cf. Dijkstra, “I Have Blessed You By Yhwh of Samaria,” 30. 79 Disputed is whether the smaller Bes-like figure or the lyre player depicts Asherah. Margalit, “The Meaning and Significance of Asherah,” 274—275, refers to an article of M. Gilula in Hebrew, which states that the Bes-like figures cannot be interpreted as representing Bes because the figures are drawn as bovine, whereas Bes is always depicted as leonine. Therefore Margalit suggests that the inscription yhwh smrn w’srth describes the two depicted figures. Cf. also P. Kyle McCarter, “Kuntillet Ajrud: Inscribed Pithos I,” Context Of Scripture (William W. Hallo, ed.) 2.47AT71, who reasons that the depicted figure has the head of a bull, something which argues “decisively in favor of interpreting him as the ‘Yahweh of Samaria’ invoked in the adjacent inscription (cf. ‘the young bull of Samaria’ in Hos 8:6)”. According 52 SÁROSPATAKI FÜZFTF.K 2013/1-2
