La presunta strage di sacerdoti di 2Re 23,4b-5 alla verifica delle versioni antiche

The Ancient witnesses for 2 Kgs 23:4b-5 vary. This contribution analyses the MT, LXX, Aramaic, Syriac, Arabic, “Vetus Latina,” and Vulgate of these verses, concluding that they offer two basic interpretations, arisen in the course of textual transmission. According to the first tradition, the idolatrous priests are transferred to Jerusalem and appointed assistants of the Temple priests. In a second, later tradition, the priests are killed due to syncretism and reactionary religious intolerance in Israel, during the exilic and postexilic periods, when a tough and bloody reaction was attributed to Josiah with the aim of establishing Yahvism, to the detriment of the other cults of the Temple. This second tradition, so, emphasizes radical monotheism, and more specifically the legitimacy of bloody interventions to protect it.