What archaeological evidence supports the events described in 2 Kings 23:23? Verse in Focus “In the eighteenth year of King Josiah, this Passover was observed to the LORD in Jerusalem.” (2 Kings 23:23) Josiah’s great Passover is the capstone of a sweeping reform that began when “the Book of the Law” was rediscovered (2 Kings 22:8). Archaeology cannot excavate a one–week festival, yet it can (and does) illuminate the historical setting, the named participants, the suppression of outlying shrines, the sudden concentration of worship in Jerusalem, and the cultural changes that follow. All of those strands converge on the reality of the event recorded in 2 Kings 23:23. --- Chronological Anchor: Late 7th Century BC • Josiah reigned c. 640–609 BC; his eighteenth year = 622/621 BC. • Strata sealed by the Babylonian destruction of 586 BC fix the latest possible context for everything cited below, giving a secure terminus ante quem. --- Epigraphic Confirmation of the People Named in 2 Kings 22–23 a. Nathan-melech Seal Impression • Text: לנתן־מלך עבד המלך “Belonging to Nathan-melech, servant of the king.” • Find-spot: Givati Parking Lot excavation, City of David, 2019 (sealed below 586 BC destruction layer). • Biblical link: The only Nathan-melech in Scripture is the chamberlain Josiah removes from the Temple precincts immediately before the Passover (2 Kings 23:11). b. Gemaryahu ben Shaphan Bulla • Text: לגמריהו בן שפן הסופר “Belonging to Gemariah son of Shaphan the scribe.” • Find-spot: Area G, City of David, 1983. • Biblical link: His father Shaphan reads the newly found scroll to Josiah (2 Kings 22:3–10). c. Azaryahu ben Hilkiah Bulla • Text: לעזריהו בן חליקיהו “Belonging to Azariah son of Hilkiah.” • Find-spot: Ophel excavations, 2009. • Biblical link: Hilkiah the high priest discovers the Law scroll (2 Kings 22:8). Azariah is listed among his sons in 1 Chron 9:11. (The clustering of these seals in destruction debris dated 586 BC shows that Josiah-era officials—named exactly as Scripture records—were real, active people in Jerusalem a generation after the reform.) --- Shut-Down of Outlying Shrines and Altars a. Tel Arad Temple • A full Judean-style shrine with inner sanctum was deliberately filled with stones and sealed late 7th century BC. • Two horned altars (cut to fit the closing wall) were found buried in situ. • Only a centrally authorized ban could have ended operations at so important a frontier sanctuary; Josiah’s edict in 2 Kings 23:8 explicitly targets “cities of Judah” and their priests. b. Beersheba Horned Altar • Four horned-altar stones reused as building blocks in a storehouse; incomplete but restorable to standard altar dimensions. • Pottery phasing places the dismantling in late 8th – early 7th century; the absence of later cultic layers fits the timeframe of Josiah’s purge. c. Bethel High Place • Excavations at Tel Beitin revealed the monumental foundation of an open-air shrine and a late 8th/7th-century destruction horizon. • 2 Kings 23:15–17 states that Josiah specifically tore this cult center down. --- Disappearance of Solar-Cult Figurines Hundreds of small clay horse-and-rider figurines appear in 8th century Judah layers but dwindle sharply after Josiah’s reign. 2 Kings 23:11 records that Josiah “removed the horses that the kings of Judah had dedicated to the sun.” The archaeological curve matches the biblical claim of abolition, not a gradual evolution. --- Centralization in Jerusalem: Inscriptions and Infrastructure a. Arad Ostracon 18 (“House of YHWH”) • Late 7th-century letter orders Temple-tax silver and supplies sent “to the House of YHWH.” • Implies that by Josiah’s day the Jerusalem Temple had become the single recognized national shrine. b. LMLK Storage-Jar Handles • Stamped “Belonging to the King” plus two-winged symbols; concentrations peak in Josiah-age layers of Jerusalem, indicating royal redistribution of agricultural tithes—a necessary logistic underpinning for a nationwide Passover influx (2 Chron 35:7–9). --- Contemporary Biblical Texts in Use a. Ketef Hinnom Silver Scrolls • Two rolled amulets dated by palaeography to late 7th century BC (Josiah’s lifetime). • Contain the priestly blessing of Numbers 6:24–26 virtually word-for-word, proving both the antiquity and liturgical use of Torah passages being read aloud during Josiah’s Passover (cf. 2 Kings 23:2). --- External Historiography a. Babylonian Chronicle ABC 5 • Records Pharaoh Neco’s 609 BC campaign in which Josiah was killed at Megiddo (2 Kings 23:29–30). The Chronicle’s silence about Josiah earlier only underscores that Judah was functioning independently until that point—precisely what Scripture depicts in the reform era. --- Synthesis 1. Seals, bullae, and ostraca establish that the exact officials the Bible places in the reform actually served in Jerusalem c. 622 BC. 2. Provincial shrines at Arad, Beersheba, Bethel, and elsewhere show abrupt, state-mandated termination late in the 7th century—matching Josiah’s religious policy. 3. The sharp drop-off of sun-cult horse figurines and the logistical evidence of royal store-jar networks comport with a one-site, Scripture-driven covenant renewal such as the Passover of 2 Kings 23:23. 4. Contemporary textual artifacts (Ketef Hinnom) demonstrate that the Torah, whose reading launched the celebration, was already venerated and quoted verbatim. Taken together, the archaeological, epigraphic, and cultural data reinforce the historicity of Josiah’s eighteenth-year Passover exactly as 2 Kings 23:23 records, while cohering seamlessly with the larger biblical narrative. |
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