Women of the Bible

Did the God of the Bible originally have a wife? Or was he simply sharing the temple in Jerusalem with a goddess? These assumptions – traces of the influence of other religions on early Judaism – have long been discussed only among archaeologists. But in recent years, feminist and queer exegetes have appropriated the reflection on women in the Bible.

Ashera

“I bless you through Yahweh and his Ashera. This brief inscription is found on two steles (engraved stones) dating from ancient Judea, before the exile in Babylon. For about thirty years, these archaeological proofs of a “spouse” of the Jewish God have caused much ink to flow.

They are coupled with mentions of Ashera, a goddess who appeared in the Middle East more than 3000 years ago, in the Old Testament. “In the Book of Kings, we read that King Josiah commanded that all objects intended for the worship of Ashera be removed from the temple,” explains Susan Ackerman, theologian at Dartmouth College in New Hampshire. She just published the book Women and the Religion of Ancient Israel.

“We see that until then, there was a cult dedicated by women to Ashera, a goddess of motherhood. It has even been suggested that Eve in Genesis is an image of Ashera. Male Bible writers regularly attempt to discredit Ashera. »

The stelae bearing the two names of Yahweh and Ashera were found half a century ago, but Ashera’s importance was not exposed to the general public until the beginning of the millennium, with books in English. , according to Sébastien Doane, a “feminist” theologian from Laval University. “Since then, we have discussed the impact of these discoveries on the interpretation of the Bible,” he says. One wonders why the various books of the Bible say this or that about Ashera, what it really means given the widespread worship of this goddess. »

A recent book published by Israeli historian Dvora Lederman-Daniely, Sarai: Is She the Goddess of Ancient Israel?, even advances a not obvious explanation: the biblical mentions of Jerusalem as “wife” of Yahweh mean, in fact, that Ashera (who had several other names, including Sarai) was the patroness of Jerusalem. “It was a common practice in the ancient Near East,” says Ms.^me Lederman-Daniely.

exile in Babylon

The tension in the Bible over Ashera is an example of the emergence of “henotheism” (predominant worship of one god, not denying the existence of other deities), according to Isabelle Lemelin, theologian at the University of Quebec in Montreal (UQAM). “We go from a pantheon of gods having more or less the same powers to a system where one god is clearly above the others, says Ms.^me Lemelin. We can even think that the Jews had this idea during their slavery in Egypt because of the pharaoh Akhenaten, who established a type of henotheism in Egypt [au XIV^e siècle avant Jésus-Christ]. When one has the exile in Babylon, the Jews are in contact with Marduk, the dominant god in Babylon. »

The Ashera-Yahvé couple is typical of a tradition of couples of deities in the region, according to M^me Lemelin. “The fight against Ashera had begun before the exile in Babylon, but after the return from Babylon, a monotheistic conception modeled on Marduk really imposed itself. »

The Virgin

Worship at Ashera nevertheless continued until the time of Christ, according to Ms.^me Ackermann. “The Virgin Mary is after all the mother of Christ, the bride of God. The life of Jesus, as told by the four testaments, also attests to his attitude closer to women than the religious elite, believes Mr. Doane. “He agrees to share the women’s table, it’s scandalous for the priests,” he said. What does M think^me Ackerman of this interpretation of a less misogynistic Christianity? “The disciples of Jesus are still all men,” she nuances.

Jesus’ breasts

A “queer” exegesis even notes feminine attributes to Jesus. “In the Revelation according to Saint John, Jesus is described in a robe with a gold belt that hugs his breasts,” says Mr. Doane, who published an essay on the subject on the Interbible site. We use the Greek word mastoi, used for women’s breasts. Some have said that’s just a mistake, but I don’t think so. »

In his essay, Mr. Doane notes that the mystic of the twelfth^e century Bernard of Clairvaux “affirms that Christians need to suck the breasts of Jesus and that leaders must suckle others with their own spiritual breasts”.

Berenice

If women were excluded from official religious life after the exile in Babylon, they nevertheless continued to play a political role. At least, until the destruction of the second temple of Jerusalem, after the revolt against the Roman occupation in the I^er century after Christ.

This is the case of Berenice, sister of King Agrippa II of Judea. “Her role shows that women have been influential, despite their exclusion from religious life,” says Tal Ilan, a historian of ancient Palestine at the Free University of Berlin, who has just published a biography of Berenice. “She was a widow and was the lover of Titus, before he became emperor. She was well acquainted with Saint Paul and Flavius ​​Josephus, the Romanized Jewish historian who is the main source of information on the Jewish revolt and the destruction of Jerusalem. She was considered the real power of the reign of Agrippa II. » Important detail, Flavius ​​Josephus is often considered as one of the sources of the Gospel according to Saint Luke.