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Animals and Humans

Statistically, animal forms in Israel predominate those of human shape, and the majority of human forms are those of females. These female figurines have been labeled as the “Mother-goddess” or “Astarte” and since they go against the principal of aniconism (aversion to the use of icons) that the book of Deuteronomy describes, scholars have often placed the use of these figurines into the ‘popular’ religion of the common folk of Israel.

Religious Difference amongst the Israelites?

Many assumptions underline this idea. The first is that human figurines are representative of deities. The other, is that the presence of figurines in ancient houses is evidence of popular Israelite worship. This is contrasted by scholars with the official religion of Israel that claims to hate the production and use of such items as religious icons. Did such a religious divide exist in Israel?

The Bull and the Cherubim

One often cited example of unofficial versus official religion in Israel, is the worship at Dan and Bethel of the Bull that was installed by Jeroboam been Nebat, the first king of Israel. These bulls are interpreted as an image of worship, opposed to the Cherubim inside the Jerusalem temple that served as the throne of the invisible God, for the bible says God is “seated upon the cherubim”. So, from the biblical perspective, worship was different in Jerusalem than in Dan and Bethel.

Religious Ways Begin to Change

When we learn of the religious reform of Hezekiah, King of Judah - how he tore down the standing pillars and removed the Asherim from his land, we also hear how he removed an image of worship from the Jerusalem Temple. It was a bronze serpent and was called the Nehushtan which “the people of Israel burned incense to” (2 kings 18:4).

The bible clearly acknowledges that the worship of images and icons (such as the snake) existed at one time in Israel, and that a King who believed it a breach of proper worship took on the task of removing their presence.

The Call to Worship the Invisible God

The Bible tells us that the prohibition of religious images in Israel dates back to the times of Moses. However, the long use of the Nehushtan (the snake) in the Temple shows that either the Jerusalem priests ignored this religious stance against icons, or that the prohibition had not yet taken root in Judahite worship. What does seem to be sure is the growing awareness and introduction of worship of the invisible God alone, soon after the actions of King Hezekiah. Perhaps words like these drove him in his actions, “You shall not make for yourself a graven image, or any likeness of anything that is in heaven above, or that is on the earth beneath, or that is in the water under the earth” (Deut 5:8).

In conclusion, we see that the official religion in Judah did, at one time, acknowledge the use of images in their worship, and thus one does not see the necessity of classifying figurines and such like icons into the ‘popular’ religion category. It was only a process of time that brought the use of icons to an end.

The Jewish traditional law layouts three criteria for membership into the Jewish fold: birth, marriage to a male Jew, and conversion. However, these three doors into the Jewish community have not been operative simultaneously through history.

Intermarriage

The biblical period shows how marriage to a male Jew was the key for an outsider to enter into the full membership and rights of the Jewish community. Without it, the very offspring of Moses and Boaz would have been called into question.

Intermarriage that is not outlawed in the founding laws in Leviticus came under attack by Ezra and Nehemiah in the Fifth Century B.C.E. Both men had spent the best part of their active lives in the Babylonian courts and became the pioneers that caused and aided a remnant to return to the broken walls of Jerusalem. Living under very different circumstances, where their ancient land was no longer theirs, the tolerance and openness of intermarriage was no longer a luxury this struggling and mixed group of Babylonian Jewry could afford to maintain.

Intermarriage as they knew it, that of a female non-Jew joining and upholding the Israelite laws as the book of Ruth explains, thus ended in very sad circumstances. This abolishment was carried on and enforced in the rabbinic period. In 1983, the Reform movement in the United States reinstated the Jewish status of children in a marriage where any one partner was Jewish and the children were reared in Judaism.

The Ethnic Factor

One side of the argument is that by birth a person may inherit a religious way of life that as an adult they choose not to follow. The country of Israel is a good example of the mix of Jewish people from all walks of life and religious views. However, they are Jews because their forefathers were Jews, and as we read in Genesis 12:7, Abraham was the receiver of a special promise that would be forever passed on to his children. This community known by the name of Abraham’s grandson, Bnei Yisrael, is called by Ezra as the “holy seed” (9:2).

However, when reading the bible closely, we find that birth has not been a guarantee of acceptance into the Israelite community. Look at the varying treatments between the brothers Isaac and Ishmael (who shared the same father) and Jacob and Esau (same father and mother). We see that Ishmael and Esau were dropped from the history and society of the Israelites, and instead they took up position against their brothers.

The silence in the bible about why birth was not sufficient in these cases has caused much debate, and the rabbinic commentaries attempt to fill the silence with a possible faulty idolatrous character of the men. But even this reasoning shows that acting against God, can disinherit you.

The Faith Factor

This idea of removing yourself from the brotherhood, even though you were physically born into it, is a biblical idea and one that stems from the establishment of the covenant of laws as ministered by Moses. When this system was set in place, it established a connection with God that gave to each member the responsibility to respond to God by following His rules. Through disobedience to these laws, each person was putting in danger that membership.

Perhaps the clearest example of this faith factor that runs concurrently with the birth factor in the bible comes from Abraham. When he was living in Ur in Mesopotamia, the term Israelite and Jew had not yet come into conscious thought. He was a solitary man who heard and responded to the voice of God. His faith in and obedience towards God was tested even to the point where his precious son was laid-out to die by his hand. His faith was the door that allowed him into the new community built upon him. One can say he paved the way for those who, not by birth, but through faith can always have a glorious way to enter into the Jewish community.

