The
story with Asherah is quite different. She is part of the biblical story of
idolatry, but her name also becomes part of the story of the monotheistic god.
Asherah’s husband was the god El, and two are known from both extrabiblical and
biblical texts. Mostly in the Bible, El is identified as a name for YHWH, for
example, El Shadday, translated “God Almighty,” in Exodus 6:2-3. The evidence
for Asherah as a goddess in early Israel is cryptic, but Asherah seems to be
known in early Israel, as seen in the title “Breasts and Womb” in Gen 49:25-26.
(Mark S. Smith, “The Sexuality of God in the Hebrew Bible,” in Biblical
Essays in Honor of Daniel J. Harrington, SJ, and Richard J. Clifford, SJ:
Opportunity For No Little Instruction, ed. Christopher G. Frechette, Christopher
R. Matthews, and Thomas D. Stegman [New York: Paulist Press, 2014], 8)
