"Did God Have a Wife? shines new light on the presence and influence of women's cults in early Israel and their implications for our understanding of Israel's official "Book religion." Dever pays particular attention to the goddess Asherah, reviled by the authors of the Hebrew Bible as a foreign deity but, in the view of many modern scholars, popularly envisioned in early Israel as the consort of biblical Yahweh. His work also gives new prominence to women as the custodians of Israel's folk religion." "The first book by an archaeologist on ancient Israelite religion, this study critically reviews virtually all of the archaeological literature of the past generation, while also bringing fresh evidence to the table."--Jacket.
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