Did the Josiah reforms change the Hebrew religion, as Margaret Barker claims?
A viewer asks whether Robert has heard the theory of Margaret Barker that the Hebrew religion was changed under the Josiah reforms.
Answer
If it was reformed, then of course it was changed. In Josiah's time they were operating without the Bible; the scriptures had been misplaced and forgotten, until someone digging in one of the temple vaults found the book, the Pentateuch of Moses, that had not been seen in decades. No wonder the people were so faithless and apostate; imagine the same thing happening in the Catholic Church, where no one read or knew where Scripture was. Josiah based his reform on that recovered Mosaic law, going back to the old way it was supposed to be, so yes, he changed a great many things. He was one of the few genuinely good kings of Judah, of which there were only about three, and his was a great reform.