What is the context?
Josiah commands the people to keep the Lord’s Passover as written in the Book of the Covenant. The renewed observance is therefore tied to instruction heard and acted upon.
The narrator says no such Passover had been kept through the period of the judges and kings. The language marks this celebration’s exceptional character, rather than requiring the claim that no Passover at all had occurred during all those centuries.
The date is Josiah’s eighteenth year, the same year as the reading and response already described. Reform includes remembering the Lord’s deliverance, not only removing false worship.
How is this passage commonly understood?
Wesley reads the comparison in terms of exceptional care, preparation, and participation. 2 Chronicles 35:1–19 gives a fuller description and compares it with the days of Samuel. These accounts explain the celebration’s significance without making Josiah the first king ever to observe Passover.
Where does this fit in God's plan?
1 Corinthians 5:7–8 explicitly identifies Christ as the sacrificed Passover lamb and calls believers to put away malice and wickedness for sincerity and truth. That gives the Passover remembered here its wider Christian connection. Paul is not directly explaining Josiah’s particular celebration, nor authorizing the church to copy the killings narrated in the surrounding royal reform.
What is our position?
We don't have a position on this passage yet. When our study reaches a conclusion the text supports, it will appear here.
Where can I study this further?
No deeper study linked yet.