Prophetic Literature of the Old Testament: Jeremiah

Jerome (c. 347-419), one of the West's four doctors of the church, was recognized early on as one of the church's foremost translators, commentators and advocates of Christian asceticism. Skilled in Hebrew and Greek in addition to his native Latin, he was thoroughly familiar with Jewish traditions and brought them to bear on his understanding of the Old Testament. Here for the first time Michael Graves supplies readers with a highly readable translation in English, useful textual notes and a helpful introduction.

Contents: Call of Jeremiah -- Israel's infidelity -- Repentance and return -- Disaster threatents Israel -- Why has God done all these things to us? -- Take warning, Jerusalem -- Temple sermon -- Is there no Balm in Gilead? -- Laments intensify -- Universal frame of reference -- Covenant violated -- Jeremiah's laments and God's responses -- Symbolic actions and violent words -- It is too late! -- More laments from Jeremiah -- Shape of the life of a prophet -- In whom do we trust? -- Potter and the plots -- Broken jug and its effects -- Jeremiah's final lament -- Oracles to Kings and People -- Trouble with Kings -- True and false prophets -- Vision of the good and the bad figs -- Summary judgements against the nations -- Temple sermon revisited -- Yoke of submission to Babylon -- Jeremiah and Hananiah -- Jeremiah's letter to the exiles -- Promised restoration of Israel and Judah -- Restoration and New Covenant -- Restoration and secure promises -- Announcements of judgement to Zedekiah and Israel -- Commendation of the Rechabites -- Scrolls of Jeremiah -- Encounters between Jeremiah and Hezekiah -- Jeremiah among foes and friends -- Fall of Jerusalem and Jeremiah's fate -- Gedaliah and post-fall Judah -- Jeremiah and the "Remnant of Judah" -- Jeremiah in Egypt -- Jeremiah comforts Baruch -- Oracles against Egypt -- Oracles against the Philistines -- Oracles against Moab -- Five oracles against the nations -- Oracles against Babylon -- Fall of Jeremiah and its aftermath.

This volume completes the monumental work on the prophet Jeremiah by one of the world's most widely recognized scholars of the Old Testament. Unequalled in scope and detail, these volumes draw on textual and linguistic interpretation of the Hebrew Bible and its versions as well as on the work of later commentaries and scholars. The completion of this work is a landmark event in Old Testament scholarship, and will provide a rich source of information for students and researchers for many years to come.

This critical assessment of the book of Jeremiah enables the reader to rediscover many of the most profound and relevant features of Jeremiah's message and of the agonies and fears of those to whom it was first given. The picture that emerges of the prophet is an intensely moving one, often at variance with the conventional image of earlier popular reconstructions. Having witnessed the loss of most of the treasured and revered religious support of his day, Jeremiah discovered that the only secure foundation of hope is in God. Interpretation: A Bible Commentary for Teaching and Preaching is a distinctive resource for those who interpret the Bible in the church. Planned and written specifically for teaching and preaching needs, this critically acclaimed biblical commentary is a major contribution to scholarship and ministry.

The book of Jeremiah purports to be the words of Jeremiah ben Hilkiah, who is identified as one of the priests who lived in Anathoth in Benjaminite territory. He is represented as being active in the period when the Assyrian imperial power was waning and Babylon was emerging as the new imperium in the ancient Near East. The book presents the downfall of the kingdom of Judah and the city of Jerusalem in the sixth century BCE in terms of the work and sayings of Jeremiah. Presented at certain points in the book as a prophet, Jeremiah emerges as a counterpoint to the collapse of Judaean culture. - Introduction.

Jeremiah, the weeping prophet, prophesied for four decades under the last five kings of Judah--from 627 to 587 B.C. His mission: a call to repentance. Among the Apostolic Fathers, Jeremiah was rarely cited, but several later authors give prominent attention to him, including Origen, Theodoret of Cyr and Jerome who wrote individual commentaries on Jeremiah and Cyril of Alexandria and Ephrem the Syrian who compiled catenae. Justin and Irenaeus made use of Jeremiah to define Christians over against Jews. Athanasius made use of him in trinitarian debates. Cyril of Jerusalem, Irenaeus, Basil the Great and Clement of Alexandria all drew on Jeremiah for ethical exhortation.Lamentations, as might be expected, quickly became associated with losses and death, notably in Gregory of Nyssa's Funeral Orations on Meletius. By extension the Fathers saw Lamentations as a description of the challenges that face Christians in a fallen world. Readers will find some ancient authors translated into English here for the first time. Throughout they will gain insight and encouragement in the life of faith as seen through ancient pastoral eyes.

