How was Josiah's reform similar to the law of Moses?

Answer 1

Scripturally, the questioner may read about King Josiah in 2 Kings 23. Josiah assembled the people to RENEW the covenant given to Moses. Like Moses and Joshua before him, King Josiah followed the ancient standards for godly leadership (Joshua 8:34, 35). He read from the 'Book of the Covenant' (Exodus 24:3-8) which Moses had written all of God's commands on this probable scroll. This was placed on the side of the Ark while the Commandment tablets were placed within the Ark. As writing was a rare talent which Moses acquired while a Prince of Egypt, the people generally could not read or write therefore they responded that they would follow all the Commands God spoke - hence the strong oral tradition.

Reading 2 Chronicles 35:1-9, shows the king's own spiritual reaction and the reforms that he enacted. This suggest that the texts dealing with the covenant obligations and the sanctions (Leviticus 26, Deuteronomy 28) were part of the public reading.

Answer 2

King Josiah tried to reform the religion of his kingdom to make monotheism the official religion, with Yahweh (God) as the only God of Judah, with the Temple in Jerusalem as the only place of worship. Some of the laws of Moses were written down at this time as part of Josiah's Deuteronomistic reforms, including an injunction to worship God alone. However, many of the laws attributed to Moses were not written until the Babylonian Exile or later, and were therefore unknown to Josiah.

Much of what we now attribute to Moses should be attributed to authors of the first millennium BCE, including the Deuteronomist who wrote during the reign of Josiah.