Who was Asherah? -The Wife of Yahweh, the God of Israel

Did you know Yahweh, the god of Israel have a Wife?
Asherah is the goddess wife, attested to Yahweh in the Hebrew Bible.

In ancient Israelite religion, the goddess Asherah was widely worshipped and venerated as the wife and consort of Yahweh, the god of the Israelite, before the strict transition to monotheism.
While traditional Judeo-Christian theology portrays Yahweh as a solitary, genderless deity, archaeological discoveries and biblical analysis reveal that early Israelite religious practices were polytheistic or monolatrous, heavily sharing traits with the surrounding Canaanite-Palestinian-Levant culture.

Who is Asherah?
Asherah was an ancient Canaanite (ancient Israel) mother goddess whom archaeological discoveries and historical studies suggest was viewed as the consort or wife of Yahweh by early ancient Israelites during the Iron Age, before strict monotheism worship of Yahweh took root.

Archaeological Evidence Inscriptions:
8th-century BCE inscriptions found at Kuntillet Ajrud in the Sinai Peninsula desert and Khirbet el-Qom explicitly bless people in the name of "Yahweh and his Asherah" (Yahweh and his wife).
Ancient Israelite-Judean Pillar Figurines:
Thousands of clay female statues and figurines with prominent breasts have been excavated in households throughout ancient Israel-Judah.
Archaeologists believe these figurines represent the goddess Asherah (the wife of Yahweh)-the household goddess of fertility and protection.
Artifacts:
Storage jars and pillar figurines from the period link Yahweh with symbols of the goddess Asherah, such as sacred trees or poles.
Canaanite (Israelite) Roots: Before early Israelite religion transitioned, Asherah was widely known in Ugaritic texts as the consort (wife) of El, a supreme creator god with whom Yahweh eventually merged.
El was the supreme supreme pantheon god-deity in ancient Israel. Yahweh was subservient (below) El, in terms of the council of gods in ancient Bronze Age religion in ancient Israel.

Biblical Perspective and Suppression Condemnation:
The Hebrew Bible repeatedly condemns the worship of Asherah and her fertility rituals and commands the destruction of her sacred wooden statues and poles (asherim).
Religious Reform: Biblical writers and editors of the Hebrew bible framed the veneration and worship of Asherah alongside Yahweh as illicit idolatry.
Shift to Monotheism:
As the religious reforms of later prophets and kings (like Josiah) and the Babylonian exile centralized the Israelite religion and worship around a singular Yahweh-strict monotheism, and references to the goddess Ashera (or any goddess), were systematically marginalized, reinterpreted and erased.

Asherah was an ancient mother goddess in ancient Israelite and Canaanite religion, known as the Queen of Heavens and consort to the supreme god El and Yahweh (and later Baal).
In the Hebrew Bible, she is also tied to sacred wooden poles (asherim) used in regional religious worship, which later Israelite prophets and kings condemned.
Who Was Asherah?
Mother Goddess: Worshipped across Syria, Canaan, and Palestine (ancient Israel) as the wife of the creator and mother of seventy deities.

Title: Queen of the Heavens
Titles: Often called "Lady Asherah of the Sea" or Elat (the feminine form of El)-IsraEl-Elohim-Eli-DaniEl-Elisha-Elijah-Elizabeth-RachEl-MichaEl, etc.
El literally means God in ancient Israel Hebrew.
El-the root word for the Muslim God Allah (Ellah-Allah-Ellat-Allat(fem.)

Historical Links: Archaeological discoveries, like inscriptions at Kuntillet Ajrud, suggest ancient Israelites paired Yahweh with "his Asherah" (his wife) during the early periods of ancient Israelite religion, before strict monotheism took root.

Religious Conflict: Israelite Prophets and faithful kings commanded the destruction of Asherah statues and poles to purge fertility rites and enforce the monotheistic worship of Yahweh alone.