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- Title
Pharaonic Paradox: Josiah's Tragic Role Reversal in 2 Chronicles 35.
- Authors
JARRARD, ERIC
- Abstract
In this article, I argue that Josiah's death in 2 Chronicles 35 offers a significant and intentional departure from its Vorlage (2 Kings 23) through an evocative presentation of Josiah's death redolent of other kings with dubious legacies. I consider methodologies for identifying allusion in late texts that demonstrate substantial awareness and engagement with pentateuchal materials. Those methodological reflections are then used to establish the allusions the Chronicler constructs to connect Josiah to the pharaoh of Exodus and other notorious monarchs from the Deuteronomistic History. These allusions, I contend, function as a form of memory work intended to (re)construct identity in the postexilic period. The Chronicler uses this technique to create a more thorough sense of narrative continuity at a relatively late point in the history--both in terms of textual composition and the history of the literary fabula--of the Chronicler's story. In this way, the Chronicler does not seek to replace or rewrite the Deuteronomistic Vorlage, but rather to refract--or contrafact--the Chronicler's self-reflexive rendering of previous events in order to create a more instructive reading of Israel's past for the Second Temple period.
- Subjects
JOSIAH, King of Judah, ca. 640-ca. 609; PHARAOHS; BIBLE. Deuteronomy; COLLECTIVE memory; BIBLE. Chronicles
- Publication
Catholic Biblical Quarterly, 2023, Vol 85, Issue 4, p640
- ISSN
0008-7912
- Publication type
Article
- DOI
10.1353/cbq.2023.a908817