Israel · King named centuries in advance
1 Kings 13:2
Man of God from Judah · ~930 BC · Status: Fulfilled · Confidence: 65%
“And he cried against the altar in the word of the LORD, and said, O altar, altar, thus saith the LORD; Behold, a child shall be born unto the house of David, Josiah by name; and upon thee shall he offer the priests of the high places.”
King James Version
An unnamed prophet confronts Jeroboam's altar at Bethel and names the king who will defile it — 'a child shall be born unto the house of David, Josiah by name' — roughly three centuries before Josiah did exactly that (2 Kgs. 23:15-16).
Fulfillment References
2 Kings 23:15-20 2 Chronicles 34:1-7
Archaeological & Historical Evidence
The Bethel cult site's existence is corroborated by the parallel sanctuary excavated at Tel Dan (the 'high place' platform and monumental steps), matching 1 Kings 12's twin-calf shrines. Josiah's reign (640-609 BC) sits in a well-documented period; his death at Megiddo against Necho II aligns with the Babylonian Chronicle's timeline of Necho's campaigns.
How Traditions Read This Prophecy
Apostolic (Oneness) PentecostalOnly the God who 'declareth the end from the beginning' (Isa. 46:10) names a king centuries early; the same precision that named Josiah named the place and manner of redemption.
JewishA demonstration of prophetic authority against the northern shrine; the fulfillment under Josiah's reform is recorded in Kings itself.
CatholicA witness that God's word governs history across centuries, vindicated in the Deuteronomic reform.
ProtestantOne of only two OT figures named before birth (with Cyrus, Isa. 44:28) — a test case for genuine predictive prophecy.
DispensationalPrecise literal fulfillment here is the pattern-setter for taking unfulfilled prophecy just as literally.
AcademicCritical scholarship generally treats the naming as a Deuteronomistic insertion written after Josiah; conservatives respond that this assumes, rather than proves, that prediction is impossible.
Scholarship & Sources
The critical/conservative divide over 1 Kings 13:2 is laid out in standard commentaries (e.g., Provan, 1 & 2 Kings, NIBC vs. Cogan, 1 Kings, AB); the fulfillment narrative is 2 Kings 23:15-16.
Open the full interactive entry →
Cross-references, Hebrew/Greek, Dead Sea Scrolls notes, study tools and multi-tradition analysis in the interactive explorer.