Please stop using “we found archaeological evidence of Asherah being worshiped as the consort of the God of Israel” as a gotcha.
It’s like a major part of the plot of the OT.
@LacanianC
@forsman_josh
The OT extensively discusses the fact that Israelites habitually syncretized with Canaanite religions. There are a ton of references to Asherah in particular, who the Israelites used to worship as the consort of the Lord, particularly when they intermarried with the Canaanites.
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@suzania
The problem with modern scholarship is that it’s working from the premise that Jesus didn’t resurrect. It would sure be weird if Judaism was just a Canaanite sect AND Jesus resurrected from that heretical sect
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@MrOctaviusRex
the guy who I was talking with is EO - I assume he does believe that Jesus is God and did really rise from the dead. He just believes also that the monotheistic religion of Israel developed gradually in a kind of cultural shift vague way
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@suzania
It is a legitimate gotcha, given that we don’t find archeological evidence of Yahweh being worshiped as an unmarried god before he was worshiped as the husband of Asherah. So it’s evidence against Judaism and Christianity being true.
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@rapid_rar
The only physical objects related to the monotheistic version of the religion, the one that the prophets promoted, would have been in the tabernacle and then at the site of the temple, by definition.
@evenscreech
@agostino_harry
Yes, but a major, major aspect of the religious practice that the prophets kept requiring of the Israelites after they entered the Land was that *no ritual places other than the tabernacle and later the temple were legitimate.*
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@suzania
Archaeologists: we found a carving showing the israelites worshipping Baal alongside Yahweh!
Isaiah: you are not gonna believe this
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@suzania
Almost as good as when people act like extremely obscure, weird, 6th century Jesus fan-fic is this great challenge to the scriptural narrative.
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@suzania
Archeologists: "Also, the prophets were totally down with all the paganism!"
Elijah: "Tell me about it..."
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@suzania
“Twitter Religion Experts™️ shockingly discover that Jesus likely descended from a pagan urban hooker”
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@suzania
i think the relevant question is more the state of archaeological evidence for monotheism. perhaps this can’t be demonstrated conclusively either way but naive readings of the OT would lead us to expect evidence we haven’t really found.
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@suzania
"We have found evidence that many ancient Israelites worshipped pagan gods!"
Half of the OT prophets: "Yes, we're aware."
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@suzania
I also think we don’t have archaeological evidence for its universality. There is only one line about it on one piece of an artifact.
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