Josiah's reform and the 'Book of the Law' (Deuteronomic Reform)
- Date
- c. 622 BCE
- Category
- Religion & ideology
- Region
- Kingdom of Judah (Jerusalem)
- Era
- Classical Antiquity
- Significance
According to the Hebrew Bible, during repairs to the Jerusalem Temple in the eighteenth year of King Josiah of Judah (c. 622 BCE), a 'Book of the Law', widely identified by scholars with an early form of Deuteronomy, was discovered, prompting a sweeping religious reform.
Josiah suppressed rural shrines and rival cults, removed images and altars devoted to other deities, and centralised legitimate sacrificial worship of YHWH at the Jerusalem Temple. The reform is regarded as a decisive step in the emergence of biblical monotheism and in shaping the textual core of the Hebrew Bible, embedding the principles of one God, one sanctuary and a body of social and ethical law. Many scholars connect the episode to the 'Deuteronomistic' editing of Israel's historical books. The event is known almost entirely from biblical sources (2 Kings 22–23; 2 Chronicles 34–35), and its exact scope and historicity are debated, but its influence on later Judaism and on Western religious thought is profound.
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Empires active in c. 622 BCE
- Roman Kingdom753 BCE – 509 BCE
- Neo-Assyrian Empire911 BCE – 609 BCE
- Zhou Dynasty1046 BCE – 256 BCE
- Neo-Babylonian (Chaldean) Empire626 BCE – 539 BCE
- Scythians800 BCE – 300 BCE
- Carthaginian Empire650 BCE – 146 BCE
Related religion & ideology events
- Enlightenment of the Buddha at Bodh Gayac. 528 BCE (traditional)
- Nebuchadnezzar II Destroys Jerusalem and the First Temple587/586 BCE
- Death (moksha) of Mahavira and the consolidation of Jainismc. 527 BCE (traditional)
- Ashoka commissions the Great Stupa at Sanchic. 250 BCE
- The Septuagint: Hebrew scripture translated into Greekc. 250 BCE
- Third Buddhist Council and Ashoka's Buddhist missionsc. 250 BCE
Further reading
The wider story
A Little History of Religion
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