King Manasseh’s Asherah and modern Mary – Striking Parallels

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Asherah, a pagan goddess mentioned around 40 times in the Bible, symbolizes the repeated apostasy of the ancient people of Israel through excessive idolatry. What Jezebel achieved for northern Israel, King Manasseh achieved in the southern kingdom. Striking parallels to the “Holy Mother Mary.”

Gentile gods in the people of Israel

The ancient people of Israel, and after the dispersion of the northern people of Israel by the Assyrians, the southern people of Judea, showed a certain continuity in their respective apostasies from the true faith, or rather, the only true gospel. Many kings had practiced the exact opposite of what God had intended for His people. Instead of being the light of this world and distancing themselves from the pagan practices of the surrounding peoples, they brought paganism into the people themselves.

Even the wise King Solomon built additional houses of worship for pagan gods alongside God’s temple. This was primarily due to his 1,000 wives (700 principal wives and 300 concubines), who came from all over the world and wanted to maintain their respective idols. “After all,” Solomon established these temples as separate places of worship. Thus, people still had the choice to choose either for the true God or for one of the idols.

King Manasseh – The “Worst”

Not so for Manasseh, King of Judea. At just 12 years old, Manasseh was appointed king. His seat of government was Jerusalem, and it remained so for 55 years. While Manasseh’s father, Hezekiah, eradicated the idolatry that had crept into the people, Hezekiah brought false idolism back in full force. Manasseh is described, among other things, as the “worst” of all kings. He emulated Ahab, the former king of northern Israel, and placed idols directly in the temple of God. Ahab, in fact, was a compliant puppet of his wife, Jezebel, the daughter of a Baal priest from Tyre.

Manasseh again erected altars to Baal, made a statue of the pagan goddess Asherah, and even placed it in the House of the Lord, in the courtyard of the temple complex, at the altar of burnt offering. Thus, even Judeans who remained faithful to the Lord were forced to offer sacrifices in front of the idol statue of Asherah. Manasseh also made his son “pass through the fire” (a sacrificial ritual) and practiced sorcery, consulting spirits and fortune-tellers (2 Kings, chapter 21)..

The Phoenician Jezebel, wife of Ahab, a symbol and type of the Roman Catholic Church, as symbolized especially in the epistle to the early church of Thyatira (Revelation 2:18-29) (Info), also brought the Asherah cult to the Land of Israel. The prophet Elijah had to deal with an almost completely apostate Israel. Jezebel maintained 450 prophets of Baal and 400 of Asherah.

Asherah – The Lord’s “Partner”

Asherah, a goddess worshipped even by the apostate people of Israel and seen as a partner of YHWH. Interestingly, the apostate people’s false belief that the Lord’s work was supposed to have taken place through Asherah is also a theme for the prophet Jeremiah, who also announced the wrath of God that would come upon the people (Jeremiah 17:1-4).

“The sin of Judah is written with a pen of iron, and with the point of a diamond: it is graven upon the table of their heart, and upon the horns of your altars; Whilst their children remember their altars and their groves by the green trees upon the high hills. O my mountain in the field, I will give thy substance and all thy treasures to the spoil, and thy high places for sin, throughout all thy borders. And thou, even thyself, shalt discontinue from thine heritage that I gave thee; and I will cause thee to serve thine enemies in the land which thou knowest not: for ye have kindled a fire in mine anger, which shall burn for ever.!“

A quite familiar image. The Lord, His “partner,” and both worked together. The placement of the Asherah idol by King Manasseh in the courtyard, in front of the altar of burnt offering on the north side, evokes further memories. Especially when entering an average Roman Catholic church. This is easily recognizable as such by the never-missing image of Mary. There is no regulation, but the rule is the position of the statue of the Virgin Mary in such a church, which, due to the altar of sacrifice, represents a temple in the true sense of the word. It is customary to place the image of the “Holy Mother Mary” on the left, when facing the sanctuary.

Asherah and Mary – Great Similarity

The Asherah statue erected by Manasseh was located north of the altar of burnt offering. Thus, if you enter the courtyard from the east, it is on the right side (Info). However, since the Church of Rome reverses every aspect of the Gospel, the churches are also arranged the other way around. The entrance is usually from the west. Accordingly, the viewing direction is also reversed. The statue of Mary placed on the left is therefore also located north of the altar.

The goddess Asherah, “developed” in Babylon and worshipped by the “worst king” of the people of Judah, thus presents an analogy that once again highlights the Roman Catholic Church as the great earthly adversary of God (Info). The prophet Isaiah knew of Babylon’s fate and described it in chapter 47. This parallels modern Babylon, whose fate is described in Revelation 18. Therefore, striking parallels to the Egyptian version of the pagan cult are no longer surprising (Info).

Bible verses from King James Version (1611)