Some evidence
suggests that the fertility blessings reflected in Genesis derive from
Canaanite fertility traditions. Significant among this evidence is the description
of the Canaanite fertility goddess. Asherah was depicted with prominent breasts,
and the Ugaritic record contains references to "the divine breasts, the
breasts of Asherah and Raḥam, a phrase noticeably similar to the biblical ‘blessings
of breasts and womb (רָחַם)’” (Gen 49:25). (Biale, “El Shaddai in the
Bible,” 253-54) Accordingly, Biale concludes: “Hence there is abundant evidence
of the fertility tradition of El Shaddai may have originated with the Israelite
interest in the figure of Asherah, the fertility goddess represented by
breasts.” (Ibid., 254)
In
accordance with this discussion, Biale observes that the blessing which Jacob
recounts before Ephraim and Manasseh (Gen 48:3-5) and Joseph’s blessing within
the Testament of Jacob (49:22-26) prompt the speculation that they represent traditions
reflecting a bias for the northern tribes. A northern tradition attached to fertility
imagery is further reflected in the fertility images of the Ephraimite prophet
Hosea (Hos 9:14). (Ibid., 250, 253) (Thomas J. King, The Realignment of the
Priestly Literature: The Priestly Narrative in Genesis and its Relation to
Priestly Legislation and the Holiness School [Princeton Theological
Monograph Series; Eugene, Oreg.: Pickwick Publications, 2009], 114)
