Transcript & Glossaries

T&S 2026-8-18 King Josiah and the Origins of Monotheism - Centre Place

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bz_S0wrPJ0o

Table of Contents

Table of Contents 1

Transcript 2

Introduction 2

Praise for Josiah in the Biblical Account 2

The Prophecy Concerning King Josiah 4

The Contrast Between Josiah's Status and His Political Outcome 4

The Historical Framework of the Kings of Judah and Israel 6

The Deuteronomistic History and Theology 8

Evaluation of the Kings in 1 and 2 Kings 9

King Asa: An Example of a Good King 11

Overview of the Monarchies of Israel and Judah 13

King Hezekiah's Reign and Anti-Polytheistic Reforms 14

Assyrian Conflict and the Siege of Jerusalem 15

Historicity, Anachronisms, and Modern Scholarship 16

The Reign of Manasseh: The Worst King of Judah 20

King Josiah's Ascension and Religious Reforms 22

Discovery of the Book of the Law 23

Implementation of Monolatry and Religious Cleansing 24

Destruction of the Altar at Bethel 26

Institution of the Passover and Josiah's Death 27

Scholarly Theories on the Composition of the Deuteronomistic History 28

Conclusion: Josiah's Pivotal Role in the Development of Monotheism 31

Glossaries 31

Glossary 1: Previous Lectures or Episode 31

Glossary 2: Religious Studies Terms 32

Glossary 3: People Named 33

Glossary 4: Bible Passages 36

Glossary 5: Non English Words 37

Glossary 6: Books mentioned 38

Glossary 7: Linguistics Terms 38

Glossary 8: Scientific Terms 39

Glossary 9: Graphics Referenced 39

Glossary 10: Geographic Location 39

Glossary 11: Archaeological Sites 41

Glossary 12: Chronology 41

Glossary 13: Philosophical Terms 42

Transcript

Introduction

(00:00) Our topic this evening is King Josiah and the origins of monotheism in the uh Judeian and later Judeo-Christian and Islamic traditions. Um, we've had several lectures about the development of um, actual monotheism from earlier stages of henotheism and monolatry and so forth. And we're going to make the case tonight for pinpointing a critical moment, the terrain of King Josiah.

Praise for Josiah in the Biblical Account

(00:39) So although he's nowhere near as famous as King David of course who um incredibly um you know famous both as a young shepherd boy who defeats Goliath but then later as um as the quintessential um king of uh Judah um or Solomon uh the wise and even probably their predecessor King Saul.

(01:11) Paul um the Bible itself holds out very high praise for Josiah. So the book of 2 Kings chapter 22 says of him he did what was right in the sight of the Lord and walked in all the way of his father David. He did not turn aside to the right or the left. So David who's the model of a king is his model and he um followed that model and walked uh in the did what was right in the sight of the lord and this was we'll see is becomes a formula uh for how uh the books of kings describe good kings uh when they when when we come upon a good king of Judah

(01:53) but Josiah is singled out as a particularly good king so making the comparison with David, the great hero of the books of Samuel and Kings and also David is also the autonomous ancestor of the royal house of Judah who are called it's called the house of David. It's something the text reserves for these kings that it views with special favor like Josiah's great-grandfather, King Hezekiah.

(02:22) Um but the Bible also like I say singles Josiah out for special praise. Um before him we read there was no king like him who turned to the Lord with all his heart, with all his soul and with all his might according to all the law of Moses. Nor did any like him arise after him. So uh in terms of all of these qualities, there was nobody like him before Josiah and nobody ever came like him after.

(02:50) Even more impressively though than this, the Bible tells us Josiah is a king so important that his rule was predicted by a prophet three centuries before his birth. So in Kings 1, it states that in the reign of King Jeroboam, the first of Israel, the king ruling in the north following Solomon's reign.

(03:21) Um we read a man of God, a prophet came out of Judah, the southern kingdom by the word of the Lord to Bethel. Bethel means the house of God. It's one of the great shrines of the northern kingdom according to the book of kings established by Jeroboam. So while Jeroboam was standing by the altar at Bethl to offer incense, and this man of God cried out against the altar, by the word of the Lord, saying, "Oh altar, oh altar, altar, thus says the Lord, a son shall be born to the house of David, Josiah by name.

(04:05) And he shall sacrifice on you, O altar, the priests of the high places who offer incense on you, and human bones shall be burned on you. And then that uh man of the Lord, that prophet gave a sign the same day, saying, "This is the sign that the Lord has spoken to you." I mean, the Lord has spoken.

The Prophecy Concerning King Josiah

(04:30) the altar shall be torn down and the ashes that are on it shall be poured out. And so when the king heard what the man of God cried out against the altar at Bethel, Jeroboam stretched out his hands from the altar, saying, "Size him." But the hand that he stretched out against him withered so that he could not draw it back to himself.

(04:50) So this is a um a prophet that has a lot of power. You try to seize him and your hands wither. The unnamed man of God predicts a Davidic king will arise who will destroy this altar at the northern king's shrine at Bethel, the house of God. This sacred site associated with um the uh anonymous ancestor of Israel, the northern um uh the patriarch, you know, Israel is also Jacob.

(05:24) And so Jacob is um is associated with this site and um that prophet goes so far as to predict the name Josiah. So it's like a very specific prophecy. So this is a very unparalleled degree of biblical prediction. So even for example if you're Christian you are probably aware of Isaiah's messianic prophecy that says uh you know a young woman shall give birth and behold she'll conceive and call call his name Emmanuel God with us.

(05:56) So you know that's has to be interpreted symbolically since the actual Messiah in the Christian understanding his name isn't Emanuel it's Jesus. this unnamed man of God is actually getting the name right. You know, it's Josiah and he's going to do X, Y, and Z and it all is going to happen as we'll see. So, the Bible has pulled out all of the stops in order to up the ante on how important this king is.

The Contrast Between Josiah's Status and His Political Outcome

(06:22) And so, who who is this seemingly very very important, maybe most important of all the biblical kings after David? Why is he singled out as great? So historians when they're looking at monarchs, they often call ones great for brilliant military victories like Alexander the Great, who unexpectedly conquers the entire Persian Empire.

(06:47) Or they are great because they've ended a period of chaos and established some kind of lasting period of security or a new entity like Augustus did. Fax Romana the ongoing imperial system or Constantine the great um who's one of the um people after Dialesian who u refounded essentially the Roman Empire on new on a new footing after the crisis of the 3rd century.

(07:17) So King Josiah didn't do either of those. Instead, his reign marked the end of his kingdom's autonomy and actually the very beginning of its final collapse and fall. According to the second book of Chronicles, Josiah did fight in a big battle against the Egyptians at Megiddo, which is um where we get the the name Armageddon.

