In my previous post I wrote,
I intend to follow up my last three posts with another that, not really to be contrary, notes evidence that there probably were “religious reforms” in Judah around the time of Josiah. I hope readers will see how they “fit with” but do not overturn the view that the biblical story of the discovery of the law was a late invention. That will be my next post.
Since I’ve returned to that question and had another look at what I thought I had earlier read about reforms around the end of the seventh century bce I have been flummoxed. What I thought I had read while preparing another piece of writing turned out, on closer and slower reading, to be less substantial than I had first thought. Anyway, I’ll try to set out the strongest arguments some scholars insist there were reforms about that time and the reasons against.
Further, there is much more reading I want to do before I take up that topic so I doubt it will be the next post I write.