So generally when people talk about this they look at I hear two things references one is inscriptions to something like Yahweh and his wife Ashera or something like that and then there's also references to Second Kings which is interesting because when I go to those it seems clear to me that they're at least the text for itself take it for what it is is referring to throwing out pagan gods out of the temple not like a like a normative Israel is worshiping this person alongside them but that something from the outside has gotten in the temple it feels like that's how it's framed in the scripture.

That's typically how it's presented again we really have a great deal of difficulty reconstructing the nature or extent of whatever syncretism or apostasy they might have been engaged in because it's just not the Bible's intention to document that it's not documenting the the varied trails that they followed in their ignorance or unbelief it's trying to document something about Yahweh and true belief. And

so I guess you know pastorally I think one of my concerns is especially a lot of the skeptics who bring this up they kind of should bring it up to say see this all this all this was made up all along you know you know you don't think Ashera is real but Yahweh was right there with Ashera and you know it became politically inviolable for whatever reason for God to have a wife so they just took her out and so I wonder you know especially I know that you as some of your teaching includes undergrads and I'm wondering you know pastorally how do you help and walk students through those kind of difficult questions. When

I teach undergrads I'm not teaching history of Israel

religion okay fair. You

know Old Testament interpretation and literature and so we don't take that root on things still occasionally the questions come up but I think the the kind of direction you've just represented that you've summarized is accurate that people talk that way but it's so highly speculative at every term yeah how do you document that they took something out unless you can document that it was in and the inscriptions that the very few inscriptions we have making fairly vague suggestions hardly give a basis for saying oh and everybody thought Yahweh had a consort you know it's just not sufficient evidence for that I'm I've tried to be very careful about speculation whether it's in my favor or not that that's just not how we build cases so but often skeptics on the one hand and apologists on the other hand are not necessarily careful about the nature of the evidence and how firm it is and I think that's unfortunate.