Does God have a wife?

from the old testament

• The idea that God had a wife comes from ancient Semitic inscriptions referring to “Yahweh and his Asherah,” which some interpret as portraying Asherah—a Canaanite fertility goddess and frequent biblical idol—as God’s consort. Asherah was often worshiped alongside Baal, and both idols regularly appeared together in Israel’s history as stumbling blocks, prompting outrage when faithful leaders like Gideon tore them down (Judges 6:25–30; 1 Kings 16:32–33; 2 Kings 17:16; 21:3; 23:4).
• While God had told the Israelites to worship Him exclusively (Exodus 20:3–5), they continually strayed and worshiped the false gods of the Canaanites, including Asherah (2 Kings 17:16).
• Throughout Israel’s history the LORD, or one of the good kings, would regularly be faced with “cleaning house,” tearing down idols such as Asherah (Judges 6:25). Given Israel’s history of idolatry and the influence of the pagan nations around her, it would not be unexpected if the inscription “marrying” Yahweh and Asherah was found in her ruins. However, that does not mean that God had a wife. It only shows pagan influences on Israelite thinking.
• God had no wife. In Genesis 2, God created marriage for mankind (Genesis 2:18). Marriage is the union of a man and a woman into “one flesh” (Genesis 2:24). Since God is a triune being, the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit, He is unified within Himself and has never been alone. This means that He does not need to have a partner or a wife. He has a loving relationship within His very being.
• The Bible teaches that there is no other God but God, alone (Deuteronomy 6:4; Isaiah 44:6). Religions that give gods (whether the LORD or any other god) a wife, are trying to make a god that is needy like them. The inscriptions that reference “Yahweh and his Asherah” reflect that wickedness.
• Because Scripture does not teach that God had a wife but rather says that there are no other gods (Isaiah 44:6), we must reject scholarship’s theory about God having a wife as yet another pagan idea.
• The Bible does speak about God being married to the nation of Israel in a metaphorical way. However, it does not mean that Israel was God’s wife in a human sense. Rather, that language was used to vividly illustrate God’s relationship to Israel—a relationship in which Israel often committed spiritual adultery by worshiping other gods (Jeremiah 3:6–9; Ezekiel 16:30–32). For example, the book of Hosea was written largely to show Israel just how wicked her “adultery” was, describing her as prostituting herself with other gods (Hosea 1:2; 2:2–5; 3:1).

from the new testament

• The New Testament does not mention Asherah nor any other potential “wife” for the LORD. However, it does teach us that marriage was given for the current age and will not continue on into eternity. In one key example, the Sadducees tried to trick Jesus by asking a hypothetical question about marriage after death. Jesus replied, “in the resurrection they neither marry nor are given in marriage, but are like angels in heaven” (Matthew 22:30). Jesus’ point was that just like angels have no need for marriage, nor will humans in the age to come. While that doesn’t directly address whether or not God was married, it does remind us that marriage is not an eternal concept but one initiated by God in creation with a limited timeframe in which it is needed.

implications for today

God is, was, and will be the same. He is complete within Himself, not needing a “cohort” or other female companionship. This is but one example of how very different God is from us.

We need to be very careful about how we think about God. When we imagine a wife for Him, we say that He is like us with our needs and desires. However, as our Creator, God created us to show our need for Him. One of the ways He did this was by making us need companionship and the type of intimate relationship that only a man and woman can have in marriage. Through that, we get a small glimpse of what it’s like for God to exist eternally in perfect unity as One God yet in three Persons.

Marriage is more than simply reduced taxes, a temporary bond between two people, or a way of fulfilling our sexual desires. It is a relationship that mirrors that relationship between God and His people (Ephesians 5:25–33). We are reminded to love our husbands and wives as He loved the church, sacrificing ourselves for the other person. Marriage is never about what we get out of it, but about what we can do for our “other half.”

God showed this type of sacrificial love by sending His eternal Son to die for us. Let us not think of God like us on the basis of a random inscription by people acting like pagans. Instead, let us think about how God describes Himself. He is perfectly satisfied within Himself. Let us be perfectly satisfied with who He is!