Gods, Goddesses, and the Women Who Serve Them

A wide-ranging study of women in ancient Israelite religion.

Susan Ackerman has spent her scholarly career researching underexamined aspects of the world of the Hebrew Bible—particularly those aspects pertaining to women. In this collection drawn from three decades of her work, she describes in fascinating detail the worship of goddesses in ancient Israel, the roles women played as priests and prophets, the cultic significance of queen mothers, and the Hebrew Bible’s accounts of women’s religious lives. Specific topics include:

• the “Queen of Heaven,” a goddess whose worship was the object of censure in the book of Jeremiah
• Asherah, the great Canaanite mother goddess for whom Judean women were described as weaving in the books of Kings
• biblical figures considered as religious functionaries, such as Miriam, Deborah, and Zipporah
• the lack of women priests in ancient Israel explored against the prevalence of priestesses in the larger ancient Near Eastern world
• the cultic significance of queen mothers in Israel and throughout the ancient Near East
• Israelite women’s participation in the cult of Yahweh and in the cults of various goddesses