JEREMY, EPISTLE OF
JERICHO
i:9
Tlie statement that t}ie captivity should continue ' seven generations,' points away from Jereniiali towards one who deplored the long exile, and wished to believe it of divine appointment.
We believe the Ep. to have been written before 2 Mac. We cannot think as do Fritzsche, Schiirer, Gifl'ord, and others, that when 2 Mac 2- says that 'Jeremiah charged the exiles not ... to be led astray '" their minds when they saw images of gold and silver and the adornment thereof,' there is no allusion to our Epistle. The further vagaries as to the altar and the ark (2 Mac 2*"') are not said to be 'in the same writing,' as AV (bo GiH'ord), but iv ry ypa<p^, i.e. 'in' what the writer considered 'Scripture,' 'the records' of v.'. The most probable supposition is, that tlie author lived in Egypt in the 1st cent. B.C., and that, deeply concerued lest hu brethren should he led a-stray by the imposing ritual of iaolatry, and feeling that additional force would be given to hiB warnings if he put them into the mouth of Jeremiah, he wrote Lis diatribe on (he idolatry of Egypt as if it were intended for Babylon. He may have lived in Babylon in his youtli, and there gained his acquaintance with the deiliita- tion of prostitution (■"), to which Herodotus also testifies as occurring in the temple of Beltis (i. 1911) ; but V.'" as clearly corresponds with Hdt.'sdescriii- tion (ii. 62) of the 'feast of lights' at Sais. The slightly inflated style of the Ep. is thoroughly Alexandrian. The fondness for a.s.sonance and for long compound words may be illustrated from Trfpidpyvpoif TripLxp^ffOt^ ircpteXoOcrai, irepiKitiisvoi (*^'*) and 'l^avo(7Ta\4i', ivtiiOev, ^^ai>a\QcrcLt {^).
Canonuitij. — Our Ep. is included in the Gr. canon, and is found in all Gr. codices of OT, except the cursives 70, 96, 229. In Syr.-Hex. it follows La, and this claims to have been tr"" from Origen's Ilexapla. Indeed, Origen (inadvertently, as we think) places it in the list of tlie Heb. canon (cf. Eusebius, UE vi. 25). The uncials ABQ exhibit the same order as Syr.-Hex., as do also all the patristic lists that refer to it (see Bakucii). In Lat., Syr., and some edd. of LXX, Ep. Jer is found as Bar 6 ; and this is followed in Luther's Bible and other 16th cent. edd. as well as in AV and IIV. Its canonicity was not called in question in the Christian Church before Jerome, who called it 'pcvSfTrlypa.ipos {Prol. in Jer.). Theodoret passed it by ; and also Hilary, though in his Prul. m Ps. 15 he has enumerated it in the Canon ; but Tertullian quotes, as from Jer, v.*, about the carrying of gods on men's shoulders {Srorp. c. 8) ; and Cyprian {On the Lord's Praijer, c 6) quotes v.' as the suggestion of the Holy Spirit to Jeremiah, ' In the heart, O God, ought we to worship thee.'
The Text and Vertioiis. — The Ep. iji found entire in the Gr. QDcialH A BQ, while F containi* 7^-24a. The differencea between these MSS are comparatively unimportant. (See Swete, OT in Gr.379-as4; and.fordeacription of MSS, vii.-xi.). There arc about 20 Or. cursives, some of whose various readinj,^ are ^iven by Ceriani. Speal<ing generally, these cursives divide themselves Into two clajwes. One half are thought by Field to represent the Lucianic recension (Origin's Ilex., Hroleg. c IX.X the other hftlf are often found in agreement with Q.
TheSyriac is a very free rendering of Greek. An arrangement nd tr. of the VS3 in rr/vo*, in parallel columns, discloses that in Uttlemore than one-thiruof the lines does Syr. accurately repre-
■ent Or, though the last 12 verses are almost a verbatim tr". Some of the more imjjortant variations are: 'Seventy years' (') for ' seven generations ' ; * An axe in hit left ' (i*) ; * As a man condemned by the king, eo are their anns extended ; (tiius Walton, but Ijiff. 'courts'], 'Their heart it/ooiith and errinp' f*) ; ' r«vens ' for * birds ' (^ ; ' eagerly eat ' for Ta^i]^iMp#« (^) ; atones (^ demons in the mountains* (j**); 'before the gat*,' In place of »•» B,ix«» f-U); 'They are nof like crows which tly In the air ' <M). The only important omiiaion U that of the ' door ' and the ' pillar* in v.w.
Ths S\in- llexaplar, given In Oerianl's Hon. Saer. et PreiJ. \. I, Is In the main a alavishly literal tr» of the text of B, often Id defiance of Syr. idiom ; as in vv.si « Its variations are few. We may mention, 'swallows and ofA^r birds' C^). «» <* ; ' weak- ness' for 'Shane' (*). so ** : 'In their temples the prii-sts *i(* (*)), OS if uaiii\^^i, with <l and its cursives; 'nor rescue tho
»rron jrrf * (M), as If aJix»y«o«», with \ and the Lucianic cursives ; and ' to decavtaU the mountains ' ("**), as if iti^/A*r«4, with <^ and it« cursives.
The Vuig. also adheres closely to Gr. t«xt. !ta chief devia- tions are in vv.s-"- '-»>. 41. 54^ where it despairs of Gr. and makes a sense of its own. It also rea^ls 'exquiram' C) for txZr.rit; ' as a dead man carried to a grave * for itt itj t/ett. i». (17) : • decer- penies ' for T«pj>;ii^f« ('•"), so Syr. : ' olive stones ' lor ' bran ' (*3), and ' gloriabatur ' for xix^y.rtraii (W),