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January 14, 2007
Is it "His Asherat" or Simply "Asheratah"?
The letters ’šrth occur five or six times in Hebrew epigraphic texts. This post is about the final he. If you don't give a he about the final he, don't read this post.
One can see this string of letters twice (or perhaps thrice) in Khirbet El-Qôm inscription number 3, once in the Kuntillet 'Ajurd pithos A inscriptions and twice in the pithos B inscriptions. The letters ’šrth are generally thought to mean "his Asherat" with "his" referring to Yahweh. Depending on whom you prefer, Asherat can refer to the goddess Asherah, some cult object, a geographic name for a cult location or even Yahweh's consort and that doesn't exhaust the list. But Ziony Zevit would have us understand these letters simply as Asheratah, an ancient form of the device name Asherah. See Zevit, 363-366 and 400-405.
Zevit's, 360, understanding of El-Qôm 3 makes it grammatically suspect if not completely impossible to read ’šrth as "his Asherat." He (363) takes the he to be a mater lectionis for /ā/. When he turns to the 'Ajurd inscriptions, (400-405) he argues, from a number of perspectives, against reading ’šrth as "his Asherat". At the end, Zevit, 403, looks to his understanding of El-Qôm 3 to inform the 'Ajurd instances. So how does he deal with ’šrt in the 'Ajurd bench room wall inscription and on two jars from Ekron?
These may have been characteristic of a conservative, western Judahite dialect area extending southward from the Shephelah region. The form attested in this [the El-Qôm inscription] . . . reflects the slightly later secondary feminization analyzed above. (366)
The whole discussion is quite technical and deserves a lot more effort than I have given it here. The secondary literature is immense and growing. These inscriptions are of great interest from several points of view and I may return to them some time.
What diverted me to this? Well, I'm trying to prepare for the upcoming Convocation on Job that I mentioned the other day. I'm supposed to have questions and to have questions one needs to know something. Ziony Zevit will be one of the participants so I thought it would be helpful to read some of his work. Then yesterday, Steve Cook at Biblische Ausbildung posted on the Lachish Ewer and linked to my earlier post on this jar and its inscription. Steve suggests that Elat in the Lachish Ewer inscription "may well be Asherah." So those two things intersected in this post. Also in preparation for the Job affair, I am reading Jack Wilcox' The Bitterness of Job: A Philosophical Reading. Perhaps I'll have something to say on it also. Wilcox will also be a participant at the Convocation on Job.
References:
Zevit, Ziony, The Religions of Ancient Israel, A Synthesis of Parallactic Approaches, London: Continuum, 2001
Posted by Duane Smith at January 14, 2007 3:19 PM | Read more on Hebrew Bible |
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Comments
Dear Duane,
please, have a look at my comment in Steve Cook's post. Maybe it is of some interest to you.
Best wishes,
Paolo Merlo
Posted by: Paolo Merlo at January 22, 2007 7:08 AM
Paolo,
Yeah, you are correct. There are several options for Elat. I do think Ashtart is a better choice than Asherah on the Lachish Ewer.
Posted by: Duane at January 22, 2007 8:27 AM
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