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Atheist Hebrew scholar believes that God had a wife

In The Bible’s Buried Secrets, Dr Francesca Stavrakopoulou will guide viewers through some of the latest archaeological discoveries in West Asia.

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Eve wasn’t a troublesome wife! She didn’t cause the Fall of Man! In fact, she wasn’t the even the first woman on Earth! God had a wife!

These are among the startling assertions made by an atheist Hebrew scholar, who has been chosen to present BBC’s new series on the Holy Bible—that will unearth some secrets buried between its pages.

In The Bible’s Buried Secrets, Dr Francesca Stavrakopoulou will guide viewers through some of the latest archaeological discoveries in West Asia and consider how these may shape the world’s understanding of Judaism, Christianity and Islam.

Some of the topics to be explored by the programme include the origins of the story of the Garden of Eden and the historical context of King David and his kingdom.

According to The Daily Telegraph, Dr Stavrakopoulou makes a number of assertions in the programme, notably about Eve.

She argues in the programme that Eve was not responsible for the Fall of Man and was not even the first woman, as the story of the Garden of Eden did not belong in the first book of the Old Testament.

“Eve, particularly in the Christian tradition, has been very unfairly maligned as the troublesome wife who brought about the Fall,” said Stavrakopoulou, a senior lecturer in the Hebrew Bible at the University of Exeter.

“Don’t forget that the biblical writers are male and it’s a very male-dominated world. Women were second-class citizens, seen as property.”

In an interview, Dr Stavrakopoulou said she did not think the Bible could be used as a reliable historical source and said that as an academic “you leave your faith at the door”.

The idea that God had a wife is based on Biblical texts that refer to “asherah”. According to Dr Stavrakopoulou, Asherah was the name of a fertility goddess in lands now covered by modern-day Syria, and was half of a “divine pair” with God.

The Bible admits that the goddess Asherah was worshipped in Yahweh’s temple in Jerusalem, she was quoted as saying in the Daily Mail.

In the Book Of Kings, we’re told that a statue of Asherah was housed in the temple and that female temple personnel wove ritual textiles for her. In fact, although the Bible condemns all of these practices, the biblical texts suggest that goddess worship was a thriving feature of high-status religion in Jerusalem.—With agency inputs

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