I
The book of Jeremiah is often viewed in terms of the difficulties it presents to interpreters.
“The book of Jeremiah is long, complex, and difficult. To the modern reader it appears to be a repetitive mess, a mixture of poetry and prose, in no particular order, but containing traces of attempts to collate and give some order to parts of the material …. The reader who is not confused by reading the book of Jeremiah has not understood it!” (Carroll 1989, 9)
“The book of Jeremiah appears to be in great disarray. Materials seem to be out of order chronologically, and there is no clear logic to their organization.” (Frick, 389)
“The complicated literary history of the book [of Jeremiah] may be an indirect reflection of the chaos of the time, but it also reveals a kind of open-ended understanding of a “book.” Rather than being a finished composition, it was rather something like a hypertext, which subsequent authors and editors felt free to revise and expand.” (Coogan 2009, 299)
What is a book or a scroll? To speak of a book evokes both a physical and a metaphysical notion (see Barton).[1] To refer to a book connotes coherence and closure as well as location.
My sensibilities are somewhere between Barton’s statement, “Books just were untidy, and were allowed to be so” (14), and looking for the ironies and subtleties expected by the “assumption of literary unity” which thinks of the individual books with individual authors and all that means.
Is the book of Jeremiah as “book” in the full sense of the term? I will work with Jeremiah as a book, yet recognizing it has lesser coherence and closure than the other prophetic books of scripture.
III
My approach at present is not to try to “solve” the problem of the book of Jeremiah, and discover the structure and tightly argued message. Rather, I will take a view, more or less along the lines of the heading (1:1-3) that the book presents sermons and narratives from Jeremiah’s four plus decades of ministry (see notes on heading). Through this tumultuous period for Judah, and Jeremiah personally, his messages were directed against rapidly changing and deteriorating situations. The diversity of the last days of Jerusalem, and all that this means, is reflected in the multiform and diverse oracles and stories, and even (an apparently) disjunctive structure to the book.
Here are some of the reoccurring themes I see within the book: the restoration of the northern kingdom to Davidic rule (2-6, 30-31); turn from sin so God may deliver you from destruction; submit to Babylon and live under its rule because Babylon’s dominion is a certainty; the Lord will judge the nations and Babylon, when he has finished using them for his purposes; the people of God will one day return to obey Torah, though kingdom not always emphasized thus sounding like postexilic situation under Persians and Greeks (esp. LXX says Sweeny); the Davidic dynasty will rise again (esp. MT says Sweeny).
Several sections of Jeremiah seem to be organized around literary form or thematic associations. That is, the book indicates editorial shaping and intentionality is organizing the material, at some level. Thematic similarities are seen: ► harlotry in (2-3); ► allusions to northern kingdom of Israel (2-6; 30-31); ► enemy from the north (4-10); ► the “Confessions” punctuate chaps 11-20, namely, “like a gentle lamb led to the slaughter” (11:18-12:6), “Woe is me, my mother, that you ever bore me” (15:10-21), “Heal me, O Lord, and I shall be healed” (17:14-18), “Come, let us make plots against Jeremiah” (18:18-23), “I have become a laughingstock all day long” (20:7-18); ► parabolic images include loin cloth vision (13:1-7), Jeremiah unmarried (16:1-4), potter’s workshop (18:1-12), broken pot (19:1-20:6), basket of figs vision (24:1-10), wine drinkers vision (25:15-38); ► utterance to kings (21:1-23:8), to prophets and priests (23:9-40); ► narratives concerning Jeremiah (26-19; 39-44); ► consolation (30-31, 32-33); ► and oracles against the nations (46-51).
IV
In sum, rather than seeing Jeremiah (LXX or MT)[2] as a book in the sense of a tightly argued message, is to see it as a witness to moments in God’s contextualized word.
What would be the function of such a “book”? Perhaps to inspire ongoing reflection, conversation, and faith amongst the people of God, as they contemplate their identity, meaning, purpose, and destiny.
V
Contents of Jeremiah[3]
1:1-3 introduction
1:4-18:23 oracles against Judah and Jerusalem from the time of Josiah and Jehoiakim
19-24 from the time of Jehoahaz, Jehoiachin, and Zedekiah
25 retrospective of first twenty-three years, and message of judgment against Jerusalem and the nations
26-35 narratives of prophecies of judgment and deliverance
36-45 narratives of Jeremiah’s sufferings
46-51 oracles against the nations
52 historical appendix [See conclusion at the end of Jer 51.]
See detailed overview of the contents of Jeremiah.
Copyright
© 2010
Gary E. Schnittjer
The book of Jeremiah is often viewed in terms of the difficulties it presents to interpreters.
