Completing the temple with the celebration of Josiah's Passover?

Abstract

The thesis of this article is that a macro-structural view of the Books of Chronicles indicates that a parallel development is constructed between David/Solomon and Hezekiah/Josiah. In order to indicate this, an analysis of the Josiah account in 2 Chron. 34-35, with special emphasis on 35:1-19 (the celebration of the Passover) is provided. After this initial analysis two other text-internal contexts to which the Josiah account is related are discussed, namely the Hezekiah account in Chronicles, as well as the David/Solomon story. Certain conclusions are drawn from this discussion. Lastly, the rhetorical function of the parallel construction, which may be indicative of the Chronicler's reappropriation of the Deuteronomistic description of history, is discussed within a suggested text-external context.