Cult Centralization in the Books of Kings

Abstract The books of Kings claim that the worship of Yhwh should have been centralized at Solomon’s temple in Jerusalem and that, for most of their history, Israel and Judah did not conform to that principle. This chapter shows that cult centralization is a major theme of Kings indeed. It also discusses the possible origins of this religious principle and the hypotheses concerning its rationale. But Kings also claims that two kings, Hezekiah and Josiah, made religious reforms based on cult centralization. This chapter introduces the reader to the debate about the historicity of these reforms, which involves both the literary analysis of the relevant passages of Kings and the interpretation of potential archaeological evidence.