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- Herausgeber: John Wiley & Sons
- Kategorie: Religion und Spiritualität
- Serie: Blackwell Bible Commentaries
- Sprache: Englisch
Explores the interpretive history of the Book of Jeremiah, and highlights its influence on various cultures through the centuries
Jeremiah Through the Centuries explores the reception history of this enigmatic prophet and his words. The book offers an introduction telling the story of the surprising ways in which both voice and persona of this elusive prophet were used in critical historical moments, as well as a complete chapter-by-chapter commentary that presents the significant historical effects of selected texts. The spiritual struggles of the faithful and critiques of philosophers and scientists are often presented in their own voices. The book offers original ideas about the effects of the “slipping figure of Jeremiah” on the developing idea of the self, shown in a wide range of liturgical, political, artistic, literary, and cultural contexts.
The book guides readers through various interpretations of Jeremiah’s poetry and prose, discussing the profound influence that Jeremiah and Western culture have had on each other through the centuries. Significant texts from every chapter of Jeremiah are presented in a chronological narrative as both conversation and debate – enabling readers to encounter the prophet in the text of the Bible and in previous exegeses. Throughout the text, the receptions reflect historical contexts and highlight the ways they shaped specific receptions of Jeremiah. This book:
- Illustrates how the Book of Jeremiah was adapted by readers to face new challenges, both in the past and present
- Includes examples of Jeremiah in social satire, Islamic tradition, political debate, and religious controversy
- Provides a detailed introduction that traces Jeremiah’s influence on events and traditions
- Offers insights into both celebrated texts and lesser-known passages that are relevant to contemporary readers
- Features numerous, previously unpublished illustrations demonstrating the influence of Jeremiah on traditions in Western art
Featuring engaging narrative and expert commentary, Jeremiah Through the Centuries is ideal for students, teachers, and general readers with interest in theology and biblical studies, Judaic studies, ancient literature, cultural criticism, reception history of the Bible, and the history of Western civilization.
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Veröffentlichungsjahr: 2020
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Table of Contents
Cover
Wiley Blackwell Bible Commentaries
List of Illustrations
Introduction
Commentary
Series Editors’ Preface
Acknowledgments
Testimonia
Introduction
Theory and Practice of Reception History
Jeremiah in Three Guises
Jeremiah in Antiquity
Medieval Jeremiahs
Early Modernity
Nineteenth and Twentieth Centuries
Practical Notes for Using the Commentary
Jeremiah 1:
Word of the Lord or Words of Jeremiah? (Jer 1:1)
Jeremiah Before Birth (1:4–5)
A Prophet to the Nations (1:5)
Resisting God (1:6)
Filling Jeremiah’s Mouth
The Job Description (1:10)
God’s Pun (1:11–12)
What’s Cooking? (1:13–16)
Jeremiah 2:
God’s Lawsuit (2:1–13)
Leaky Cisterns or Living Water? (2:12–13)
A Puzzling Verb Becomes a Word of Salvation (2:20)
Prophetic Pornography (2:20–25)
Jeremiah in the Synagogue (2:4–28)
Jeremiah 3:
A Rare Allusion to God the Father (3:4,19)
Holy Forgetting (3:15–18)
3:24–25
Jeremiah 4:
A Subversive Translation (4:1–2)
The Circumcised Heart (4:4)
Reading Metaphor (4:7)
Does God Deceive? (4:9–10)
Body and Soul (4:19–22)
Apocalypse Now (4:23–28)
Contradiction as Problem and Opportunity (4:27)
Dressing Down a Gussied‐Up Female (4:29–31)
Jeremiah 5:
Nothing Bad Will Happen to Us (5:12)
Divine Fire Consuming Human Wood (5:14)
An Appalling and Horrible Thing (5:30–31)
Jeremiah 6:
Two Roads Diverged (6:16)
Buying Salvation (6:20)
Jeremiah as Fortress and/or Refiner (6:27)
Jeremiah 7:
A Den of Thieves (7:1–15)
A Troubling Contradiction (7:21–24)
Jeremiah 8:
Reading Jeremiah as Science (8:7)
The Balm of Gilead (8:22)
Jeremiah 9:
A Fountain of Tears (9,1,18)
Internalizing the Prophet’s Cry (9:2)
Death Climbs in the Windows (9:21)
Jeremiah 10:
Superstition and Science (10:2–5)
Who Will Not Fear You? (10:7)
Wise Fools (10:12–16)
Humans Are Not Masters of Themselves (10:23–24)
Correct Me, O Lord (10:24)
Pour Out Thy Wrath (10:25)
Jeremiah 11:
Let Us Put Wood in his Bread (11:19)
Jeremiah 12:
A Lawsuit Against God (12:1–4)
Shameful Revenues (12:13)
Jeremiah 13:
Jeremiah’s Loincloth (13:1–11)
Jeremiah’s Tears (13:17)
Unsettling Images (13: 22–27)
Jeremiah 14:
The Inn and the Manger (14:7–9)
Jeremiah 15:
Saints Alive (15:1)
Woe is Me, My Mother (15:10)
Changing Fashions in Prayer (15:15)
Is Jeremiah Blasphemous? (15:18)
A Divine Reprimand Reconsidered (15:19)
Jeremiah 16:
Prophetic Celibacy (16:1–4)
Hunters and Fishers (16:16–18)
Jeremiah 17:
Misplaced Trust (17:5)
Is the Human Heart Deep, or Depraved? (17:9–10)
The Partridge (17:11)
Jeremiah 18:
The Surprise of Divine Freedom (18:1–12)
Jeremiah 19:
Jeremiah Smashes a Jug
Jeremiah 20–21:
Jeremiah in the Stocks (20:1–6)
Divine Deception (20:7)
Whose Violence and Destruction? (20:8)
A Reproach and a Derision (20:8)
A Burning Fire (20:9)
Do Saints Curse? (20:13–18)
Jeremiah 22:
The Burial of an Ass (22:18–19)
Jeremiah and the Lost Ark (22:29)
Jeremiah 23:
The Righteous Branch (23:5–6)
False Prophets (23:9–40)
Jeremiah 24:
Two Baskets of Figs (24:1–10)
Jeremiah 25:
Jeremiah 26–28:
Jeremiah’s Yoke (Jer 27:2; 28:1–17)
False Prophets
Jeremiah 29:
Build and Plant (29:1–6)
Praying for the Enemy (29:7)
Seventy Years (29:10)
God’s Inscrutable Plans (29:11)
Jeremiah as Contemporary Prophet (Jer 29:19)
Jeremiah 30–31:
Hope in the Midst of Trauma (30:1–3)
Rachel Weeps in Every Century (31:15–17)
Gender‐Bending (31:22)
The New Covenant (31:31–34)
Jeremiah 32–33:
A Strange Real Estate Deal
Jeremiah 34:
Taking Back the Gift of Freedom (34:8–22)
Jeremiah 35:
Jeremiah 36:
Jeremiah 37–38:
Dungeon and Cistern
Ancient Allegories (38:1–13)
A Model for Political Resistance (38:1–16)
The Cistern as Spiritual Prison (38:1–6).
