It Pays to Know Some Mythology

July 19, 2019

It Pays to Know Some Mythology

Filed under: Religion — Steve Ruis @ 9:07 am
Tags: Asherah, the Garden of Eden, Yahweh

Many of the aspects of the Garden of Eden myth are puzzling. After reading this, I find them less so.

Yahweh’s Divorce from the Goddess Asherah in the Garden of Eden

Comments (9)

9 Comments »

Great find. Interesting stuff.

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Comment by john zande — July 19, 2019 @ 1:43 pm | Reply
I didn’t read it all (mostly skimmed), but the thought occurred to me … I wonder how many “Christians” truly know the background related to the beginning of their “religion.” And when I say “beginning,” I mean all the way back to Genesis … which they like to pinpoint as “proof” of this, that, and the other thing in their various and sundry discussions.

Interesting points in the article: The Yahwist and the other biblical writers could not accept the presence of this goddess as a deity in Israel, much less as the wife of Yahweh. And … by the end of the story Yahweh is supreme and in control of all divine powers and functions formerly in the hands of the Goddess, and Canaanite religion in general has been discredited.

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Comment by Nan — July 19, 2019 @ 3:02 pm | Reply
- Church history (or some semblance of it) is taught in seminaries but to my knowledge, never from pulpits. Church mythology … nada. Jewish scholars have formed somewhat of a consensus that the Pentateuch is indeed fictional, written to provide a back story for the people. Since the Yahwists were, like their neighbors, Canaanites, they had to make religious war upon their neighbors to dominate the religious scene. Whether any of this involved actual warfare is debatable. El was a Canaanite god, Asherah was his wife, Ba’al and Yahweh were their children (amongst a horde of others). In order for Yahweh to be the pre-eminent god, the others had to go, so El got folded into Yahweh, making Asherah Yahweh’s wife briefly, and then Asherah had to go. It is a fascinating story and really doesn’t undermine Christianity at all … except in the sense that “What, you’ve know about this all along and you chose to lie to us about this? What else are you lying about?”
  
  On Fri, Jul 19, 2019 at 3:02 PM Class Warfare Blog wrote:
  
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  Comment by Steve Ruis — July 20, 2019 @ 10:16 am | Reply
  - I think you summed it up well with this remark: It is a fascinating story. The only improvement might be the substitution of “myth” for “story.”
    
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    Comment by Nan — July 20, 2019 @ 11:57 am | Reply
    - Yeah, but myths have some truth in them! :o)
      
      On Sat, Jul 20, 2019 at 11:57 AM Class Warfare Blog wrote:
      
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      Comment by Steve Ruis — July 20, 2019 @ 12:05 pm | Reply
Has a ring of truth to it very interesting Steve. Thanks

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Comment by jim- — July 19, 2019 @ 3:14 pm | Reply
Funny how just about every xtian you’ll ever meet and even many Jewish folks, don’t seem to remember that the roving goat herders, the Hebrews, were polytheists for a long time.

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Comment by Walter Kronkat — July 19, 2019 @ 5:02 pm | Reply
Thanks for putting up that link. It was a fascinating short article. We all tend to forget that humans have been around for a very long time, and that whether we want to admit it or not, our ancient ancestors have had a huge influence on the development of our culture and our beliefs. Religions have always co-opted (i.e. stolen) bits and pieces of stories from other cultures, and from their own ancestors, and adapted them to try to support their beliefs. Modern religions are certainly no exception. It’s nice to see what the original sources were for some of the stories in the bible and how they got adapted.

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Comment by grouchyfarmer — July 20, 2019 @ 7:08 am | Reply
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