Talk:Asherah

This is the talk page for discussing improvements to the Asherah article.
This is not a forum for general discussion of the subject of the article.

Add new text under old text.
New to Wikipedia? Welcome! Learn to edit; get help.

Start a new topic

Article policies

Find sources: Google (books · news · scholar · free images · WP refs) · FENS · JSTOR · TWL

Archives: 1: 2 years

Ancient Near East Mid‑importance

	This article is within the scope of WikiProject Ancient Near East, a collaborative effort to improve the coverage of ancient Near East–related articles on Wikipedia. If you would like to participate, please visit the project page, where you can join the discussion and see a list of open tasks.Ancient Near EastWikipedia:WikiProject Ancient Near EastTemplate:WikiProject Ancient Near EastAncient Near East
Mid	This article has been rated as Mid-importance on the project's importance scale.

Assyria Mid‑importance

	This article is within the scope of the WikiProject Assyria, which aims to improve Wikipedia's coverage of Assyrian-related topics. If you would like to participate, please visit the project page.AssyriaWikipedia:WikiProject AssyriaTemplate:WikiProject AssyriaAssyrian
Mid	This article has been rated as Mid-importance on the project's importance scale.

Bible Mid‑importance

	Bible portal This article is within the scope of WikiProject Bible, a collaborative effort to improve the coverage of the Bible on Wikipedia. If you would like to participate, please visit the project page, where you can join the discussion and see a list of open tasks.BibleWikipedia:WikiProject BibleTemplate:WikiProject BibleBible
Mid	This article has been rated as Mid-importance on the project's importance scale.

Religion Top‑importance

	Religion portal This article is within the scope of WikiProject Religion, a project to improve Wikipedia's articles on Religion-related subjects. Please participate by editing the article, and help us assess and improve articles to good and 1.0 standards, or visit the wikiproject page for more details.ReligionWikipedia:WikiProject ReligionTemplate:WikiProject ReligionReligion
Top	This article has been rated as Top-importance on the project's importance scale.

Women's History Mid‑importance

	History portal This article is within the scope of WikiProject Women's History, a collaborative effort to improve the coverage of Women's history and related articles on Wikipedia. If you would like to participate, please visit the project page, where you can join the discussion and see a list of open tasks.Women's HistoryWikipedia:WikiProject Women's HistoryTemplate:WikiProject Women's HistoryWomen's History
Mid	This article has been rated as Mid-importance on the project's importance scale.

Mythology Mid‑importance

	Mythology portal This article is supported by WikiProject Mythology. This project provides a central approach to Mythology-related subjects on Wikipedia. Please participate by editing the article, and help us assess and improve articles to good and 1.0 standards, or visit the WikiProject page for more details.MythologyWikipedia:WikiProject MythologyTemplate:WikiProject MythologyMythology
Mid	This article has been rated as Mid-importance on the project's importance scale.

Phoenicia Top‑importance

	Phoenicia portal This article is within the scope of the WikiProject Phoenicia, a collaborative effort to improve Wikipedia's coverage of Phoenicia. If you would like to participate, you can visit the project page, where you can join the project and see a list of open tasks.PhoeniciaWikipedia:WikiProject PhoeniciaTemplate:WikiProject PhoeniciaPhoenicia
Top	This article has been rated as Top-importance on the project's importance scale.

Women in Religion High‑importance

	This article is within the scope of the Women in Religion WikiProject, a collaborative effort to improve Wikipedia's coverage of women in religion. If you would like to participate, you can visit the project page, where you can join the project and see a list of open tasks.Women in ReligionWikipedia:WikiProject Women in ReligionTemplate:WikiProject Women in ReligionWomen in Religion
High	This article has been rated as High-importance on the project's importance scale.

Judaism Mid‑importance

	Judaism portal This article is within the scope of WikiProject Judaism, a collaborative effort to improve the coverage of Judaism-related articles on Wikipedia. If you would like to participate, please visit the project page, where you can join the discussion and see a list of open tasks.JudaismWikipedia:WikiProject JudaismTemplate:WikiProject JudaismJudaism
Mid	This article has been rated as Mid-importance on the project's importance scale.

