Digging Up the Bible: Cult Stand

DIGGING UP THE BIBLE
Important Archeological Finds that help Us Understand Scripture
pdf
Linda Manuel—1996

Cult Stand from Taanach
(10^th century BC)

In 1968 excavators discovered this four-tier stand at an Israelite high place. It depicts the LORD (the four-letter name of God) as the sun deity with a consort.

At an early date, Israel perverted its concept of worship by combining orthodox and heterodox elements. The LORD was an abstract, invisible entity whom the people never really understood. Some felt it necessary to connect God with concrete images to make Him more tangible. This perversion began before Israel entered the land and persisted for centuries, even though God's presence was in the sanctuary, and He demonstrated His power repeatedly.

To make God more comprehendible, the Israelites made Him more human by giving Him a consort, Asherah. Great men had female counterparts, so it is understandable that the creator of the universe should be married to the goddess of life. The stand's four tiers depict alternating reliefs of the LORD and Asherah:

Tier #1: The LORD's symbol..............Winged sun disk

Tier #2: Asherah's symbol ................Tree of life

Tier #3: The LORD's form..................?

Tier #4: Asherah's form ....................Woman

The first tier shows a horse prancing under a winged sun disk, between a pair of free-standing pillars. Each element relates in some way to syncretistic worship of the LORD. The horse represents an offering, a practice King Josiah condemned, and the winged sun-disc is a symbol of the LORD Himself:

He removed from the entrance to the temple of the LORD the horses that the kings of Judah had dedicated to the sun (2 Kgs 23:11).

The two pillars are a common symbol for the temple.

[Solomon] erected the pillars at the portico of the temple (1 Kgs 7:21) Cf. The bronze from the two pillars...King Solomon had made for the temple of the LORD, was more than could be weighed (Jer 52:20).

The second tier has a pair of ibex climbing the tree of life, Asherah's symbol; and two lions, representing royalty or deity, stand on either side of the ibex. The third tier has two cherubim with an empty space between them, like the cherubim that flank the presence of God in the temple:

In the inner sanctuary [Solomon] made a pair of cherubim of olive wood... (1 Kgs 6:23).

The fourth tier again shows two lions, here accompanying Asherah in human form. The symmetry of the tiers leads one to suspect that the third tier should contain a human likeness of the LORD. The empty space between two cherubim suggests that people regarded Him as an abstract, invisible deity.

There are other archeological examples like the stand that show how intertwined the worship of the LORD was with paganism. The picture below is a reproduction of a syncretistic Israelite blessing carved into the wall of a tomb at Khirbat el Kom, near Hebron: "...blessed...by the LORD...and his Asherah." The inscriber chiseled a large hand into the stone under the words, as if God Himself were extending His hand with the blessing.

Another example of religious syncretism is on a painted jar from Kuntillet 'Ajrud (in the Sinai peninsula). The relief shows five people looking upward (perhaps toward the sun) and lifting their hands in worship.

The inscription reads, "I bless you by the LORD of Teman and by His Asherah." The figure on the far left is also touching his lips as if blowing a kiss, a practice Job regards as sinful:

If I have regarded the sun in its radiance or the moon moving in splendor, so that my heart was secretly enticed and my hand offered them a kiss of homage, then these also would be sins to be judged, for I would have been unfaithful to God on high. (Job 31:26-28)

This drawing combines the same two elements as the cult stand, sun worship and God's consort.

These deviations from orthodoxy developed and prospered during the period when God's physical presence was in the sanctuary! It was rebellion He condemned repeatedly but most explicitly through Ezekiel:

I saw portrayed all over the walls all kinds of crawling things and detestable animals and all the idols of the house of Israel.... He said to me, "Son of man, have you seen what the elders of the house of Israel are doing in the darkness, each at the shrine of his own idol? Again, he said, "You will see them doing things that are even more detestable." ...He then brought me into the inner court of the house of the LORD, and there at the entrance to the temple, between the portico and the altar, were about twenty-five men. With their backs toward the temple of the LORD and their faces toward the east, they were bowing down to the sun in the east. (Ezekiel 8:10, 12-13, 16)

After showing the prophet these abominations, the LORD withdrew His presence from the temple and allowed Babylonian forces to decimate the nation, sending the survivors into exile.

Significance for Biblical Studies: The Cult Stand from Taanach illustrates the syncretism that existed in Israel as paganism sought to establish a foothold among God's people contrary to His explicit prohibition. He allows no competition and has no companion. So He commanded Moses, "Do not make any gods to be alongside me" (Exod 20:23). Again, "Do not set up any wooden Asherah pole beside the altar you build to the LORD your God" (Deut 16:2 1).

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