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Plain and Precious Things
Restored: Margaret Barker and the Queen of Heaven
By Kevin Christensen
Editor’s
note: This is fifth in a series of
articles on the Methodist minister Margaret Barker — and
why she matters to LDS scholarship. Read the previous
article here
The past several years have
seen a resurgence in studies of the Divine Feminine, several
of which concern Ancient Near Eastern Goddess figures, even
a specifically Hebrew Goddess. For example, Raphael Patai’s
pioneering literary approach to the topic (The Hebrew
Goddess) has recently been supplemented by William Dever,
an archeologist with his Did God Have A Wife? Archaeology
and Folk Religion in Ancient Israel.
Such studies have been informed
both by the emergence of archeological and textual discoveries
(pillar figurines from Jerusalem whose use stopped at Josiah’s
time, inscriptions, the Ras Shamah finds, the Christian
and Jewish scrolls, Philo, etc.), and re-reading older Jewish
and Christian texts in light of the new information. A number
of important studies by LDS scholars have used this new
information to explore the idea of a Mother in Heaven.
Some of the most impressively
mind-expanding of these studies have been produced by conservative
LDS scholars, rather than by the liberal LDS scholars. For
example, John W. Welch of BYU wrote a FARMS Preliminary
Report comparing Eliza R. Snow’s LDS Hymn, “Oh My Father”
with the Early Christian “Hymn of the Pearl” that is preserved
in a non-canonical Gospel of Thomas.
Kevin Barney produced an excellent
paper for FAIR titled, “Do We Have a Mother in Heaven?”[1]
, which surveys the both origins of the LDS teaching
and the new evidences for the idea in Israel in antiquity
(for example, ancient inscriptions that refer to “Yahweh
and his Asherah.”) Daniel Peterson produced a brilliant
essay titled “Nephi and His Asherah,” which offers a fascinating
interpretation of Nephi’s dream in light of the new evidences.
[2] I had read their essays (and others) before I
encountered Margaret Barker’s work on this topic, and found
their work helped me appreciate her contributions. Such
works have changed the way I now read the Book of Mormon.
Since the Nauvoo period, the
LDS tradition acknowledged our belief in a Mother in Heaven. But, lacking additional revelation
on the subject, for most of our history we have been unable
to do much more than speculate. Such speculative approaches
create our own image in the heavens, placing a mirror where
we need a window. The new discoveries of ancient beliefs
check on our tendency to project our own cultural and social
agendas. Nephi explained that “there is none other people
who understand the things which were spoken unto the Jews
like unto them, save it be that they are taught after the
manner of the things of the Jews.” (2 Nephi 25:5). The new
evidences help us better understand the things of the Jews
and the early Christians on this topic, and this includes
several significant passages about the Heavenly Mother in
the Book of Mormon.
As we have seen in previous
parts of this series, a major theme in Margaret Barker’s
work has been the effects of Josiah’s purge and the influence
on the tradition texts and interpretation of an editorial
school that school.
After Jerusalem
had been destroyed by the Babylonians in 586BCE, refugees
fled south. The prophet Jeremiah went with them, and told
them that the disaster had been due to their sins, and that
even in Egypt, the punishment would continue. The refugees
in Pathros confronted Jeremiah and would not accept what
he said. The disaster had been caused, they said, by
neglecting the Queen of Heaven. Jeremiah 44 then offers
us a glimpse of the religion of seventh century Judah —
burning incense to the Queen of Heaven, pouring out
libations to her and making loaves to represent her: “For
then we had plenty of food and we prospered and saw no evil”
(Jer.44.17).
This memory of the Queen of
Heaven can be compared to the passages in 1st
Enoch that Barker often cites:
[I]n the sixth
week, “All who lived in the temple lost their vision, and
the hearts of all of them godlessly forsook Wisdom,
and the house of the kingdom was burned and the whole chosen
people was scattered (1 Enoch 93). This history … says that
Jerusalem was destroyed after the people in the temple had
forsaken Wisdom. There is even a poem about the rejected
Wisdom:
Wisdom went forth to make her dwelling among the children
of men, and found no dwelling place
Wisdom returned to her place, and took her seat among
the angels (1 Enoch 42)
Both passages point to the
changes in Josiah’s reform. However, Jeremiah 44 does raise
the question of Jeremiah’s attitude toward the Wisdom/the
Queen of Heaven. This is one of those
questions that must be asked, but not answered too quickly.
