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JEREMIAH
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JEREMIAH , in the See also:Bible, the last pre-exilic See also:prophet (fl. 626-586 B.C. ?), son of Hilkiah. See also:Early Days of Jeremiah.—There must anciently have existed one or more See also:prose See also:works on Jeremiah and his times, written partly to do See also:honour to the prophet, partly to propagate those views respecting See also:Israel's past with which the name of Jeremiah was associated. Some fragments of this See also:work (or these works) have come down to us; they greatly add to the popularity of the See also:Book of Jeremiah. Strict See also:historical truth we must not ask of them, but they do give us what was believed concerning Jeremiah in the following See also:age, and we must believe that the See also:personality so honoured was an extraordinary one. We have also a number of genuine prophecies which admit us into Jeremiah's inner nature. These are our best authorities, but they are deficient in See also:concrete facts. By See also:birth Jeremiah was a countryman; he came of a priestly See also:family whose See also:estate See also:lay at Anathoth " in the See also:land of See also:Benjamin " (xxxii. 3; cf. i. I). He came forward as a prophet in the thirteenth See also:year of See also:Josiah (626 B.C.), still See also:young but irresistibly impelled. Unfortunately the See also:account of the See also:call and of the See also:object of the divine caller come to us from a later See also:hand (ch. i.), but we can well believe that the concrete fact which the prophetic call illuminated was an impending See also:blow to the See also:state (i. 13-16; cf._ ch. iv.). What the blow exactly was is disputed,' but it is certain that Jeremiah saw the gathering See also:storm and anticipated its result, while the statesmen were still wrr pped in a false See also:security. Five years later came the reform See also:movement produced by the "finding" of the " book of the See also:law " in the See also:Temple in 621 B.C. (2 See also:Kings xxii. 8), and some critics have gathered from Jer. xi. 1-8 that Jeremiah joined the ranks of those who publicly supported this book in See also:Jerusalem and elsewhere. To others this view appears in itself improbable. How can a See also:man like Jeremiah have advocated any such See also:panacea? He was indeed not at first a See also:complete pessimist, but to be a preacher of See also:Deuteronomy required a sanguine See also:temper which a prophet of the school of See also:Isaiah could not possess. Be-sides, there is a famous passage (viii. 8, see R.V.) in which Jeremiah delivers a vehement attack upon the " See also:scribes " (or, as we might render, " bookmen ") and their " false See also:pen." If, as See also:Wellhausen and Duhm suppose, this refers to Deuteronomy (i.e. the See also:original Deuteronomy), the incorrectness of the theory referred to is proved. And even if we think that the phraseology of viii. 8 applies rather to a See also:body of writings than to a single book, yet there is no See also:good ground (xi. 1-8 and xxxiv. 12 being of doubtful origin) for supposing that Jeremiah would have excepted Deuteronomy from his condemnation. Stages of his Development.—At first our prophet was not altogether a pessimist. He aspired to convince the better minds that the only See also:hope for Israelites, as well as for Israel, lay in " returning " to the true Yahweh, a deity who was no See also:mere See also:national See also:god, and was not to be cajoled by the punctual offeriRg of costly sacrifices. When Jeremiah wrote iv. 1-4 he evidently considered that the See also:judgment could even then be averted. After-wards he became less hopeful, and it was perhaps a closer acquaintance with the See also:manners of the See also:capital that served to disillusionize him. He began his work at Anathoth, but v. 1-5 (as Duhm points out) seems to come from one who has just now for the first See also:time "run to and fro in the streets of Jerusalem," observing and observed. And what is the result of his expedition? That he cannot find a single just and honest man; that high and See also:low, See also:rich and poor, are all ignorant of the true method of worshipping God (" the way of Yahweh," v. 4). It would seem as if Anathoth were less corrupt than the capital, the moral state of which so shocked Jeremiah. And yet he does not really go beyond the See also:great See also:city-prophet Isaiah who calls the men of Jerusalem " a See also:people of Gomorrah " (i. Io). With all reverence, an historical student has to deduct something from both these statements. It is true that commercial prosperity had put a severe See also:strain on the old morality, and that contact with other I See also:Davidson (See also:Nast., D.B., ii. 570 b) mentions two views. (I) The foe might be " a creation of his moral presentiment and assigned to the See also:north as the cloudy region of See also:mystery." (2) The more usual view is that the Scythians (see See also:Herod. i. 76, See also:log–106; iv. I) are meant. Neither of these views is satisfactory. The passage v. 15–17 is too definite for (1), and as for (2), the See also:idea of a threatened Scythian invasion lacks a sufficient basis. Those who hold (2) have to suppose that original references to the Scythians were retouched under the impression of Chaldean invasions. Hence See also:Cheyne's theory of a north Arabian invasion from the land of Zaphon=Zibeon (Gen. See also:xxxvi. 2, 14), i.e. See also:Ishmael. Cf. N. See also:Schmidt, Ency. Bib., Zibeon, " Scythians, § 8; Cheyne, Critica Biblica, See also:part i. (Isaiah and Jeremiah). peoples, as well as the course of See also:political See also:history, had appeared to See also:lower the position of the God of Israel in relation to other gods. Still, some adherents of the old Israelitish moral and religious See also:standards must have survived, only they were not to be found in the See also:chief places of concourse, but as a See also:rule in coteries which handed on the traditions of See also:Amos and Isaiah in sorrowful retirement.
