Editing Book of Jeremiah (section)

== Composition ==
[[File:Aleppo-HighRes2-Neviim6-Jeremiah (page 1 crop).jpg|alt=|thumb|303x303px|A high-resolution scan of the [[Aleppo Codex]] containing the Book of Jeremiah (the sixth book in [[Nevi'im]])]]

=== Texts and manuscripts ===
Jeremiah exists in two versions: a Greek translation, called the Septuagint, dating from the last few centuries BCE and found in the earliest Christian manuscripts, and the [[Masoretic]] Hebrew text of traditional Jewish bibles. The Greek version is shorter than the Hebrew by about one eighth, and arranges the material differently. Equivalents of both versions were found among the [[Dead Sea Scrolls]], so it is clear that the differences mark important stages in the transmission of the text.{{sfn|Blenkinsopp|1996|p=130}} 

Most scholars hold that the Hebrew text underlying the Septuagint version is older than the Masoretic text, and that the Masoretic evolved either from this or from a closely related version.{{sfn|Williamson|2009|p=168}}<ref>The Oxford Handbook of the Prophets, Oxford University Press, 2016, edited Carolyn Sharp, author Marvin A Sweeney, p. 456</ref> The shorter version ultimately became canonical in Greek Orthodox churches, while the longer was adopted in Judaism and in Western Christian churches.{{sfn|Allen|2008|pp=7–8}}

=== Composition history===
It is generally agreed that the three types of material interspersed through the book – poetic, narrative, and biographical – come from different sources or circles.{{sfn|Davidson|1993|p=345}} Authentic oracles of Jeremiah are probably to be found in the poetic sections of [[Jeremiah 1|chapters 1]]–[[Jeremiah 25|25]], but the book as a whole has been heavily edited and added to by followers (including perhaps the prophet's companion, the scribe Baruch) and later generations of Deuteronomists.{{sfn|Coogan|2008|p=300}} The date of the final versions of the book (Greek and Hebrew) can be suggested by the fact that the Greek shows concerns typical of the early Persian period, while the [[Masoretic]] (i.e., Hebrew) shows perspectives which, although known in the Persian period, did not reach their realisation until the 2nd century BCE.{{sfn|Sweeney|2010|p=94}}

=== Literary development ===
The Book of Jeremiah grew over a long period of time. The Greek stage, looking forward to the fall of Babylon and aligning in places with Second [[Book of Isaiah|Isaiah]], had already seen major redaction (editing) in terms of overall structure, the superscriptions (sentences identifying following passages as the words of God or of Jeremiah), the assignment of historical settings, and arrangement of material, and may have been completed by the late Exilic period (last half of the 6th century BCE); the initial stages of the Masoretic Hebrew version may have been written not long afterwards, although chapter 33:14–26<ref>{{bibleref2-nb|Jeremiah|33:14–26|NKJV}}</ref> points to a setting in post-exilic times.{{sfn|Allen|2008|p=11}}

=== Jeremiah ===
According to its opening verses the book records the prophetic utterances of the priest [[Jeremiah]] son of Hilkia from the town of Anatot, "to whom the word of [[YHWH]] came in the days of king Josiah" and after. Jeremiah lived during a turbulent period, the final years of the kingdom of Judah, from the death of king [[Josiah]] (609 BCE) and the loss of independence that followed, through the destruction of Jerusalem by the Babylonians and the exile of much its population (587/586).{{sfn|Sweeney|2010|p=86}} The book depicts a remarkably introspective prophet, impetuous and often angered by the role into which he has been thrust, alternating efforts to warn the people with pleas to God for mercy, until he is ordered to "pray no more for this people." He does a number of prophetic symbolic acts, walking about in the streets with a yoke about his neck and engaging in other efforts to attract attention. He is taunted and retaliates, is thrown in jail as the result, and at one point is thrown into a pit to die.

=== Jeremiah and the Deuteronomists ===
The [[Deuteronomist]]s were a school or movement who edited the books of Joshua, Judges, Samuel and Kings into a more or less unified history of Israel (the so-called Deuteronomistic History) during the Jewish exile in Babylon (6th century BCE).{{sfn|Knight|1995|pp=65–66}} It is argued{{by whom?|date=September 2024}} that the Deuteronomists played an important role in the production of the book of Jeremiah; for example, there is clear Deuteronomistic language in [[Jeremiah 25|chapter 25]], in which the prophet looks back over twenty-three years of unheeded prophecy. From the Deuteronomistic perspective the prophetic role implied, more than anything else, concern with law and covenant after the manner of Moses. On this reading Jeremiah was the last of a long line of prophets sent to warn Israel of the consequences of infidelity to God; unlike the Deuteronomists, for whom the call for repentance was always central, Jeremiah seems at some point in his career to have decided that further intercession was pointless, and that Israel's fate was sealed.{{sfn|Blenkinsopp|1996|pp=132, 135–36}}

=== Jeremiah as a new Moses ===
The book's superscription claims that Jeremiah was active for forty years, from the thirteenth year of Josiah (627 BCE) to the fall of Jerusalem in 587. It is clear from the last chapters of the book, however, that he continued to speak in Egypt after the assassination of [[Gedaliah]], the Babylonian-appointed governor of Judah, in 582. This suggests that the superscription is trying to make a theological point about Jeremiah by comparing him to [[Moses]] – whereas Moses spent forty years leading Israel from slavery in Egypt to the Promised Land, Jeremiah's forty years saw Israel exiled from the land and Jeremiah himself ultimately in exile in Egypt.{{sfn|Sweeney|2010|pp=87–88}}