Read carefully the explanation of the recent disaster that
Jeremiah hears from a group of the survivors:
But since
we left off to burn incense to the queen of heaven, and
to pour out drink offerings unto her, we have wanted all
things, and have been consumed by the sword and by the famine.
And when we burned incense
to the queen of heaven, and poured out drink offerings unto
her, did we make her cakes to worship her, and pour out
drink offerings unto her, without our men. (Jer. 44:18-19)
Jeremiah forcefully rejects
this explanation:
So that the
LORD could no longer bear, because of the evil of your doings,
and because of the abominations which ye have committed;
therefore is your land a desolation, and an astonishment,
and a curse, without an inhabitant, as at this day.
Because ye
have burned incense, and because ye have sinned against
the LORD, and have not obeyed the voice of the LORD, nor
walked in his law, nor in his statutes, nor in his testimonies;
therefore this evil is happened unto you, as at this day.
(Jer. 44:22-23)
Does this mean then, that Jeremiah
rejects the Queen of Heaven? I don’t think so. Notice that
Jeremiah had previously made the same criticisms of those
who placed their faith in the presence of the Jerusalem
temple:
Trust ye not
in lying words, saying, The temple of the LORD, The temple
of the LORD, The temple of the LORD, [are] these.
For if ye
throughly amend your ways and your doings; if ye throughly
execute judgment between a man and his neighbour;
If ye oppress
not the fatherless and the widow, and shed not innocent
blood in this place, neither walk after other gods to your
hurt; then will I cause you to dwell in this place, in the
land I gave to your fathers. (Jer. 7:4-6)
Jeremiah continues his temple
discourse to identify the real problem:
Will ye steal,
murder, and commit adultery, and swear falsely, and burn
incense to other gods … and come and stand before me in
this house, which is called in my name, and say, We are
delivered to do all these abominations? (Jer. 7:9-10)
Jeremiah is not anti-temple.
He speaks favorably of temple sacrifice in Jer. 33:11 and
his writings are full of 1st Temple imagery.
I have previously presented evidence that Jeremiah disagrees
with the Deuteronomist reformers on their key issues. His
complaints against the temple and the worship of the Queen
were both directed against the failure to repent, to offer
rituals without repentance. The ritual forms mean nothing
without personal reform. So we should not jump to conclusions
about Jeremiah’s attitudes about the Queen of Heaven without
thoroughly examining his writings.
What else does Jeremiah say
about the Queen of Heaven? There is a passage in Jer. 7:18,
about baking cakes to Queen of Heaven in the streets and
cities, but this is done in connection with “drink offerings
to other gods, that they may provoke me to anger.” It also
has commercial connotations. The temple tradition was that
the bread offerings were exclusively for the temple high
priests. The invitation to feast at Wisdom’s table (Proverbs
9:5-6) had a temple context. At least, it seems odd to have this
being done in the streets, perhaps in a commercial imitation
of temple ordinances. However, there are other significant
passages to consider when exploring Jeremiah’s views:
For I have
heard a voice as of a woman in travail, and the anguish
of her that bringeth forth her first child, the voice of
the daughter of Zion, that bewaileth herself, that spreadeth
her hands, saying, Woe is me now! For my soul is wearied
because of murders. (Jer 4:31)
The same image of the woman
laboring with her child also appears in Revelation.
And there
appeared a great wonder in heaven: a woman clothed with
the sun, and the moon under her feet, and upon her head,
a crown of 12 stars: and she being with child cried, travailing
in birth, and pained to be delivered. (Revelation 12:1)
Barker also makes the important
observation that ties this section of Revelation back to
the changes made by the reformers at the time of Jeremiah:
Even a brief
survey shows that there had been a Lady in Jerusalem who
had been rejected and had returned to her place among the
angels. She had been worshiped with wine and incense, and
bread to represent her. She had protected the city and given
prosperity, and she had given vision to the priests. She
had been evicted from the temple by Josiah, and her cult
probably involved items removed in the purge or remembered
as missing from the second temple: the item named the Asherah
(probably the menorah), the host of heaven, the horses for
the sun, the oil, the mana, the high priest’s staff that
bore almond blossoms, the ark, the fire
and the spirit. A long list, but these things were not
forgotten.
In the Book
of Revelation, John saw the ark restored to the holy of
holies (Rev. 11.19), he saw four horses ride our from the
temple (Rev. 6.1-8), he saw the Man in the midst of the
seven lamps, the menorah, he heard the Spirit promising
the faithful they would receive the hidden manna (Rev. 2.17).
