Abstract
The recent article in this journal by I. Finkelstein and N. Silberman ( JSOT 30 [2006]: 259-85), in which the authors attempted to establish the historicity of Hezekiah's religious centralization by linking it with archaeological evidence for the closing of shrines at Arad, Beersheba, and Lachish, highlights the need for historians to reconsider this issue. Finkelstein and Silberman's article lacks the mandatory critical evaluation of the biblical text and inappropriately dates selected archaeological evidence to the reign of a specific king. A re-examination of the highly charged issue of cult centralization in the late eighth century BCE is overdue, and this study offers some needed corrections to the analysis of Finkelstein and Silberman and proposes what is considered to be a more cogent understanding of the reality underlying the biblical claim of a cultic centralization undertaken by Hezekiah. This study does not deal with the separate issue of Hezekiah's alleged cultic reform.
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