The Difference between King David and his great-grandmother Ruth
It is true to say the two subjects, women and religion, do not hold a central role in the religious history of the Israelites. Israel was a patrilineal society were men made the rules and wrote the history of their nation. In this history and especially in the Psalms, we have a great deal of insight into the character of King David; his inner-struggles, feeling of failure, his heights of joy and his ultimate faith in God. However, we do not have the same revelation into the character of King David’s great grandmother for example, the young Moabite women Ruth who forsook all she knew and adopted her mother-in-law’s traditions and religion. Surely her thoughts and fears were as noteworthy?

Negative Picture of Women in Worship
The silence in the book of Ruth for a female voice is prevalent throughout the entire Bible. In fact, there is evidence that women and worship were viewed in a negative light. We hear of the women who wail over the death of Tammuz (Ezekiel 8:14) and who weave goods for the Asherah (2 Kings 23:7). The women who bake cakes for the Queen of Heaven (Jeremiah 7:17) and infamous characters like the soothsayer known as the Witch of Endor (1 Sam 28). All these activities are framed as illegal in the eyes of the Bible writers, who emphasised the prohibition of idol worship which was a later idea that developed in Israelite thought.

Refocus the Lens
Seeing that this religious history was penned by men (who had grave misgivings of women’s menstruation for example), it is necessary to refocus the lens and try to assess the role of women in religion on its true merits.

Let us take, for example, the first example given above - the illegal activity of wailing for the god Tammuz. Firstly note that Ezekiel 8 records that the women are in the Temple. They are, in fact, performing a religious mourning ceremony that is not only considered acceptable to them but also to those who pass them by in the Temple precinct. Their function plays a large role in the agricultural cycle and the desire for new rain. It can be assumed since this group of women was organized inside the Temple to ensure success for the next agricultural season, that what they were doing was no mystery and was not met with disbelief on the part of the people. Neither the women, nor the general populace wrote this passage. It was written by a man who felt it illegal.

Temple and War in a Woman’s World
Temple and War may seem to be two areas were we can safely say women had no part - but this would not be true. Not only do we have passages that relate of the consecrated women working and worshipping in the Jerusalem Temple (often mistranslated as temple-prostitutes!) but we also see them functioning in the sanctuary at Shiloh and the tent of the Tabernacle in the desert (Hosea 4:13-15, 1 Sam 2.22, Exodus 38:8).

Women also played a huge psychological part in war. It was their role to go out and encourage the men with singing and clapping. We have Miriam and Deborah leading triumphant victory dances (Exodus 15:20-2; Judges 5:12) and history of past cultures shows us how women even followed men to the Battlefields to care and encourage.

Women participated mostly in what can be classified as domestic religion, those issues that touch their lives, reproduction, health and illness, the changing seasons, worship and the affects of war. Unfortunately, these issues never became mainstream and were largely ignored by the writers of the Bible who became concerned with the new One God Alone movement. The writers thus sought to pass judgment on the activities of the past, in light of the new revelation of the oneness of God. The small voice in the Bible of women in religion thus took on its detrimental character and the creative and varied role of women in Israelite religion was forgotten.

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Background

The years 738-734 BCE had been frightening for Judah and her neighbor Israel as they watched the Empire of Assyrian attack and annex into their growing State the strong nations of Syria, Phoenicia, Media and Urartu in succession. The possibility that they too would fall victim to the Assyrian war-machine and lose their independence caused them to react in a variety of ways.

Israel and Judah Become Enemies

Israel went into a league with other smaller nations that previously had been her enemies. The idea was that unity would give them strength. Those nations that refused to sign up to this Syro-Ephraimitic League were considered as enemies and were to be politically isolated and attacked in order to intimidate them into joining. This is how Judah became an enemy of Israel. Judah refused to join the League knowing that it represented only a small and ultimately pointless resistance to the might of the Assyrian Empire who would stop at nothing to reach the Mediterranean and beyond.

Judah Joins Assyria

By not joining the League Judah became vulnerable and open to attack. In this situation Hezekiah’s father Ahaz petitioned the aid of Assyria and made a decision to side with the most powerful Empire in the world. This ultimately placed the kingdom of Judah under Assyrian domination, but did so on the terms of Judah. There was no bloodshed, no cities were destroyed and Judah was able to remain semi-autonomous due to her early capitulation. Everything in Judah thus continued as before, with the monarchy intact, and the religious system in operation. Sadly for Israel her rebellion led to her being absorbed into the Assyrian Empire; her land was destroyed and her people carried off into exile. Israel was never a kingdom again.

Judah Changes her Policy

Ahaz taught his son Hezekiah to continue this policy of subjugation to the mighty Assyrian Empire, and it was a policy that Hezekiah maintained when he became King. However when Sargon II of Assyria died in 705 BCE, Hezekiah decided to use Assyria’s momentary weakness to lead a rebellion against the Empire and break-free completely from its grasp.

Aftermath

It was the wrong decision to make. Assyria’s new King Sennacherib proved to be as brutal as his father- and destroyed the Kingdom of Judah for her rebellion. It was the beginning of the end for Judah. She never really recovered. After all her cities were destroyed she lived on for a hundred years until in her weakened state she too was exiled like Israel before her.