Ebed‐Melek Rescues Jeremiah (38:7–13)
Jeremiah’s Lie (38:24–27)
Jeremiah 39:
Zedekiah Captured (39:4–7)
Ebed‐Melech Becomes Abimelech (39:15–18)
Jeremiah 40–43:
How Did the Prophet Escape the Burning City? (40:1–6)
The Murder of Gedaliah (40:7– 41:17)
How Long, O Lord? (42:7)
The Stones of Tahpanhes (43:8–13)
Jeremiah 44:
Uppity Women (44:15–19)
Martyrdom of Jeremiah
Jeremiah 45:
Jeremiah 46–51:
Glossary
Bibliography
Brief Biographies
Index
End User License Agreement
List of Illustrations
Introduction
Figure 1 Rembrandt van Rijn,
Jeremiah Lamenting the Destruction of Jerusalem
Figure 2 Jeremiah with scroll and Ark. Wall fresco in the synagogue at Dura ...
Figure 3 John of Damascus,
Sacra Parallela
. Bibliothèque Nationale de France...
Figure 4 Prophet Jeremiah. Basilica of San Vitale, Ravenna. De Agostini Pict...
Figure 5 Ms Or 20 f. 13v The Prophet Armia, miniature from the “Jami’ al‐Taw...
Figure 6 Headpiece to Jeremiah in the Coverdale Bible 1535. Reproduced by pe...
Figure 7 The Prophet Jeremias. Jan van der Straet, called Stradanus.
Icones
...
Figure 8 Jeremiah before Zedekiah.
Theatrum Biblicum
1643. Rare Books Divisi...
Figure 9 Title page of Michael Ghislerius,
In Ieremiam prophetam commentarii
Figure 10 Frontispiece to Jérémie,
Poëme en Quatre Chants
, by M. Demara...
Figure 11 A children’s Jeremiah from Charles Foster,
Bible Pictures and What
...
Figure 12 Jeremiah resists the government. D.C. Comics,
Picture Stories from
...
Figure 13 Jeremiah pictured as the young reader of Arthur S. Maxwell’s,
The
...
Figure 14 Jeremiah models resisting ridicule.
My Book of Bible Stories,
Watc...
Figure 15 Jeremiah bullied. Children’s story Bible from the early twentieth ...
Figure 16 Louis Rosenthal charity medal, 1938. Private collection.
Figure 17 Marc Chagall,
Solitude
, 1933. Tel Aviv Museum of Art. © Artists Ri...
Figure 18 “Lamentation for the Ages.” Doug Johnson.
Chapter 1
Figure 19 Jeremiah as author of his book.
Figure 20 Jeremiah 1:1. Cornelius Martinus Spanghoe, 1784. Private collectio...
Figure 21 The birth of Jeremiah and its allegory.
Figure 22 Jeremiæ the Prophet. Matthäus Merian,
Iconum Biblicarum
1630. Priv...
Figure 23 A nineteenth‐century imagining of Jeremiah receiving God’s call. F...
Figure 24 God places the word in a receptive Jeremiah’s mouth. British Libra...
Figure 25 Winchester Bible, f148. ©The Dean & Chapter of Winchester, 2019. R...
Figure 26 Contemporary reception of Jeremiah’s commission.
Visual Theology
. ...
Figure 27 Benjamin West, The Call of Jeremiah, 1782. Musée des Beaux‐Arts de...
Figure 28 Political cartoon from
Flugblätter der Reformation und des Bauernk
...
Figure 29 The boiling pot. Engraving by Matthias Scheits for
Tableaux de vie
...
Chapter 5
Figure 30 “Was Jeremiah speaking to you?” Advertisement from
the Saturday Ev
...
Chapter 8
Figure 31 Jeremiah’s birds. Frank Beard,
Picture Puzzles, or How to Read the
...
Figure 32 Election Day Sermon “The Balm of Gilead” preached in Cape Cod in 1...
Chapter 9
Figure 33 Saul Rabino, “Jeremiah.” 1935 lithograph. Private collection.
Figure 34 Title page of
Fons Lachrymarum
with illustration of King Charles. ...
Figure 35
Icones Mortis Sexaginta Imaginibus
1648. Bridwell Library Special ...
Chapter 10
Figure 36 Caricature of Erasmus as Jeremiah. Hans Holbein 1509. Print Collec...
Chapter 13
Figure 37 Jeremiah weeps in the English Civil War.
Chapter 18
Figure 38 Jeremiah’s potter as an allegory for the conversion of Saul.
Chapter 19
Figure 39 Jeremiah smashes the jug.
Brown’s Self‐Interpreting Family Bible
...
Chapter 20and21
Figure 40 Jérémie in Paris. “Le Grande‐Prêtre Frappe Jérémie.” M. Desmarais ...
Figure 41
The Children of the Bible: As Examples and Warnings
. Frances M. Ca...
Figure 42 Sculpture by Andrew Mabanji. Saint John’s Abbey, Collegeville, MN....
Figure 43 Jeremiah’s curse as medieval allegory condemning contemporary bish...
Chapter 26and28
Figure 44
Theatrum Biblicum
. 1674. Rare Books Division, The New York Public ...
Chapter 29
Figure 45 A contemporary Jeremiah adopts Jer 29:19 to warn inhabitants of Ne...
Chapter 30andc31
Figure 46
Chapter 36
Figure 47
Figure 48 Jehoiakim watches while Jehudi burns Jeremiah’s scroll. Hans Sebal...
Figure 49 King Jehoiakim burns Jeremiah's scroll. Jan Luykens in Christoph W...
Figure 50 King Jehoiakim burns Jeremiah's words. Christoph Weigel,
Biblia ec
...
Chapter 37and38
Figure 51 Page from Fontaine's 1670 student story‐Bible, with picture by Mat...
Figure 52 A baroque Jérémie in Paris. M. Demaris, Jérémie, Poëme en quatre C...
Figure 53 From an eighteenth‐century family Bible published in Leeds, Englan...
Figure 54 Jeremiah lowered into the cistern. From an English family Bible, 1...
Figure 55 Jeremiah in the cistern for American Christians. By permission of ...
Figure 56 Ebed Melek rescues Jeremiah. Jan Luyken, 1712. Private collection....
Figure 57 Ebed Melek directs Jeremiah’s rescue. Bernard Picart. Courtesy of ...
Figure 58 Jeremiah rescued by Ebed Melek rescues Jeremiah. William Gunning K...
Figure 59 An American Ebed Melek for children. Herbert Rudeen 1959. Private ...
Chapter 39
Figure 60 Abimelech with his figs, awakened after 66 years. Beginning of Jer...
Chapter 40and43
Figure 61 Jeremiah about to bury stones in Egypt. Illustration from a ninete...
Figure 62 Jeremiah preaches in Egypt. Woodcut from a sixteenth‐century Germa...
Chapter 44
Figure 63 First page of Jeremiah in twelfth‐century Edili Bible. Florence, T...
Figure 64 Martyrdom of Jeremiah. Incipit of Jeremiah in a Latin bible. Bibli...
Figure 65 Martyrdom of Jeremiah, with call and cistern in background.
Bible
...
Figure 66 Johann Friedrich Fleischberger. Private collection.
Figure 67 Jérémie martyred in eighteenth‐century France. M. Demarais. Privat...
