20 Francesca Stavrakopoulou possibility that the name Uzza (az[) may be a variant of Uzziah (hyz[), it may be further encouraged by the absence of the label az[ ˆg in the Chronicler ’s royal burial notices, in notable contrast to the presence of his unique material concerning Uzziah’s field burial. Admittedly, there is no need for the Chronicler to consign Manasseh to an overtly dishonourable grave, for he is a repentant cult reformer in this story (74). Indeed, the Chronicler simply asserts in 2 Chr 33,20 that Manasseh was buried “in his house” (wtyb). Yet both the Septuagint and Syriac versions of this verse claim that Manasseh was buried in a garden; the former identifies it as “the garden of his house”, whilst the latter asserts that Manasseh was interred “in his house in the garden of treasure”. These complex and seemingly contradictory textual tradi- tions allow for the tentative speculation that the double-designation of Manasseh’s burial place in 2 Kgs 21,18 (az[ ˆgb wtyb ˆgb rbqyw) may be the work of a glossator: perhaps a textual tradition locating Manasseh’s tomb in wtyb ˆg was embellished with the secondary designation az[ ˆg, a label deriving from a tradition describing Uzziah’s interment in a royal burial field. Be this as it may, the variations among the royal burial notices in MT and the Versions suggest that the designation of the royal mortuary garden as the “Garden of Uzza” is not a stable feature of the traditions concerning the burial places of the kings of Judah. Yet commentators have tended to depend upon it as a reliable and key historical detail by which the problematic inconsistencies of the royal burial notices in the books of Kings might be explained. As a result, the religious significance of a royal garden burial has not received due attention. In contrast, this discussion has sought to argue that the Hebrew Bible offers glimpses of the important role of mortuary gardens within the religious heritage of the biblical writers. Indeed, it is interesting to observe that the motif of a royal mortuary garden might be detected in further traditions. In 2 Kgs 9,27, King Ahaziah of Judah flees in fear of his life to a place named Beth-haggan (ˆgh tyb), a name literally meaning, “the house of the garden”, and which is reminiscent of the designation of Manasseh’s resting place in 2 Kgs 21,18 as wtyb ˆg. This might have been considered an appropriate place to seek ancestral protection from the murderous, king-killing Jehu (75). A later example (74) On the Chronicler’s portrayal of Manasseh and his reign, see STAVRAKOPOULOU, King Manasseh, 46-59. (75) Cf. STARODOUB-SCHARR, “The Royal Garden”, 262*, n. 36. Wiseman (1 & 2 Kings, 222) associates Beth-haggan with royal gardens at Jezreel, rather than