Original research

No "original research" at all. The Hebrew language is clear in its meaning, if you don’t like what it says it’s not my fault. We don't care about what you say, we care about WP:V: not printed anywhere, so it is you who drew such conclusion, textbook case of WP:OR.

Besides, "sacred prostitution" nowhere and "never took place". Source: Coogan, Michael (October 2010). God and Sex: What the Bible Really Says (1st ed.). New York, Boston: Twelve. Hachette Book Group. p. 133. ISBN 978-0-446-54525-9. OCLC 505927356. Retrieved May 5, 2011. Meaning: it was always just a rumor, and always spread by foreigners.

Page at Google Books: [1]. tgeorgescu (talk) 03:33, 11 January 2023 (UTC)[reply]

The names and traditions of prominent Canaanite deities are consistently misrepresented in Hebrew scripture to denigrate the traditional rivals to Yahweh. This is a common phenomenon. Another example is Baalzebul, which means something like "Lord of the high place", but which in Hebrew scripture is bastardized into 'Beelzebub' or "Lord of the Flies". Iskandar323 (talk) 06:43, 11 January 2023 (UTC)[reply]

Coogan does not deny that there were prostitutes seeking clients around temples, he denies that the prostitutes were working for the temples. tgeorgescu (talk) 10:07, 23 February 2023 (UTC)[reply]

Levenson, Jon D. (2014). Berlin, Adele; Brettler, Marc Zvi (eds.). The Jewish Study Bible: Second Edition. Oxford University Press. p. 72. ISBN 978-0-19-939387-9. Retrieved 29 July 2024. many scholars doubt that cultic prostitution as it is usually understood existed in ancient Israel. tgeorgescu (talk) 09:50, 29 July 2024 (UTC)[reply]

problems early in the article

1) The last sentence of the lead says that whether Asherah and Yahweh were consorts is disputed, but the infobox lists it as a fact.

2) I am not sure the dispute is being presented terribly well here; there is a big difference between "some people in ancient Israel and/or Judah saw them as consorts" and "this was the mainstream/orthodox position in Israel/Judah before X reform".

3) The first paragraph after the lead, under "Name", is almost incomprehensible. Vultur~enwiki (talk) 19:15, 17 July 2024 (UTC)[reply]

What happened here?

Can we get an admin in here to look after the deletion of most of this page? This is vandalism by religious agenda. Temerarius (talk) 15:09, 31 July 2024 (UTC)[reply]

@Temerarius You can take this to WP:AN.CycoMa2 (talk) 15:13, 31 July 2024 (UTC)[reply]

Or I can tag a few contributors.CycoMa2 (talk) 15:14, 31 July 2024 (UTC)[reply]

@Temerarius and CycoMa2: Sinclairian is a trusted editor, they may make occasional mistakes, but they are not a vandal. tgeorgescu (talk) 15:15, 31 July 2024 (UTC)[reply]

Can you go more in depth with the issues you have with this article?

Just asking to make everyone who contributes here understands your concerns better.CycoMa2 (talk) 15:17, 31 July 2024 (UTC)[reply]

Palestine?

why does this introduction say "Palestine" now instead of Canaan or Ancient Israel and Judah? it was not called "Palestine" at the time of Asherah Machinelemonade (talk) 00:15, 18 January 2025 (UTC)[reply]

I restored the earlier reference to the ancient kingdom of Israel, which makes sense in context with Judah, and not the rogue edit that replaced it with "Palestine" Machinelemonade (talk) 00:29, 18 January 2025 (UTC)[reply]

I had to edit it too, as it seems from Jan 18 to today, it got swapped back to the non historic "ancient Palestine." ~2025-40882-04 (talk) 16:10, 15 December 2025 (UTC)[reply]

Thank you. How annoying. Machinelemonade (talk) 16:14, 15 December 2025 (UTC)[reply]

Changing book titles is vandalism.

