JOSIAH. – King of Judah (639–609 B.C.). He ascended the throne at the age of eight, succeeding his father Amon (v.), who had been assassinated in a palace conspiracy after two years of rule. “While still a youth he began to seek the God of David his father” (2 Chron. 34:3). He found the country in a state of grave religious and moral decay, the result of the long period of official apostasy under the reigns of Manasseh and Amon. When he was able to act according to his conscience—at the age of twenty, that is, in the twelfth year of his reign (2 Chron. 34:3)—he boldly and zealously undertook a radical reform, purging the land of all idolatrous apparatus that had taken root everywhere and had even penetrated the sacred precincts of the Temple.
He swept away all abominations from the holy place: he demolished the idolatrous altars that King Manasseh had built in the two courtyards (2 Kings 23:12) and the “chariot of the sun”; he destroyed the *Aserah* (2 Kings 23:6), that is, the sacred pole, symbol of the goddess *Aserah*, to whose cult were attached the infamous practices of ritual prostitution, which the king energetically suppressed. With equal zeal he purged the other high places of Jerusalem and Judah: he cleansed the Temple, GEGENNA (v.), where human sacrifices had been offered to Moloch (2 Kings 23:10); he overthrew the altar of the *sê’irim* (Vulg. *satyrs*), which stood near the city gate; he dismantled the *maṣṣēbôth* erected by Solomon (1 Kings 11:7) near the Mount of Olives in honor of Astarte, Chemosh, and Moloch—there stood pillars and sacred poles to Baal and *Aserah*, which Josiah demolished, filling the places with human bones (2 Kings 23:13–14). The same fate befell the other *maṣṣēbôth* scattered throughout the land, from Geba to Beersheba, and tolerated by almost all his predecessors (2 Kings 23:8). The purifying action extended even to persons: Josiah removed the magicians and diviners along with all their idols (2 Kings 23:24); he deposed the *kĕmārîm*, or idolatrous priests attached to the astral cults imported from Assyria, and recalled from every quarter to Jerusalem those priests who in any way had participated in the illegitimate rites of the *maṣṣēbôth*. Yet he showed consideration for the priests of Levitical descent, who, though suspended from priestly functions, continued to be supported by the offerings made at the altar.
The zeal of the pious king extended beyond the borders of his own state, into the lands of the destroyed kingdom of Israel. He himself went to the various cities and villages, even to the distant territory of Naphtali, tearing down altars, images, pillars, and sacred poles, as well as the *maṣṣēbôth* (2 Kings 23:19–20; 2 Chron. 34:6–7); above all, he destroyed the schismatic sanctuary at Bethel and desecrated its altar (2 Kings 23:15–18), fulfilling what a prophet of Yahweh had foretold three centuries earlier at the dedication of that sanctuary (v. JEROBOAM 1; cf. 1 Kings 13:2–3).
The king’s efforts were strongly supported, besides by the high priest Hilkiah, by the prophets Jeremiah (whose prophetic call came in the thirteenth year of Josiah’s reign; cf. Jer. 1:2), Nahum, and Zephaniah, though it cannot be precisely determined how much part each played. To encourage and stimulate the reform, a most important event occurred: the discovery of the book of the *Torah* in the eighteenth year of his reign (622 B.C.), during the restoration work in the Temple (2 Kings 22:8–10; 2 Chron. 34:8–15). The king ordered it to be read in his presence, and, deeply moved by the severe curses of Yahweh against transgressors of the Law (Deut. 28:15–68), consulted the prophetess Huldah (v.), who confirmed the threatening sanctions of the *Torah* but predicted that they would not be applied during Josiah’s reign in reward for his zeal (2 Chron. 34:19–28). Josiah intensified his reforming work in accordance with the prescriptions contained in the Law itself. It was a period of constructive reform: while he continued to uproot the last remnants of superstition and idolatry, he successfully promoted a general revival of faith and piety throughout the land. The document discovered was, as in the days of Moses and David, to serve as the foundation of the nation’s religious and civil life; accordingly, it was solemnly promulgated: the people, priests, and prophets, together with the king, were gathered in the Temple, the discovered *Torah* was read aloud, and all swore to observe its statutes, renewing the covenant with Yahweh (2 Chron. 34:29–33). As a seal of this great event, a most solemn Passover was celebrated in the same eighteenth year of Josiah’s reign, such as had not been remembered in Israel since the days of Samuel (2 Chron. 35:1–19).
