Jerusalem Feb 1

Dr. Cargill went over the concept of cognitive dissonance. This deals with people who have two conflicting ideas. When the Temple was destroyed in 586 BCE by King Nebuchadnezzer, the people of Jerusalem had to decide their next action. God had promised to David that Jerusalem would always be protected. However, with the Temple gone, the Jews had to decide whether to abandon their faith or attempt to interpret the promise. They tried to say that God did not physically dwell in the Temple, but God placed his name there.

They also tried to come up with an explanation as to why God would let Jerusalem fall. Some blame Manaseh, the son of Hezekiah, because he undid all the reform that his father made. God is punishing Jerusalem for the actions of Manaseh.

Dr. Cargill also went into the death of Josiah and how in 2 Kings, it just states that he died. However, 2 Chronicles tries to explain why he got killed by Neco of Egypt. During this time, Egypt and Assyria were teaming up to fight Babylon, the big kid on the block. Josiah tried to stop Neco for whatever reason. However, from Neco’s perspective, it seemed that Josiah was helping the Babylons (the most evil of the empires). Scholars would later see this as going against the law of God, therefore he was punished with his death.

I also got an idea for my research topic for my final paper. I may talk about the parallels between the cognitive dissonance experienced by the people of the Jerusalem, and the similar cognitive dissonance in popular Media.