See Timeline of the name Palestine: it is its Ancient name. It is the name mainstream Bible scholars use. tgeorgescu (talk) 05:35, 16 December 2025 (UTC)[reply]

It's not a book title and no, it's not. It's a name given to the region by the Greeks and Romans. This part of history precedes that. Machinelemonade (talk) 05:49, 16 December 2025 (UTC)[reply]

None of the sources for that section mention "ancient Palestine." They mention Canaan and Israel and Jordan. I am again removing your revision. Machinelemonade (talk) 05:55, 16 December 2025 (UTC)[reply]

Judah, I mean. Not Jordan. Machinelemonade (talk) 05:55, 16 December 2025 (UTC)[reply]

I don't recall changing book titles, but if I did, my mistake. ~2025-40882-04 (talk) 11:11, 16 December 2025 (UTC)[reply]

Also "Palestine" is related to the Greeks, the Philistines who came from Crete. Canaan would be more historically accurate. That region was not called Palestine until the Romans. ~2025-40882-04 (talk) 11:15, 16 December 2025 (UTC)[reply]

Wrong. Palestine was used by Herodotus and other Greek writers since the 5th century BCE. The Romans had nothing to do with the name. See Timeline of the name Palestine. Dimadick (talk) 23:01, 16 December 2025 (UTC)[reply]

Then you need to see Bar Kokhba revolt Machinelemonade (talk) 23:04, 16 December 2025 (UTC)[reply]

As well as Syria Palaestina Machinelemonade (talk) 23:07, 16 December 2025 (UTC)[reply]

I have seen them, and worked on categories for them. How are they relevant when the term Palestine was used for 7 centuries before either of them? Dimadick (talk) 16:45, 18 December 2025 (UTC)[reply]

That is irrelevant. This talk point that has nothing to do with general discussions and debate of the term "Palestine." Discontinue.

I corrected the erroneous change within the context of the section. It was done according to the sources cited within the article itself. One should not be using other Wikipedia articles as sources to make further changes. They are not primary sources. Thanks. Machinelemonade (talk) 17:04, 18 December 2025 (UTC)[reply]

The names Judah, Israel and Canaan predate that as well. And the name has only been used to refer to Philistine territory (Gaza and Ashkelon)Israel and Judah were referred to by those names, see Roman Judaea and Hasmonean Kingdom of Judah. Mwen Sé Kéyòl Translator-a (talk) 17:40, 18 December 2025 (UTC)[reply]

Potential religious apologetics

I'm highly concerned about this string of edits, so I'll leave this here for other editors to look into. It was my understanding from layman research on certain scholars that the majority consensus is that YHWH inherited El's consort at one point and archeology shows him having another consort (Anat-YHWH) later on in Elephantine, with the controversy on cultic symbols primarily pertaining to some mentionings in the Tanakh.

I've directly noticed that many articles pertaining to Judeo-Christian subjects tend to have problems with WP:NPOV for obvious reasons. These edits are mostly unexplained in the edit summary and come across as suspicious. Dark knight 2149 20:32, 7 July 2025 (UTC)[reply]

@Darkknight2149, I agree. I think some of the edits need to be examined and the sources as well. Scholarly consensus does appear to be that Asherah was worshipped as a consort goddess in popular religion. The idea that the texts don't really mean that and, instead, mean something else like a "shrine" or "cultic place" seems to be the apologetics of certain Christian circles.SeminarianJohn (talk) 03:29, 31 December 2025 (UTC)[reply]

They appear to be prime subjects for reversions. ~2026-18304 (talk) 21:11, 1 January 2026 (UTC)[reply]

Possible AI use

Concerns were raised previously via tag about AI-generated content in this article, which is prohibited per WP:NEWLLM. This is a procedural talk page section to discuss it. There is no need to ping me in response. Read WP:AISIGNS for more information for why this is tagged; however, note that fixing the issue requires more than just changing the superficial signs.

The text in question is Special:Diff/1267110756 Gnomingstuff (talk) 08:01, 22 June 2026 (UTC)[reply]