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Biblical History Atlas

Historical event dossier · Religious

The Passover of Josiah's eighteenth year

Researched — not human reviewedRevision 1Last reviewed: not reviewed

No review items are open for this dossier. Classifications remain machine-proposed unless marked as approved by the owner.

Biblical references

Text: World English Bible (public domain). The ESV and NKJV are the preferred study translations and are referenced, not reproduced.

2 Kings 23:21–23Narration
21 The king commanded all the people, saying, “Keep the Passover to the LORD your God, as it is written in this book of the covenant.” 22 Surely there was not kept such a Passover from the days of the judges who judged Israel, nor in all the days of the kings of Israel, nor of the kings of Judah; 23 but in the eighteenth year of King Josiah, this Passover was kept to the LORD in Jerusalem.
2 Chronicles 35:1–19Parallel account
1 Josiah kept a Passover to the LORD in Jerusalem. They killed the Passover on the fourteenth day of the first month. 2 He set the priests in their offices and encouraged them in the service of the LORD’s house. 3 He said to the Levites who taught all Israel, who were holy to the LORD, “Put the holy ark in the house which Solomon the son of David king of Israel built. It will no longer be a burden on your shoulders. Now serve the LORD your God and his people Israel. 4 Prepare yourselves after your fathers’ houses by your divisions, according to the writing of David king of Israel, and according to the writing of Solomon his son. 5 Stand in the holy place according to the divisions of the fathers’ houses of your brothers the children of the people, and let there be for each a portion of a fathers’ house of the Levites. 6 Kill the Passover lamb, sanctify yourselves, and prepare for your brothers, to do according to the LORD’s word by Moses.” 7 Josiah gave to the children of the people, of the flock, lambs and young goats, all of them for the Passover offerings, to all who were present, to the number of thirty thousand, and three thousand bulls. These were of the king’s substance. 8 His princes gave a free will offering to the people, to the priests, and to the Levites. Hilkiah, Zechariah, and Jehiel, the rulers of God’s house, gave to the priests for the Passover offerings two thousand six hundred small livestock, and three hundred head of cattle. 9 Conaniah also, and Shemaiah and Nethanel, his brothers, and Hashabiah, Jeiel, and Jozabad, the chiefs of the Levites, gave to the Levites for the Passover offerings five thousand small livestock and five hundred head of cattle. 10 So the service was prepared, and the priests stood in their place, and the Levites by their divisions, according to the king’s commandment. 11 They killed the Passover lambs, and the priests sprinkled the blood which they received from their hands, and the Levites skinned them. 12 They removed the burnt offerings, that they might give them according to the divisions of the fathers’ houses of the children of the people, to offer to the LORD, as it is written in the book of Moses. They did the same with the cattle. 13 They roasted the Passover with fire according to the ordinance. They boiled the holy offerings in pots, in cauldrons, and in pans, and carried them quickly to all the children of the people. 14 Afterward they prepared for themselves and for the priests, because the priests the sons of Aaron were busy with offering the burnt offerings and the fat until night. Therefore the Levites prepared for themselves and for the priests the sons of Aaron. 15 The singers, the sons of Asaph, were in their place, according to the commandment of David, Asaph, Heman, and Jeduthun the king’s seer; and the gatekeepers were at every gate. They didn’t need to depart from their service, because their brothers the Levites prepared for them. 16 So all the service of the LORD was prepared the same day, to keep the Passover, and to offer burnt offerings on the LORD’s altar, according to the commandment of King Josiah. 17 The children of Israel who were present kept the Passover at that time, and the feast of unleavened bread seven days. 18 There was no Passover like that kept in Israel from the days of Samuel the prophet, nor did any of the kings of Israel keep such a Passover as Josiah kept—with the priests, the Levites, and all Judah and Israel who were present, and the inhabitants of Jerusalem. 19 This Passover was kept in the eighteenth year of the reign of Josiah.

Fourteenth day of the first month; numbers of animals.

Biblical account

Layer: Biblical text

Josiah commanded the people to keep the Passover as written in the book of the covenant; none like it had been kept since the days of the judges; it was kept in Jerusalem in Josiah's eighteenth year. Chronicles (35:1–19) adds the date, the fourteenth day of the first month, the return of the ark to the Temple, and the animals given: 30,000 lambs and kids and 3,000 bulls from the king, 2,600 and 300 from the priests' officials, 5,000 and 500 from the Levite chiefs.