Chapter 46and51
Figure 68 Lucas Cranach, The Whore of Babylon (1522).
Guide
Cover
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Wiley Blackwell Bible Commentaries
Series Editors: John Sawyer, Christopher Rowland, Judith Kovacs, David M. Gunn Editorial Board: Ian Boxall, Andrew Mein, Lena‐Sofia Tiemeyer
Further information about this innovative reception history series is available at www.bbibcomm.info.
John Through the CenturiesMark Edwards
Revelation Through the CenturiesJudith Kovacs and ChristopherRowland
Judges Through the CenturiesDavid M. Gunn
Exodus Through the CenturiesScott M. Langston
Ecclesiastes Through the CenturiesEric S. Christianson
Esther Through the CenturiesJo Carruthers
Psalms Through the Centuries:Volume ISusan Gillingham
Galatians Through the CenturiesJohn Riches
Pastoral Epistles Through the CenturiesJay Twomey
1 & 2 Thessalonians Through the CenturiesAnthony C. Thiselton
Six Minor Prophets Through the CenturiesRichard J Coggins and Jin H. Han
Lamentations Through the CenturiesPaul M. Joyce and Diana Lipton
James Through the CenturiesDavid B. Gowler
The Acts of the Apostles Through the CenturiesHeidi J. Hornik and Mikeal C. Parsons
Chronicles Through the CenturiesBlaire A. French
Isaiah Through the CenturiesJohn F.A. Sawyer
Psalms Through the Centuries:Volume IISusan Gillingham
Matthew Through the CenturiesIan Boxall
Jeremiah Through the CenturiesMary Chilton Callaway
Forthcoming
1, 2 Peter and Jude Through the CenturiesRebecca Skaggs
Johan Through the CenturiesLena-Sofia Tiemeyer
1 and 2 Kings Through the CenturiesMichael O’Kane
Psalms Through the Centuries: Volume IIISusan Gillingham
Luke Through the CenturiesMark Bilby
Amos and Micah Through the CenturiesMatthew Coomber
Ezra-Nehemiah Through the CenturiesHannah Harrington
Mark Through the CenturiesChristine Joynes
Colossians and Philemon Through the CenturiesHarry O. Maier
Ezekiel Through the CenturiesAndrew Mein
Genesis Through the CenturiesDan Rickett
Jeremiah Through the Centuries
Mary Chilton Callaway
This edition first published 2020© 2020 Mary Chilton Callaway
All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted, in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording or otherwise, except as permitted by law. Advice on how to obtain permission to reuse material from this title is available at http://www.wiley.com/go/permissions.
The right of Mary Chilton Callaway to be identified as the author of this work has been asserted in accordance with law.
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Library of Congress Cataloging‐in‐Publication Data
Names: Callaway, Mary, author.Title: Jeremiah through the centuries / Mary Chilton Callaway.Description: Hoboken, NJ, USA: Wiley‐Blackwell, 2020. | Series: Wiley Blackwell Bible commentaries | Includes bibliographical references and index.Identifiers: LCCN 2019049073 (print) | LCCN 2019049074 (ebook) | ISBN 9780631231516 (hardback) | ISBN 9781118780756 (adobe pdf) | ISBN 9781118780732 (epub)Subjects: LCSH: Bible. Jeremiah–Commentaries.Classification: LCC BS1525.53 .C35 2020 (print) | LCC BS1525.53 (ebook) | DDC 224/.207–dc23LC record available at https://lccn.loc.gov/2019049073LC ebook record available at https://lccn.loc.gov/2019049074
Cover Design: WileyCover Image: Life of William Blake (1880), Volume 2, Job illustrations by Cygnis insignis is licensed under CC BY‐SA
For Jamiewho always finds grace in the wilderness
List of Illustrations
Introduction
Figure 1
Rembrandt van Rijn,
Jeremiah Lamenting the Destruction of Jerusalem
. Rijksmuseum, Amsterdam.
Figure 2
Jeremiah with scroll and Ark. Wall fresco in the synagogue at Dura Europos. Public domain.
Figure 3
John of Damascus,
Sacra Parallela
. Bibliothèque Nationale de France. Grec 923, fol. 258v. Constantinople.
Figure 4
Prophet Jeremiah, Basilica of San Vitale, Ravenna. De Agostini Picture Library/Bridgeman Images.
Figure 5
The Prophet Armia, miniature from the “Jami’ al‐Tawarikh” of Rashid al‐Din, Ms Or 20 f. 13v c. 1307. Edinburgh University Library/Bridgeman Images.
Figure 6
Headpiece to Jeremiah in the Coverdale Bible 1535. Reproduced with permission of the syndics of the Cambridge University Library.
Figure 7
The Prophet Jeremia. Jan van der Straet, called Stradanus.
Icones Prophetarum Veteris Testamenti
Antwerp 1613. Private collection.
Figure 8
Jeremiah before Zedekiah. Claes Jansz. Visscher.
Theatrum Biblicum, hoc est historiae sacrae Veteris et Novi Testamenti tabulis aeneis expressae
. Rare Books Division, The New York Public Library, Astor, Lenox and Tilden Foundations.
Figure 9
Title page of Michael Ghislerius,
In Ieremiam prophetam commentarii
1623. Reproduced by permission of the Andover‐Harvard Theological Library, Harvard.
Figure 10
Frontispiece to Desmarais’
Jérémie, Poëme en Quatre Chants
. Paris 1771. Private collection.
Figure 11
A children’s Jeremiah. Charles Foster’s
Bible Pictures and What They Teach Us
1893. Private collection.
Figure 12
Jeremiah resisting a repressive regime. D.C. Comics,
Picture Stories from the Bible
. M.C. Gaines 1943. Private collection.
Figure 13
Jeremiah as twentieth‐century boy contemplating his call. Arthur S. Maxwell,
The Bible Story
Vol 5, p. 179. 1955. Private collection.
Figure 14
Jeremiah models resisting ridicule.
My Book of Bible Stories
. Watchtower Bible and Tract Society, 1978. Private collection.
Figure 15
Jeremiah bullied. Children’s story bible from the early twentieth century. Private collection.
Figure 16
Charity medal by Louis Rosenthal, 1938. Private collection.
Figure 17
Doug Johnson, “Lamentation for the Ages”.
Figure 18
Marc Chagall, "Solitude." Oil on canvas. Tel Aviv Museum of Art. Gift of the artist, 1953. Photo: Avraham Hai. © 2019 Artists Rights Society (ARS), New York/ADAGP, Paris.
Commentary
Figure 19
Jer 1:1. Jeremiah as author of his book. © M. Moliero Editor (www.moliero.com),
The Bible of St. Louis,
vol. 2, f. 130r.
Figure 20
Jeremiah 1:1. Copper figure engraving by Cornelis Martinus Spanoghe, 1784, from his
Very Correct Discourse of the History of the Old Testament
. Private collection.
Figure 21
The birth of Jeremiah and its allegory © M. Moliero Editor.
www.moliero.com
.
The Bible of St. Louis
. vol. 2, f. 130r.
Figure 22
Jeremiæ the Prophet. Matthäus Merian,
Iconum Biblicarum
, 1630. Private collection.