(07:47) So Har Megiddo, the plain of Megiddo, but he or the hill of Megiddo, but he lost um that battle and was killed as a result. So we read in uh 2 Chronicles 35 that King Necho of Egypt, that is Pharaoh Neco II went up to fight at Carameish on the Euphrates. So he is having a much bigger battle against the Mesopotamians. And Josiah went out against him.

(08:14) But Neco sent envoys to him, saying, "What have I to do with you, king of Judah? I am not coming against you today, but against the house with which I am at war, and God has commanded me to hurry. Cease opposing God who is with me, so that he will not destroy you." It's a very um weird um unusual perspective for the Bible where in this case Pharaoh has God on his side.

(08:45) He is responding to God's commands and he is actually ordering the king of Judah to stop opposing God. But Josiah would not turn away from him but disguised himself in order to fight with him. He did not listen to the words of Necho from the mouth of God, but joined battle in the plane of Megiddo. So even the chronicler here is actually it's not just Pharaoh who was claiming to be on God's side.

(09:10) Um the chronicler here also is agreeing with that. So the archers shot King Josiah and the king said to his servants, "Take me away for I am badly wounded." So his servants took him out of the chariot and carried him in his second chariot and he was brought and brought him to Jerusalem and there he died and was buried in the tombs of his ancestors.

(09:32) So a very strange uh story of Josiah's death rebelling against God and God's uh chosen servant the pharaoh here. So after that death Josiah um Josiah's kingdom becomes unst unsettled. Um he his initial um chosen successor Jehoaza Ahaz um Jehoaz III um reigns for a little while but then the pharaoh comes back and deposes him and puts his own um candidate on the throne.

The Historical Framework of the Kings of Judah and Israel

(10:09) So, Jehoakim and that guy then gets killed by the Babylonians. Um, he has an heir uh that is reigns just a brief time and the Babylonians depose him and they put their own puppet uh Zedekiah on the throne and a few years after that um the Babylonians uh extinguish the kingdom altogether. So, it's a pretty dismal end after Josiah gets killed by the Pharaoh.

(10:36) And so we can kind of see uh this in a timeline if we look at um the ending period of the two kingdoms. So beginning here in 800 before the common era, we have the Assyrians with in the Mesopotamia, the kingdom of Israel in the north, the kingdom of Judah in the south. The very last king of Israel is Hosiah who um is defeated by the Assyrians when they destroy Samaria and take control of the northern kingdom.

(11:10) And meanwhile um at the very end of um uh the kingdom of Judah we have Josiah's long reign and the reigns of his different successors as he is killed uh by the pharaoh and the others are killed or deposed by u the Babylonians. And you can kind of see then, you know, after the kingdom is extinguished, we have the um the Babylonian exile and later the exiles return in the Persian period.

(11:40) And I've put against this some of the um uh potential activities of the different prophets. So Jeremiah and Ezekiel um Isaiah who's operating at the end of the kingdom of Israel and Jeremiah and Ezekiel who are operating at the end of um of the kingdom of Judah. So arguably then Josiah does not live a great political legacy.

(12:07) And so we [snorts] have to assume that the author and editors of the books of kings have a very different standard for judging good and bad kings than um than historians usually do. And this of course is because they're not focused on history but rather are um for its own sake but rather are making theological arguments.

(12:29) And so if we look at the narrative focus within the books of the Hebrew Bible, um you know, the the texts start with the Torah or the five books attributed to Moses. Genesis, Exodus, Leviticus, Numbers, and Deuteronomy. Genesis tells all of these stories before um Moses becomes the central character. Exodus, Leviticus, and Numbers begin and tell the num the Moses stories.

(12:55) And Deuteronomy, which means a second law, um is essentially a retelling of the Moses story. So Moses is dominating um for the five uh books of the Pentatuk. This is then followed by um books that we call the Deuteron Deuteronomistic histories. Joshua, Judges, 1 and 2 Samuel, 1 and 2 Kings. So Joshua tells the story of the Israelites after they're wandering in the wilderness, entering Canaan and establishing themselves.

(13:32) Judges tells a series of uh stories about um Israelite leaders from different tribes who are not united. They're operating as independent tribes or autonomous tribes. And then Samuel, the books of Samuel up to early kings tells stories of a united monarchy established by the last of the judges, Samuel, who anoints Saul and later in turn David.

(14:00) Uh and then uh and David is succeeded by Solomon. And then the bulk of the um the story of the rest of the books of kings are talking about the period of time when Israel and Judah each have lines of kings. And then later at the end in the end of 2 kings, Judah alone exists. And then finally, after all of the Deuteronomistic histories, we have the two books of Chronicles, which are a later reworking of the Deuteronomic histories, trying to kind of clean them up and and make them better and potentially replace embarrassing stories. Um, but instead of replacing

The Deuteronomistic History and Theology

(14:38) the books, they actually just got put in the Bible alongside them. So, you can see both versions. So, let's look at the Deuteronomistic histories. So in 1943, Martin Nath, a German biblical scholar, coined this term in order to identify these texts because they share uh texts from from Joshua to Second Kings that share a similar style and a similar similar theological outlook, a similar um editorial goals.

(15:10) So central to all six of these texts is the idea that Israelites are made to suffer when they abandon the worship of their god Yahweh and turn instead to foreign gods, start worshiping the gods of all the peoples around them, especially the Canaanites. So this ultimately um represents the Deuteronomistic school's answer to theodicy, the problem of evil.

(15:42) Why would if God has a chosen people, why did this chosen people suffer so much? And the answer to that um in this school of thought anyway is because they are not sufficiently monolatrous. That means there are all of these other gods. God uh the God of Israel is jealous. He does not want his people to worship the God of the Moabites or the Philistines or the gods of the Canaanites.

(16:12) Instead, they have to reserve their worship for the God of Israel alone. And so this um story and this framework, this worldview is expressed again and again throughout these six books. The idea that the suffering results from worshiping other gods when they should be faithful becomes the central narrative.

(16:37) For example, the central narrative formula for the book of Judges. And so that uh formula is introduced by the author or editor of Judges in chapter 2 where we read then the Israelites did what was evil in the sight of the Lord and they served the ba. So all of the different lords, the gods of the Canaanites, and they abandoned the Lord.

(17:02) They abandoned Yahweh, the god of their ancestors who had brought them out of the land of Egypt. They followed other gods from among the gods of the peoples who were all around them. And they bow down to them and they provoked the Lord Yahweh to an to anger. They abandoned the Lord and served Baal and Estartis. So the anger of the Lord was kindled against Israel.

(17:27) And he gave them over to plunderers who plundered them. And he sold them into the power of their enemies all around so they could no longer withstand their enemies. And whenever they marched out, the hand of the Lord was against them to bring misfortune as the Lord had warned them and sworn to them and they were in great distress.