“The book of Jeremiah is long, complex, and difficult. To the modern reader it appears to be a repetitive mess, a mixture of poetry and prose, in no particular order, but containing traces of attempts to collate and give some order to parts of the material …. The reader who is not confused by reading the book of Jeremiah has not understood it!” (Carroll 1989, 9)
“The book of Jeremiah appears to be in great disarray. Materials seem to be out of order chronologically, and there is no clear logic to their organization.” (Frick, 389)
“The complicated literary history of the book [of Jeremiah] may be an indirect reflection of the chaos of the time, but it also reveals a kind of open-ended understanding of a “book.” Rather than being a finished composition, it was rather something like a hypertext, which subsequent authors and editors felt free to revise and expand.” (Coogan 2009, 299)
Amongst the difficulties is that the dated materials of book of Jeremiah are not in chronological sequence.
Another difficulty is that two different versions of the book of Jeremiah circulated in antiquity.
IIWhat is a book or a scroll? To speak of a book evokes both a physical and a metaphysical notion (see Barton).[1] To refer to a book connotes coherence and closure as well as location.
My sensibilities are somewhere between Barton’s statement, “Books just were untidy, and were allowed to be so” (14), and looking for the ironies and subtleties expected by the “assumption of literary unity” which thinks of the individual books with individual authors and all that means.
Is the book of Jeremiah as “book” in the full sense of the term? I will work with Jeremiah as a book, yet recognizing it has lesser coherence and closure than the other prophetic books of scripture.
III
My approach at present is not to try to “solve” the problem of the book of Jeremiah, and discover the structure and tightly argued message. Rather, I will take a view, more or less along the lines of the heading (1:1-3) that the book presents sermons and narratives from Jeremiah’s four plus decades of ministry (see notes on heading). Through this tumultuous period for Judah, and Jeremiah personally, his messages were directed against rapidly changing and deteriorating situations. The diversity of the last days of Jerusalem, and all that this means, is reflected in the multiform and diverse oracles and stories, and even (an apparently) disjunctive structure to the book.
Here are some of the reoccurring themes I see within the book: the restoration of the northern kingdom to Davidic rule (2-6, 30-31); turn from sin so God may deliver you from destruction; submit to Babylon and live under its rule because Babylon’s dominion is a certainty; the Lord will judge the nations and Babylon, when he has finished using them for his purposes; the people of God will one day return to obey Torah, though kingdom not always emphasized thus sounding like postexilic situation under Persians and Greeks (esp. LXX says Sweeny); the Davidic dynasty will rise again (esp. MT says Sweeny).
Several sections of Jeremiah seem to be organized around literary form or thematic associations. That is, the book indicates editorial shaping and intentionality is organizing the material, at some level. Thematic similarities are seen: ► harlotry in (2-3); ► allusions to northern kingdom of Israel (2-6; 30-31); ► enemy from the north (4-10); ► the “Confessions” punctuate chaps 11-20, namely, “like a gentle lamb led to the slaughter” (11:18-12:6), “Woe is me, my mother, that you ever bore me” (15:10-21), “Heal me, O Lord, and I shall be healed” (17:14-18), “Come, let us make plots against Jeremiah” (18:18-23), “I have become a laughingstock all day long” (20:7-18); ► parabolic images include loin cloth vision (13:1-7), Jeremiah unmarried (16:1-4), potter’s workshop (18:1-12), broken pot (19:1-20:6), basket of figs vision (24:1-10), wine drinkers vision (25:15-38); ► utterance to kings (21:1-23:8), to prophets and priests (23:9-40); ► narratives concerning Jeremiah (26-19; 39-44); ► consolation (30-31, 32-33); ► and oracles against the nations (46-51).
IV
In sum, rather than seeing Jeremiah (LXX or MT)[2] as a book in the sense of a tightly argued message, is to see it as a witness to moments in God’s contextualized word.
What would be the function of such a “book”? Perhaps to inspire ongoing reflection, conversation, and faith amongst the people of God, as they contemplate their identity, meaning, purpose, and destiny.
V
Contents of Jeremiah[3]
1:1-3 introduction
1:4-18:23 oracles against Judah and Jerusalem from the time of Josiah and Jehoiakim
19-24 from the time of Jehoahaz, Jehoiachin, and Zedekiah
25 retrospective of first twenty-three years, and message of judgment against Jerusalem and the nations
26-35 narratives of prophecies of judgment and deliverance
36-45 narratives of Jeremiah’s sufferings
46-51 oracles against the nations
52 historical appendix [See conclusion at the end of Jer 51.]
See detailed overview of the contents of Jeremiah.
[1]
See John Barton, “What Is a Book?: Modern Exegesis and the Literary Conventions
of Ancient Israel,” 1-14, esp. 2, in Johannes C. de Moor, ed., Intertextuality in Ugarit and Israel
(Leiden: Brill, 1998). Also, on this issue and several important points about
anachronistic thinking amongst interpreters, see Robert A. Kraft, “Para-mania:
Beside, Before, and Beyond Biblical Studies,” Journal of Biblical Literature 126 (2007): 5-27.
[2] My
concern here is Jeremiah as a book in a general sense. Elsewhere I deal with
the ancient versions of Jeremiah preserved in the LXX and MT.
[3]
See dated headings; also see Biddle, in New
Oxford Annotated Bible (2007), 1074; Smelik, 7, in Kessler 2004.
Copyright
© 2010
Gary E. Schnittjer