Like many of the world's greatest children, Jeremiah was little esteemed in his life, but when dead his spirit breathed out ui>on men, and they felt its beauty and greatness. Tlie oppressed iicople saw for ages in his suflcrings a ty|>e of itself, and drew from his constancy courage to endure and bo true. Imagery from the scenes of his life ond echoes of his words till many of the psniiiis, the authors of which were like him in his sorrows, and strove to be like him in his faith. F'rom being of no account as a prophet he came to be considered the greatest of them all, and was spoken »f a» 'the prophet' (cf. Mt 16", Jn 1" 6" 7"): audit wa.s tuld of him how in aftor-days he ajipi-arwl in visiiiiiH to those contending for the faitli like an angi'l front heaven strengthening them (2 Mao
15'»-). ii. TiiK Book op Jeremiah.— In ch. SO it ii
stated that in the 4th year of Jehoiakim (005-4),
572
JEREMIAH
JERKiMIAH
no doubt after the battle of Carchemish in wliich Egypt wa8 defeated by Nebuchadnezzar, Jeremiah was commanded to write all the words wliich J* had spoken to him against Israel and Judah and all the nations from tlie 13th year of Josiah till that time, lie dictated his prophecies to Uaruch, who read the roll next year in the teraiple in the bearing of the people assembled from all parts of the country at a fast. This roll was brou<;ht to .Tehoiakiin, wlio cut it in pieces and threw it into the grate. Jeremiah dictated the oontciitH of the roll anew to Barucli, and added many like wonls (or, 'as many words more'). The added words might consist in some measure of new oracles, but in the main would be a fuller recapitulation of former prophecies. Now (1) it is natural to sup- pose that this second roll forms the earlier part of our present book, though how far into the book it extends is dillicult to say. It was, how- ever, only one of the elements out of which the present book was compiled, and it is not certain how far the compiler or redactor of the book maintained the original order of the roll. Some pa.><sages may have been transferred in order to unite them with later passages of a similar nature, e.g. 2-2'"-"- '»"• with 22--"'-. Some parts of cli. 25 certainly belonged to the first roll (25'- "• with 3ti-") and also to the second ; the passage, however, was removed from its original place (possibly to form an introduction to a series of proiihecies against the nations), and is now redactioual and greatly "lossed. (2) Baruch's statement, that he wrote from the prophet's mouth, need not at).-iolutely exclude the use of some ^v^itten notes by Jeremiah, though the command to ' write ' his proiihecies seems to imply that nothing had hitherto been published. Being dictated mainly from memory, prophecies extending over three and twenty years cannot have been reproduced exactly as they were spoken. It was the purpose of the propliet to preserve and lay before the people a comjiend of his ideas and teaching, his judgment upon the past history of the people and on their present condition, and his convictions regarding the inevitable issues in the future, without much regard to the circum- stances in which the ideas had been originally expressed. Hence these early chapters are frag- mentary and without connexion ; passages in the same chapter may belong to difl'erent situations. The headings and dates are editorial, or at least secondary, and were not contained in Baruch's roll. This is evident from the indetiniteness of some of them, e.g. 3' 'in the days of Josiah,' and from the similarity of those in the earlier to those in the later part of the book (cf. the identical forms, 7' 34' 35' 40' 44' and 14' with 46' 47' id^). Being dictated more than 20 years after they were spoken, the earliest passages may to some extent be coloured by later reflection. On the other hand, as it was the prophet's purpose to give a compend of the principles of his teaching, the fact that some sententious passages stand isolated, e.g. Q"*- ** 16""- 17»B. I7i2ii._ ig no evidence that they are not original. (3) The parts of the book belon<nng to a date sub- sequent to the 5th year of Jelioiakim are very confused, and the oraer in which they stand is in many cases inexplicable. There are passages, e.g. chs. 24. 27, whi(th seem to come from the projihet's own hand, but most of his sayings after this time are enclosed in historical settings. These historical elements are not from the prophet's own hand, though from whose hand they come is uncertain. Naturally, there is no absolute guarantee that the prophet's words enclosed in the historical frames are exact reproductions of the language used by him. Of course Jeremiah may have preserved jottings, or some contemporary, such as Baruch, may have done bo, and these may have been at the
compiler's disposjil ; or, in some cases the prophet'i words may already have been set in the historical frame when they came into the compiler's hand j and in other instances, as it was obviously bia intention to give as complete a biugiaphy of Jeremiah as possible, he may have relied on tliosa who were contemporaries of tlie prophet and preserved in their memories both the scenes and the words spoken by him. There woul<l be a number of such persons alive in the second half of the exile. At all events the histories arc well informed and trustworthy, though some oli.scurities may suggest that they were not written till soma time after the events which they describe [-& with 26'"), and that they are not all from the same hand (39'"'- with 40'"-). In some cases where the narra- tive begins by speaking of 'Jeremiah the prophet,' and then introduces him speaking directly, there may be room for supposing that the narrator dramatizes the information at his command. The passage 42''", both on account of its rather debased style and its other peculiarities, is probably a free construction from the hand of the historian ; and in some other pa.ssagos tlie accumulation of iilirasca char.acteiistic of the jirophet is in excess of what would be natural from himself, and suggests the work of a compiler very familiar with his peculiari- ties. Tliougli it is impossible to say when or by whom the histories were compo.scd, or do more than hazard very precarious conjectures in explanation of the place occupied by some of them in the book (e.g. 20. 36. 35), it is generally clear to what situations in the prophet's life they refer and what oracles they illustrate, and thus when they are disposed in their proper places the book may be read with a certain consecutiveness.