Una strage di sacerdoti? Dalla storiografia alla storia in 2Re 23,4b-5

The account of a priests massacre in 2Kgs 23:4b-5 appears as the result of a textual re-elaboration. In fact, 2Kgs 23:4-20 is a compound text, as it is proved by various lexical and morphological incoherences, with the co-existence of correct and incorrect verbal forms. A copyist introduced, into the text, various marginal or interlinear glosses, amongst which the presumed massacre of idolatrous priests (“kĕmārîm"). This bloody measure, later attributed to Josiah, is explained like a product of religious intransigence born after the Exile: on the basis of this ideological presupposition, a lot of important pages of the ancient Israel history were rewritten.