Figure 23
Jer 1:5. A nineteenth‐century imagining of Jeremiah receiving God’s call. F.B. Meyer,
Jeremiah: Priest and Prophet
1894. Private collection.
Figure 24
Jer 1:9. God places the word in a receptive Jeremiah’s mouth. British Library Royal MS 1 E IX (“The Bible of Richard II”) folio 193r. Bridgeman Images.
Figure 25
Jer. 1:6‐9. Winchester Bible, f148. ©The Dean & Chapter of Winchester, 2019. Reproduced by kind permission of the Dean & Chapter of Winchester.
Figure 26
Contemporary reception of Jer 1:10.
Visual Theology,
by permission of The Rev. David Perry, England
Figure 27
Benjamin West, The Call of Jeremiah. Courtesy of Musée des Beaux‐Arts de Bordeaux.
Figure 28
Political cartoon from
Flugblätter der Reformation und des Bauernkriges
. Courtesy of Widener Library, Harvard University.
Figure 29
The boiling pot. Engraving by Matthias Scheits for
Tableaux de vieux et nouveau testament
. Amsterdam 1710. Private collection.
Figure 30
Jer 5:21. “Was Jeremiah speaking to you?” Advertisement from the Saturday Evening Post 1924.
Figure 31
Jer 8:7. Frank Beard,
Picture Puzzles, or How to Read the Bible by Symbols
. Private collection.
Figure 32
Jer 8:22. Election Day Sermon “The Balm of Gilead” preached in Cape Cod in 1670. Collection of the Massachusetts Historical Society.
Figure 33
Jer 9:1. Saul Rabino. “Jeremiah.” 1935 lithograph. Private collection.
Figure 34
Jer 9:1. Title page of
Fons Lachrymarum
with illustration of King Charles. RareBook 147377, The Huntington Library, San Marino, California.
Figure 35
Jer 9:21.
Icones Mortis Sexaginta Imaginibus
1648. Bridwell Library Special Collections, Perkins School of Theology, Southern Methodist University.
Figure 36
Jer 10:14. Caricature of Erasmus as Jeremiah. Hans Holbein 1509. Print Collection, The New York Public Library.
Figure 37
Jer 13:17. Jeremiah weeps in the English Civil War. Harley MS 5987 61 (engraving) / British Library
©
British Library Board. All Rights Reserved/Bridgeman Images.
Figure 38
Jer 18. Jeremiah’s potter as an allegory for the conversion of Saul. © M. Moleiro Editor (
www.moleiro.com
),
The Bible of St. Louis,
vol.2, f.130r.
Figure 39
Jer 19. Jeremiah smashes the jug.
Brown’s Self‐Interpreting Family Bible
. Private Collection.
Figure 40
Jer 20:2. “Le Grande‐Prêtre Frappe Jérémie.” M. Desmarais 1771, Paris. Private Collection.
Figure 41
Jer 20:2.
The Children of the Bible: As Examples and Warnings
. Frances M. Caulkins. 1850. Private collection.
Figure 42
Sculpture by Andrew Mabanji. Courtesy of Saint John’s Abbey, Collegeville, MN.
Figure 43
Jer 20:14–15. Figure 34. Jeremiah’s curse as medieval allegory condemning contemporary bishops. © M. Moliero Editor (www.moliero.com),
The Bible of St. Louis,
vol. 2, f. 141r.
Figure 44
Jer 27:2; 28:10.
Theatrum Biblicum
. 1674. Rare Books Division, The New York Public Library, Astor, Lenox and Tilden Foundations.
Figure 45
Jer 29:19. A contemporary Jeremiah warns inhabitants of New York City. Private collection.
Figure 46
Jer 31:22. © M. Moliero Editor,
www.moliero.com
),
The Bible of St. Louis,
vol. 2, f. 148r.
Figure 47
Jer 36:23. © M. Moliero Editor (www.moliero.com),
The Bible of St. Louis,
vol. 2, f. 150r.
Figure 48
Jer 36:23. Jehoiakim watches the scroll burn. Jehoiakim burns Jeremiah's words. Johann Dietenberger,
Biblia
. 1534. Courtesy of the Richard C. Kessler Reformation Collection, Pitts Theology Library, Candler School of Theology, Emory University.
Figure 49
Jer 36:23. Jehoiakim burns Jeremiah’s scroll. Jan Luykens in Christoph Weigel’s
Historiae celebriores Veteris Testamenti Iconibus representatae
(1712). Private collection.
Figure 50
Jer 36:23. Jehoiakim burns the scroll. Christoph Weigel.
Biblia ectypa
. 1695. Courtesy of the Pitts Theology Library, Candler School of Theology, Emory University.
Figure 51
Jer 38:6. Matthäus Merian. Jeremiah dropped into the cistern, engraved by F.H. van Hove. Private collection.
Figure 52
M. Demaris, Jérémie,
Poëme en quatre Chants
. 1771, page 56. Private collection.
Figure 53
Jer 38:6. From an eighteenth‐century family bible published in Leeds, England. Private collection.
Figure 54
Jer 38:6. Jeremiah lowered into the cistern. From an English family Bible, 1834. Private collection.
Figure 55
Jer 38:6. Jeremiah in the cistern as trope of personal trouble for contemporary Christians. Courtesy of Pastor Jeff Warren, Park Cities Baptist Church, Dallas, Texas. 2014
Figure 56
Jer 38:12–13. Ebed Melek directs Jeremiah’s rescue. Jan van Luyken, 1712. Private collection.
Figure 57
Jer 38:12–13. Ebed Melek directs Jeremiah’s rescue. Bernard Picart. Courtesy of the Pitts Theology Library, Candler School of Theology.
Figure 58
Jer 38:12–13. Ebed Melek drawn by William Gunning King for
Bibby’s Annual
1914. Private collection.
Figure 59
Jer 38:13. An American Ebed Melek for children. Herbert Rudeen 1959. Private collection.
Figure 60
Abimelech asleep with his figs. Early fifteenth‐century French Bible. Pierpont Morgan Library. Ms M. 395, fol.99r.
Figure 61
Jer 43:9. Illustration in a nineteenth‐century family Bible. Private collection.
Figure 62
Jer 44. Jeremiah preaches in Egypt. From a sixteenth‐century German Bible. Private collection.
Figure 63
Martyrdom of Jeremiah in the twelfth‐century Edili Bible. The Biblioteca Medicea Laurenziana, ms. Edili 125, f.121r. Reproduced with permission of MiBACT. Further reproduction by any means is prohibited.
Figure 64
Martyrdom of Jeremiah in fourteenth‐century Latin Bible. Bibliothèque nationale de France. Latin 17198, fol. 264v.
Figure 65
Martyrdom of Jeremiah in
Bible historiale
. Bibliothèque nationale de France. Latin 4915.
Figure 66
Jeremiah holding the Ark, with the martyrdom in background. Engraving by Johann Friedrich Fleischberger, seventeenth century. Private collection.
Figure 67
Martyrdom of Jérémie in M. Demarais,
Jérémie, Poëme en Quatre Chants
, Paris 1771. Private collection.
Figure 68
Jer 51:7. Lucas Cranach, The Whore of Babylon, 1522.
