Josiah: From Improbable Stories to Inventive Historiography

This book considers the various ways in which the last major king of Judah has been presented in biblical texts and the subsequent cultures that have made use of the biblical narratives. It is posited that there is no reliable material that can be dated to the time of Josiah and that the literary constructions of Josiah's reign in Kings, Chronicles, and First Esdras already provided the inventive memory of a no longer recoverable monarch's life. Aspects of these narratives are considered, as well as the history of Josiah in historiographical renditions of world history and presentations of his story in narrative artistic productions.