Contents: Introduction: Archaeology and biblical studies -- Jeremiah: The prophet and the book -- Historical background -- Geographical setting -- Edom and Judah -- Cities of Judah -- Inscriptions and literacy -- Worship and architecture -- Funerary customs and mourning -- Agriculture -- Crafts.

Contents: Prophecies of redemption to Ephraim during the reign of Josiah -- Prophecies of redemption to the Judeans exiled with Jehoiachin -- Prophecies of redemption to Judah and Ephraim on the night of destruction -- Miscellaneous prophecies of redemption -- Excursus I: Amos and Hosea -- Excursus II: The influence of Jeremiah upon Ezekiel -- Excursus III: Jeremiah and Isaiah.

The present study focuses on the theology of the Book of Jeremiah. That theology revolves around themes familiar from Israel's covenantal faith, especially the sovereignty of YHWH expressed in judgment and promise. The outcome of this theological nexus of context, person, and tradition is a book that moves into the abyss and out of the abyss in unexpected ways. It does so, in part, by asserting that God continues to be generatively and disturbingly operative in the affairs of the world, up to and including our contemporary abysses (such as 9/11). The God attested in the Book of Jeremiah invites its readers into and through any and all such dislocations to new futures that combine divine agency and human inventiveness rooted in faithfulness.

Souls existing before their bodies, witches summoning dead prophets from the underworld, the return of the damned - and the Devil himself - to God in the end, and many other theological speculations surprise the reader of Origen's Homilies on Jeremiah and I Kings 28. Some of these very theses of the third-century priest from Alexandria, Egypt, were condemned in the Second Council of Constantinople. But plumbing the mystical depths of the Prophecy of Jeremiah is the central point of the homilies.

The prophet Jeremiah and King Josiah were born at the end of the longest, darkest reign in Judah's history. Human sacrifice and practice of the black arts were just two features of the wickedness that filled Jerusalem from one end to the other with innocent blood. As outspoken prophet and reforming king, these two men gave their country its finest opportunity of renewal and its last hope of surviving as the kingdom of David. The book of Jeremiah is full of turmoil and national tragedy, the story of key people like Baruch, Gedaliah and Ebedmelech the Ethiopian, and the drama of rediscovering the forgotten book of Mosaic law. National events interweave with the lives of individuals; the rediscovered book of God's law transforms Josiah, Jeremiah and the future of the world. Derek Kidner, with careful attention to the text, reveals its startling relevance to our own troubled time.

In this reconstruction of the prophet Jeremiah's life and work, professor Holladay attempts to sort out Jeremiah's utterances chronologically and to hear them as closely as possible within the context of the events of their time. Jeremiah is a model for us to understand the prophets of the Old Testament. But more than that, he alone of the prophets saw his relationship with God as a problem to be grappled with rather than an obligation to be taken for granted. His willingness to question and to doubt was unique and, Holladay suggests, may put him more in step with our time than his own. For while many of us are willing to undertake a life of faith lived under God's guidance, few of us do not at some point question God's ways.

The Man Who Knew God unravels the complexities of the book of Jeremiah and argues that this prophet is the key figure in shaping Western civilization. Mordecai Schreiber posits that Jeremiah is not only the one who eradicated paganism amongst the Hebrew people, but he can also be considered the founder of the post-biblical Jewish faith. Offering intriguing insight into Jeremiah's role in the founding of Western monotheism and the eradication of paganism amongst the Hebrew people, this book should be read by all those interested in Biblical studies, Jewish studies, and religion.

This study makes a contribution to the understanding of Old Testament prophetic ministry by comparing selected texts from Jeremiah and Ezekiel relating to the call of each prophet, the images of assayer, potter and watchman, their relationships with the temple and their assessments of deviant prophets. The styles of communication of the two prophets are strikingly different. Interpretive clues regarding the reasons for these differences are found in the settings of each book. While Jeremiah and his people are still in the land with the temple present, Yahweh is perceived as close, and the communication between Yahweh, prophet and people is characterised by intimate dialogue. In Ezekiel's context, far from the temple and their land, Yahweh is presumed to be distant, and communication between Yahweh, Ezekiel and the people employs more visual content. Comparing two such significantly different prophets gives a range of fruitful insights into the relationship between prophetic ministry and local context.