Ruhan

The Mail & Guardian newspaper did a review of William G Dever's new book, Did God Have a Wife?, recently. Here is an excerpt:

In his newly published book, Did God Have a Wife?, archaeologist William G Dever brings the record of matriarchy worship up to date. His findings will not be new to the world of scholarship, but they will be to the general public -- and their significance should reverb-erate in church councils and congregations for they thoroughly subvert conventional Christian and Judaic beliefs.

Of course, the existence of the matriarchy as predating patriarchal deities in many ancient civilisations is commonly accepted, and some argue for the one Great Mother as the original deity of all. But what is new and controversial is the discovery that the matriarchy was so firmly entrenched in the heartland of the world’s three great monotheistic religions.

Read the rest on:

http://www.mg.co.za/articlePage.aspx...international/

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Has anyone come across this idea of a female god existing alongside that of the Jewish god as late as the Persian or Hellinistic periods?

Alethias

In less ancient kabbalistic writings you see references to Shekinah as being the feminine or female aspect of god. I do not know enough nor do I have access to ancient manuscripts to be able to trace when this merger took place. From what I read on your link and in some other places it seems that Shekinah was initially considered a separate goddess instead of the female aspect of god and yhwh the male aspect of god as it is in some kabbalistic literature.

If you care to research this you might also consider looking at some of the information from gnostic sources that reference Sofia, or Sophia as being the female aspect of the divine. It seems to me, having some knowledge of kabballah but only passing aquaintance with gnostic teachings, that gnosticism parallels kabbalah.

If I were gonna make a guess, and that is truly all it is, I would doubt you will find any references to a matriarchal jewish goddess separate from a male god any later than the destruction of Jerusalem and the subsequent diaspora--70 c.e. to 135 c.e. timeframe.

Toto

God's gender has some comments you might find interesting.