Josiah in the context of "The Bible Unearthed"

The Book of Joshua is the sixth book in the Hebrew Bible and the Old Testament, and is the first book of the Deuteronomistic history, the story of Israel from the conquest of Canaan to the Babylonian exile. It tells of the campaigns of the Israelites in central, southern and northern Canaan, the destruction of their enemies, and the division of the land among the Twelve Tribes, framed by two set-piece speeches, the first by God commanding the conquest of the land, and, at the end, the second by Joshua warning of the need for faithful observance of the Law (torah) revealed to Moses.

The consensus among scholars is that the Book of Joshua is historically problematic and should be treated with caution in reconstructing the history of early Israel. The earliest parts of the book are possibly chapters 2–11, the story of the conquest; these chapters were later incorporated into an early form of Joshua likely written late in the reign of king Josiah (reigned 640–609 BC), but the book was not completed until after the fall of Jerusalem to the Neo-Babylonian Empire in 586 BC, and possibly not until after the return from the Babylonian exile in 539 BC.

Aniconism is the absence of material representations of the natural and supernatural world in various cultures. Most denominations of Christianity have not generally practiced aniconism, or the avoidance or prohibition of these types of images, even dating back to early Christian art and architecture. Those in the faith have generally had an active tradition of making artwork and Christian media; depicting God, Jesus, The Holy Spirit, religious figures including saints and prophets, and other aspects of theology like The Trinity and Manus Dei.

There have however been periods of aniconism in Christian history, notably during the controversy of the Byzantine iconoclasm of the eighth century, and following the Protestant Reformation of the 16th century, when Calvinism in particular rejected all images in churches, and this practice continues today in some Reformed (Calvinist) churches, as well as some forms of fundamentalist Christianity. The Catholic Church has always defended the use of sacred images in churches, shrines, and homes, encouraging their veneration but condemning anyone who would worship them as if they were gods themselves.

Judah (Hebrew: יְהוּדָה‎, Modern: Yəhūda, Tiberian: Yŭhūḏā) was, according to the Book of Genesis, the fourth of the six sons of Jacob and Leah and the founder of the Tribe of Judah of the Israelites. By extension, he is indirectly the eponym of the Kingdom of Judah, the land of Judea, and the word Jew.

According to the narrative in Genesis, Judah alongside Tamar is a patrilineal ancestor of the Davidic line. The Tribe of Judah features prominently in Deuteronomistic history, which most scholars agree was reduced to written form, although subject to exilic and post-exilic alterations and emendations, during the reign of the Judahist reformer Josiah from 641 to 609 BCE.

Jehoiakim,( also sometimes spelled Jehoikim; c. 632 BC – 598 BC) was the eighteenth and third-from-last King of Judah from 609 to 598 BC. He was the second son of King Josiah (1 Chronicles 3:15) and Zebidah, the daughter of Pedaiah of Rumah. His birth name was Eliakim.

Jeconiah (Biblical Hebrew: יְכָנְיָה, romanized: Yəḵonəyā [jəxonjɔː] meaning "Yahweh has established"; Greek: Ἰεχονίας; Latin: Iechonias, Jechonias), also known as Coniah and as Jehoiachin (יְהוֹיָכִין Yəhoyāḵin [jəhoːjɔːˈxiːn]; Latin: Ioachin, Joachin), was the nineteenth and penultimate king of Judah who was dethroned by the King of Babylon, Nebuchadnezzar II in the 6th century BCE and was taken into captivity. He was the son and successor of King Jehoiakim, and the grandson of King Josiah. Most of what is known about Jeconiah is found in the Hebrew Bible. Records of Jeconiah's existence have been found in Iraq, such as the Jehoiachin's Rations Tablets. These tablets were excavated near the Ishtar Gate in Babylon and dated to c. 592 BCE. Written in cuneiform, they mention Jeconiah (Akkadian: 𒅀𒀪𒌑𒆠𒉡}, romanized: Yaʾukinu [ia-ʾ-ú-ki-nu]) and his five sons as recipients of food rations in Babylon.