Naked Women and Trees
At the height of their idolatry, the Israelites worshiped a Canaanite deity named Asherah (Hosea 4:12-13). This deity was depicted sometimes as a nude woman and sometimes as a tree. When I learned of this I was struck by the connection between Asherah's depictions and the Creation story in Genesis. Eve after all, did spend most of her time in the garden of Eden naked and then helped to usher sin into the world by eating the fruit of a tree. While I could admittedly be reading too much into the text, I believe that Asherah could be a perversion of the first biblical woman. Jealous of God's creations, the serpent in the garden sought to twist everything God had done, but his perversion with humanity only started there and continued through history. It is troubling that the serpent perverted a woman into a false deity to replace God. It is troubling that humanity was tricked into eating something that brought separation from God. And it is troubling that humanity brought sin and...