Dates in Jeremiah

1
Dates in Jeremiah

• 645 Birth of Jeremiah
• 640 Josiah becomes king--at age 8!
• 632 and 628 reforms? (2 Chr 343)
• 627/6 Call of Jeremiah 14-10
• 625 Nabopolassar came to power in Babylon
• 622 Great Reform Deuteronomy

2
Relative silence about Josiahs reform

• Jeremiah 36-11 Jeremiah preached in days of
  Josiah that Judah was repeating the cultic
  adultery that had doomed the north
• 88 How can you say we are wise, and the law of
  Yahweh is with us, when in fact the false pen of
  the scribes has made it into a lie?
• 111-8 Jeremiah curses anyone who abandons the
  Sinai covenant
• Temple address in chs. 7 and 26downplays the
  central sanctuary!

Ashurbanipal pours out drink offering over lions
he has killed
3
Dates Continued

• 609 Death of Josiah then kings Jehoahaz,
  Jehoiakim 609-598 Temple address (chaps 7, 26)
• 605 Nebuchadnezzar defeats Egypt at Carchemish
  first scroll written and burned (362)
• 601 Jehoiakim revolted against Babylon (2 Kgs
  241)
• 597 Exile of Jehoiachin Zedekiah 597-586
• 594/3 Revolt of western states Ezekiel begins
• 587/586 destruction of Jerusalem
• 582 Third deportation Jeremiah goes to Egypt

4
The Septuagint and Jeremiah

• One of every 8 words in Hebrew lacking in LXX
• Total of 2700 words missing
• 4QJer b and LXX omit Jer 106, 8-10
• Doublets (613-15//810b-12 latter lacking in
  LXX. In 3010-11//4627-28 and 4840b,
  41b//4922 the first passage is missing from LXX)

5
The Septuagint and Jeremiah (continued)

• Nebuchadnezzar (276-293 7 of 8 cases missing in
  LXX) Nebuchadrezzar?
• Divine names Original Thus says Yahweh became
  Thus says Yahweh, the God of Heavenly Armies,
  the God of Israel (or the like)
• Oracles against foreign nations--at 46-51 in MT
  or after 2513 in LXX individual oracles also in
  different order.

6
Interpreting the Shortness of the LXX

• Is shortness abbreviation or original?
• Which words come from Jeremiah? The short
  version or the long version?
• Which version is canonical? Short or long?
• Which is the inspired text?

7
Literary Critical Issues

• A words poetry
• B words biography
• C words prose sermons
• Alternate interpretation
• First edition The Historical Jeremiah
• Second edition The Deuteronomistic Redaction

8
The Ending of the Book

• 45 An oracle addressed to Baruch one individual
  survives when all others fall
• 46-51 MT Oracles against foreign nations the
  evil empire, Babylon, which destroyed Jerusalem,
  will finally be destroyed itself
• 52 ( 2 Kings 25) a different view of Zedekiah
  (cf. 341-5 chs. 37-38) and a different view of
  Jehoiachin--hes free (cf. 2224-30 where he is a
  despised, broken pot)

9
The Call of Jeremiah

• Chosen before birth. Cf. Samson, servant in
  Second Isaiah, John the Baptist, Paul
• Prophet to the nations
• Objection--I am only a youth
• Reassurance--I am with you
• To pluck up, tear down, destroy, overthrow
• To build and to plant--Gods final word

Now I have put my words in your mouth
10
Sequels to Jeremiahs Call

• Vision of almond branch in vv. 11-12 I am
  watching over my word to fulfill it dqv
• Vision in vv. 13-15 Boiling pot from the north
• VV. 16-19 Jeremiahs lonely and impregnable
  position--they will fight against you but they
  will not prevail against you.

11
The Enemy from the North

• I am bringing evil from the north against
  Jerusalem (46 61, 22)
• Scythians? Babylon?
• Who lives in the north? (Ps 482 Mount Zion, in
  the far north)
• At the end of the book A people is coming from
  the north a mighty nation and many
  kings..against you, O Babylon (503, 41-43)

12
Symbolic Actions

• 131-11 Linen waistcloth ruined by Babylonian
  invasion or by Babylonian influence?
• Trip to Euphrates? trp 400 miles to Parah 4
  miles away or does Parah symbolize Euphrates?
• I made them cling to mebut they would not
  listen I will ruin pride of Judah
• 1312-14 Every jug should be full of wine
• every inhabitant will be full of drunkenness
  they will lose ability to act responsibly I will
  smash them like the jugs they joke about

13
More symbolic actions

• 161-4 Jeremiah not allowed to have a wife or
  children
• Not a time to have children since they will all
  die
• 181-11 At the Potters House
• Just as pots are reshaped by a potter, so a
  judged nation can be saved and vice versa
• Turn, Jerusalem, from your wicked ways

14
More symbolic actions

• 191-2, 10-13 You, Jeremiah, shall break the jug.
  Yahweh I will break this people as one breaks
  a potters vessel
• 241-10 Good and Bad Figs
• Good figs exiles in Babylon I will build them
  up, plant them. Those who surrender to Chaldeans
  shall live 218-10
• Bad figs Zedekiah and the remnant left in
  Jerusalem

15
Another symbolic action

• 2515-29 acted parable
• Jeremiah offers a cup of wrath to various
  nations Jerusalem, towns of Judah drink it
  first
• Pharaoh, kings of the Philistines, Edom, Moab,
  Ammonites etc.
• After them, the king of Sheshach v. 26 sh-sh-k
  b b l vv lbb

16
Another symbolic action

• 272-2817 yoke bars and Hananiah
• Jeremiah Anyone who submits to Babylon will be
  spared
• Hananiah (282) God has broken the yoke of the
  king of Babylon Hananiah breaks the yoke
• Hananiahs credentials Name Yahweh is
  gracious Thus says Yahweh Yahweh did not
  send him criterion for truth word happens Deut
  1822
• Jeremiah shows up with iron yoke

17
Critique of False Prophets

• 239-40 They strengthen the hands of evildoers by
  prophesying peace
• False prophets have not stood in divine council
  to see and hear the word of Yahweh v. 18, 22
  they steal words from one another 30 and prophesy
  lying dreams 32

18
Another symbolic action

• 326-15 Buying property when Jerusalem was under
  a siege
• Hanamel, Jeremiahs cousin, tells him to buy his
  field at Anathoth
• Signed the deed, sealed it, got witnesses, and
  paid money
• Filed deed with Baruch
• Houses and fields and vineyards shall again be
  bought in this land.

19
Jeremiahs Confessions in 11-20

• You, Yahweh, are like a deceitful brook, like
  waters that fail 1518
• If you, Jeremiah, repent, Ill restore you to
  serve me once more 1519
• They have dug a pit for my life deliver their
  children to famine deal with them, God, while
  you are still angry 1818-23

20
Another Confession

• 207-12 Accuses God of violating him. Yahweh
  forces him to prophesy. All my close friends
  want me to fail. Yahweh is with me like a dread
  warrior!
• 2013 Sing to the Lord he has delivered the
  life of the needy from the hand of evildoers
• 2014-18 Damn the day on which I was born!