John was describing the restoration of the first temple.
He also saw the Queen of Heaven, even though she is not
named as Queen. ‘A great portent appeared in heaven, a woman
clothed with the sun, with the moon under her feet, and
on her head a crown of twelve stars’ (Rev. 12.1) …She gave
birth to a son who was destined to fulfill Psalm 2 — to
rule the nations with a rod of iron — and presumably the
rest of the psalm as well: “You are my son. Today I have
begotten you.” The woman’s son was taken up to the throne
of God.
These few
verses in the Book of Revelation show the important of the
Lost Lady and the cult of the first temple for understanding
Christian origins.
Jeremiah speaks of the Tree
of Life (Jer. 17:8), and even compares an attempt on his
life with the destruction of the tree (Jer. 11:19). If Jeremiah
approved of the destruction of the Asherah (2 Kings 23:6),
would he liken an attempt on his life to that action? He
refers to Israel’s changing their gods, by forsaking the
fountain of living waters (Jer. 2:11, 13). Both the tree
and fountain are associated with Wisdom/Heavenly Mother.
Another name for the Goddess was the Virgin, and this name
too appears in Jeremiah’s prophesy:
Again I will
build thee, and thou shalt be built, O virgin of Israel:
thou shalt again be adorned with thy tabrets, and shalt
go forth in the dances of them that make merry. (Jer. 31:4)
Then shall the virgin rejoice in the dance, both young men
and old together: for I will turn their mourning into joy,
and will comfort them, and make them rejoice from their
sorrow. (Jer. 31:13)
Jesus refers to Wisdom’s dance
in Matthew 11:17, 19. The very early Infancy Gospel of
James depicts Mary as a “little girl in the temple,
dancing before the high priest … exactly how Wisdom is described
in Proverbs 8, playing and dancing before the creator.” Jeremiah 10:12 refers
to wisdom being with God at the creation a detail missing
from Genesis, but present in Proverbs 8.
Margaret Barker discusses these
kinds of details, and many more, in her essays on Wisdom,
the Queen of Heaven. That background led to the observations
that she made when she spoke at the Library of Congress
about the Book of Mormon.
The tree of
life made one happy, according to the Book of Proverbs (Prov
3.18), but for detailed descriptions of the tree we have
to rely on the non-canonical texts: Enoch described it as
perfumed, with fruit like grapes (1 En.32.5), and a text
discovered in Egypt in 1945 described the tree as beautiful,
fiery, and with fruit like white grapes I do not know of any other source
which describes the fruit as white grapes. Imagine
my surprise when I read the account of Lehi’s vision of
the tree whose white fruit made one happy, and the
interpretation, that the Virgin in Nazareth was the mother
of the Son of God after the manner of the flesh. This is the Heavenly Mother, represented
by the tree of life, and then Mary and her Son on earth.
This revelation to Joseph Smith was the ancient Wisdom symbolism,
intact, and almost certainly as it was known in 600BCE.
Barker directly refers to Daniel
Peterson’s study of Nephi’s vision of the tree of life,
which in turn had been informed by the newer discoveries
and thinking of the Asherah/Tree of Life associations. While
I don’t have space to discuss it here, Barker’s study on
Ezekiel’s visions turn out to knit in surprising ways to
Lehi’s vision of the Tree of Life in the desert. Enlightened by the new views, we
should be able to see new significance in other Book of
Mormon texts. For example, in Mosiah 8, King Limhi exclaims:
Oh how marvelous
are the works of the Lord, and how long he doth suffer his
people; yea how blind and impenetrable are the understandings
of the children of men; for they will not seek wisdom, neither
do they desire that she should rule over them.
The Book of Mormon contains
three occurrences of “mother earth” (2 Nephi 9:7; Mosiah
2:26; Mormon 6:15). What is the religious context behind
the use of that language in the Book of Mormon? Northop
Frye explains:
No principle
is without many exceptions in mythology, but one very frequent
mythical formulation of this attitude to nature is an earth-mother,
from whom everything is born and to whom everything returns
at death. Such an earth-mother is the most easily understood
image of natura naturans, and she acquires its moral ambivalence.
As the womb of all forms of life, she has a cherishing and
nourishing aspect; as the tomb of all forms of life, she
has a menacing and sinister aspect; as the manifestation
of an unending cycle of life and death, she has an inscrutable
and elusive aspect. Hence, she is often a dive triformis,
a goddess of a threefold form of some kind, usually birth,
death, and renewal in time; or heaven, earth, and hell in
space.
