JOSAPHAT
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JOSAPHAT
successful (III Kings, xxii, 44). In the third year of
his reign he sent throughout the country a missionary
expedition to instruct the people in the Law and ex-
hort them to its faithl'id observance. He is reproached
with contracting an alliance with Achab. King of
Israel the results of which were disastrous for the
ICinguom of Juda. In the eighteenth year of his reign
Josaphat visited Achab in Samaria, and nearly lost his
life accompanying liis treacherous ally to the siege of
Ramoth Galaad (III Kings, xxii). He subsequently
continued his policy of reform, exercised a personal
supervision over its execution, and established for the
same purpose in the royal city a tribunal of priests,
levites, and elders (II Par., xix, 4-11). About the
twentieth year of his reign he repulsed more by prayers
than by force of arms a formidaljle army of the
Moabites, Maonites, and the Children of Ammon (II
Par., XX, 1-30). Ochozias having succeeded Achab
in the Northern Kingdom, Josaphat joined him in a
mercantile enterprise having for object the construc-
tion of a fleet at Asiongaber, but the project was dis-
pleasing to the Lord and proved a failure (II Par.,
XX, 35-37).
Lesktre in ViGonROUX, Diet, de la Bible, s. v.; White in Hastings, Diet, of the Bible, s. v. Jehoshaphat.
James F. Driscgll.
Josaphat (Jehoshaph.\t), Valley of, mentioned in only one passage of the Bible (Joel, iii — Heb. text, iv). In verse 2 we reatl : "I will gather together all nations.
and will brmg them down mto the \ alley of Josaphat
and I will plead with them there for my people, and
for my inheritance Israel, whom they have scattered
among the nations" (cf. verse 12). According to one
interpretation which has gained currency, the prophet
has presented as the scene of Jahveh's judgment on
the Gentiles that valley where, in the presence of Jo.sa-
phat, King of Juda, He annihilated the coalition of
Moab, Ammon, and Edom. This vallej' of the desert
of Teqo'a, which was called by the Jews emeq Ber&Mh,
that is, "valley of blessing", is to be sought in the
vicinity of the Khirbet Herekiit, some distance to the
west of the Khirbet Tequ'a (aliout eleven miles from
Jerusalem). It is also credible that the prophet meant
to designate an ideal, iniietei-iuinate valley — the
valley of judgment, and no more — for Josaphat signi-
fies " Jahveh judges". This valley is, in fact, spoken
of under the name of "valley of destruction" (.K. V.
"valley of decision") in verse 14 of the same chapter.
.\ccording to the context, the Divine judgment will be
exercised upon the nations who aflflicted Juda and
Jerusalem at the time of the captivity and the return
from exile.
In the fourth century ,with the Pilgrim of Bordeaux, the Cedron takes the name of Valley of Josaphat. Eusebius and St. Jerome strengthen this view (Ono- masticon, s. v.), while Cyril of Alexandria appears to indicate a different place; early Jewish tradition de- nied the reality of this valley. Subsequently to the fourth century, Christians, Jews, and, later, Mussul- mans regard Cedron as the place of the last judgment. What has lent colour to this popular belief is the fact that since the time of the kings of Juda, Cedron has been the principal necropolis of Jcru.salem. Josias scattered upon the tombs of the children of Israel the ashes of the idol of Astarte which he burned in Cedron (IV Kings, xxiii, 4). It was in Cedron that the "hand" of Absalom was set up, and the monument of St. James, and there, too, may be seen, in our own days, the very ancient monolithic tomb said to be that of Pharaoh's daughter, and the sepulchres of certain priestly families now known as the tombs of Absalom, of St. James, and of St. Zachary. The ornamental fagade of the tomb said to be that of Josaphat has been completely walled up by the Jews, who have their cemeteries on the flanks of the Valley of Cedron. They wish to stand in the first rank on the day when God shall appear in the Valley of Josaphat.
Reland, Palastina (Utrectit, 1714): Geter. Itinera Hiero- solymilana (Vienna, 1S9S); Van Hoonacker, Led do-uze petUs prophltes (Paris) ; Guy le Strange, Palestine under the Moslems (London, 1S90): Neubauek, La gcographie du Talmud (Paris, 1S6S).
F. M. Abel.
Josaphat Kuncevyc, Saint, mart>T, b. in the little town of Voiodymyrin Lithuania (Volyn) in 1580 or — according to some writers — 1584; d. at Vitebsk, Russia, 12 November, 1G23. The saint's birth oc- curred in a gloomy period for the Ruthenian Church. Even as early as the beginning of the sixteenth cen- tury the Florentine Union had become a dead-letter; in the case of the Ruthenian Church, complete de- moralization followed in the wake of its severance from Rome, and the whole body of its clergy became notorious alike for their gross ignorance and the vi- ciousness of their lives. After the LTnion of Berest' in 1596 the Ruthenian Church was divided into two contending parties — the Uniates and those who perse- vered in schism — each with its own liierarchy. Among the leaders of the schismatic party, who laboured to enkindle popular hatred against the Uniates, Meletius Smotryckyj was conspicuous, and the most celebrated of his victims was Josaphat. Although of a noble Ruthenian stock, Josaphat's father had devoted him- self to commercial pursuits, and held the office of town-councillor. Both parents contributed to implant the seeds of piety in the heart of their child. In the school at Votodymyr Jo.saphat — Johannes was the saint's baptismal name — gave evidence of unusual talent: he applied himself with the greatest zeal to the study of ecclesiastical Slav, and learned almost the entire casostnv (breviary), which from this period he began to read daily. From this source he drew his early religious education, for the unlettered clergy seldom preached or gave catechetical instruction. Owing to the straitened circumstances of his parents, he was apprenticed to the merchant Popovy6 at Vilna. In this town, remarkable for the corruption of its morals and the contentions of the various re- ligious sects, he seemed specially guarded by Provi- dence, and became acquainted with certain excellent men (e. g. Benjamin Rutski), under whose direction