(17:49) So idolatry leads to punishment and punishment by um the uh by the Lord actually causing enemies to win battles against you. So once that has happened, the Lord raises up judges, that is to say tribal chiefs who deliver the Israelites out of the power of those who are plundering them. And whenever the Lord raised up judges for them, the Lord was with the judge, and he delivered them from the hands of their enemies all the days of the judge, for the Lord would be moved to pity by their groaning because of those who had been persecuted, because of those who

(18:27) had persecuted and oppressed them. But whenever the judge that the Lord had raised up died, the Israelites would relapse and behave worse than their ancestors, following other gods, serving them and bowing down to them. They would not drop any of their practices or their stubborn ways.

(18:47) And so that happens and then repeat and start again. So the cycle can be summarized. Israel does evil in the eyes of Yahweh. That is idolatry. The people are given into the hands of their enemies by Yahweh. Yahweh raises up a leader. The spirit of Yahweh comes upon the leader who then defeats the enemy and restores peace.

Evaluation of the Kings in 1 and 2 Kings

(19:08) And then the cycle begins again and again uh throughout the book of judges. So um we have that cycle repeated with the judge, Ahood, Deborah, Gideon, Jeepa and Samson. um judges that become you know uh in the case of Samson ultimately le less reliable and smart but more um more fun anyway in a certain sense but as the as the whole cycle continues and each one of them is brought up from a different tribe because again they're not united and the enemy that uh the Lord uses to smite the people are variously the Aramites which is to say

(19:48) the Syrians from Damascus the Moabites Canaanites Medionites Amalachites, that is Bedawins, Ammonites, or everybody's favorite, the Philistines. So, the editors of Judges assemble a series of pre-existing legends um into into these narrative groups, and that gives it a sense of quasi history. And that's one of the results of the Deuteronomist art.

(20:17) By imposing their formula on each tale, the Deuteronomists create narrative examples that retrospectively prove their worldview that demands that the Yahweh demands monolatry, worshiping him alone, that Yahweh's always done so, and that all Israelite misfortunes result from the abandonment of monolatry. So this same focus on monolatry informs the framework for the books of Samuel in Kings once we get to the period of the monarchy.

(20:51) So following the stories of Saul, David and Solomon, the books narrate the lives and deeds of the kings of Israel and Judah interlacing them. And each king is judged by the Deuteronomistic editors based on whether they were polytheist and promoting polytheism, the worship of all of the different gods, in which case they are a very bad king, or whether they're monolitists and they worship only uh Yahweh, and then in which case they're a good king.

(21:27) And so um the formula for good and actually mostly bad kings is then repeated at the beginning of each king's reign. So for example at first kings chapter 14 we read concerning Rayoboam. Rahoboam son of Solomon reigned in Judah. Rayoboam was 41 years old when he began to reign. And he reigned 17 years in Jerusalem, the city that the Lord had chosen out of all the tribes of Israel to put his name there.

(21:57) His mother's name was Nama the Ammonite. And Judah did what was evil in the sight of the Lord. They provoked him to jealousy with their sins that they committed more than all their ancestors had done. For they also built for themselves high places. High places are um shrines around not in the city of Jerusalem itself where different gods can be worshiped.

(22:24) They built pillars, sacred poles, asherah poles on every high hill and under every green tree. There were also illicit priests in the land. They committed all the abominations of the nations that the Lord had driven out before the peoples of Israel. So they're worshiping all of the Canaanite gods and so forth. Under Roaboam, the book of Kings says they were fully committed therefore to polytheism.

(22:50) So given the Deuteronomistic worldview, we then expect that this sort of behavior will result in punishment from Yahweh and these expectations are rewarded. So very soon after that setup we read in the fifth year of King Rhoboam, King Shishak of Egypt came up against Jerusalem and he took away the treasures of the house of the Lord and all the treasures of the king's house.

King Asa: An Example of a Good King

(23:18) He took everything. So this biblical king Shishek is usually identified with Pharaoh Shashank I who reigned in the 10th century before the common era in Egypt. And so, um, the same Sha Shank I is the Pharaoh who, according to Raiders of the Lost Arc, according to what Indiana Jones tells us anyway, took the Ark of the Covenant um, during that raid on Jerusalem, mentioned in the Bible, and then hid it in a tre special treasure city in Egypt called Tannis that was then swallowed up mysteriously by the desert according to,

(23:59) again, that's all from the movie. So if bad kings promote polytheism, good kings in the deuteronomistic view promote manolatry like Rahoboam's grandson, King Asa of Judah. So we read in chapter 15, in the 20th year of King Jeroboam of Israel, Asa began to reign over Judah. He reigned 41 years in Jerusalem.

(24:30) His mother's name was Maka, daughter of Abishalam. So, you can kind of see here how this always becomes a formula that's repeated that the um Deuteronom Deuteronomist is using to craft all of these narratives that they do. So, Assa did what was right in the sight of the Lord as his father David had done.

(24:53) He put away the illicit priests out of the land and he removed all the idols that his ancestors had made. He also removed his mother Maka from being queen mother because she had made an abominable image for Asher. So Asher is this Canaanite goddess, the u wife of L who is uh understood as the consort at a certain point of Yahweh as L and Yahweh merge and who is widely worshiped throughout this entire period uh especially by the women of Judah in Israel.

(25:29) So she made this abominable image for Ashrah. Assa cut her down her image and burned it at the Wadi Kiddran. But the high places were not taken away. So all the people that have these shrines around Jerusalem are still operating out there in Asa's reign. Nevertheless, the heart of Asa was true to the Lord all his days. He brought into the house of the Lord the votive gifts of his father and his own votive gifts, silver, gold, and utensils.

(25:59) So for the Deuteronomists, getting rid of idols, you know, that means the king has done a good job. Getting rid of idolatrous mothers, you've done a really good job. You know, the the whole problem according to um their framework, their reframing of the history is that because the kings are marrying um foreign women, uh then when uh they also bring with them their gods and often are um are often their gods are are supported by their sons.

(26:30) But in this case, Asa rejects his mother. Once again, given the Deuteronomous worldview, we would expect a good king like Asa of Judah to be rewarded with victory in battle by Yahweh, especially if he were to go to war against a bad king like his contemporary Basha of Israel whom first kings describes in this way.

(26:54) So in the third year of King Asa of Judah, Basha, son of Aaya, um began to reign over all Israel at Tursza. He reigned 24 years. He did what was evil in the sight of the Lord, walking in the way of Jeroboam, a previous bad northern king, and in the sin that he, Jeroboam, had caused Israel to commit. In the resulting war, therefore, the good king prospers while the bad king is punished.

(27Deuteronomistic :22) And this is how good king versus bad king matchups should happen in the duteuromistic worldview. There was a war between Assa of Judah and King Basha of Israel all their days. King Basha of Israel went up against Judah and built Rama to prevent anyone from going out or coming in to King Assa of Judah. So Rama here is about 5 miles or 8 km north of Jerusalem along the main north south road.

