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events in the order of their time, and as given in the Book of Kings, from which the
arrangement in the Book of Chronicles differs only in appearance. Each of these two
accounts relates, with different circumstantiality, one or other of the events mentioned -
in each case in accordance with the different view-point of the writers, to which reference
has frequently been made. Thus the main topic in the Book of Kings is the religious
reformation, alike in its positive aspect as regarded the Temple, the Law, and national
Religion (2 Kings 22:3; 23:3), and in its negative aspect in the abolition of idolatry (2
Kings 23:4-20). On the other hand, the chronicler records at greatest length, and with
fullest detail, the Paschal observance (2 Chronicles 35:1- 19), while he passes very
briefly over what might appear as of graver importance (2 Chronicles 34:4-7).
This will explain what otherwise might have seemed a difficulty in the arrangement of
the narrative. The account both in the Book of Kings and in Chronicles places the Temple
restoration "in the eighteenth year of king Josiah." But in the former the record of the
religious reformation begins with this event, while the chronicler prefaces it by a very
brief summary of what had previously been done for the abolition of idolatry (2
Chronicles 34:3-7). That something of this kind must have preceded the restoration of the
Temple seems evident. It cannot be supposed that a monarch like Josiah should for
seventeen years have tolerated all that Amon had introduced, and then, in his eighteenth
year, suddenly proceeded to the sweeping measures which alike the writers of Kings and
of Chronicles narrate. It is, therefore, only reasonable to accept the statement of the latter,
that "in the eighth year of his reign, while he was yet young" [in his sixteenth year - when
presumably he commenced personally to administer the government], king Josiah
"began* to seek after the God of David his father," and that "in the twelfth year he began
to purge Judah and Jerusalem" from their idolatry (2 Chronicles 34:3).
- That is, in his public and official capacity.
And then the chronicler, who, as we have stated, makes only briefest reference to the
reformation described with such detail in 2 Kings 23:4-20, at once adds to the mention of
the initial measures towards the abolition of idolatry a summary of what was finally done
in that direction, after the restoration of the Temple and in consequence of the discovery
of the Book of the Law (vers. 4-7). That such is really the purport of the narrative appears
also from the reference at the close of the account of the Temple restoration in 2
Chronicles 34:33, which synchronizes with 2 Kings 23:4.
It was only natural that such preliminary measures as the chronicler relates should have
been followed by, as indeed they must have stood in connection with, the restoration of
the Temple and its services. This was done in the eighteenth year of Josiah's reign. Nearly
two and a half centuries had passed since the former restoration by Joash (2 Kings 12:4-
16), and the sacred building must have greatly suffered under the idolatrous kings,
especially during the late reigns of Manasseh and Amon. As the restoration was naturally
on the same lines with the previous one under Joash, the two accounts are necessarily
(^)