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| Author: Gabriel |
The reason is that among many kings (Assa, Jehoshphat, Jeroboam, Manasseh, Josiah etc) that where described in 1 Kings 11- 2 Kings 23:25 Josiah is considered to be the best king. We also can see that king Josiah was a very important to the author. In 2 Kings we have 2 chapters that are devoted to Josiah, there where no king before who deserved so much attention to himself.
Also there is an interesting fact that in 1 Kings 13:2 (it is 300 years before the reign of Josiah) it is predicted that Josiah will destroy the altar in 2 Kings 23:15-18. Nothing like that ever occurred in the book of Kings. Another things that ennoble Josiah under other kings are that he is compared to Moses (Deut 34:10 - 2Kings 23:25, Deut 6:5 - 2 Kings 23:25, Deut 17:1 - 2 Kings 22:2) and that only until his reign the Torah is mentioned (Joshua 1:8; 8:31,34; 23:6; Deut 31:26 - 2 Kings 22:8). We see that specific language is used to Josiah not to Hezekiah (Deut 31:11- 2 Kings 23:2; Deut 9:21 - 2 Kings 23:6,12; Deut 5:8; 4:16,23,25; 7:25; 27:15 - 2 Kings 21:17) and what is interesting that between Deuteronomy and 2 Kings passed approximately 600 years. Isn't it the reason to consider Josiah to be especial king? Another thing that I've mentioned is that David is very important to the author and as you could already guess Josiah was descendent of David. We also have in 2 Samuel 7 a Davidic covenant that is unconditional and where it is said to the David,Your house and your kingdom will endure forever before me; your throne will be established forever.' (2 Sam 7:16)
Another covenant that we have in DH1 is Solomonic covenant but in comparison to Davidic covenant it is conditional. God said to Solomon that only in case when all the decrees and laws are observed He would establish Solomon's royal throne forever. So what are these laws and decrees? Except of the Ten Commandments (Deut 5:6-21) there was a Law Code (Deut 1226). The first thing that this law provided is centralization of worship (Deut 12). We see that before Josiah became a king there where a lot of places to worship (Samuel worshiped in Shiloh - 1Sam 1:3,24, Mizpah - 1Sam 7:5, Ramah - 1Sam 7:17, Bethlehem - 1Sam 16:5; Saul in Gilgal1Sam 13:9, 15:21, Gibeah 1Sam 14:35; David in Jerusalem 2Sam 24:18; Solomon in Gibeon 1Kings 3:2-4, 2Kings (over 1000 sacrifices)) but he established the one in Jerusalem (2Kings 23:19-23). The next thing that Law Code consisted is a Law of King (Deut 17:14-20) that said that king must not be a foreigner, he should not enquire a large number of horses, should not have a lot of wives and concubines, a lot of gold and silver for himself, and must copied the law and read it rapidly. And the last is Law of war (written before David established a professional army). The feature of this Law Code is that there are no references to the ark, Cherubim, office of High priest, and Jerusalem. It doesn't reflect the interests of priests from Bethel and it was provided for Levites. All this can indicate that it came from Shiloh priest before the fall of Northern Kingdom (722 BCE). So the Law Code was written before the Solomonic and Davidic covenants.
In DH1 we also have a Jeremiah connection. Jeremiah was son of Hilkaih (Jer 1:1) who was the High priest during Josiah's reign (2Kings 23:4). Jeremiah lived during Josiah's reign so he was present during all events that happened at that time (Jer 1:2). Also exactly the same language is used in book Deuteronomy and in book Jeremiah (Deut 28:1Jer 17:24, Deut 10:6Jer 4:4, Deut 4:19, 17:3Jer 8:2, 19:30, Deut 4:20Jer 11:14, Deut 10:12, 11:13, 13:4Jer 32:41). So it is possible that Jeremiah wrote the first edition of Deuteronomy history. |
Author Bio:
Gabriel Rise is an expert writer at Essay writing service and a writing couselling department expert at dissertation writing service. The assistance of their writers is an invaluable input in your future professional growth.EssayCapital.com is dedicated to providing a custom essay writing service that is both top-quality and affordable. |
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