The references to "mother
earth" in the Book of Mormon are subtle but neatly
spread across the entire history, arguing for a long-standing
tradition. Also, it is clear that these references, in connection
with other archetypal feminine imagery, contain the essentials
of the mythic formulation. The presence of these essential
elements of the picture in the text invites our further
exploration of the Old and New World contexts. Some have
expressed concern that the three passages cited refer to
mother earth in the context of death. While this is strictly
correct in the ancient mythological formulation, it might
be beneficial to see some of the other manifestations of
the image. Accordingly, other passages in the Book of Mormon
suggest the life-giving aspects of mother earth:
O Lord, wilt
thou hearken unto me, and cause that it may be done according
to my words, and send forth rain upon the face of the earth,
that she may bring forth her fruit, and her grain in the
season of grain ... And it came to pass that in the seventy
and sixth year the Lord did turn away his anger from the
people, and caused that rain should fall upon the earth,
insomuch that it did bring forth her fruit in the season
of her fruit. And it came to pass that it did bring forth
her grain in the season of her grain. (Helaman 11:13, 17)
In 2 Nephi 6:1, Jacob, a Nephite
temple priest quotes Isaiah 50:
For thus saith
the LORD, Where is the bill of thy mother’s divorcement?...
Behold, for you iniquities ye have sold yourselves, and
for your transgressions is your mother put away.”
Whether this passage was written
at the time of Hezekiah by the original Isaiah, or whether
it was written by a disciple of Isaiah in Josiah’s time,
(writing as a Second Isaiah), the context and the meaning
would be the same. Like Josiah, Hezekiah had also removed
the Asherah from the Temple. Later, when Jesus speaks to
the Nephites at the temple, he quotes from Isaiah 54.
For thy maker,
thy husband, the Lord of Hosts is his name; and thy Redeemer,
the Holy One of Israel, the God of the whole earth shall
he be called. For the Lord hath called thee as a woman forsaken
and grieved in spirit, and a wife of youth, when thou wast
refused, saith thy God. For a small moment have I forsaken
thee, but with great mercies will I gather thee. In a little
wrath I hid my face from thee for a moment, but with everlasting
kindness will I have mercy on thee, saith the Lord thy Redeemer.
(3 Nephi 22:5-8, and compare Isaiah 54)
Certainly, not all manifestations
of the Divine Feminine are positive. This partially because
of human apostasy and disobedience, but also because Lady
Wisdom has a rival, the “strange woman” of Proverbs, the
Great Whore of 1 Nephi 13-14 and Revelation. Both the “strange
woman” Proverbs and the Isabel of Alma 39 turn out to be
far more than ordinary temptresses. One should refer to
Barker’s discussion of the “foreign woman” and Hugh Nibley’s
fascinating discussion of Isabel as a priestess.
The single most detailed account
of individual women’s words and actions in the entire Book
of Mormon is the account of Lamoni’s Queen and the Servant
Abish. This is the story of Ammon's preaching to the Lamanite
king, the king's conversion and lapse into apparent death,
the testing and conversion of the queen, her fall into a
deathlike state, the appearance of Abish, and her role in
the resolution of the crisis. Given that the editor, Mormon,
so often neglects the female perspective, why does he give
space to Alma's detailed story of these women's actions
and words unless he sees them as particularly significant?
If Mormon has anything specific to say about women, he must
be saying it here.
Significantly, the story of
Abish and the Lamanite queen qualifies as a "type-scene," a
prophetic prefiguring not only of the resurrection of Christ,
but also of the role of women in that event. As Robert Alter
remarks, "The type-scene is not merely a way of formally
recognizing a particular kind of narrative moment; it is
also a means of attaching that moment to a larger pattern
of historical and theological meaning." Compare
the general features of this account in Alma with a conspicuous
pattern in ancient Near Eastern religion:
One of the
most striking features of the ancient Sacred Marriage cult
was that the goddess had an important part to play in the
resurrection of her husband ... We will recall how Anath
made possible Baal-Hadad's resurrection by attacking and
destroying his enemy, Mot, the god of death. In Mesopotamian
myth it was Inanna-Ishtar who descended into the realm of
death to destroy Erishkigal's power so that dead Dumuzi-Tammuz
could be restored to life. Aristide's Apology describes
how Aphrodite descended into Hades in order to ransom Adonis
from Persephone. Cybele likewise made possible the resurrection
of Attis on the third day, while in Egypt it was Isis who
made possible the restoration of her husband, Osiris ...