Danger of Book See also:Religion.—Probably, too, even in the highest class there were some who had a moral sympathy with Jeremiah; otherwise we can hardly account for the contents of Deuteronomy, at least if the book " found " in the Temple at all resembled the c.ential portion of our Deuteronomy. And the See also:assumption seems to be confirmed by the respectful attitude of certain " elders of the land " in See also:xxvi. 17 sqq., and of the " princes " in xxxvi. 19, 25, towards Jeremiah, which may, at any See also:rate in part, have been due to the See also:recent reform movement. If therefore Jeremiah aimed at Deuteronomy in the severe See also:language of viii.8, he went too far. History shows that book religion has See also:special dangers of its own.' Nevertheless the same incorruptible adviser also shows that book religion may be necessary as an educational See also:instrument, and a See also:compromise between the two types of religion is without historical precedent.
Reaction: Opposition to Jeremiah. This, however, could not as yet be recognized by the See also:friends of prophecy, even though it seemed for a time as if the claims of book religion were rebuffed by facts. The See also:death of the pious See also: Let us, however, be thankful for what we have, and notably for the detailed narratives in chs. xxvi. and xxxvi. The former is dated in the beginning of the reign of See also:Jehoiakim, though Wellhausen suspects that the date is a See also:mistake, and that the real occasion was the death of Josiah. The one clear-sighted patriot saw the full meaning of the tragedy of Megiddo, and for " prophesying against this city "—secured, as men thought, by the Temple (vii. 4)—he was accused by " the priests, the prophets, and all the people" of high See also:treason. But the divinity which hedged a prophet saved him. The " princes," supported by certain " elders " and by " the people " (See also:quick to See also:change their leaders), succeeded in quashing the See also:accusation and setting the prophet See also:free. No king, be it observed, is mentioned. The latter narrative is still more exciting. In the See also:fourth year of Jehoiakim (= the first of See also:Nebuchadrezzar, See also:xxv. 1) Jeremiah was bidden to write down " all the words that Yahweh had spoken to him against Jerusalem (so LXX.), See also:Judah and all the nations from the days of Josiah onwards " (xxxvi. 2). So at least the authors of Jeremiah's biography tell us. They add that in the next year Jeremiah's See also:scribe See also:Baruch read the prophecies of Jeremiah first to the people assembled in the Temple, then to the " princes," and then to the king, who decided his own future policy by burning Baruch's See also:roll in the See also:brazier. We cannot, however, bind ourselves to this tradition. Much more probably the prophecy was virtually a new one (i.e. even if some old passages were repeated yet the setting was new), and the See also:burden of the prophecy was " The king of See also:Babylon shall come and destroy this land." 2 We cannot therefore assent to the judgment that " we have, at least as regards [the] See also:oldest portions [of the book] See also:information considerably more specific than is usual in the See also:case of the writings bf the prophets." 3 Fall of the State.—Under See also:Zedekiah the prophet was less fortunate. Such was the tension of feeling that the " princes," who 1 Cf. See also:Ewald, The Prophets, En g. trans., iii. 63, 64. 2 Cheyne, Ency. Brit. (9th ed " Jeremiah," suggests after Gratz that the roll simply contained ch. xxv., omitting the most obvious interpolations. Against this view see N. Schmidt, Ency. Bib., " Jeremiah (Book)," § 8, who, however, accepts the negative part of Cheyne's arguments. 