El Shaddai: God of the Breasts

When we pray, do we envision God with exclusively male motifs and characteristics, or is there room in our prayer and spiritual practice for the divine feminine, for the God who blesses breasts and womb?

Depictions of female figures as representations of the divine were commonplace in the ancient Levant, the region of the Bible’s origins. Statues, amulets, and cylinder seal art from ancient Israel and Judah and its environs frequently depicted female images that often emphasized breasts and hips. 

Depictions of the Sacred Feminine in Ancient Levantine Art

These images of the sacred feminine are frequently found in household spaces and domestic contexts, such as figurines, personal jewelry worn on the body, or on plaques placed in the home. Art and ritual objects depicting women have also found in archaeological excavations of sacred spaces, such as temples, and drawn on pottery vessels, such as the the pottery with inscriptions and iconography found at the site of Kuntillet ‘Ajrud. The biblical literature includes references to such artistic installations and ritual objects, such as images of Asherah and sacred poles (see, for example, 2 Kings 23:5-7).

The image accompanying this post is a stylized and digitally rendered version of a bronze pendant found on the coastal city of Akko/Acre from the Late Bronze Age. This type of figure is typically classified as a “qudshu”-type image which was commonplace in ancient West Asia and especially in Egypt and the Levant. The typology of “qudshu” comes from the Semitic word qdš (קדש), which means “holy.” Some of these images of figures contain this word inscribed either on or nearby the image.

Scholars typically understand these kinds of images of divine women as representing deities and as elements of goddess worship especially connected with women’s religion and the prayers of families for fertility.

The image in this blog depicts the divine female figure holding foliage that could be lotus flowers or perhaps palm fronds. Sacred or divine feminine figures in ancient Levantine art are often accompanied by leaves, trees, and floral motifs. The sacred feminine in Levantine art, thus, were likely understood as connected with the beauty of creation and perhaps the work of creating, fertility, fecundity, and nature. The female deity Asherah is sometimes given the title qnyt ilm or “creator/creatress of the gods” in Late Bronze Age literature from the Levantine coast in the city and region of Ugarit. In the biblical literature, Lady Wisdom is portrayed in Proverbs 8 as a participant in the creation of the world, a master-worker alongside God/elohim.

God of the Breasts Who Blesses the Womb

This idea might also evoke a line of blessing bestowed on the tribe of Joseph by the Israelite God in Genesis 49:25:

“… the God of your father, who will help you …

The Shaddai who will bless you with blessings of heaven above,

Blessings of the deep that lies beneath,

Blessings of the breasts and of the womb…

Not only does blessing mention breasts as part of its blessing, but also the title for God given here, Shaddai can be translated as God of the mountains, or equally, as God of the breasts. The word for “mountain” and “breast” is the same in Hebrew. This meaning of "breasts" rather than "mountains" is further strengthened by the use in the same word in the plural in the very same verse, which seems to create an intentional parallelism.

This blessing from Genesis also suggests that prayers for fertility were also directed to Yahweh. Also, the epithet Shaddai contains within it the suggestion of female imagery, including distinctive elements of female anatomy, such as breasts. 

The depiction of God as mother and in other feminine imagery has already been discussed in other blog posts on this site (click for links to Swollen Breasts and Yahweh's Remembering and God as Mother in the Bible). 

What Constitutes “Faithful” Worship Practice? And Who Gets to Decide This?

The biblical literature rejects depictions of Asherah as not orthodox or sanctioned religious practice. Furthermore, depictions of God were also expressly forbidden in the Ten Commandments.

But, what if artistic motifs and iconography of sacred feminine in ancient Israel might also have represented aspects of Yahweh’s blessings or might have even served as a depiction of a prayer?

What if this kind of image was intended and understood as a faithful and sincere prayer or worship practice in ancient Israel and Judah? As a depiction of “qudshu” or holiness? Or what if today we understood or interpreted this kind of imagery as a portrayal of biblical women who embody faithful devotion, such as Deborah under the palm tree? Beauty is in the eye of the beholder. One of the most wonderful aspects of art is that its meaning is malleable and changes from person to person, from one culture to another, and can convey different meanings across time.

These ancient depictions that remain to us in the art and iconography of the ancient Levant are reminders that God was imagined in feminine forms. This might stimulate thought about how we imagine God in our own prayer and devotional practices. When we pray, do we envision God with exclusively male motifs and characteristics, or is there room in our prayer and spiritual practice for the divine feminine, for the God who blesses breasts and womb?

Melissa Ramos, author

Artwork by Autumn Uhrig