Online Reference For Body, Mind & Spirit

Term: Josiah

DEFINITION:

(Joh-sai-uh, based on the Hebrew Yoh-see-yah-hoo) Believed to have lived from about 649–609 b.c.e., he was the king of Judah (commonly considered a king of Israel) from 659 until his death. He is an example of how the Biblical Jews kept abandoning the God of the Bible and being called to return to worhip Him. Josiah outlawed the worship of other deities, banned such worship from the Jerusalem Temple, destroyed Pagan objects of worship, and, according to the Bible, ended the worship if the Goddess. In The Hebrew Goddess, Raphael Patai contends that the Goddess was actually worshipped in the Temple until its desctruction in 70 c.e.