Historical overview

Layer: Historical reconstruction · Period: Spring of Josiah's 18th year (c. 622–621 BC)

Lumby observes that Kings omits Hezekiah's passover (2 Chr 30) and reads the claim as about the complete form of the feast; Keil rejects squeezing the whole reform into the time before this Passover.[1, 2]

Kingdoms: Kingdom of Judah

Date and chronology derivation

Ranges are computed by the project's deterministic chronology engine from the biblical statements and each model's reign anchors. They are reconstructions, not independent dates.

625 BC – 619 BC

Model-independent (applies under every chronology model) · precision: undated

How this range was derived

Earliest bound

  1. reign of Josiah began between 1 Jan 641 BC and 31 Dec 639 BC (model-independent) (2 Kings 22:1)[3, 4, 5]Assumption: Thirty-one years (2 Kgs 22:1; Josephus Ant. 10.5.1) counted back from his death in 609. Whether Judah counted accession years, and from Nisan or Tishri, is not settled here, so the window spans 641–639 BC (operator margin). Model-independent. Thiele (1983, not read directly) is commonly reported as 641/640–609.
  2. “In the eighteenth year of King Josiah” — Temple repairs and the finding of the book of the law (Josiah's 18th year) years later reign of Josiah (2 Kings 22:3)Assumption: The eighteenth regnal year begins 16–17 years after accession (non-accession count) or 17–18 years after (accession count) and lasts a year: offset 16–19 years from the start of the reign (operator margin).
  3. “Keep the Passover … as it is written in this book of the covenant” — The Passover of Josiah's eighteenth year after Temple repairs and the finding of the book of the law (Josiah's 18th year) (2 Kings 23:21)

Latest bound

  1. reign of Josiah began between 1 Jan 641 BC and 31 Dec 639 BC (model-independent) (2 Kings 22:1)[3, 4, 5]Assumption: Thirty-one years (2 Kgs 22:1; Josephus Ant. 10.5.1) counted back from his death in 609. Whether Judah counted accession years, and from Nisan or Tishri, is not settled here, so the window spans 641–639 BC (operator margin). Model-independent. Thiele (1983, not read directly) is commonly reported as 641/640–609.
  2. “but in the eighteenth year of King Josiah, this Passover was kept” — The Passover of Josiah's eighteenth year years later reign of Josiah (2 Kings 23:23)Assumption: The eighteenth regnal year begins 16–17 years after accession (non-accession count) or 17–18 years after (accession count) and lasts a year: offset 16–19 years from the start of the reign (operator margin).

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What else was happening? (model-independent)

  • Daniel's night vision of the four beasts and its interpretation (Dan 7): ? – 539 BC
  • Daniel's vision of the ram and the goat at Susa (Dan 8): ? – 539 BC
  • Josiah (reign): 641 BC – 609 BC
  • Temple repairs and the finding of the book of the law (Josiah's 18th year): 625 BC – 619 BC
  • Josiah desecrates Jeroboam's altar at Bethel and the high places of Samaria: 641 BC – 609 BC
  • Josiah's covenant and the purge of Jerusalem and Judah: 625 BC – 609 BC
  • Josiah's delegation consults Huldah the prophetess: 625 BC – 618 BC
  • Josiah seeks God (8th year) and begins to purge Judah and Israel (12th year) — Chronicles: 631 BC – 625 BC

Ancient and modern geography

Location confidence assumes the event as described. Whether it occurred is assessed in the claims below.

PlaceConnection to this eventLocation identification
JerusalemJerusalem (Old City / City of David)Place of the feastLocation confidence: certainPleiades representative point: certain[6]

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Claims, evidence and classifications

Each claim is classified on its own. A classification describes the evidence for that specific claim, not for the event as a whole.

Josiah held a national Passover in Jerusalem in his eighteenth year.

No independent corroboration foundMachine-proposedExternal evidence

Stated by 2 Kgs 23:21–23 and 2 Chr 35:1–19; Josephus follows them. No external evidence bears on the feast.

Context

  • Passover with 30,000 lambs and kids and 3,000 oxen from the king; none like it "from the times of Samuel".[5]Strength: direct·Ant. 10.4.5·Claim checked
  • The claim is that no passover of this complete form had been kept since Samuel; Kings omits Hezekiah's.[1]Strength: indirect·on 23:22–23·Claim checked

Research date 2026-10-13

Evidence by type

The same evidence regrouped by kind of source. Each item names the claims it bears on.

