@ Min. I'm a bit confused here, could you elaborate. The F&S book practically worshiped Josiah. I don't dispute the political situation with the big empires in existence at the time. Their record keeping was far better than anything the Judites had. If someone wanted to take the Bible as a history book they couldn't even get their fucking dates right. It's all screwed up. I just thought that it took a monumental effort at the time to both afford and coordinate a writing effort such as the early books of the Bible should have taken. It' also takes a ruler who approves or (more commonly at the time) commissions the work because scripture can undermine the king's power if it isn't "properly written". I don't think the religious class/cast (or whatever) had the power to write independently of the king. Are you suggesting that perhaps something was written in or near the 7th century and then much later a fictional king Josiah was edited in? I suppose this is possible.
I understand the motives for the later editing of the Bible. A desire to keep the Jewish people together, preserve the religion. Perhaps the other motives are (as always) to keep the religious cast in money and power and for the ruling class to do what they usually do with holy scriptures (justification for war, murder, some form of divine right of kings, blah blah blah). I can see how they would be motivated to push the myth just as far as they could get away with.
One of the things that always gets me suspicious of editing (beyond the textural criticism, of which I am not an expert so I have to go with what the experts say) is how the older texts are somehow "missing". I understand that there were few of them and that there are serious problems with preserving texts but the disappearance pattern is fairly strong. This text (or fragment) was found hidden there, or that text was in that odd forgotten place, and wasn't one text burred with someone or am I not recalling this correctly.
I understand the motives for the later editing of the Bible. A desire to keep the Jewish people together, preserve the religion. Perhaps the other motives are (as always) to keep the religious cast in money and power and for the ruling class to do what they usually do with holy scriptures (justification for war, murder, some form of divine right of kings, blah blah blah). I can see how they would be motivated to push the myth just as far as they could get away with.
One of the things that always gets me suspicious of editing (beyond the textural criticism, of which I am not an expert so I have to go with what the experts say) is how the older texts are somehow "missing". I understand that there were few of them and that there are serious problems with preserving texts but the disappearance pattern is fairly strong. This text (or fragment) was found hidden there, or that text was in that odd forgotten place, and wasn't one text burred with someone or am I not recalling this correctly.
I have studied the Bible and the theology behind Christianity for many years. I have been to many churches. I have walked the depth and the breadth of the religion and, as a result of this, I have a lot of bullshit to scrape off the bottom of my shoes. ~Ziploc Surprise
