Hilkiah the High Priest חלקיהו הכהן
found the scroll of the Torah in the Temple — and the whole reform of Josiah began from it
The eighteenth year of Josiah. The king sent Shaphan the scribe to the high priest: let the silver brought into the House of the LORD be counted and handed to the workmen for the repair. And there, between two lines about money, stands the sentence that changed everything: "Hilkiah the high priest said to Shaphan the scribe: I have found the book of the Law in the House of the LORD."
Shaphan read it himself, then read it to the king. Josiah tore his clothes and sent to inquire of the LORD — the delegation went to Huldah the prophetess, and her answer shaped the rest of the reign.
After that Hilkiah is the executor of the reform. At the king's order he, with the priests of the second order and the keepers of the threshold, brought out of the Temple everything made for Baal, for the asherah and for all the host of heaven, and burned it outside the city in the Kidron valley, carrying the ashes to Bethel.
Exactly which scroll was found the Tanakh does not specify; tradition and the commentators discuss it separately. What is clear is something else: the reform began not with a royal decree but with a find made by a priest busy with repairs.
On the timeline
Sources
Tanakh
- Melachim II 22:8 — “I have found the book of the Law in the House of the LORD”
- Melachim II 23:4 — the removal and burning of the vessels of foreign worship
Basis: stated in the Tanakh.