>>518583906
The coin itself literally says “יהו” ("YHW"). There’s also a question of whether the label “Yahweh and his Ashereh” applies to the two anthropomorphic figures or the bull and calf. If the bull, it would tie into the solar symbolism of Zoroastrian and later Mithraic mythology of Mithra subduing the bull (the solar spirit subduing the sun itself). It also explains biblical passages wherein the northern kingdom built two golden calf idols in Dan and Bethel. It’s likely these were meant to represent Yahweh himself and harkens back to the story of Israel in the wilderness (in which Aaron proclaims “behold, the god who brought you out of Egypt!”) the original meaning of the sun may not have been that an animal was being substituted for an anthropomorphic god, but that an effigy of one of Yahweh’s sacred animals was being worshiped outside the context of the Tabernacle (and by extension, the Jerusalem temple).
