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Elijah and the Widow/Goddess Zerephath

Posted By: Charles Pope
Date: Sunday, 28 March 2004, at 7:26 a.m.

I have found more background on the story of Elijah and Zerephath. (1 Kings 17)

In Chapter 25 of the on-line book, Zerephath is shown to be an epithet of Queen Tiye (a.k.a. Zipporah and Zeruah) mother of Smenkhare (Elijah) and Tut (Elisha).

The name Zerephath derives from the goddess name of Zarpanith or Sarpanita,

"Goddess of the City of Babylon and wife of Marduk."
Ref: www.sophiagroup.org/amesopot.html

Sarpanitu "was worshipped under the name of Erua as a goddess of childbirth, from Akkadian eru, 'to be pregnant.' "
Ref: Gods, Demons and Symbols of Ancient Mesopotamia, p 160.

Note the similarity of Erua/Eura and the Hebrew word play Z'eruah.

The name Sar-Pan can be translated "Lord Pan/Minh." The feminine ending -ita is added to form the goddess name of Sarpanita. She would then have been associated with Ptah and/or Thoth as a daughter and/or consort. In Egypt, Isis was probably the daughter of Ptah. She was also a consort of Osiris, but later as the consort of Thoth she was instead called Maat or Sheshat. In the New Testament, Zerephath is the name of a city and written in Greek as Sarepta, which is close to Sar-Ptah.

Velikovsky mentions Zarpanith and also identifies her as Ishtar.
(Ramses II and His Time, p 115)

See also interesting commentary at:
www.bible.org/docs/nt/books/mar/jewishb.htm

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