Josiah

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Josiah hears the "Book of Law" that Hilkiah found in the Temple

Josiah or Yoshiyahu (יֹאשִׁיָּהוּ "supported of the Lord", Standard Hebrew Yošiyyáhu, Tiberian Hebrew Yôšiyyāhû) was king of Judah, and son of Amon and Jedidah, the daughter of Adaiah of Bozkath. His grandfather was King Manasseh, who had turned from the Jewish religion, even adapting the Temple for worship that was considered idolatrous by faithful Jews. Josiah is credited by some historians with having established Jewish scripture in written form as a part of the Deuteronomic reform that occurred during his rule.

William F. Albright has dated his reign to 640 B.C.E.-609 B.C.E., while E. R. Thiele offers the dates 641 B.C.E.-609 B.C.E. The chief sources of his reign are 2 Kings 22-23, and 2 Chronicles 34-35; 1 Esdras 1 clearly a copy of the relevant portion of 2 Chronicles. Archaeologists have recovered a number of "scroll-style" stamps dating to his reign.

Josiah in the Bible

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The young King Josiah supervises the destruction of the ancient Israelite altar at one of the "high places."

The biblical authors view Josiah as the greatest king since David. His story does not begin with his birth, but with a prophecy by an unnamed "man of God" in the time of Jeroboam I who reportedly predicted the act that will win Josiah his reputation as a king fully approved by the Temple priests:

O altar, altar! This is what the Lord says: "A son named Josiah will be born to the house of David. On you he will sacrifice the priests of the high places who now make offerings here, and human bones will be burned on you." (1 Kings 13:1-3)

The Boy-King Josiah

The story is taken up again in 2 Kings 22 when Josiah became ruler of Judah at the age of eight. His reign resulted from the assassination of his father, Amon, by court officials and the "people of the land." Both international affairs and Judah's internal situation at the time were in flux. To the east, the Assyrian Empire was in the beginning stages of its eventual disintegration, the Babylonian Empire had not yet risen to replace it, and Egypt to the southwest was still recovering from Assyrian dominance. This favored the resurgence of Jerusalem as a serious power in the region. The nation of Judah was still recovering from a devasting Assyriann invasion in the previous century that resulted in the capture of every Judean town except the capital. Josiah's grandfather Manasseh had reversed the Yahweh-only religious policy of his own father Hezekiah, and Josiah's father Amon continued in Manasseh's footsteps. The boy-king Josiah, however, was strongly influenced by the priests of Yahweh who raised and protected him, especially Hilkiah.

By the age of 16, Josiah had become a champion of the exclusive worship of Yahweh, and at the age of 20 he had intituted a program to "to purge Judah and Jerusalem of high places, Asherah poles, carved idols and cast images." (2 Chronicles 34:3) Pagan priests throughout the land were slaughtered, and the bones of earlier such priets exhumed from their graves and burned. (2 Kings 23:4, et seq.) Moreover, priests of Yahweh who offered sacrifice outside of Jerusalem were banned from practicing their religious profession outside of the Temple.

The Temple Reform

In his 18th regnal year, Josiah began a reform of the Temple itself, authorizing the High Priest Hilkiah take the tax monies that had been collected over the years and use them to repair the neglect that the Temple had suffered during the reigns of Amon and Manasseh.

Hilkiah claimed that while was clearing the treasure room of the Temple (2 Chr. 34:14), he found a scroll described as "the book, book of the Torah (2 Kings 22:8) or as "the book of the Torah of Yahweh by the hand of Moses" (2 Chr. 34:14). Many scholars believe this was either a copy of the Book of Deuteronomy, or a text that became Deuteronomy as we have it. Hilkiah brought this scroll to Josiah's attention, and the king had it read to a crowd in Jerusalem. He was praised for this piety by the prophetess Huldah, who made the prophecy that all involved would die peacefully (2 Kings 22:14-20; 2 Chr. 34:22-28). As the fate of King Josiah shows, this prophecy was not fulfilled in a physical sense.

