Bloodshed by King Manasseh, Assyrians and Priestly Scribes - Theological Meaning and Historical-Cultural Contextualization of 2 Kings 21:16, 24:3-4 in Relation to the Fall of Judah

King Manasseh of Judah is one of the most intriguing characters in the Bible. 2 Kings presents him as the wickedest of monarchs. In 2Kgs 24:3-4, he is accused of having provoked God to destroy Judah on account of the innocent blood he had shed in Jerusalem (cf. 2Kgs 21:16). In his study Krzysztof Kinowski investigates this accusation, viewing it against the biblical and ancient Near East backgrounds, and casts a new light upon Manasseh's role in the fall of Jerusalem. The mention of bloodshed in this affair appears to be the outcome of a process of scapegoating of Manasseh, ongoing in 2 Kings and reflecting both the legal and the cultic paradigms governing the biblical historiography. The link between Manasseh's bloodshed and the destruction of Judah on account of the cultic land's blood-defilement points towards a group of priestly scribes involved in the production of the 2Kgs 21 and 24 narratives. This assumption lies behind the scholarly discussion about the Priestly-like strata and priestly touches in the Books of Kings.

Krzysztof Kinowski, born June 17th, 1979, in Gda?sk (Poland), Doctor of Biblical Sciences (the Pontifical Biblical Institute in Rome 2017), currently an assistant professor at the John Paul II Catholic University of Lublin (Department of Biblical Philology and Intertestamental Literature), a guest professor at Gda?sk Diocesan Seminary and the Institute of Graduate Studies of the Archdiocese of Gda?sk (affiliated to the University of Cardinal Stefan Wyszy?ski in Warsaw), a member of the Association of Polish Biblical Researchers, former Rector of Gda?sk Diocesan Seminary, priest of the Archdiocese of Gda?sk. His research interests include the history of biblical Israel, especially the Books of Kings, as well as the culture and religion of ancient Mesopotamia; Hebrew, Greek and Akkadian philology; biblical and philosophical anthropology, and bioethics. He enjoys travelling and getting to know new cultures.