Religion
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That glittering star topping your Christmas tree isn't there just to look pretty – it represents the Star of Bethlehem, which glowed overhead when Jesus was born, according to the Bible. But some scientists believe the star was not a star at all, but three planets. There are many theories as to what the Star of Bethlehem really was.
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- God, also known as Yahweh, had a wife named Asherah, according to a British theologian. - Amulets, figurines, inscriptions and ancient texts, including the Bible, reveal Asherah's once prominent standing. God had a wife, Asherah, whom the Book of Kings suggests was worshiped alongside Yahweh in his temple in Israel, according to an Oxford scholar. In 1967, Raphael Patai was the first historian to mention that the ancient Israelites worshiped both Yahweh and Asherah. The theory has gained new prominence due to the research of Francesca Stavrakopoulou, who began her work at Oxford and is now a senior lecturer in the department of Theology and Religion at the University of Exeter. Information presented in Stavrakopoulou's books, lectures and journal papers has become the basis of a three-part documentary series, now airing in Europe, where she discusses the Yahweh-Asherah connection.