The discovery of the book of the *Torah* under Josiah is also of great importance from a historical-literary standpoint in the question of the Pentateuch. The ancient Fathers, and especially modern critics and exegetes for the past century, have asked: what book was discovered on that occasion? and what is to be made of the biblical account (2 Kings 22; 2 Chron. 34)? As to the second question, rationalist critics have generally denied the historical truth, supposing that it was not a genuine discovery but a pious fraud by which a completely new sacred book was passed off as newly found; this book would essentially be Deuteronomy or its substratum, the first nucleus (according to the Wellhausenian theory) in the process of formation of the Pentateuch and other historical books. But the fact remains that in the ancient Near East important documents, especially of a religious nature, were often deposited in sacred places, and it was not uncommon for them to be lost and later rediscovered during restorations or other works. This hypothesis alone accords with the truth, as even some critics are inclined to admit (E. Sellin, *Geschichte des isr.-jüd. Volkes*, I, Leipzig 1924, pp. 289–290; R. Kittel, *Geschichte des jüd. Volkes*, II, 7th ed., Stuttgart 1925, p. 445). It is quite possible that, in the days of the wicked kings Manasseh and Amon, the sacred text was hidden in a safe place by some pious Yahwist, or else discarded by someone as an old document into a storeroom, only to resurface later and make a profound impression. That this book was solely Deuteronomy was the opinion of several of the Fathers (Jerome, Athanasius, Chrysostom, etc.) and is a fairly common view among modern critics and exegetes (many rationalists and not a few Catholics, such as I. Coppens, G. Ricciotti, and A. Vaccari, *Sacra Bibbia*, II, Florence 1947, p. 467).
From the account itself one might gain the impression that the text discovered was not very extensive, since it was immediately read twice (2 Kings 22:8, 10), and in the promulgation ceremony “all the words” of it were read to the people (2 Kings 23:2). But this hypothesis is uncertain; there is no evidence that the double reading took place on the same day, nor that only Deuteronomy was read all at once. On the other hand, the title of the codex—“the book of the *Torah*” (2 Kings 22:8), “the book of the covenant” (2 Kings 23:2), “the book of the *Torah* of Yahweh written by the hand of Moses” (2 Chron. 34:14)—rather suggests the entire book of the Pentateuch (A. Bea [V. BIBLICA.], p. 85–86). That the codex discovered was a book known to all in Israel is evident from the biblical account (2 Kings 22:12).
BIBL.:
The vast reform of Josiah, peacefully extended even into the lands of the former Kingdom of Samaria, seemed to foreshadow the day when the political unity of the nation, broken after the death of Solomon, would be restored. And perhaps Josiah himself nurtured this hope and design. But political events brought everything to ruin. After Nineveh fell in 612 to the Medes and Babylonians, Pharaoh Necho II marched from Egypt to bring aid to the dying Assyrian Empire. But the King of Judah barred his way, doubtless to prevent Egyptian help from saving a nation that had always been hostile to the people of Yahweh; and he positioned his army at Megiddo, an important strategic point. When Pharaoh’s attempts to secure passage proved futile, battle ensued; in the fighting, Josiah was mortally wounded and died shortly afterward (2 Kgs 22:28–30; 2 Chr 35:20–25). His death in 609 BC was an irreparable disaster for the Kingdom of Judah and the prelude to its final catastrophe (cf. JEHOIAKIM; JEHOIACHIN).