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Published online by Cambridge University Press: 09 September 2019
Death's inevitability is not in question, but its mystery is one that is equally unavoidable and the questions we are likely to have about what then unanswerable. Traditionally we have tended to be concerned with what – if anything – might happen to us personally after we pass away, but that is not our question here. Rather we wish to contemplate what a knowledge of what will happen to the others in our lives may do to us while we are yet living. If we could know before we die the events that will befall our loved ones and/or our communities how might we react? Would that knowing be a comfort or a curse? Moreover, what might our contemplation on this query teach us about death more generally? Such is our concern in the discussion below.
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2 While I believe we must take such things with a large grain of salt, the dates given for King Josiah's life are c. 649-609 bce, and the years for his reign are listed as 641/640 to 610/609 bce; see ‘Josiah’, Wikipedia: The Free Encyclopedia, <https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Josiah> [accessed 25 July 2018].
3 For some details, see ibid.
4 Tanakh, II Kings 22:13, p. 606.
5 ‘Josiah’.
6 Ibid.
7 Tanakh, II Kings 23:29-30, p. 609.
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