Series Editors’ Preface
The Blackwell Bible Commentaries series, the first to be devoted primarily to the reception history of the Bible, is based on the premise that how people have interpreted, and been influenced by, a sacred text like the Bible is often as interesting and historically important as what it originally meant. The series emphasizes the influence of the Bible on literature, art, music and film, its role in the evolution of religious beliefs and practices, and its impact on social and political developments. Drawing on work in a variety of disciplines, it is designed to provide a convenient and scholarly means of access to material until now hard to find, and a much‐needed resource for all those interested in the infl uence of the Bible on Western culture.
Until quite recently this whole dimension was for the most part neglected by biblical scholars. The goal of a commentary was primarily, if not exclusively, to get behind the centuries of accumulated Christian and Jewish tradition to one single meaning, normally identified with the author’s original intention. The most important and distinctive feature of the Blackwell Commentaries is that they will present readers with many diff erent interpretations of each text, in such a way as to heighten their awareness of what a text, especially a sacred text, can mean and what it can do, what it has meant and what it has done, in the many contexts in which it operates.
The Wiley Blackwell Bible Commentaries will consider patristic, rabbinic (where relevant), and medieval exegesis, as well as insights from various types of modern criticism, acquainting readers with a wide variety of interpretative techniques. As part of the history of interpretation, questions of source, date, authorship, and other historical‐critical and archaeological issues will be discussed; but since these are covered extensively in existing commentaries, such references will be brief, serving to point readers in the direction of readily accessible literature where they can be followed up.
Original to this series is the consideration of the reception history of specific biblical books arranged in commentary format. The chapter‐by‐chapter arrangement ensures that the biblical text is always central to the discussion. Given the wide influence of the Bible and the richly varied appropriation of each biblical book, it is a difficult question which interpretations to include. While each volume will have its own distinctive point of view, the guiding principle for the series as a whole is that readers should be given a representative sampling of material from different ages, with emphasis on interpretations that have been especially influential or historically significant. Though commentators will have their preferences among the different interpretations, the material will be presented in such a way that readers can make up their own minds on the value, morality, and validity of particular interpretations.
The series encourages readers to consider how the biblical text has been interpreted down the ages and seeks to open their eyes to diff erent uses of the Bible in contemporary culture. The aim is to write a series of scholarly commentaries that draw on all the insights of modern research to illustrate the rich interpretative potential of each biblical book.
John SawyerChristopher RowlandJudith KovacsDavid M. Gunn
Acknowledgments
Well over a decade ago, John Sawyer entrusted me with the task of writing the Jeremiah volume for the Blackwell Bible Commentary series. His patient editorial support made it possible for me to search out the sources, sometimes translate them, and weave them into a reception history. Judith Kovacs had originally challenged me to write a proposal for the book, and with characteristic generosity offered critical and creative support throughout the writing, even though as New Testament editor of the series she did not have to read a word. Her friendship and insights have been a sustaining presence. David Gunn has given crucial help with multiple readings, corrections, and above all encouragement and advice about the pictures. Rebecca Harkin has ably steered me through the shoals.
Early in my graduate studies Professor James A. Sanders introduced me to the Hebrew text and the passionate persona of Jeremiah. Later, as my Doktorvater on another topic, he directed me to the deep theologies and holy sense of humor in Jewish exegetical traditions. His wise teaching planted the seeds for this book.
Two editors have patiently worked over every detail of the manuscript to correct my lapses. I am indebted to Cynthia Shattuck for her expert readerly eye and merciless editor’s pencil, which made the book leaner and better. Caroline McPherson put the manuscript into final shape, dealing graciously with late changes and bibliographic challenges.
Graduate students Alex Hwang and Jennifer Jamer located troves of Patristic sources and put them into a usable form, sometimes hunting down the Greek original. Ankie Wiegerink and Jan van dear Staak generously translated an eighteenth‐century Dutch text about Ebed Melek, which proved to be a challenge even for native Dutch speakers.
Fordham University has supported the project with two sabbatical leaves and a grant to help pay for permissions to publish images. Colleagues Harry Nasuti, J. Patrick Hornbeck, and Elizabeth Johnson have offered important insights and friendly goading in equal measure. Graphic designer Marc Tremitiere made many of the pictures in the book possible by expertly scanning my trove of antique prints into high‐resolution images. Marta Martin Pérez and Ariadna Fernendez at the publishing company M. Moliero generously made available high‐resolution images from the Bible moralisée, which are a linchpin in the reception history of Jeremiah.
The rich but sometimes arcane resources that provide the raw material for reception history are housed in libraries around the world. I am indebted to the patient and creative assistance given by librarians at the British Library, Bibliothèque nationale de France, Fordham University Library, Houghton Library of Harvard University, New York Public Library, Pierpont Morgan Library, and Union Theological Seminary Rare Books Collection.
I am grateful for the persistent challenge posed by members of the Writing/Reading Jeremiah Group of the Society of Biblical Literature, and the opportunities they gave me to test and refine ideas about the reception of Jeremiah. In addition, Walter Brueggemann, Robert Carroll, Andrew Mein, Kathleen O’Connor, Carolyn Sharp, and Lou Stulman have generously offered support and asked sometimes discomfiting but always generative questions. Members of the Columbia University Hebrew Bible Seminar have offered constructive critiques in a formal setting together with helpful resources informally. The nine superb essays on the reception of Jeremiah in The Book of Jeremiah: Composition, Reception, and Interpretation, edited by Jack R. Lundbom, Craig A. Evans, and Bradford A. Anderson (Brill 2018) appeared after my manuscript was substantially complete, so I was regrettably not able to incorporate their insights. Likewise, Mark Leuchter’s essay in The Oxford Handbook to the Book of Jeremiah was not available. I take these omissions as a good sign that reception history of Jeremiah has become significant in biblical studies.
Special thanks to Hannah Boone Callaway for help with translating and understanding important eighteenth‐century French texts about Jérémie, and for insights into French political history and humor. Equally valuable were her expert readerly eye and persistent challenges to make the narrative compelling.
Finally, my beloved Jamie has made this book possible. His extravagant care, creative problem solving, insightful comments, and good‐humored support are embedded in every page. He reminded me early and often that Jeremiah speaks to the present, whenever that is.
Testimonia
Jeremiah the Man
“He was the most compassionate of the prophets.”
Gregory Nazianzus, Oration 17, 373 ce
“It was this good man’s unhappiness to be a Physician to a dying State.”
John Trapp, A Commentary upon Jeremiah, 1660
“Jeremiah is by no means wanting either in elegance or sublimity, although, generally speaking, inferior to Isaiah in both … His thoughts indeed are somewhat less elevated … but the reason of this may be, that he is mostly taken up with the gentler passions of grief and pity, for the expression of which he has a peculiar talent.”
Robert Lowth, cited in B. Blaney, Jeremiah, and Lamentations. A New Translation with notes … 1784, p. 8
“Every thing relating to Jeremiah shows him to have been a man of an equivocal character.”
Thomas Paine, Age of Reason II, 1795
“Jeremiah has a kind of feminine tenderness and susceptibility; strength was to be educed out of a spirit which was inclined to be timid and shrinking.”