But no matter what the details of these ubiquitous Near
Eastern death-and-resurrection legends, the underlying theme
is the same: the god is helpless without the ministrations
of his consort ... The reunion of Jesus and Mary Magdalene
at the tomb on Resurrection Morning therefore clearly fits
within this well-known tradition.
The same motif also appears
in the Mesoamerican Popol Vuh in the story of One Hunahpu's
death and the maiden daughter of the underworld lords, through
whose courageous actions life was renewed.
The stories of Abish and the
Lamanite kings and queens resonate with these traditions. Given the growing
recognition that Book of Mormon authors consciously selected
stories that present archetypal patterns, it is likely that
these stories attracted the attention of Mormon as significant
type-scenes, and as such, they receive due attention and
prominence in the text. Notice King Lamoni’s prophesy as
he is raised from his near-death state and reaches out to
the Queen”:
I have seen
my Redeemer; and he shall come forth and be born of a woman,
and he shall redeem all mankind who believe on his name.
(Alma 19:13)
It is clear that after the
coming of Jesus in the Old World, a great deal of imagery
and temple lore that had been associated with the Queen
of Heaven, Lady Wisdom, was attached to Mary, particularly
in the Catholic and Orthodox traditions. This is not something
to object to, but
to understand.
Any ritual
whatever ... unfolds not only in a consecrated space ...
but also in a "sacred time," "once upon a
time" (in illo tempore, ab origine), that is,
when the ritual was performed for the first time by a god,
an ancestor, or a hero. Every ritual has a divine model,
an archetype ... Not only do rituals have their mythical
model but any human act whatever acquires effectiveness
to the extent to which it exactly repeats an act performed
at the beginning of time by a god, a hero, or an ancestor
... Insofar as he repeats the archetypal sacrifice,
the sacrificer, in full ceremonial action, abandons the
profane world of mortals and introduces himself into the
divine world of the immortals.
By repeating the actions of
a divine archetype, Mary then becomes a representative of
that archetype, of Wisdom, the Mother of God, just as temple-going
Latter-day Saints “become” in a sense the characters in
our temple drama. I think that this kind of becoming may
have had an effect on the translation of the Book of Mormon.
When we read passages in the Book of Mormon about Mary,
we ought to imagine how such verses may have been expressed
to be meaningful to the original audience. Besides the
connections to the old traditions that Peterson and Barker
have discussed, we should consider similar possibilities
for Mosiah 3:8 and Alma 7:10. We should also be more aware
of references to wisdom, that besides the passage in Mosiah
8:20, other passages, such as Mosiah 2:20 and Helaman 12:5,
have the same implications. Finally, as we consider depictions
of the Wisdom/the Queen of Heaven in Apocryphal writings
such as Bin Sira, the Wisdom of Solomon, and Philo, and
early Christian sources. Caution is appropriate in dealing
with such texts certainly (D&C 91), but we should not
assume that those who may have sought wisdom more earnestly
that we have, might not have found wisdom that we yet lack
(see D&C 1:26). A first requirement for gaining wisdom,
is opening our eyes.
Next time, I’ll discuss the
cosmic covenant in Barker’s studies, and its relevance to
LDS scripture.
In doing so, we should recognize that the biblical Jeremiah
text has been edited by the reformers. The most obvious
evidence of this is in Jeremiah 15:4, which blames the destruction
of Jerusalem on Manaseh, restating an argument inserted
at a later revision of 2
Kings 23:26. Such an explanation contradicts everything
that Jeremiah says about the immediate wickedness in Jerusalem
as being the cause of the crisis, and of the potential for
Jerusalem to repent. Indeed, since Maneseh died before
Jeremiah was born, if Maneseh’s acts truly caused the destruction,
then Jeremiah’s ministry of warning and prophesy would be
utterly pointless.
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Meridian Magazine.
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Currently
working as a technical writer in Pittsburgh, Kevin Christensen was
born in Salt Lake City, and happily raised on a nerd ranch in Bountiful
Utah. Notable events in between include a mission in England, marriage
to Shauna Oak, parenting Nick and Karina, getting a B.A. in English
from San Jose State University, moving from Utah to California to
Kansas and to Pennyslania, and publishing 14 essays via the Foundation
for Ancient Research and Mormon Studies. |
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