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Introspection The book of Jeremiah depicts a remarkably introspective prophet, a prophet struggling with and often overwhelmed by the role into which he has been thrust. Jeremiah interspersed efforts to warn the people with pleas for mercy until he is ordered to "pray no more for this people" -- and then sneaks in a few extra pleas between the lines. He engages in extensive performance art, walking about in the streets with a yoke about his neck and engaging in other efforts to attract attention. He is taunted, put in jail, at one point thrown in a pit to die. He was often bitter about his experience, and expresses the anger and frustration he feels. He is not depicted as a man of iron. And yet he continues. Attitude Toward Jerusalem Priesthood The opposition in which Jeremiah seems to have stood to the priesthood of the central sanctuary at Jerusalem may have been a continuation of the opposition which had existed from former times between that priesthood and his family; this would be traceable to Zadok, the successful opponent of Abiathar. Jeremiah's attitude may also have been influenced by the fact that he considered Josiah's measures too superficial for the moral reformation which he declared to be necessary if the same fate were not to befall the Temple of Zion, as had in days gone by, befallen the Temple of Shiloh (I Sam. iv.), which had by then become "desolate". "the words of this covenant" (ib. v. 3), which God had given to their fathers "when He brought them up out of Egypt". In this passage, there is a plain reference to the newly-rediscovered torah (law) or "teaching". Just as little-justifiable is the theory, which has recently been suggested, that Jeremiah in his later years departed from the Deuteronomic law. "The false lying pen of the scribe," which, as Jeremiah says, "makes the Torah of God into falsehood" (Jer. viii. 8, Hebr.), could not have referred to the Deuteronomic law, nor to its falsification by copyists. Rather, Jeremiah is thinking here of another compilation of laws which was then in progress under the direction of his opponents; the priests of the central sanctuary at Jerusalem. Jeremiah probably expected from them no other conception of law than the Levitical one, which may be seen in the legal portions of the so-called "Priestly" writings, and results from the Priestly point of view. Another possible interpretation is that Jeremiah's prophecies, which included many, repeated dire warnings against "false prophets", is that the hearts of the priests and prophets were wrong. This was followed by Jeremiah's prophecies by way of reminder about "the good things" that God has in store for "his people", Israel, including the "New Covenant"; in which God would "remove the heart of stone of His people, and would give them a new heart: one of flesh, and a new spirit (the Holy Spirit)". Jeremiah in legend and midrash The Christian legend (pseudo-Epiphanius, "De Vitis Prophetarum"; Basset, "Apocryphen Ethiopiens," i. 25-29), according to which Jeremiah was stoned by his compatriots in Egypt because he reproached them with their evil deeds, became known to the Jews through Ibn Yaḥyà ("Šalšelet ha-qabbālāh," ed. princeps, p. 99b.) This account of Jeremiah's martyrdom, however, may have come originally from Jewish sources. Another Christian legend narrates that Jeremiah by prayer freed Egypt from a plague of crocodiles and mice; for which reason his name was for a long time honored by the Egyptians (pseudo-Epiphanius and Yaḥya, l.c.). In Jewish rabbinic literature, especially the aggadah, Jeremiah and Moses are often mentioned together; their life and works being presented in parallel lines. The following ancient midrash is especially interesting, in connection with Deut. xviii. 18, in which "a prophet like Moses" is promised: "As Moses was a prophet for forty years, so was Jeremiah; as Moses prophesied concerning Judah and Benjamin, so did Jeremiah; as Moses' own tribe the Levites under Korah rose up against him, so did Jeremiah's tribe revolt against him; Moses was cast into the water, Jeremiah into a pit; as Moses was saved by a female slave (the slave of Pharaoh's daughter); so, Jeremiah was rescued by a male slave Ebed-melech; Moses reprimanded the people in discourses; so did Jeremiah" (Pesik., ed. Buber, xiii. 112a; comp. Matt. xvi. 14). Jeremiah was a popular name in the 1970's, as well as among the early Puritans, who often took the Biblical names of the prophets and apostles for themselves, and for their wives. Jewish Commentator Rabbi Abraham Joshua Heschel wrote that the book is written as if Jeremiah not only heard as words but personally felt in his body and emotions the experience of what he prophesized, that the verse Are not all my words as fire, sayeth the LORD, and a hammer that shatters rock was a clue as to how difficult the overwhelming, personality-shattering experience of being a vehicle for Divine revelation was, on one of the most difficult task ever assigned, and how difficult it was to be able to see, in advance, ones own failure. See also | ||||||||||
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