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JEREMY, EPISTLE OF

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Originally appearing in Volume V15, Page 325 of the 1911 Encyclopedia Britannica.
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JEREMY, See also:EPISTLE OF , an apocryphal See also:book of the Old Testament. This See also:letter purports to have been written by See also:Jeremiah to the exiles who were already in See also:Babylon or on the way thither. The author was a Hellenistic See also:Jew, and not improbably a Jew of See also:Alexandria. His See also:work, which shows little See also:literary skill, was written with a serious See also:practical purpose. He veiled his fierce attack on the idol gods of See also:Egypt by holding up to derision the See also:idolatry of Babylon. The fact that Jeremiah (See also:xxix. i sqq.) was known to have written a letter of this nature naturally suggested to a Hellenist, possibly of the 1st See also:century B.C. or earlier, the See also:idea of a second epistolary undertaking, and other passages of Jeremiah's prophecy (x. I-12; xxix. 4-23) may have determined also its See also:general See also:character and contents. The writer warned the exiles that they were to remain in captivity for seven generations; that they would there see the See also:worship paid to idols, from all participation in which they were to hold aloof; for that idols were nothing See also:save the work of men's hands, without the See also:powers of speech, See also:hearing or self-preservation. They could not bless their worshippers even in the smallest concerns of See also:life; they were indifferent to moral qualities, and were of less value than the commonest See also:household See also:objects, and finally, " with rare See also:irony, the author compared an idol to a scarecrow (v. 70), impotent to protect, but deluding to the See also:imagination " (See also:MARSHALL). The date of the epistle is uncertain.

It is believed by some scholars to be referred to in 2 See also:

Mace. ii. 2, which says that Jeremiah charged the exiles " not to forget the statutes of the See also:Lord, neither See also:Ili. 59-64a, however, is a specimen of imaginative " Midrashic " See also:history. See See also:Giesebrecht's monograph.to be led astray in their minds when they saw images of See also:gold and See also:silver and the adornment thereof." But the reference is disputed by Fritzsche, See also:Gifford, Shiirer and others. The epistle was included in the See also:Greek See also:canon. There was no question of its canonicity till the See also:time of See also:Jerome, who termed it a pseudepigraph. See Fritzsche, Handb. zu den Apok., 1851; Gifford, in See also:Speaker's Apoc. ii. 286-303; Marshall, in See also:Hastings' Dict. See also:Bible, ii. 578-579. (R. H.

C.) JERtZ DE LA FRONTERA (formerly XERES), a See also:

town of See also:southern See also:Spain, in the See also:province of See also:Cadiz, near the right See also:bank of the See also:river Guadalete, and on the See also:Seville-Cadiz railway, about 7 M. from the See also:Atlantic See also:coast. Pop. (1900), 63,473. Jerez is built in the midst of an undulating See also:plain of See also:great fertility. Its whitewashed houses, clean, broad streets, and squares planted with trees extend far beyond the limits formerly enclosed by the Moorish walls, almost entirely demolished. The See also:principal buildings are the 15th-century See also:church of See also:San See also:Miguel, the 17th-century collegiate church with its lofty See also:bell-See also:tower, the 16th-century town-See also:hall, superseded, for See also:official purposes, by a See also:modern edifice, the See also:bull-See also:ring, and many hospitals, charitable institutions and See also:schools, including See also:academies of See also:law, See also:medicine and See also:commerce. But the most characteristic features of Jerez are the huge bodegas, or See also:wine-lodges, for the manufacture and storage of See also:sherry, and the vineyards, covering more than 150,000 acres, which surround it on all sides. The town is an important See also:market for See also:grain, See also:fruit and livestock, but its See also:staple See also:trade is in wine. Sherry is also produced in other districts, but takes its name, formerly written in See also:English as sherris or xeres, from Jerez. The demand for sherry diminished very greatly during the last See also:quarter of the 19th century, especially in See also:England, which had been the See also:chief consumer. In 1872 the sherry shipped from Cadiz to Great See also:Britain alone was valued at 2,500,000; in 1902 the See also:total export hardly amounted to one-fifth of this sum. The wine trade, however, still brings a considerable profit, and few towns of southern Spain display greater commercial activity than Jerez.

In the earlier See also:

part of the 18th century the neighbourhood suffered severely from yellow See also:fever; but it was rendered comparatively healthy when in 1869 an See also:aqueduct was opened to See also:supply pure See also:water. Strikes and revolutionary disturbances have frequently retarded business in more See also:recent years. Jerez has been variously identified with the See also:Roman See also:Municipium Seriense; with Asido, perhaps the See also:original of the Moorish Sherish; and with Hasta Regia, a name which may survive in the designation of La See also:Mesa de Asta, a neighbouring See also:hill. Jerez was taken from the See also:Moors by See also:Ferdinand III. of See also:Castile (1217-1252); but it was twice recaptured before See also:Alphonso X. finally occupied it in 1264. Towards the See also:close of the 14th century it received the See also:title de la Frontera, i.e. " of the frontier," See also:common to several towns on the Moorish border.

End of Article: JEREMY, EPISTLE OF

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