Nephi's Asherah Revisted

[volgadon]

It seems to me that it's more of a historical issue than a cultural/religious distinction. Despite what most people think, in truth, we really can't maintain a radical cultural separation between "Canaanites" and "Israelites" for the Iron I period (1200-1000 BC).

Which is fairly consistent with the book of Judges, where it seems that they behaved like their neighbours quite often.

[volgadon]

Indeed. Jeremiah was the Daniel Peterson of pre-exilic apologetics.

Curse you! From now on I won't be able to get Emperor Ming out of my mind when I read jeremiah!!!!!!!!!

[Zakuska]

Curse you! From now on I won't be able to get Emperor Ming out of my mind when I read jeremiah!!!!!!!!!

No wonders he's soooo mean.

[Ron Beron]

I think you're really on to an important insight. There's no question that sitting under a tree served an extremely practical purpose. Even God, as an anthropomorphic being, enjoys the cool of the shade in Eden. But in light of the great religious role that trees played as a symbol, I suspect that on occasion, they appear intentionally in a biblical text as a allusion to the revelatory process. The same is no doubt true for other religious icons.

The interesting point that I'm trying to express with this thread is that the tree serves very much like an idol/statue in traditional Near Eastern thought. It became a manifestation of God incarnate. Clearly later biblical traditions found this idea religiously offensive and the 'asherah was interpreted as a dangerous religious icon, yet in earlier forms of Israelite belief and in Nephi's vision, the tree serves as a physical incarnation of God and denotes his power to grant favor. I suspect there's also a direct link with the Nehushtan or brazen serpent.

In addition to the connection Dan offers, I believe this represents a profound Semitic link.

I am immediately reminded of Buddha sitting under the Bodhi tree obtaining a perfect understanding. In fact, the Chinese and Japanese characters for Buddhism shows a man sitting under a tree. ?

More respectful to the environment, however, is the use of the world tree in Assyria as a symbol for the many manifestations of God. David, I am sure you have read Simo Parpola who has raised the issue of a single divinity within the world tree of Assyria and its somewhat Neoplatonic view,

"The discovery of this link between Assyrian and Jewish mysticism puts Assyrian religion in an entirely

new light. Hidden under its polytheistic surface lies a pattern of thought which reduced all the gods

worshiped in the world into mere aspects and attributes of a single almighty god, Ashur, who

transcended human comprehension. Ashur was the .sum total. of all the gods; the equilibrium of divine

powers crystallized in the sacred tree was his manifest .body.. The garland and filaments surrounding

the tree symbolized the unity of its multiple divine powers. None of the manifest gods (all of them

created by, or emanated from, Ashur) were perfect or omnipotent in themselves but carried out their

specific functions and tasks as Ashur's .limbs. and .powers.. From this point of view Assyrian religion

was as monotheistic as Christianity and Judaism with their multitudes of angels and archangels, the

Trinity, and the system of the ten Sefirot. Broken into their components, the Neo-Assyrian spellings of

the name Ashur signify .the only, universal God..

The concept of Asherah along with its connections with Lady Wisdom and later connections with Sophia, Logos and ergo Jesus makes the concept a archetypal foundation of ancient thought and begs its inclusion into modern theology.

[SlackTime]

In my readings of the history of Asherah I have often seen it suggested that she was first the consort or wife of El and that later she became or was seen as the consort of YHWH, before being phased out entire by the reform. I wonder if a different way of looking at this was that She was seen originally as the Mother Goddess, wife of El, and that in YHWH was a fulness of power from El and a fulness of love from Asherah thus making of Him the Great God of Israel, the one God in whom was a fulness of perfection as evidenced by His Oneness with both His Heavenly Parents? It would then seem that in Him at first was seen a duality, evidenced by the moving of Asherah from El to YHWH, and then a Singularity in which YHWH subsumes the role of the Asherah altogether.

My apologies up front for speaking of things for which I have no qulifications other than light reading.

- SlackTime

[Ron Beron]

In my readings of the history of Asherah I have often seen it suggested that she was first the consort or wife of El and that later she became or was seen as the consort of YHWH, before being phased out entire by the reform. I wonder if a different way of looking at this was that She was seen originally as the Mother Goddess, wife of El, and that in YHWH was a fulness of power from El and a fulness of love from Asherah thus making of Him the Great God of Israel, the one God in whom was a fulness of perfection as evidenced by His Oneness with both His Heavenly Parents? It would then seem that in Him at first was seen a duality, evidenced by the moving of Asherah from El to YHWH, and then a Singularity in which YHWH subsumes the role of the Asherah altogether.

My apologies up front for speaking of things for which I have no qulifications other than light reading.

- SlackTime

I think your light reading has caught on. There is some evidence that Asherah/Hokhmah/Wisdom are considered the sibling of Jesus/YHWH;

[Smith]

Since I first noticed the link with Asherah or with the asherah back in the nineties, I've always insisted that the tree of 1 Nephi 11 points to both Mary and Jesus.

If I may throw my 1c in here.

Ever since I learnt in school about trees with their huge root system anchoring them into the ground I kind of saw their branches and leaves as doing the same with the sky thus the tree becoming an anchor point between the earth and the sky. So I see a fit for this in your thought about the tree pointing to both by Mary perhaps represented by the roots being the earthly bit and Jesus represented by the stem and the branches being the heavenly bit with mother and son combining to bring heaven and earth together. It works in my head, dont know about others.

[consiglieri]

I think you're really on to an important insight. There's no question that sitting under a tree served an extremely practical purpose. Even God, as an anthropomorphic being, enjoys the cool of the shade in Eden. But in light of the great religious role that trees played as a symbol, I suspect that on occasion, they appear intentionally in a biblical text as a allusion to the revelatory process.

Do you think Joseph Smith might have been thinking along these lines when he gave his exegesis of the parable of the mustard seed?