Archaeological evidence

None recorded for this event.

Scientific findings

None recorded for this event.

Ancient documents

Modern news and announcements

None recorded for this event.

Reference works and summaries

Historical disputes and competing reconstructions

  • Passover in the same regnal year as the discovery

    2 Kgs 23:23 (text)

    With a Nisan new year the discovery, covenant and purge would precede 14 Nisan of the same year; with a Tishri new year there could be up to six months. The text's calendar is not stated.

  • LXX "in the eighth month" at 2 Kgs 22:3 as evidence for autumn regnal years

    O. Thenius and E. Bertheau (as reported by Keil); C. F. Keil (1872) rejects it as a "worthless gloss"

    If the discovery fell in the eighth month of a Tishri-based year, there would be time before the Passover of the same regnal year; Keil argues the gloss proves nothing.[7]

Related passages and events

FromRelationshipToBasis
this eventSame eventhigh · Biblical text2 Chronicles 35:1–19Chronicles' detailed parallel.
this eventThematic parallelmedium · Interpretation2 Chronicles 30:1–27Hezekiah's Passover, not mentioned in Kings (Lumby).[1]
this eventThematic parallelmedium · Biblical textDeuteronomy 16:1–8Passover at the place the LORD chooses.

Prophetic relationships

No prophecy or proposed-fulfillment relationships have been recorded for this event.

Commentary references

Layer: Interpretation. This is commentary, not historical evidence.

Guzik treats the Passover as a national observance restored after long neglect.[8]

Guzik notes that Hezekiah's Passover had to be held in the second month, while Josiah's was on time; Selman counts more than double Hezekiah's offerings and notes that the Levites slaughtered the lambs.[9]

Unanswered questions and research gaps

    Research process

    3 logged searches
    DateQueryWhereUseful
    2026-10-13Lumby 1887 on 23:21–23web fetch1
    2026-10-13Josephus Ant. 10.4.5web fetch1
    2026-10-13Enduring Word 2 Kings 23web fetch1

    Sources

    1. 1.
      Lumby, J. Rawson. The Second Book of the Kings, with Introduction and Notes (Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges). Cambridge University Press, 1887. archive.orgClaim checkedScholarly commentaryRead through the Internet Archive OCR text. Written before ABC 3 was published (1923).Verification log
    2. 2.
      Keil, C. F., Martin, James (trans.). Biblical Commentary on the Books of the Kings (Clark's Foreign Theological Library). T. & T. Clark, Edinburgh, 1872. archive.orgClaim checkedScholarly commentaryRead through the Internet Archive OCR text.Verification log
    3. 3.
      Guzik, David. 2 Kings 22 — Enduring Word Bible Commentary. Enduring Word. enduringword.comClaim checkedTheological commentaryInterpretive resource — not historical corroboration.Verification log
    4. 4.
      Lendering, Jona (ed.). ABC 3 (Fall of Nineveh Chronicle) — English translation on Livius.org. Livius.org. www.livius.orgClaim checkedAncient primary textYears 16–17 of Nabopolassar read.Verification log
    5. 5.
      Josephus, Whiston, William (trans.). Josephus, Antiquities 10.4.1–10.5.2 (trans. W. Whiston). Project Gutenberg #2848. www.gutenberg.orgClaim checkedAncient primary textVerification log
    6. 6.
      Pleiades contributors. Ierusalem/Hierosolyma — Pleiades place 687928. Pleiades (pleiades.stoa.org). pleiades.stoa.orgClaim checkedInstitutional databaseRepresentative point read from the Pleiades JSON record: lon 35.234978, lat 31.7771895.Verification log
    7. 7.
      Keil, C. F., Harper, Andrew (trans.). Biblical Commentary on the Books of the Chronicles (Clark's Foreign Theological Library). T. & T. Clark, Edinburgh, 1872. archive.orgClaim checkedScholarly commentaryRead through the Internet Archive OCR text.Verification log
    8. 8.
      Guzik, David. 2 Kings 23 — Enduring Word Bible Commentary. Enduring Word. enduringword.comClaim checkedTheological commentaryInterpretive resource — not historical corroboration.Verification log
    9. 9.
      Guzik, David. 2 Chronicles 35 — Enduring Word Bible Commentary. Enduring Word. enduringword.comClaim checkedTheological commentaryInterpretive resource — not historical corroboration.Verification log