(27:52) And so fortifying that site has a potential to control trade with the southern kingdom or transit to the southern kingdom. And so it's a um hostile threat. Then Assa took all of the silver and the gold that was left in the treasure houses of the Lord and sent them to King Ben Hadad, son of Tabon, son of Hezion of Aram. So who resided in Damascus.

(28:19) So the Aramites are this other great kingdom, this great power in Syria, uh, whose capital is Damascus. And Assa sends to this king and says, "Let there be an alliance between me and you, like that between my father and your father. I'm sending you a present of silver and gold.

(28:40) Go break your alliance with King Basha of Israel so that he may withdraw from me." So he takes this big bribe. It works. and Aram turns from ally of Israel to enemy of Israel uh and Judah then is able to attack uh in a jointly and it's victorious. So um just in this kind of early setting period we can see on the map here um the northern kingdom is much bigger consisting of 10 of the tribes.

(29:09) Judah is smaller consisting of two. Um the main capitals of Israel, Samaria and Sheckchim. Um Jerusalem is the capital of the southern kingdom is at its kind of frontier with the north. And you can see Aram up there in the uh northeast Syria. And then around them also are the Phoenicians, Philistines, Ammonites, Moabites, and And Rama there on the border is would have been right on that main road.

Overview of the Monarchies of Israel and Judah

(29:38) in controlling that. So all of these neighbors are seen by the Deuteronomists as simple tools employed by Yahweh to teach lessons to Israel and Judah the same way um that would they were the neighbors were teaching lessons in the book of judges. So they're not really seen as um let's say individuals or people with their own free will.

(30:02) they are are are being controlled in this way. And using this formula, the books of kings organizes stories of the kings of Israel until their fall to Assyria and the kings of Judah until their fall to Babylon. So if we chart all of those um based on u the calculations given you know from those formulas in the Hebrew Bible um we have this beginning period of the United Kingdom under Saul and his son Eshbal uh and then replaced by David and his son Solomon.

(30:45) And thereafter, after the end of that, we have the larger and more important northern kingdom, beginning with Jeroboam the first and going through such leaders as Omry and Ahab all the way down to the very end with King Hosa who is defeated by the Assyrians causing the northern kingdom to fall in 720. And in the south, the smaller kingdom Judah, Rahoboam, all the way down through Aha, Asa that we mentioned, uh Hezekiah, who is king at the time, Samaria falls, Hezekiah's son, Manasseh, and Manass's grandson, Josiah, all the way down then to the very end of

(31:24) Josiah's lines, Zedekiah, when the southern kingdom falls to Babylon. And so if we plot them all out using again dates that are reconstructed from the Hebrew Bible as opposed to from extra biblical sources, we can also see what the Deuteronomists have to say in terms of whether these are good or bad kings. And it turns out that the Deuteronomists judge every one of the northern kings to be bad without fail.

(31:53) They're all bad kings. And only seven of Judah's kings are judged to be good. Beginning with Asa that we mentioned and then having another whole sort of uh run of them from uh Jehoash uh all the way down through Josham and then the last two Hezekiah and Josiah which um is the focus of this presentation. So Hezekiah of Judah reigned uh from 729 to 686 before the common era according to anyway chronology reconstructed from the Bible and he was the final good king prior to Josiah who is the very last good king. Hezekiah's reign is

King Hezekiah's Reign and Anti-Polytheistic Reforms

(32:41) introduced using that same Deuteronomistic formula for good kings in uh the second book of Kings chapter 18 where we read in the third year of King Hosa son of Ellah of Israel that is that very last king of the northern kingdom um before it's destroyed. Hezekiah son of King Ahaz of Judah began to reign.

(33:10) He was 25 years old when he began to reign. He reigned 29 years in Jerusalem. His mother's name was Abi, daughter of Zachariah. He did was right in the sight right what was right in the sight of the Lord just as his answer D ancestor David had done. So that's that formula for good kings. But second Kings says Hezekiah went even further than David in suppressing polytheism.

(33:36) So he removed the high places. He broke down the pillars. He cut down the sacred pole. He broke in pieces the bron serpent that Moses has ma had made. For until those days, the people of Israel had made offerings to it. It was called the neahushan. So that's something that David had left living as far as you know this would have worked in the biblical account anyway.

(34:02) So according to the book of numbers, Moses made a serpent of bronze and put it on a pole which was used to heal the people. The implication of Hezekiah destroying a healing artifact associated with Moses is that uh by his day it's become a cult object associated with polytheism like these Levitical high places like the pillars like the poles sacred to Asher and so forth.

(34:31) So Hezekiah destroys Moses um art of healing artifact. In the Deuteronomic framing, Yahweh normally uses foreign powers to attack Israel or Judah when they're insufficiently manolitrous, when they're worshiping other gods. And after many centuries, the long line of consistently bad kings in the north was finally extinguished by Assyria in Hezekiah's day in 720 BC.

Assyrian Conflict and the Siege of Jerusalem

(35:03) And so we read after the destruction of the northern kingdom, the kingdom of Judah was only able to survive by paying heavy tribute to the Assyrians. So according to 2 kings chapter 10, in the 14th year of Hezekiah, King Sinakarb of Assyria came up against all the fortified cities of Judah and captured them.

(35:30) King Hezekiah of Judah sent to the king of Assyria at Lakish, saying, "I've done wrong. Withdraw from me. Whatever you impose on me, I will bear." So the king of Assyria demanded of King Hezekiah of Judah 300 talants of silver and 30 talants of gold. Hezekiah gave him all of the silver that was found in the house of the Lord and in the treasuries of the king's house.

(35:58) At that time Hezekiah stripped the gold from the doors of the temple of the Lord and from the doorposts the king Hezekiah of Judah had overlaid and gave it to the king of Assyria. So, you know, even good kings like Asa who had to bribe the king of Aram or Hezekiah here who is having to pay tribute to the Assyrians.

(36:17) They regularly get away with stripping the temple of all its wealth. Um, but anyway, Judah continued to exist by paying tribute, but now it's reduced to a client status within the Assyrian Empire. And so, you know, this is a much bigger empire than has happened before. And even ultimately is uh the Assyrians are able to reduce uh Egypt to client status and along with of course the Babylonians and Mes and so forth.

(36:49) As the threats and exactions increase, however, from the Assyrians, Hezekiah ultimately rebelss against Sakaribb who threatens to destroy his kingdom. just like he's destroyed so many other kingdoms and he begins with a great siege or blockade of Jerusalem. But Yahweh is on Hezekiah's side. He is a good king after all.

(37:12) And the Lord declares this through the mouth of the prophet Isaiah. Not in the book of Isaiah but um as a character in the book of 2 Kings. Thus says the Lord. Isaiah says here I will defend this city to save it. Jerusalem for my own sake and for the sake of my servant David. So then Yahweh intervenes very directly in the fighting according to the text.

