Iconoclasm
King Josiah of Judah, grandson of King Hezekiah, discovers a "Scroll of Torah"
during repairs of the royal shrine built threehundred years earlier by his ancestor
Solomon. According to 2. Kings 22-23, this divine instruction leads to the institution
of a radical reform of the cult practiced in and around Jerusalem: all religious
worship but that of YHWH alone is abolished, all sacred places aside from the
royal shrine in Jerusalem are destroyed, the priests of the Israelite sanctuaries
are killed, and the landed priesthood of Judahite sanctuaries outside Jerusalem
are demoted to auxilliary priests to serve at the temple in Jerusalem (see 2.
Kings 22-23). The latter seems to have been the origin of the institution of
the Levites who play such a prominent role in the Books of Chronicles and in
the Torah. Josiah thus transforms the prophetic and deuteronomic belief that
Israel should worship YHWH alone, and in one place alone, into a radically intolerant
monolatry with strong political overtones.