By Rob Waugh
Female figurines and inscribed prayers to a “divine couple” found in temples in Israel suggest that the “one God” of the Bible may not have been entirely alone.
A recent excavation in Tel Motza, not far from Jerusalem, found what archaeologists believe to have been a ritual building – with clay figures of animals and men from the time of the First Temple, according to Israel’s Haaretz news site.
The find suggests that Iron Age religion in the area around Jerusalem may not have been monotheistic just before the time the Hebrew Bible – the basis of the Old Testament – started to be written.
