A very unusual feature was excavated at Beersheba, just inside the city gate, to the left as one enters. (For a full report on the excavations at Beersheba, see the Winter 1974 issue of Bible and Spade, pages 21–27). There, in a courtyard, is a staircase which leads nowhere. The staircase may be seen in Courtyard 443 of Building 430 (See plan and photo). Hard put to explain this, the excavators could only speculate that what they had uncovered was the beginning of a much longer staircase that originally led to the top of the city wall. There was no evidence to support this interpretation and, in fact, such a staircase is unknown in archaeology.
As prominent Israeli archaeologist Yigael Yadin was reading the account of Josiah’s reform in 2 Kings 23, it suddenly dawned on him what the purpose of the mysterious staircase was. The answer was right there in verse 8:
And he [Josiah] brought all the priests out of the cities of Judah, and defiled the high places where the priests had burned incense, from Geba to Beer-sheba,
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and brake down the high places of the gates that were in the entering in of the gate of Joshua the governor of the city, which were on a man’s left hand at the gate of the city.
Yadin interpreted the second half of the verse as referring specifically to the high place at Beersheba. 2 Kings 23:8 states that the high place was on the left side of the city gate and this is precisely where the mysterious staircase was found. By studying the pottery and the fortification systems found at Beersheba, Yadin concluded that the level in which the staircase was found dates to the period of Josiah. Building 430, he believes, is the very high place, or cult center, that Josiah destroyed.
Having identified Building 430 as a cult center left only one logical explanation for the purpose of the staircase—it was associated with an altar. Although no altar was found in the vicinity of the staircase, one was found during the 1973 season—not in its original position, but in reuse in a wall (see Bible and Spade, Winter 1974, page 24). The disturbing thing about the altar was that it was made of hewn and dressed stones in direct violation of Exodus 20:25:
And if thou wilt make me an altar of stone, thou shalt not build it of hewn stone: for if thou lift up thy tool upon it, thou hast polluted it.
Since the altar was made of hewn stone, this would indicate that it was not part of an orthodox Israelite worship center, but rather a pagan cult center. Yadin believes that the altar found in 1973 originally stood in Courtyard 443 in the right-angled corner created by the two flights of steps. Originally, the excavators estimated, the altar stood at least 63 inches high. The total height of the stairs is similar, being about 58 inches. It is interesting to note that the use of steps with an altar was also forbidden by Mosaic law:
Neither shalt thou go up by steps unto mine altar, that thy nakedness be not discovered thereon (Exodus 20:26).
Yadin marshalled other evidence to bolster his theory. A covered drain leads from the staircase out through the city gate. This, he says, was intended to carry away the large quantities of liquids (including blood) connected with the ritual performed on the altar. In Room 435, adjacent to the gate, evidence was found that it was packed with straw to a height of about three feet. In this room, Yadin maintains, wood and straw for the altar were kept or perhaps the hayloft for the animals to be sacrificed. Room 442 was possibly a shed for the sacrificed animals while the other rooms in the back of Building
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Altar and the steps: suggested position
Schematic drawing of the altar and steps, looking southeast.
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Plan of the proposed Beer-sheba high place with altar added. Plan positioned to agree with the sketch below.
An artist’s conception of the high place complex, looking west.
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430 were no doubt used to store the cult vessels and perhaps as living quarters for the cultic personnel.
One additional factor strengthens Yadin’s association of 2 Kings 23:8 with the Beersheba findings—Building 416 across the street from Building 430. This building consists of three long halls with a row of pillars flanked by living quarters (see plan). The western wall of the halls, with three doors, is built of ashlar masonry, creating what the excavators call “a monumental facade”. Building 416, the excavators concluded, was “perhaps the residence of the city-ruler”. If this was the home of Governor Joshua of 2 Kings 23: 8, then it is understandable that, because of its close proximity, Beersheba’s gate would be called “the gate of Joshua” in 2 Kings 23: 8.
After reviewing all of the evidence, Yadin stated that “there can be little doubt that Building 430 is the cult place destroyed by Josiah.”
Josiah was one of the outstanding kings of Judah, for “he did that which was right in the sight of the Lord, and walked in all the way of David his father, and turned not aside to the right hand or to the left” (2 Kings 23: 3). If Yadin’s hypothesis is correct, then we have at Beersheba visible proof of his great reform, when idolatry was purged from the land. It would have been Josiah’s men who removed the Beersheba altar from its original position in the cultic center. The blocks that made up the altar were only preserved for us because they were later put to a practical use by being used in the construction of a wall.
(Bulletin of the American Schools of Oriental Research, No. 222, April 1976, pages 5–17)
For all have sinned, and come short of the glory of God; being justified freely by His grace through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus: Whom God hath set forth to be a propitiation through faith in His blood, to declare His righteousness for the remission of sins that are past, through the forbearance of God. Romans 3:23–25