Attempt at Reunification

At some point between this year and his death, Josiah reasserted Judean control in the former territories of the kingdom of Israel. This is recorded in 2 Kings as systematically destroying the cultic objects in various cities, as well as executing the priests of the pagan gods. This campaign included the destruction of major Israelite altar at Bethel.

Josiah's death

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Josiah was slain at the Battle of Megiddo

There are two versions of Josiah's violent death. The Book of Kings tersely remarks that Necho II met Josiah at Megiddo, and killed him the moment the Egyptian king laid eyes on him (2 Kings 23:29)See Battle of Megiddo (609 B.C.E.). Proponents of DtrH ascribe this portion of the book to a post-Josiahwic redaction. The author of Chronicles describes Josiah meeting Necho in battle at Megiddo, where Josiah was fatally wounded by Egyptian archers, and was brought back to Jerusalem to die. Some scholars favor the account in Chronicles, because it better fits with what is known of international events. Necho had left Egypt around 609 B.C.E. for two reasons: one was to relieve the Babylonian siege of Harran, and the other was to help the king of Assyria, who was defeated by the Babylonians at the Battle of Carchemish. Josiah's actions suggest that he was aiding the Babylonians by engaging the Egyptian army.

In either case, the death of this king was a serious blow to the Yahweh-only faction in Judea. 2 Chronicles 35:25 implies that Jeremiah wrote a lament for Josiah's passing. A Jewish tradition claims that this lament is preserved in Lamentations chapter 4.

Textual criticism

While the Biblical text relates that the scroll was "found", this has been met with skepticism among some modern textual critics: the view of the English deists of the 16th century (Hertz 1936), that the book was a forgery created to help centralize power under Josiah, is held today among some Biblical scholars. (However, scholars such as W.R. Smith, Rudolf Kittel, Dillman and Driver disagree, pointing out that priestly forgery of the Deuteronomic text was unlikely, as the text placed restrictions on the privileges of the priestly class, who were a thorn in the side of King Josiah.)

In the ancient Near East it was commonplace for religious scrolls to be deposited in temple walls when they were constructed (Hertz 1936), and according to the Swiss Egyptologist Naville, this was the custom amongst the Jews at the time of Solomon. It would have been more unusual if such scrolls were not found in during the renovation of a temple building, and Naville recounts a similar find recounted in the Egyptian Book of the Dead. It is interesting to note in this respect that the specific text cited by Naville is one of many which are attributed to famous figures of the past, typically sons of a Pharaoh, and which are all known to have be written at a much later date. The linguistic evidence and all of the anachronisms contained in the Book of Deuteronomy suggest that the scroll was likely to have been written during the reign of King Josiah.

On the assumption that Deuteronomy was forged by Josiah's priests, these scholars go on to propose that the core narrative from Genesis to 2 Kings up to Josiah's reign comprise a "Deuteronomistic History" (DtrH) written during that reign. This history compiled the hypothesised "J", "E", and "D" narratives, all already textual at this point, of which the J narrative at this time would have extended into the history of David's court; the DtrH further attempted to historicise narratives of the times of Joshua and the Judges. The hypothetical DtrH is distinguished from the surviving Biblical books in that it omits the priestly "P" narrative. The DtrH portrayed King Josiah as the ideal ruler as Deuteronomy had defined it, and thus as the rightful ruler of Judah. (This interpretation is often confused with the position of "Biblical Minimalism", which denies that David and Solomon ruled a united kingdom; but Baruch Halpern has noted that however tendentious, DtrH must still be treated as a history, and as largely accurate at least for the reign of Josiah.) See Dating the Bible and The Bible and history. Such claims are detailed in Who Were the Early Israelites? by William G. Dever (William B. Eerdmans Publishing Co., Grand Rapids, MI, 2003). Another such book is The Bible Unearthed by Neil A. Silberman and Israel Finkelstein (Simon and Schuster, New York, 2001).

See also

• The Bible Unearthed : Archaeology's New Vision of Ancient Israel and the Origin of Its Sacred Texts for the possible role of Josiah in creation of the Bible.
• Hertz J.H. (1936) The Pentateuch and Haftoras. Deuteronomy. Oxford University Press, London.

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