(37:39) That night the angel of the Lord set out and struck down 185,000 in the camp of the Assyrians. And when morning dawned they were all dead bodies. Then King Sinekarab of Assyria left, went home and lived at Nineveh. And as he was worshiping the house of his god Nisrock, his sons uh Adramal and Sherzar were killed, I'm sorry, killed him with his sword.

(38:09) I'm sorry, killed him with the sword and they escaped into the lands of Ararat and his son Esar Haden succeeded him. So as far as the Deuteronomists are concerned, so much for Sakarab's boasting, you know, you know, he ended up getting uh what he deserved. Nevertheless, um the system here, I think, seems to have gone a little bit arai.

Historicity, Anachronisms, and Modern Scholarship

(38:30) It's a little bit of a mixed story. So, if Yahweh employs foreign kings to chasten Israel and Judah when they're polytheist, you know, why are the Assyrians attacking Hezekiah in the first place? Hezekiah is a good king. So, I'm going to say argue here that a significant factor may be that the events in the stories now are getting much closer to the moment in time when the people writing the stories are writing them down.

(39:01) And so, they're less malleable um and less um uh less changeable than the earlier stories, some of which are in the legendary um the legendary era. So context is always the author's context. Authors are the product of their own time. Whenever somebody is writing a story set in the past, they inevitably introduce anachronisms from their own time, even though they're trying to set it in the past time.

(39:31) And so in act two, scene one of Shakespeare's Julius Caesar, a clock strikes three, you know, and of course clocks are, you know, the kind of clock that are um that that Shakespeare is thinking of are a medieval invention that are ubiquitous in his world, but of course did not exist in Caesars's. So it's an anachronism and anachronisms were way more common.

(39:59) We're so much more aware of historicity in modern times. So if you look at this 16th century portrait of Julius Caesar from Portugal, um Caesar is prepared is being shown here like a 16th century Holy Roman Emperor with um with a kind of nightly armor that you know is from the age of gunpowder and so forth and a and a jousting helmet and a a a shield that has got the double-headed uh eagle of again the Holy Roman Empire and so forth. It's very inaccuristic.

(40:32) So the narrative setting at the beginning of the books of Samuel and Kings that's four centuries earlier than the setting as they come to an end. So whenever the texts were written and um the arguments are either they are written this the kernel of them or the beginning of them is right before the end of the uh the kingdom of Judah during the exile or in the exile period or in the Persian period.

(41:08) But whenever they're written, the authors are living 200 or more years closer to the historical King Hezekiah's reign than they were to the possibly mythical Royoboam's reign. And so while both portraits then are going to contain anachronisms, they're going to reflect the time period when they're written, the earlier time is so much more distant, so much more alien, so much less remembered um that it places narratives in the book of Kings about Rahoboam into the borderlands of of legend.

(41:43) there's an increasingly dim vision as you go, you know, essentially from the beginning of the books because the books are are written in the in the, you know, backwards essentially in terms of the time frame in chronologically in the in the normal direction. So if we go back to that um Shashank um the first the pharaoh that Indiana Jones believe stole the ark of the covenant.

(42:09) First Kings says that he sacked Rohoboam's capital Jerusalem and carried off all of the treasures and so forth. But um we have [snorts] Egypt is great for records. So, we have in Egypt Shashank's own account of his military campaign in the Levant. It's got a big um uh relief of him and it's surrounded by all of uh his account as you can see.

(42:35) And it lists all of the city states that he says he conquered. and Jerusalem does not make the list of the cities he sacked despite the fact that um the biblical account is actually even admitting a defeat. So archae archaeologists though modern archaeologists including Israel Finkelstein have argued that the account in kings is anachronistic.

(43:02) So at the time by the time the text was written this is long after the fall of the northern kingdom Jerusalem had grown and become an important center with an important temple complex actually all important for the emerging religion. But if you go back so many centuries earlier Shashank's time the 10th century BC the site would have been a minor hill town.

(43:23) It would have been of no interest to Egypt. And that's why it's not on the list of cities that get city states that are important or get sacked. So if we look at that same um list of the northern kings and the southern kings that we were looking at before for you know deciding whether they were good or bad according to the Deuteronomist.

(43:46) can also look at them to see which ones of these um are referenced by any kind of extra biblical sources, whether it is a stellle of um from the Egyptians or the Assyrians or the Babylonians or the Moabites, somebody around them or whether there is some um you know artifact or seal that has uh their own name on it and so forth.

(44:12) And so we have about eight kings of the northern kingdom and another eight kings of the southern kingdom that are attested by extra biblical sources. And this includes um uh Hosiah at the fall of the northern kingdom along with Hezekiah uh who we've just been talking about and Manasseh. uh but not Josiah, although we do have um um um some extra biblical evidence for one of Josiah's officials potentially.

(44:50) So Hezekiah reigned, like I say, two centuries closer to the time the authors and editors of the books of Samuel and Kings are writing the story down. And so the story of his rebellion against Assyria and the resulting blockade of Jerusalem by the Assyrian army is part of the extra biblical record too. So Sakarab's own account from Assyrian sources says, "As for Hezekiah, like a caged bird, I shut him up in Jerusalem, his royal city.

(45:25) I barricaded him with outposts and exit from the gate of his city I made taboo for him. So um Sakarab also talks about uh the siege that we heard about in the biblical account. Um we also have here a Assyrian depiction of Sinakarab enthroned in the conquered Judite city of Lakish as he is receiving Judite prisoners while giving orders to his officials, you know.

(46:00) So shutting an enemy up like a caged bird is not as good as destroying him. So um the Syrian account is admitting um some kind of an impass. So they ravaged the rest of the kingdom. The walls of Jerusalem held and the Assyrians eventually had to lift the siege. Their version doesn't make any mention of whether a destroying angel came and killed you know hundreds of thousands of them.

(46:26) Um, modern theories have suggested, well, maybe there was a plague. That often happens um during sieges or maybe um the army had to be recalled to fight on some other front as the Assyrians had lots of different um needs. The Kush Kush might have invaded or any other thing. Um nevertheless we are um getting to a point where like I say uh from legendary the the biblical narrative through the deuteronomic histories is now um impacting and connecting and becoming achieving historicity.

(47:01) So the relative nearness of the events of the war with Assyria may have prevented the authors of the books of kings from creating a narrative that would be wholly in keeping with their worldview. In other words, they would want it to be that Yahweh only uses Assyrians to attack bad kings, not good ones like Hezekiah.

(47:24) But given that Hezekiah did get attacked um at least you know God intervened on his side and fairly miraculously. So nevertheless the inconsistency of the worldview becomes even more apparent with Hezekiah's successor which is viewed by the Deuteronomist as Judah's worst king ever, Hezekiah's son, Manasseh.

