A Woman of Authority

When Israel’s great reformer King Josiah is made aware of a stack of scrolls found by the priests in a major Temple restoration, he turns to Huldah the Prophet as the single person to be trusted for their interpretation. There are other prophets active at the time including Jeremiah, Zephaniah, Nahum and Habakkuk, but it is Huldah who authorizes the Book and for the first time in recorded history, a writing is officially declared to be scripture. Though her story is told quite briefly, both in 2 Kings 22 and 2 Chronicles 34, I have always been fascinated by Huldah, this respected woman on whose wisdom and judgment rested the initial entry of Hebrew Scripture canon. She is still memorialized in modern Jerusalem by the Huldah Gates in the south wall of the Temple Mount. (Illustration from Prints of the Prophets series.)