F.D. Maurice, Prophets and Kings of the Old Testament: A Series of Sermons, 1853, p. 370
“He was set by God’s hand as a solitary beacon on a lofty tower, in a dark night, in a stormy sea; lashed by waves and winds, but never shaken from his foundations.
Christopher Wordsworth, Bishop of Lincoln 1875, The Books of Jeremiah, Lamentations, and Ezekiel in the Authorized Version, p. x
“Jeremiah’s ministry may be summed up in three words: good hope, labour, disappointment.”
John Henry Newman, Parochial and Plain Sermons, Vol.8Sermon 9. ‘Jeremiah, A Lesson for the Disappointed’ p. 127
“Of the truth of his conviction he never had a moment’s doubt; he knew that Jehovah was on his side, that on Him depended the eternal future. But, instead of the nation, the heart and the individual conviction were to him the subject of religion.”
Wellhausen, Prolegmena to the History of Israel, Trans. John Sutherland Black, Allan Menzies p. 491
“There are always Jeremiahs who go about saying that we have never had such bad times.”
Daily Express, 23 February 1928
“In the midst of danger he was brave. In the midst of trouble he was true. In the midst of confusion he was calm. In the midst of dark he was a flame.”
Roy L. Smith, Writing Scripture Under Dictators, Nashville: Abingdon‐Cokesbury, 1943, p. 60
“Jeremiah was a weak and timid man, but God’s power worked in him.”
George André, The Prophet Jeremiah, Sunbury, PA: Believers Bookshelf, 1988
“We hear him as he secretly talks with God.”
Martin Luther King, Jr. ‘The Significant Contributions of Jeremiah to Religious Thought’ (unpuslished seminary paper, 1948) inThe Papers of MLK, Jr. Vol. 7, p. 181
“He was accused of fantasizing, being stubborn, disturbing the peace and being an enemy of the people, as have those in every age even up to the present day who were seized and possessed by God.”
Dietrich Bonhoeffer, sermon, 21 January 1934, DBWE 13, p. 347
“Jeremiah was truly the genius of torment and dissent; the Euripides, the Pascal or the Dostoevsky of the Old Testament.”
Thomas Römer, ‘La conversion du prophète Jérémie à la thèologie deutéronomiste,’ 1997
“Polarity of emotion is a striking fact in the life of Jeremiah. We encounter him in the pit of utter agony and at the height of extreme joy, carried away by divine wrath and aching with supreme compassion.”
Abraham Joshua Heschel, The Prophets
The Book
“The book of Jeremiah is all doom.”
Talmud, Baba Batra 14
“In order that nothing be lacking in the sense even though much is lacking in the words, I have prepared the warp and the woof for you; you yourself will weave the most beautiful garment.”
Jerome, In Hieremiam, Prologue
“Frequently in the first part there is something in a later chapter which really took place before that which is spoken of in an earlier chapter. So it seems as though Jeremiah did not compose these books himself, but that the parts were taken piecemeal from his utterances and written into a book. For this reason one must not worry about the order or be hindered by the lack of it.”
Martin Luther, Preface to the Prophet Jeremiah, 1532
“It is a necessary thing to the understanding of the prophets to know the stories of the times wherein they prophesied.”
Myles Coverdale, Marginal Note to Jer. 1:1, 1535
“We may all very profitably read the Prophet Jeremy, who is full of incitation to repentance and new obedience.”
John Trapp, Commentary on Jeremiah, 1660
“The prophecies of Jeremiah, which are related historically, are also taken from various chronicles; for not only are they heaped together confusedly, without any account being taken of dates but also the same story is told in them differently in different passages.”
Benedict Spinoza, A Theologico‐Political Treatise, 1670
Were I … to write in such a disordered manner, no body would read what was written, and every body would suppose, that the writer was in a state of insanity. The only way to account for the disorder is, that the book is a medley of detached unauthenticated anecdotes, put together by some stupid book‐maker, under the name of Jeremiah.”
Thomas Paine, The Age of Reason, Part II 1795, Paris, pp. 48, 52
“The prophet’s individuality is so impressed on his writings as to disarm suspicion of their authenticity.”
Christopher Wordsworth, Bishop of Lincoln, 1875, The Books of Jeremiah, Lamentations, and Ezekiel in the Authorized Version, p. x.
“Though it was ‘the word of the Lord,’ these communications were ‘words of Jeremiah;’ his personality, temperament, experiences, style of thought, modes of expression, are all stamped upon these Divine messages. Inspiration does not obliterate, scarcely subordinates individuality.”
Preacher’s Complete Homiletic Commentary, Vol. 17: 8, Funk & Wagnalls, 1892
“As a lad I started to read the Scripture through according to the familiar schedule, three chapters each weekday and five on Sunday, by which we were assured that in a single year we could complete the reading of the Book. I got safely through Numbers and Leviticus, even Proverbs did not altogether quench my ardor, but I stuck in the middle of Jeremiah and never got out. I do not blame myself, for how can a boy read Jeremiah in its present form and understand it?”
Harry Emerson Fosdick, The Modern Use of the Bible, 1930, p. 21
“It is a hardy adventurer who decides to brave the book of Jeremiah.”
Andrew Shead, www.matthiasmedia.com
“The book of Jeremiah does not contain stories about arks or whales or a talking donkey. The stories in this book can be a little difficult for children to understand.”
Annabelle Lee, eHow Contributor to site for children’s activities for Jeremiah Bible Stories
Actualizations
“I myself was initiated under Moses the God‐beloved into his greater mysteries, yet when I saw the prophet Jeremiah and knew him to be not only himself enlightened, but a worthy minister of the holy secrets, I was not slow to become his disciple.”
Philo of Alexandria, Cherubim II.49
“Jeremiah’s case is the case of all the Ministry, placed between two gulfs, two seas, two rocks, two fires: God’s curse, and the world’s hatred.”
John Hull Lectures upon the Lamentations of Jeremiah, 1620, p. 6
“Although he were not … free from all fault (for he had his out‐bursts) yet he was … a man of singular sanctimony and integrity, good of a little child, a young Saint, and an old Angel; an admirable Preacher … a pattern to all Preachers of the Gospel.”
John Trapp, A Commentary or Exposition upon the Book of the Prophet Jeremiah, London, 1660, p. 219
“How comes it that such ancient faith has so wholly faded from among Christian mankind? Where shall we to‐day look for a preacher, fearless, plain‐spoken, earnest, sincere, like Jeremiah? If he were among us, would he fare much better than the prophet?”
Cunningham Geikie, Hours with the Bible: From Manasseh to Zedekiah, 1887, p. 158
“Jeremiah has proved a sympathizing companion and comforter in seasons of individual suffering and national calamity from the first destruction of Jerusalem down to the siege of Paris in our own day.”
In Preface by the General Editor to Carl Wilhelm Eduard Nägelsbuch’s Book of Jeremiah, 1871, p. i
“Children, being with God does not make one happy. We learn this from Jeremiah.”
Dietrich Bonhoeffer, children’s meditation, 1927, in The Young Bonhoeffer, p. 514
“Jeremiah was a bullfrog.”
