THE NEW SCHAFF-HERZOG
chapters and the departure from the accustomed forms of Jeremiah's usage seem to warrant suspicion. On the other hand, in the undoubted portions of the book there are prophecies against foreign nations, and in this portion Nebuchadrezzar is represented as the medium of divine punishment, which is a Jeremianic conception; moreover, the time noted in xlix. 34 looks genuine. Chapter lii. is not by Jeremiah, but is chiefly an excerpt from II Kings xxiv. 18-xxv. 30.
2. The Composition : The foregoing review shows
that to the groundwork written in the fourth year
of Jehoiakim and rewritten the next
1. The year belong i. 2-6, xi. 1-17, vii. 1-9,
Ground- 21 ^ 18_xij g xiij (except verses
work and ,„,„.. . . •• / 4
its Ex- 18-19), xiv.-xv., xvi.-xvn. (except
pansion. some interpolations), xxv. (so far as it is original), and xlvi. 1-xlix. 33 (so far as they are Jeremianic), referring to the times of Josiah and Johoiakim. To the time of Zedekiah belong xxiv., xxi., xxiii. 9-40, and xlix. 34 sqq. (if genuine) . Of the rest which may be ascribed to this prophet the time of writing is less evident, though xxxi., iii. 14-16, and perhaps the genuine parts of xxiii. 1-8, seem to belong to the time of the capture of Jerusalem. Larger parts which can not be certainly ascribed as a whole to Jeremiah are x. 1-16, xvii. 19-27, 1.— lii. The narrative portions present a difficult problem, and the boundaries between them and the oracle portions are not always easy to fix. Some of these are in the first person, and were doubtless dictated to Baruch. Such pieces are xviii. (probably from the beginning of Jehoiakim'S reign), xxxii. (under Zedekiah), and xxxv. (under Jehoiakim). Other pieces speak in the third person of " Jeremiah " or " the prophet Jeremiah," and can be only secondarily Jeremianic; such are xix.xx., xxvi., xxvii.-xxix., xxxiv., xxxvi., xxxvii.-xliv. These rest on Baruch's authority, as does xlv., an oracle of consolation imparted to him by the prophet. So that in the Book of Jeremiah there are earlier and later pieces, passages in Jeremiah's words and those reported of him, and some not at all Jeremianic, bound up together in variegated fashion. Chronological order can not always be determined. The history of the book is not one that can at the present be made out. Certainly the composition of the fourth year of Jehoiakim lies at the basis, and this is expanded by later oracles and by narrative portions. The latter is in part no doubt from Baruch and contains reports of Jeremiah's discourses delivered to him by the prophet. The supposition that a life of the prophet has been interwoven into the book is improbable, since the earlier life of the prophet is not related. More likely is it that a literature of Jeremiah including his later speeches and narratives about him grew up, out of which our book is edited. Little dependence can be placed in i. 3, since that verse is probably only a secondary title.
To the foregoing considerations is to be added the fact that the Book of Jeremiah belongs to those portions of the Old Testament in which the Septuagint diverges essentially from the Massoretic text, a divergence which is very variously explained. Some esteem the Septuagint so highly
that they speak of two recensions, a Palestinian
and an Egyptian; while others speak of arbitrary
changes by the translator. Both of
2. The these hypotheses have been shown
th*r.Hkbrew unfounded (Kuenen, Giesebrecht, and
eT *L.rew others). While evidences of misunderstanding by the Greek translator and indeed of wilful change exist, there are passages where the text at the base of the Septuagint points to a text more original than the Massoretic. One such passage is that relating to the foreign nations, in which in the Greek xlvi.-li. follow xxv. 13, and the order of arrangement is different. The original connection of these parts is evident, though the entire section should not stand before xxvi. 15, and the Alexandrine order is less natural than the Massoretic. The difference in the length of the two texts, altogether apart from proofs of arbitrariness on the part of the translator, show that at the time of the translation the book had not yet reached a fixed form, a conclusion which is strengthened by observation of the evidence of inclusion of glosses.
3. The Importance of the Book: This can not be appreciated if only the contents of the predictions are kept in mind. In this particular Jeremiah is not specially original, and particularly so if the purely Messianic passages, such as xxiii. 5-6, xxxiii. 15-16, are the basis of estimate, since these are lusterless in comparison with such passages as Isa. ix. 5-6, xi. 1-2. One might say in general that Jeremiah took over the prophecies of Amos and Hosea, being in his earlier deliverances especially dependent upon Hosea. For twenty years the prophet preached the insecurity of the basis of the people's hopes and trust. Even by the captivity of 597 the people were not awakened, but supposed that the deportation of Jeconiah was the excision of a worthless limb. For Jeremiah it was the fulfilment of prophecy which demanded submission and humility instead of new pride and the waking of hopes to be unrealized. The complete destruction of Jerusalem awaited persistence in the people's wilful course. Yet the prophet was not without hope in its truest sense. A new generation was to arise which was to bear Yahweh's law on the inner tablets of the heart, not on tablets of stone. In all this there was little that was not already existent in prophecy. Jeremiah's originality stands out in the vivid impression of his work as .that of a prophet who was accounted a traitor to his people and a godless despiser of the sanctuary while he was yet the mouthpiece for the utterance of divine truths. It was this which made of him the greatest martyr among the prophets, and the evidence of it exists in his prayers written in his book, which give the clearest insight into the motive of his life. He bewails the hate with which the people pursued him who was that people's truest mediator with God, and reveals himself not merely as a prophet, but as a man living in the closest fellowship with God. In this respect he is creative and a pattern of religious sincerity, and thus he inspired the poets of the Psalm-book and the great poet of the Book of Job. The sense of the personal relation of the individual to God which appeared in later Judaism is a result of his work. In view of the importance of