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By Root 1250 0

of Israel returned to the old polytheism under the Ephraimite king Jeroboam. Jeroboam, it should be noted, was appointed by Solomon to be the foreman over the slaves of the "house of Joseph," i.e., Ephraim/Manasseh (1 Kings 11:28), who had originally inhabited the northern lands but whom the genocidal tribe of Judah had been unable to exterminate (1 Kings 9:20). The division actually occurred after the people, including Jeroboam, asked Solomon's son Rehoboam to "lighten the yoke" of his father. Jeroboam then made two golden calves at the Hebrew sacred sites of Dan and Beth-El and said to the northern Israelites, "You have gone up to Jerusalem long enough. Behold your gods, 0 Israel, who brought you out of the land of Egypt." Jeroboam was thus expressing the frustration of the people, "Jews" and "Gentiles" alike, who had been slaves to the Jerusalemite priests. The king was also stating that it was the golden calf of Horus/Baal/Iusa, as opposed to the volcanic Yahweh, who brought Israel out of Egypt. According to the story, Jeroboam's efforts were doomed to failure, however, because a couple of centuries later two "reformer" kings, Hezekiah and Josiah, arose to reinstate the repressive and exploitative centralized worship. Hezekiah (715-687 BCE), in fact, "purged" Judah and Ephraim of their high places and Asherim in a frenzied rampage that destroyed centuries-old religious sanctuaries. Friedman says of this purge:

The religious reform meant more than breaking idols and cleansing the Temple. It also meant destroying the places of worship of Yahweh outside of the Temple in Jerusalem. In addition to the Temple, there had been various local places where people could go to sacrifice to God. These places of worship in the local communities were called "high places." Hezekiah eliminated them. He promoted the centralization of the religion at the Temple in Jerusalem.44

The high priest of Jerusalem, therefore, came to hold enormous power, as Jerusalem was the only "Jewish" religious center left. Hezekiah also purportedly destroyed the bronze serpent of Moses, a 500-year-old religious relic, striking a blow at the Levitical priesthood traced through Moses ("Mushites"), an act that leaves one to wonder how Hezekiah could represent a "great" exemplar of the Mosaic law and religion.

After Hezekiah's death, his son Manasseh returned the local "pagan" worship to the people, but the reformers struck back with their favorite king Josiah, who was even more vehement than Hezekiah in his assaults on the old religion. In order to explain why the Hebrews kept going after other gods, the biblical writers pretended that the "book of the Law" of Moses had been "lost" and found 600 years later (622 BCE) by Josiah's high priest, Hilkiah, a "son of Zadok" or Sadducee. After reading the law, or before, depending on which of the contradictory accounts in the "infallible word" one reads, Josiah goes on a rampage and purges the high places.

The tale is obviously fictitious, as, in reality, it cannot be explained why, if Moses had been real and had such a dramatic and impactful life, his Law would have been "lost" in the first place. And if it had been lost, how did Hezekiah know to follow it when he made his purges and reforms? It is also inexplicable as to why "the Lord" would have gone to so much trouble to talk regularly with Moses and Aaron, give them an enormous amount of detailed instructions, and then just let "his chosen" put it all away for 600 years. Where was "the Lord" during this time? He was purportedly involved in every little detail of Israelite life, yet he never reminded them of the long-lost law?

The truth is that Hilkiah's book of law was created in his time or afterward in order to consolidate the power of the priesthood, in particular that of the Judean Levites. Shortly thereafter, Jerusalem was destroyed because it was considered troublesome, an oppressive atmosphere that may have been one of the reasons the majority of "Jews" did not return to Palestine after the end of the "Babylonian captivity."

This important incident