Hoyt Axton, 1971
“Among the prophets Jeremiah seems to me the most ‘modern’ of sensibilities, kin to the wager of Paschal, Kierkegaard’s bleak isolation and abandonment, Hopkins’ dark night, let us dare say, kin to Graham Green’s: ‘My salvation is: I do not believe my disbelief.’”
Dan Berrigan, Jeremiah: The World, the Wound of God, Minneapolis: Fortress, 1999, p.88
“ Who reads Jeremiah for pleasure?”
M.D. Aeschliman, Review of Jonathan Swift: A Hypocrite Reversed, National Review October 24, 1986, p. 54
“‘He’s a right Jeremiah.’ That means a depressing and pessimistic person who will be the wet blanket at every party.”
Alan Pain, I am Jeremiah (Don’t Laugh), East Sussex, Kingsway, 1990
“What’s wrong with America is not a very complicated question. It can put in just a few words from the Prophet Jeremiah.”
Darryl Walker, America’s Return: Solutions from the Prophet Jeremiah, Tate Publishing, 2016
“Jeremiah puts us on edge with ourselves.”
Renita J. Weems in Global Bible Commentary, ed. Daniel Patte, Nashville: Abingdon, 2004, p. 224
Introduction
Jeremiah’s brooding figure inhabits modern culture as an ancient prophet who often seems surprisingly like us. His deep emotions of grief and rage expressed with unvarnished honesty even to God make him a spiritual model, and his strong sense of self over against his contemporaries resonates in a world that encourages individual expression. One of the most famous images of Jeremiah in modernity, Rembrandt’s Jeremiah Lamenting the Destruction of Jerusalem, embodies this brooding figure. Rembrandt inverts the traditional iconography that highlighted the city with Jeremiah lamenting outside its walls by moving the burning city to the darkened margin and drawing the viewer to the illuminated face of an introspective old man (Figure 1). The absence of conventional artistic markers for prophecy, such as a scroll, together with the inward gaze of the prophet direct the viewer away from the destruction of Jerusalem into the troubled soul of Jeremiah.
Our understanding of what it means to be a person, and the experience of a subjective inner life as we understand it, was most likely not known to the original Jeremiah. Rembrandt projects onto the ancient prophet an early modern sense of the self, especially the idea of interiority that had been developing since the fifteenth century (Callaway 2004: 48–62). We intuitively read Jeremiah in light of these concepts that are so natural as to be almost invisible to us, but readers in the centuries before early modernity knew a different prophet. In fact, what seems most familiar about Jeremiah is actually foreign to him and to centuries of his earlier readers. How did Jeremiah stray so far outside the pages of his book? The answer, and the story of Jeremiah’s evolution from ancient prophet to icon of the spiritual self, is the work of reception history.
Figure 1 Rembrandt van Rijn, Jeremiah Lamenting the Destruction of Jerusalem. Rijksmuseum, Amsterdam.
Theory and Practice of Reception History
To understand reception history and why it matters we turn briefly to its origins in the philosophical hermeneutics of Hans‐Georg Gadamer. In considering what it means to understand a text, Gadamer challenged the fundamental premise of modernity that readers can intellectually transpose themselves into another age. The idea that we can leap over the abyss of history is flawed because the very habits of thought by which we understand the past are themselves the product of history and the content of that abyss. The thought experiment of placing oneself in a historical situation is limited because that self was formed by effects of the historical situation being investigated. Our consciousness and modes of thinking are not objective and universal, but “historically effected.” Habits of thought and assumptions that have been inherited for centuries become invisible as their historical origins are eclipsed, and they seem part of the natural order. To understand a text from another era therefore requires becoming more aware of the ways in which our thinking have already been influenced by that era; in Gadamer’s terms, we approach history as already its product. The “abyss of history” is therefore not an empty chasm but the fertile ground in which our own understanding is rooted, “filled with the continuity of custom and tradition, in the light of which everything handed down presents itself to us” (Gadamer 1989: 297). The distance between us and the past enables understanding when its thick texture discloses our basic assumptions about reality as products of history and culture. Gadamer’s ideal of understanding happens when we actively engage the past neither as otherness foreign to the present, nor as essentially like us, but as illuminating our present understanding while simultaneously changing it.
Gadamer’s insights are particularly important for a reception history commentary of Jeremiah because of the prophet’s significance in the developing idea of the self in Western intellectual history and of interiority in Christian spiritual tradition. His Wirkungsgeschichte, or history of effects, explores the ways that readers have appropriated texts to address their own circumstances, and highlights the effects of these re‐readings on cultures and in history. Over time, many interpretive traditions became an invisible penumbra surrounding the biblical text, sometimes overshadowing it so much that subsequent readers assume them as they read. These traditions also became virtual interlinear notes, invisibly but indelibly inscribed above the written words. Eve’s “apple” in Genesis 3 is a clear example of this phenomenon, as are the “three kings” in Matthew 2. The historical and social consequences of these unwritten aspects of a text can be both destructive and beneficial; by bringing them into the light reception history tries to clarify some of these effects.
Reception history identifies uses of a text that have had lasting effects and explores their immediate political and cultural context to clarify contingencies that may have been catalysts. Less visible than these contingencies, but equally important, is the influence of inherited modes of thinking. The subtle influence of mentalitè, the worldview within which people read or heard the Bible, is often transmitted along with particular interpretations. Hence the pressure of history, understood as the demands of a particular crisis together with the more gradual processes that influenced the way people understood their world, shape the ways that Jeremiah has been read and dictate the marks that the prophet and his book have left. Reception history lingers in the space between a particular reading and the cultural context in which it was produced, asking what indelible marks these have left on the text. This reception history commentary presents the specific texts and traditions of Jeremiah that have most profoundly influenced readers down the centuries, highlighting their effects. The receptions can take the form of political tracts, fictional adaptations, liturgical practices, and artistic images, to name only a few. Reception history is in some ways similar to the contemporary challenge of understanding the “other.” What at first appears inscrutable or offensive can become, with patient engagement and a hermeneutic of hospitality, at least comprehensible, often enlightening, and at times treasured.
Jeremiah in Three Guises
Reception history of Jeremiah includes three distinct aspects of the biblical text: words of the prophet, narratives about the prophet, and the figure of the prophet. In every era all three are in play, separately or by creative combination. Prophecies are the direct speech of the prophet pronouncing “the word of the Lord” found in collections of prophetic oracles such as chapters 2–10 and 30–31. The literary form of poetic parallelism used across the ancient Near East, together with graphic images and arresting forms of speech, led scholars to conclude that these words represent something close to the speech of the historical prophet. Ancient redactors separated these prophetic words from their original context even before the book of Jeremiah was complete and arranged them into groupings whose logic for the most part still eludes scholars. This loosening of historical moorings indicates that from the beginning, Jeremiah’s words were shaped to address subsequent generations. Jewish and Christian readers in every age have in one sense continued the work of the ancient redactors, assuming that the prophet’s words were addressed to Judah but also contained other meanings, intended by God for later readers. These readers often found in Jeremiah’s raw poetry a voice for their own political and personal circumstances.
Narratives comprise half the material between 1 and 36 and all of 37 to 45, making Jeremiah uniquely story‐rich among prophetic books. Since the early twentieth century, scholars have distinguished several different types of narratives that reflect the earliest reception of Jeremiah.