2 See also:Driver, Introd. to the Lit. of the O.T. (6), p. 249.were formerly friendly to Jeremiah, now took up an attitude of decided hostility to him. At last they had him consigned to a miry See also:dungeon, and it was the king who (at the instance of the Cushite Ebed-melech) intervened for his See also:relief, though he remained a prisoner in other quarters till the fall of Jerusalem (586 B.c.). Nebuchadrezzar, who is assumed to have heard of Jeremiah's See also:constant recommendations of submission, gave him the choice either of going to Babylon or of remaining in the See also:country (chs. xxxviii. seq.). He See also:chose the latter and resided with Gedaliah, the native See also:governor, at See also:Mizpah. On the See also:murder of Gedaliah he was carried to See also:Mizraim or See also:Egypt, or perhaps to the land of Mizrim in north See also:Arabia—against his will (chs. xl.–xliii.). How far all this is correct we know not. The graphic See also:style of a narrative is no sufficient See also:proof of its truth. Conceivably enough the See also:story of Jeremiah's See also:journey to Egypt (or Mizrim) may have been imagined to See also:supply a background for the artificial prophecies ascribed to Jeremiah in chs. xlvi.–li. A See also:legend in See also:Jerome and See also:Epiphanius states that he was stoned to death at See also:Daphnae, but the biography, though not averse from horrors, does not mention this. A Patriot?—Was Jeremiah really a patriot? The question has been variously answered. He was not a See also:Phocion, for he never became the See also:tool of a See also:foreign See also:power. To say with Winckler4 that he was " a decided adherent of the Chaldean party " is to go beyond the See also:evidence. He did indeed counsel submission, but only because his detachment from party gave him a clearness of See also:vision (cf. xxxviii. 17, 18) which the politicians lacked. How he suffered in his uphill course he has told us himself (xv. 10-21). In after ages the oppressed people saw in his love for Israel and his patient resignation their own realized ideal. " And Onias said, This is the See also:lover of the brethren, he who prayeth much for the people and the See also:holy city, Jeremiah the prophet of God " (2 See also:Mace. xv. 14). And in proportion as the popular belief in Jeremiah See also:rose, fresh prophecies were added to the book (notably those of the new See also:covenant and of the restoration of the people after seventy years) to justify it. See also:Professor N. Schmidt has gone further into the See also:character of this sympathetic prophet, Ency. Bib. " Jeremiah," § 5. Jeremiah's Prophecies.—It has been said above that our best authorities are Jeremiah's own prophecies. Which may these be? Before answering we must again point out (see also ISAIAH) that the records of the pre-exilic prophets came down in a fragmentary See also:form, and that these fragments needed much supplementing to adapt them to the use of See also:post-exilic readers. In Jeremiah, as in Isaiah, we must constantly ask to what age do the phraseology, the ideas and the implied circumstances most naturally point? Accordin to Duhm there are many passages in which See also:metre (see also Antos) may also be a See also:factor in our See also:critical conclusions. Jeremiah, he thinks, always uses the same metre. See also:Giesebrecht, on the other hand, maintains that there are passages which are certainly Jeremiah's, but which are not in what Duhm calls Jeremiah's metre; Giesebrecht also, himself rather conservative, considers Duhm remarkably free with his emendations. There has also to be considered whether the See also:text of the poetical passages has not often become corrupt, not only from See also:ordinary causes but through the misunderstanding and misreading of north Arabian names on the part of See also:late scribes and editors, the danger to Judah from north Arabia being (it is held) not less in pre-exilic times than the danger from See also:Assyria and Babylonia, so that references to north Arabia are only to be expected. To bring educated readers into See also:touch with critical workers it is needful to acquaint them with these various points, the neglect of any one of which may to some extent injure the results of See also:criticism. It is a new See also:stage ofcriticism on which we have entered, so that no single critic can be reckoned as the authority on Jeremiah. But since the results of the higher criticism depend on the soundness and thoroughness of the criticism called " lower," and since Duhm has the See also:advantage of being exceptionally free from that exaggerated respect for the letters of the traditional text which has survived the destruction of the old superstitious veneration for the vowel-points, it may be best to give the student his " higher critical " results, dated 1901. Let us premise, however, that the portions mentioned in the 9th edition of the Ency. Brit. as having been " entirely or in part denied," to Jeremiah, viz. x. 1–16; See also:xxx.; xxxiii.; 1.