The Reign of Manasseh: The Worst King of Judah

(47:50) So we read in chapter 21 that Manasseh was 12 years old when he began to reign and he reigned for 55 years in Jerusalem. His mother's name was Hef Zeba. She he did what was evil in the sight of the Lord following the abominable practices of the nations that the Lord drove out before the people of Israel.

(48:10) So you can see that same formula for bad kings. He rebuilt the high places that his father Hezekiah had destroyed. He erected altars for Baal. He made a sacred pole for Asher as King Ahab of Israel had done. He worshiped all the hosts of heaven and served them. He built altars in the house of the Lord in the temple itself of which the temple I'm sorry, of which the Lord had said, "In Jerusalem, I will put my name.

(48:38) " And he put altars for all the hosts of heaven in the two courts of the house of the Lord. That is, you know, for the sun, the moon, all the planets and stars and so forth. He made his son pass through fire, which is a euphemism for um performing child or human sacrifice. This um uh this commandment that uh the firstborn of every womb is mine, says the Lord.

(49:07) He practiced soothsaying and augury and he dealt with mediums and with wizards. He did much evil in the sight of the Lord provoking Yahweh to anger. Um the carved image of Asher that he made he set in the Jerusalem temple. So it's uh the temple is now fully you know recommitted to u polytheism.

(49:30) And this is precisely the kind of behavior that would have gotten a king earlier in the book in the earlier books of kings attacked and defeated by say the Amalachites or the Philistines or somebody. And so if the Deuteronomic worldview held, we would expect Yahweh to use Egypt or Assyria to punish King Manasseh. But no such punishment is given in the account of Manass's reign of 55 years as told in 2 Kings.

(50:03) And although the details are passed over in silence and when you do all the math of all those formulas, 2 Kings is admitting that Manasseh enjoyed a longer reign than any other king of Judah. The account also passes over um wars in silence. So, um, there's no notion that the Egyptians were raised up and came and attacked him or the Assyrians, but we do have from extra biblical sources from the Assyrian records that Esser Haden, the successor to Sinekarb, lists Manasseh as his ally when he went on to conquer Egypt in 671 before the common era. So, um, he's

(50:48) apparently on the good side or on the good, uh, list anyway, not good side, but the good list of the Assyrians, um, and enjoying the benefits of that. Um because uh um Judah under Manasseh is integrated then into this Assyrian economic system, this great empire stretching from Egypt all across Mesopotamia to Media.

(51:17) Um Jerusalem could finally begin to grow and become a significant center during Manasseh's long and prosperous reign. So it already started to grow under Hezekiah. But the original city of David that's kind of on the right there um had started expanding westward um and this takes off in this you know half ccentury of prosperity under evil king Manasseh.

(51:46) So Mananassa's existence as a historical figure in relatively recent memory prevented the Deuteronomist from writing for him a fate more befitting of their worldview and caused them to create some shaky apologetic explanations of why it didn't happen in his lifetime as we'll see. But his story and the story of the very last good king, I think should have caused them to rethink their theodysy, that is to say, their um their theological worldview about why the righteous suffer when they're God's chosen people. So,

(52:26) second Kings says that Manasseh was succeeded by his son, King Ammon, and that Ammon was likewise a bad king. He reigned two short years before his household servants assassinated him and then he was succeeded by his son Josiah who becomes the last and best good king of Judah in the eyes of the Deuteronomists.

King Josiah's Ascension and Religious Reforms

(52:48) So we read in chapter 22 that Josiah was 8 years old when he began to reign. He reigned 31 years in Jerusalem. His mother's name was Jadida, daughter of Adia of of Boscath. and he did what was right in the sight of the Lord and he walked in all of the ways of his father David. He did not turn aside to the right or the left.

(53:11) The formula for a good king. So the assassination of his father, the coming to throne of the child, that's a sign of a monarchy that's in a pretty unstable condition. This is always um you know bad in in any moment of history. And so initially Josiah's advisers would have been in full control governing in in his name. And in the account of Josiah's reign in second kings, we actually get a whole host of um named advisors, you know, which is also pretty interesting.

(53:43) Um Josiah, the name, it's our English version. It's an English rendering of Yoshi Yahoo, meaning Yahweh has healed. So he has a um Yahweh theophoric name and so this may be a name that also informs his religious program which is again turning back to manus worship of Yahweh alone. We hear the names of some of these advisers of Josiah in the next verses after he becomes king.

(54:20) Um we read in the 18th year of King Josiah, the king set uh Sha Shaen, son of Aelia to Mashelam, the secretary to the house of the Lord, saying, "Go up to the high priest Hilkaya, and have him add up the entire sum of silver that has been brought to the house of the Lord, that the keepers of the threshold have collected from the people.

(54:43) Let it be given to the hand of the workers who are at the house of the Lord, repairing the house. So give it to all the carpenters and the masons and so forth so that um the temple can be repaired. And immediately after this order we hear that the high priest Hilkaya said to Shaathan the secretary I have found the book of the law in the house of the Lord.

Discovery of the Book of the Law

(55:11) And so when Hilkaya gave the book to Shaan he read it. So this very same phrase for book of the law that is used in this passage is also used to identify the book given by Moses to Joshua in the book of Joshua in two different places. And so that's also part of the Deuteronomic histories. And so this implies that the Deuteronomists are linking the two and indicating that this book found by Hilkaya is the same book that Moses passed to uh Joshua.

(55:43) And so what book did Hilkaya find? As early as the beginning of the 19th century, scholars have suggested that the book is a section from Deuteronomy. at least it's either Deuteronomy or the oldest section, the Deuteronomic Law Code, chapters 2012 to 26. And then the idea then would be other sections were added to get Deuteronomy um to uh its version that we now have it by later authors and editors during the exile who explain for example why the uh the temple and the kingdom were destroyed.

(56:22) So continuing um about this book, uh Schaan the secretary informed the king, "The priest Hilkaya has given me a book." Chaan then read it aloud to the king, and when the king heard the words of the book of the law, he tore his clothes in a public display of grief. Then the king commanded the high priest Hilkaya Aiiamikam son of Schaefan Akbar son of Micaiah Schaean the secretary and the king's servant Assiah saying so you can just see there's a whole bunch of collections of of of functionaries and they're all getting their name into

(57:02) this. So go inquire of the Lord for me, for the people, and for all Judah, concerning the words of this book that has been found. For great is the wrath of the Lord that is kindled against us, because our ancestors did not obey the words of this book to do according to all that is written concerning us. So Josiah has had this reaction because the teachings in this newly found anyway book are very unfamiliar to him. they've never been enacted.

Implementation of Monolatry and Religious Cleansing

(57:33) And so he sends out to ask the he sends all his officials to go ask uh the Lord about it. And in response to that inquiry, the priests confirm that the Lord says that this is his word. And the Lord further confirms that yes, the kingdom is already in really deep trouble due to its transgressions of all of these rules that they have not been following.