The largest category constitutes brief stories that describe Jeremiah performing a symbolic action whose meanings are explained in extended speeches. These speeches offer multiple interpretations of the original event, suggesting that debate about causes and outcomes of the Exile was shaping the Jeremiah tradition. A second type of story, represented by chapters 26 and 36 among others, features artful narration and dialogue to portray strong resistance to the prophet. These stories also offer evidence of early reception shaping the Jeremiah tradition to explain the destruction of Jerusalem. Chapters 37–45, set in the last years of Jeremiah’s life, offer another type of narrative, marked by some literary coherence and realistic details. Conflict over whether the true remnant of Israel is the exiles in Babylon, those who fled to Egypt, or those left in Judah is apparent in these stories. All of the narratives in Jeremiah support the scholarly consensus that the book is the final product of lengthy and contested claims to the prophet’s legacy by post‐exilic communities.
The figure of Jeremiah inhabits the biblical text, but ultimately eludes its boundaries. He is the slipping character that readers have created in the dynamic between the biblical text and their own cultural contexts. While prophecies and stories provide a solid textual foundation, the figure of Jeremiah is a synthesis of fragments and intimations, forged in the imaginations of readers and built up over the centuries. It represents a surplus of meaning that often seems at odds with the biblical text and, although more elusive, it is at the heart of Gadamer’s Wirkungsgeschichte, history‐of‐effects, of the text. By the second century bce, this figure had slipped the confines of the biblical text, assuming new guises and voices. In the Commentary he is often glimpsed when Jews and Christians, trying to be faithful in perilous circumstances, put on his mantle.
Jeremiah in Antiquity
Jeremiah as book and as persona is the product of two catastrophes. The destruction of Jerusalem by the Babylonian army in 586 bce and of the Second Temple in 70 ce by the Roman army mark inflexion points in the reception history of the prophet. The formation of early Judaism after the first, and of rabbinic Judaism after the second, are contexts in which evolving Jeremiah traditions began to be fixed. Yet these events were also catalysts for new receptions of the prophet, particularly in ways that harnessed discourses of contemporary culture to respond to the trauma of defeat and the fear that God was absent.
Early Judaism
Evidence of developing, and contested, traditions within the book suggests that groups in Judah and Babylon in the sixth century both claimed Jeremiah’s legacy. Exiles in Babylon arranged his prophetic words, added commentary to interpret them, and shaped narratives about his life, but “submerged voices” from the Judean community bear witness to alternate receptions of Jeremiah (Sharp 2003). William McKane’s widely accepted description of the Jeremiah scroll as “a rolling corpus” aptly describes the early stages in its production as a process in which early texts triggered commentary leading to an expanded text (McKane 1986). Additions included narratives about jeremiah in conflict with kings, priests, and people in Jerusalem that developed the prophetic persona as both threatening and sorrowful. These narratives about the people’s rejection and persecution of Jeremiah paradoxically functioned as words of hope in the exile because they helped explain Judah’s destruction as YHWH’s plan rather than Nebuchadnezzar’s victory. The narratives also brought life to the exiles by presenting Jeremiah as an embodiment of their trauma and the voice of their anger and despair. His rage against God reflected their own reality and his tears became theirs. That the “biblical” Jeremiah is a literary figure constructed from irretrievable historical fragments that were shaped for the needs of the community shows that “the word of the Lord” is always historically contextualized, contingent, and in need of translation. The slipping figure of Jeremiah is already evident in the book that bears his name.
The textual tradition offers further evidence that reception of the Jeremiah tradition was contested even during its formation. The Hebrew text is about one eighth longer than the Septuagint, primarily because of honorifics such as “the prophet” frequently added to Jeremiah’s name, “oracle of the Lord” occurring almost 50 percent more times, and brief introductions such as Jer. 2:1–2 and 7:1–2. Several longer passages in the Masoretic Text (MT) appear to be expansions of the Septaguint (LXX) (see Commentary at 33:14 and 39:4). More significantly, the Septuagint places the “Oracles Against the Nations” at chapter 25:14 while the MT places them after chapter 45 and makes the prophecy of Babylon’s fall the climactic word. Our earliest manuscripts are five scrolls from Qumran, of which three generally agree with MT, while two more fragmentary scrolls reflect the content of the Septuagint against the MT (see Commentary on Jer 10). Septuagint most likely translates a now lost Hebrew version that disappeared after the Hebrew text was normalized, probably by the early second century ce. In the richly productive era of Second Temple Judaism, therefore, two or three versions of Jeremiah co‐existed comfortably. Our canonical Jeremiah is clearly the end product of centuries of reception by multiple communities in Babylon, Judah, and Egypt.
While some early Jewish communities were developing multiple texts of Jeremiah, others were already interpreting and expanding Jeremiah’s prophecies and persona. Biblical and deutero‐canonical books written between the fifth and second centuries progressively heighten Jeremiah’s authority and elaborate his persona. 2 Chronicles 36:22 and Ezra 1:1 describe the decree of Cyrus as “in order that the word of the Lord through the mouth of Jeremiah be accomplished.” In the second century bce, Daniel reports puzzling over Jeremiah’s words “in the scrolls” that the exile would last 70 years (Dan 9:1–2), which did not happen. The solution that Jeremiah meant 70 weeks of years (490 years) transformed the prophecy into the future to give hope in time of persecution. That the solution came only by revelation from the angel Gabriel shows a new reception of Jeremiah’s words as encoded mystery whose deeper meaning cannot be perceived by human understanding (Newman 2017: 237). Finally, Jeremiah becomes a supernatural figure in the Hellenistic narrative of 2 Maccabees, which offers two distinct images. In the first, Judas Maccabeus encourages his soldiers before a crucial battle by recounting his vision of Jeremiah appearing to him as an aged man “of wonderful authority” and handing him a golden sword, “a gift from God” (2 Macc 15:6–16). The other image, linking Jeremiah with the lost Ark of the covenant, persists for centuries. As the temple burns, the prophet orders tent and ark to follow him to a cave on Sinai, where he hides them and seals the entrance “until God gathers his people together again and shows his mercy” (2 Macc 2:18).
Stories about Jeremiah’s preservation of the Ark in 2 Macc take on new life in response to the Roman destruction in 70 ce. Lives of the Prophets describes Jeremiah having the Ark swallowed up in a rock, on which he inscribes with his finger the seal of the divine name while proclaiming that at the resurrection the Ark would emerge from the rock and appear on Mt. Sinai. 4 Baruch, called in Greek manuscripts “The Things Omitted from Jeremiah the Prophet,” offers the most elaborated version of Jeremiah hiding the Ark and vessels of the Temple (see Commentary on Jer 22:29). The synagogue at Dura Europos, on the eastern edge of the Roman Empire, preserves an image of Jeremiah as custodian of the Ark. In what is probably the earliest extant illustration of Jeremiah, the fresco shows the prophet with the facial features, hairstyle, and toga distinctive to Roman art (Figure 2). The prominent scroll signifies Jeremiah as a biblical prophet, but also confers authority as a poet in Roman tradition. The veiled object at left is the Ark, hidden and guarded by Jeremiah until the