–li. and lii., are still regarded in their See also:present form as non-Jeremianic. The question which next awaits decision is whether any part of the booklet on foreign nations (xxv., xlvi.-li.) can safely be regarded as Jeremianic. Giesebrecht still asserts the genuineness of xxv. 15–24 (apart from glosses), xlvii. (in the See also:main) and xlix. 7, 8, lo, 11. Against these views see N. Schmidt, Ency. Bib., See also:col. 2384. In Helmolt's Weltgeschichte, iii. 211. Let us now listen to Duhm, who analyses the book into six See also:groups of passages. These are (a) i.-xxv., the " words of Jeremiah." (i. 1) ; (b) xxvi.-See also:xxix., passages from Baruch's biography of Jeremiah ; (c) xxx.-xxxi., the book of the future of Israel and Judah; (d) xxxii.-xlv., from Baruch; (e) xlvi.-li., the prophecies " concerning the nations";' (f) iii., historical appendix. Upon examining these groups we find that besides a prose See also:letter (ch. xxix.), about sixty poetical pieces may be Jeremiah's. A: Anathoth passages before 621, (a) ii. 2b, 3, 14-28; ii. 29-37; iii. 1-5; iii. 12b, 13, 19, 20; iii. 21-25; iv. I, 3, 4; these form a See also:cycle. (b) xxxi. 2-6; 15-20; 21, 22; another cycle. (c) iv. 5-8; Iib, 12a, 13, I5-17a;'19-2I; 23-26; 29—31; visions and " auditions " of the Impending invasion. B: Jerusalem passages. (d) v. 1-6a; 6b-9 ; 10-17; vi. 1-5; 6b-8; 9-14; 16, 17, 20; 22-26a; 27-30; vii. 28, 29; viii. 4-7a; 8, 9, 13; 14—17; viii. 18—23; ix. 1-8; 9 (See also:short See also:song) ; 16-18; 19—21; X. 19, 20, 22 ; reign of Josiah, strong See also:personal See also:element. (e) xxii. to (Jehoahaz). xxii. 13-17; probably too xi. 15, 16; xii. 7-12 (Jehoiakim). xxii. 18, 19, perhaps too xxii. 6b, 7; 20-23; and the cycle xiii. 15, i6; 17; 18, 19; 20, 21a, 22-25a, 26, 27 (later, Jehoiakim). xxii. 24; xxii. 28 (See also:Jehoiachin). (f) Later poems. xiv. 2-10; xv. 5-9; xvi. 5—7; xviii. 13—17; See also:xxiii. 9—12; 13—15; xi. 18—20; xv. 10—12; 15—19a, and 20, 21; xvii. 9, 10, 14, 16, 17; xviii. 18—20; xx. 7—11; xx. 14—18; xiv. 17, 18; xvii. I-4;xxxviii.24; assigned to the See also:close of Zedekiah's time.
Two Recensions of the Text.—It has often been said that we have virtually two recensions of the text, that represented by the See also:Septuagint and the Massoretic text, and critics have taken different sides, some for one and some for the other. " Recension," however, is a See also:bad See also:term; it implies that the two texts which undeniably exist were the result of revising and editing according to definite critical principles. Such, however, is not the case. It is true that " there are (in the LXX.) many omissions of words, sentences, verses and whole passages, in fact, that altogether about 2700 words are wanting, or the eighth part of the Massoretic text " (See also:Bleek). It may also be admitted that the scribes who produced the See also:Hebrew basis of the Septuagint version, conscious of the unsettled state of the text, did not shrink from what they considered a justifiable simplification. But we must also See also: On this point see especially Schmidt, Ency. Bib. " Jeremiah (Book) " §§ 6 and 21; Davidson, See also:Hastings's Dict. Bible, ii. 573b-575; Driver, Introduction (8th ed.), pp. 269, 270. The best See also:German commentary is that of Cornill (1905). A skilful See also:translation by Driver, with notes intended for ordinary students (1906) should also be mentioned. (T. K. Additional information and CommentsThere are no comments yet for this article.
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