(57:55) And so this book of the law becomes the basis for Josiah's reforms. According to the biblical account, Josiah has everyone gathered to Jerusalem where the book of the law is read after which the king stood by the pillar and made a covenant before the Lord to follow the Lord, keeping his commandments, his decrees, and his statutes with all his heart and with all his soul to perform the words of the covenant that are written in the book and all the people joined in the covenant.

(58:29) So the height of this is a renewal of the covenant with God that was also the covenant that is described in the book and is the central focus of the deuteronomic history. So the fact that this covenant to have you know Yahweh is the God of the Israelites and they have no other god except him and every time they break the covenant that is uh the cause of all their woes.

(58:56) So having renewed the covenant with Yahweh, Josiah proceeds to implement a policy of strict manolatry. You're to worship uh Yahweh only and none of these other gods. So the king commanded the high priest, Hilkaya, the priests of the second order, and the guardians of the threshold to bring out of the temple of the Lord all of the vessels made for Baal, for Asher, and for all the hosts of heaven.

(59:25) and he burned them outside Jerusalem in the fields of Kiddran. And he carried their ashes to Bethel. He deposed the idolatrous priests whom the kings of Judah had ordained to make offerings in the high places at the cities of Judah and around Jerusalem. Those who als those also who made offerings to Baal, to the sun, the moon, the constellations, and all of the hosts of heaven.

(59:51) So all of the other gods, they're all um the shrines, the high places, the implements, and the priesthoods are all to be eliminated. He brought out the image of Asher from the house of the Lord uh outside Jerusalem to the Wadi and he burned it at Wadi Kiddran. He beat it to dust and threw the dust of it upon the graves of the common people.

(1:00:14) He broke down the houses of the illicit priests who were in the house of the Lord where women did weaving for Asher. So all of this um polytheist system was previously totally integrated into u the system. But having cleansed Jerusalem temple of uh the polytheist priests and implements for the worship of gods besides Yahweh, uh Josiah then proceeds to destroy all other places of worship in Judah.

(1:00:43) So he brought all the priests out of the towns of Judah. He defiled the high places where the priests had made offerings. From Gea to Beersa, he broke down the high places of the gates that were at the entrance of the gate of Joshua. The governor of the city which were at the on the left of the gate of the city.

(1:01:02) The priests of the high places, however, did not come up to the altar of the Lord in Jerusalem, but ate unleavened bread among their kindred. So this policy of centralization allows Josiah and his um central priests, the high priest and priests of the second order at the Jerusalem temple to control all sacrifice in the realm.

(1:01:24) There's no more shrines anywhere else in order to communicate with God. You have to bring animals for sacrifice to the Jerusalem temple. So part of the reform program um very positively included the elimination of child sacrifice that we mentioned his grandfather Manasseh is said to have performed. And so uh Josiah defiled Tohath which is in the valley of Ben Henon so that no one would make a son or a daughter pass through fire as an offering to Molech.

(1:01:56) So that practice is going to end and the narrative continues an incredible litany of all the different altars and sacred poles and shrines that Josiah destroyed. Certainly it's a um exciting time for the Deuteronomists to all narrate. A special note however is given to the altar at the shrine at Bethl. So if we remember from earlier in the um presentation earlier in the um the whole era back in the when there were the two kingdoms were still existing along with Dan at the very north of the kingdom of Israel.

Destruction of the Altar at Bethel

(1:02:32) Bethl at the south end is are shrines set up by the kings of Israel at the northern and southern frontiers. Each one of them um has a young young bull which is essentially like a chariot for uh Yahweh probably to stand on. And essentially this becomes a a seat where Yahweh's presence is able to encompass and stand over the entire northern kingdom probably.

(1:03:03) But anyway, just across the frontier, Bethel is just across the frontier from Jerusalem, Judah's capital. And so it was a very popular shrine associated with Jacob um that the Judahites were able to access and of course therefore it provided very unwelcome competition for the Jerusalem temple uh where Josiah is now centralizing worship.

(1:03:27) And so long after the northern kingdom's fall, Bethel is now within Assyria's province of Samaria. Um, but since it's still just on the other side of the border, the shrine competed with the temple in Jerusalem, but it was also close enough for Josiah to go and destroy. So, we read the altar at Bethel, the high place erected by Jeroboam, son of Neabbat, who caused Israel to sin.

(1:03:54) Josiah pulled down that altar along with the high place. He burned the high place, crushing it to dust. He also burned the sacred pole. And as Josiah turned, he saw the tombs there on the mount. And he sent and he took the bones out of the tombs and he burned them on the altar and defiled it according to the word of the Lord that the man of God proclaimed when Jeroboam stood by the altar at the festival.

(1:04:22) Then Josiah turned and looked up at the tomb of the man of God who had proclaimed these things. And he says, "What is that monument that I see?" And the people of the city told him, "That's the tomb of the man of God who came from Judah and proclaimed all these things that you just did against the altar at Bethl all the way back in those previous years.

(1:04:45) " So, so essentially we've now come biblical literary full circle and Josiah has fulfilled the prophecy uh about himself uh in doing all of these things. So um and so and so again this beca we'll just say that this is something that um has happened where uh it's a very clear literary prophecy. It is so specific um the prophecy you know is written after the fact retrospectively because the authors know what Josiah did.

Institution of the Passover and Josiah's Death

(1:05:24) Um, another thing, um, another thing that Josiah goes ahead and does is, um, in ending child sacrifice involves adding institutions. So, it's not just enough to destroy all the other shrines, but he also adds a festival providing an animal as a substitute using the blood uh to show the over a lentil to show the angel of death that the blood debt is paid.

(1:05:53) and firstborn children are to be passed over. So um he reads um in the book of the law that um I'm and I'm missing a slide here but anyway we'll jump into where it is the Passover of the Lord as your God is prescribed in the book of the covenant. And so he talks about what uh instituting the Passover and then he says no such Passover has been kept since the day of the judges who judged Israel.

(1:06:22) So not in the whole monarchy even during all the days of the kings of Israel and the kings of Judah but in the 18th year of King Josiah the Passover was kept to the Lord in Jerusalem. So, so using again the book of the law that he's found as a center a piece of his reforms. This includes um um festivals that as far as anyone was concerned were entirely brand new although the book presents them as if they were something that had a deep history.

(1:06:56) So the complete implementation of menolatry backed by a book of the law made Josiah the ultimate example of a good king in the eyes of the deuteronomistic school. So according to their worldview, it might be expected that Yahweh would respond by giving Josiah a long and peaceful reign. But instead, the text jarringly um uh takes a turn in the action.

(1:07:22) And so after all those things we read the rest now the rest of the acts of Josiah and all that he did are they not written in the annals of the books of the kings of Judah the book of the annals of the kings of Judah in his day Pharaoh Necho king of Egypt came went up to the king of Assyria to the river Euphrates.

