Hezekiah's Jerusalem cont./Josiah's Jerusalem

Hezekiah fortifies the city and prepares to rebel against Assyria. During this time writing becomes more prevalent. Assyrians give up their own language and adopt Aramaic, which makes writing easier and communicating with one another easier as well. This makes religion based on the books instead of the king. Judaism, Christianity and Islam become religions of the book and the book of the law. Due to religions becoming based on the books of the law, we see kings becoming to be involved in the literature.
Literature from the royal court is written down by the state, which leads to propaganda. The question of how you read a text and who is the Messiah is raised. The Messiah is anointed with oil. Two people were anointed, the King and the high priest. There is a mention of the Messiah, and who the Messiah is in many texts during Hezekiah’s period. In Isaiah 7 we see that Messiah is called Emanuel. Christians say that the Messiah refers to Jesus.
From Sennacherib’s prism we see that Sennacherib and Assyria destroyed 46 cities of Jerusalem. The prism never mentions that Jerusalem was destroyed. The failure for them to destroy Jerusalem brought about Zion theology. This is a theology based on Jerusalem being saved and spared from Assyria. This reflects on Jerusalem being a city protected by God. The victory of Jerusalem leads the city to become the center for Judaism during Hezekiah’s reign. Hezekiah sets out on a religious reform, a faith centered in one city, Jerusalem. Hezekiah did not allow worship in other places. After Hezekiah, Manasseh comes and undoes all of the religious reforms.
Josiah comes in 640- 609 BCE. This is during the decline of Assyria. During this time they find the book of the law. Josiah has religious reforms. Josiah did not want the people to worship other gods. He burnt idols, and sent priests that were worshiping other gods away. He gave the people one way of doing religion. Wants the people to follow the book of the law. During Josiah’s time, we see this transmission of following the leader to following the law. Also, this time was a period when literacy became widespread. We see this in the Lachish letter- soldier said that he knows how to read and write. We see a stigma about people that don’t know how to read and write.