Joshua (or Jeshua) ben-Jehudah (called in Arabic Abulfarag Forlcan Ibn- Assad), quoted by Aben- Ezra as R.Joshua (n"10T' ■^), a distinguished Jew- ish philosopher, grammarian, and commentator of the Karaite sect, flourished in the 11 th century. From his great piety and extensive knowledge, he obtained the honoraijle appellation of the aged or presbyter (Tla-Sa- ken, A l-Sheikh). His expositions, which cover the whole
JOSHUA NARBONI
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JOSIAH
of the Old Test., are still in IMS. The only fragments printed are given bv Aben-Ezra on Gen. xxviii, 12 ; xUx, 27 ; Exod. iii, 2, 13 ; iv, 4 ; vi, 3, 13 ; vii, 3, 12 ; viii, 22 ; X, 6; xii, 5; xv, 4 ; xvii, 16; xxi, 37; xxii, 7; xxxv, 5 ; Lev. xvi, 1 ; Hos. v, 7 ; Joel iii, 1 ; Amos ix, 10 ; Obad. 17; Jonah iii, 3; Micah ii, 7-, vii, 12; Hab. ii, 7; Zeph. iii, 1 ; Hag. ii, 10 ; Mai. ii, 6 ; Dan. i, 3 ; ii, 4-, iv, 17 ; vii, 9 ; xii, 2; Psa. Ixxxviii, 1 ; cix, 8 ; ex, 3 ; cxix, 160; cxxii, 1; cxUx, O. Compare Delitzsch, i/i Aaron ben-Elias, ti'^-^n V^ (Leipzig, 1844), p. 315 sq.-, Finsker, Lickute Kadmoniot (A'ienna, 18G0), text, p. 117; Gratz, Gesckickfe der Juden, vi, 94 sq. ; Kitto, Bibl. Cjclop. s. v.
Joshua Narboni. See Vidal.
Josi'ah (Heb. Yoshiyah', tl^dX'', healed by Jeho- vah, Zech. vi, 10, elsewhere in the paragogic form Yo- shii/a'hu, !in'=''l3N"', and in the text of Jer. xxvii, 1, !|iT''i3'IX"'; Sept., N. T., and Josephus 'Iwaiag, " Josi- as," Matt, i, 10, 11), the name of two men.
1. The sixteenth king of Judah after its separation from the kingdom of Israel, the son (by Jedidah) and, at the early age of eight years, B.C. 640, the successor of Amon (2 Kings xxii, 1 ; 2 Chron. xxxiv, 1). His history is contained in 2 Kings xxii-xxiv, 30 ; 2 Chron. xxxiv, xxxv ; and the first twelve chapters of Jeremiah throw much light upon the general character of the Jews in his days. Avoiding the example of his immediate pre- decessors, he " did that which was right in the sight of the Lord, and walked in all the ways of David his fa- ther, and turned not aside to the right hand or to the left" (2 Kings xxii, 2 ; 2 Chron. xxxiv, 2).
1. So early as the sixteenth year of his age (B.C. 633) he began to manifest that enmity to idolatry in all its forms which distinguished his character and reign ; and he was not quite twenty years old (B.C. 628) when he proclaimed open war against it, although more or less favored by many men of rank and influence in the kingdom (2 Chron. xxxiv, 3). He then commenced a thorough purification of the land from all taint of itlola- try by going about and superintending in person the operations of the men who were employed in breaking down idolatrous altars and images, and cutting down the groves which had been consecrated to idol-worship (see Bertholdt, De purgatione per Josiam, Erl. 1817). His detestation of idolatry could not have been more strongly expressed than by ransacking the sepulchres of the idolatrous priests of former days, and consuming their bones upon the idol altars before they were over- turned. Yet this operation, although unexampled in Jewish history, was foretold 345 years before Josiah was born by the prophet who was commissioned to de- nounce to Jeroboam the future punishment of his sin. He even named Josiah as the person by whom this act was to be performed, and said that it should be per- formed in Beth-el, which was then a part of the king- dom of Israel (1 Kings xiii, 2). All this seemed much beyond the range of human probabilities; but it was performed to the letter, for Josiah did not confine his proceedings to his own kingdom, but went over a con- siderable part of the neighboring kingdom of Israel, Avhich then lay comparatively desolate, with the same object in view ; and at Beth-el, in particular, executed all that the prophet had foretold (2 Kings xxih, 1-19; 2 Chron. xxxiv, 3-7, 32). In these proceedings Josiah seems to have been actuated by an absolute hatred of idolatry, such as no other king since David had mani- fested, and which David had scarcely occasion to mani- fest in the same degree. So important was this refor- mation of the public cultus under Josiah that it forms an epoch whence Jeremiah dates many of his prophe- cies (Jer. XXV, 3, 11, 29).
2. In the eighteenth year of his reign and the twen- ty-sixth of his age (B.C. 623), when the land had been thoroughly purified from idolatrj' and all that belonged to it, Josiah proceeded to repair and beautify the Tem- ple of the Lord (2 Kings xxii, 3 ; xxiii, 23). In the
course of this pious labor the high-priest Hilkiah dis- covered in the sanctuary a volume, which proved to contain tlie books of Moses, and which, from the terms emi)loyed, seems to have been considered the original of the law as written by Moses. On this point there has been much anxious discussion and some rash asser- tion. Some writers of the German school allege that there is no external evidence — that is, evidence besides the law itself— that the book of the law existed till it was thus produced by Hilkiah. This assertion it is the less necessary to answer here, as it will be noticed in the article Pentateuch. (See also De Wette, Beit7\ i, 168 sq. ; Bertholdt, Progr. de eo quod in jmrgatione sacror. Jud. per Josiam facta omnium Tnaxime contigerit niemo- rubile, Erl. 1817; also in his Oimsc. p. 32 sq.) But it may be observed that it is founded very much on the fact that the king was greatly astonished when some parts of the law were read to him. It is indeed perfect- ly manifest that he had previously been entirely igno- rant of much that he then heard ; and he rent his clothes in consternation when he found that, with tlie best in- tentions to serve the Lord, he and all his people had been living in the neglect of duties which the law de- clared to be of vital importance. It is certainly difficult to account for this ignorance. Some suppose that all the copies of the law had perished, and that the king had never seen one. But this is very unlikely; for, however scarce complete copies may have been, the pious king was likely to have been the possessor of one. The probability seems to be that the passages read were those awfid denunciations against disobedience with which the book of Deuteronomy concludes, and which, for some cause or other, the king had never before read, or which had never before produced on his mind the same strong conviction of the imminent dangers under which the nation lay, as now when read to him from a volume invested with a character so venerable, and brought with such interesting circumstances under his notice. We should bear in mind tiiat it is very difficult for us in this age and country to estimate the scantiness of the opportunities which were then open to laymen of acqiuring literary knowledge connected with religion. The special commission sent forth by Jehoshaphat (2 Chron. xvii, 7) is a proof that even under such kings as Asa and his son the Levites were insufficient for the re- hgious instruction of the people. What, then, must have been the amount of information accessible to a generation which had grov.-n up in the reigns of ftlanas- seh and Amon ? We do not know that the law was read as a stated part of any ordinary public service in the Temple of Solomon (unless the injunction Deut. xxxi, 10 was obeyed once in seven years), though God was worshipped there with dailj' sacrifice, psalmody, and prayer.