In a recent article in Haaretz, Ofri Ilany argued that Shaphan the Scribe, a figure who lived during the region of Josiah, King of Judah in the late 7th century BCE, is perhaps the most important figure in Jewish history, and in fact invented Judaism as we currently know it.The mentioned article is in Hebrew and behind the subscription wall. (And I haven't read it.) I noted another reply to it, by journalist Ariel David, here. Prof. Maier also replies to Mr. David in this article. Back to Prof. Meier:
I would like to point out several extremely problematic aspects of his proposal, with a particular emphasis on the archaeological evidence, which unfortunately was poorly represented, and even misconstrued.I have only one comment on his discussion.
As for the supposed cultic reform during the reign of Josiah, the historicity of this reform is not only questionable from the perspective of biblical scholarship. Archaeologically, there is no clear-cut evidence of it, despite more than a century of archaeological research.There is very little clear-cut archaeological evidence for most things in the Bible. But the Yavneh Yam ostracon provides some quite suggestive evidence for Josiah's reforms and even the elusive rediscovered Book of the Law. It is an employee complaint dating to roughly Josiah's reign. It may refer to a law in that law book. Some substantive posts on it are here, here, here, and here.
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