(1:07:44) King Josiah went to meet him but when Pharaoh Necho met him at Megiddo he killed him. His servants carried him dead in a chariot from annals of the books of the kings of Judah, brought him to Jerusalem and buried him in his own tomb. The people of the land took uh Jehoa Jehoaz son of Josiah, anointed him and made him king in the place of his father.

(1:08:06) So although as we already said, Egypt continued intervening. And so they deposed Josiah's chosen heir, this Jehoaz, and replaced him with another son, Jehoiakim, who uh was then killed by the Babylonians, who then picked their own puppets from Josiah's family uh culminating in in Zedekiah. So, we've already seen this kind of house, but this is essentially how um everything all falls apart after Josiah is sort of ignobly killed by Pharaoh Necho seemingly for no reason.

(1:08:42) So, although Chronicles we read the account there, this is a derivative rewriting of Kings, this improves Josiah's end as this battle, although it confusingly puts God on Pharaoh's side. In the original that we just read in 2 Kings, Pharaoh simply kills uh Josiah when he shows up at Megiddo. And like I say, this is very contrary to the expectations of the Deuteronomic cycle that were made so clear in the earlier more mythic parts of the texts when the um theologians essentially were able to write the story. So ended it the way

(1:09:15) they wanted to, which is that people who are polytheists get punished by um Philistines and Egyptians and Assyrians and so forth. and people who are um worshiping Yahweh uh are good the rest of their days because Yahweh stands behind them. And so this disconnect um causes the editors to craft an apologetic explanation that it was Manass's sins that were so terrible that God just decided he was going to destroy Judah regardless of how much repenting took place in Josiah's reign.

Scholarly Theories on the Composition of the Deuteronomistic History

(1:09:53) And so um that explanation is repeated again and again and again. But it also um it seems like a change of policy. You could have um punished Manasseh in his own day the way that had been happening throughout all the rest. Um and so again what I think is happening here is uh the theology is colliding with actual now what is becoming more historical memory.

(1:10:17) So there's also an academic explanation for um how this all works or a theory. So um in 1968, Frank Moore Cross, a biblical scholar, proposed that maybe a first draft of the Deuteronomic texts, the books of Samuel and Kings, were actually compiled during the reign of King Josiah around the same time that Josiah's officials were finding this book of law, actually composing the book of law that is the source for Deuteronomy.

(1:10:53) And so this um hypo hypothesis would explain um why Josiah in particular is predicted by name to do this very specific event um and why then all of the histories of his predecessors are actually re framed by his program. So his program of monolatry is um superimposed on all of the rest of these stories as part of the deuteronomic formula from uh from judges through all of the different kings.

(1:11:31) In this hypothesis, the original draft would of the whole book would end with Josiah finding Deuteronomy, renewing this covenant that is at central to the whole text, cleansing the temple, imposing monolatry, and then instituting new supposedly old p festivals like the Passover based on the texts themselves.

(1:11:55) And that would have been great if then a whole new renaissance happened and that um and Josiah and his court they all lived happily ever after. But after that first draft will have been published. Josiah is killed in this very unexpected way by Pharaoh. And then his house which God had covenanted that uh that the scepter will not be taken from the house of David you know forever um was deposed the kingdom was extinguished within a few decades and so this would have required if it doesn't throughout the entire project it requires a new edit

(1:12:36) with these new apologetic explanations that God had been so angry with Manasseh that he decided that the whole whole thing where kingdom was going to get destroyed regardless of anything that happened like it potentially could still have been written by someone from this same Deuteronomic school who had produced the original version.

(1:12:57) Um and we know for example that lots of the themes and and uh writings of the Deuteronomic school overlap very much with the work of the prophet Jeremiah who's active through this whole end of um the fall of the kingdom and into exile where he goes into exile in Egypt. So, you know, we've had we've talked about this before, but this I think um shows pretty clearly, you know, although I told the um the story the way the Bible does, which is to say writing this older part that is more mythic first um as it goes closer and closer to the

(1:13:37) destruction of Jerusalem. Um this the Bible the way the Bible tells this story um the prophets and the good kings have always been and tried to hold to monotheism and that has been um the foundation of the religion at the beginning and the Bible though explains polytheist rebellions have been increasing over and over in time until they've turned away so much under Manasseh that the people just have to be destroyed leading to Jerusalem's um ultimate destruction.

(1:14:14) But actually what happens is um between uh both the hints within the texts themselves as they have been reworked and then also um the rest of the historical record ancient Israelites themselves began as polytheist Canaanites. Monolatry, the uh Yahweh Yahweh worship is introduced by kings and uh of Israel and Judah uh as part of a centralizing um uh agenda that they have.

(1:14:54) And that sort of grows over time against the backdrop of the majority of polytheists, especially when um major reformers like Hezekiah and uh and especially Josiah um get into the act and destroy um uh all all rival centers of worship and and priesthoods and so forth. And so the actual edifice um is reflecting a history that worked like this, but it's written at that late stage.

(1:15:26) And so it reframes um the whole past through the direction that they want to be going. So read literally, the Bible presents a pyramid that is upside down to actual Israelite history. And it's because of the texts are written or edited by later monolatrists and also ultimately monotheist reformers. And they would like to portray their own ideas as ancient.

(1:15:52) And they would also like to portray the truly ancient practices, the polytheist practices as recent innovations introduced by foreigners. And so um and so this is why I think when we're getting here to the very end of this period to Josiah and the explanation um of finding you know within the text itself finding Deuteronomy uh dating um Deuteronomy to this and also the uh function and forms of the Deuteronomic histories give us a potential maybe the potential earliest dates for some of these texts which will then continue to be edited and added to

(1:16:38) during the um uh during the exile period and and even into the Persian period. Um but uh but what we we're kind of even seeing here with this is um a really important liinal moment that Josiah represents. Um it's hard it seems like anywhere or it seems like a a good case can be made which is to say he is existing at the very end of this first temple period that the histories are so excited about and so focused on the this um this kingship of the house of David and so forth.

Conclusion: Josiah's Pivotal Role in the Development of Monotheism

(1:17:21) Um but it he's existing at the very end of that as it comes to uh a you know very quick end after his reign. Um meanwhile um he's also liinal in the sense that even though the Bible is portraying u a a history of uh of Yahweh worship and monotheism that goes all the way back. In fact, that's only beginning and getting going uh in his time period and that's what goes forward.

(1:17:49) And so, as a result, um it's I look at Josiah and I think this may well seem like anyway convincing to me anyway, an argument can be made that's convincing to me that he's a very pivotal figure indeed. And so, that is my take on King Josiah and the origins of monotheism. and I got through it with a minimum of coughing, but I'm going to get a glass of water again as Mike compiles your comments and questions.

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