Baruch and the Letter of Jeremiah

Marie-Theres Wacker is professor of Old Testament and women's research at the Faculty of Catholic Theology, University of Muenster, Germany. She is director of the Seminar for Old Testament Exegesis and runs a research unit for gender studies in theology. Her fields of teaching, research, and publication include feminist biblical hermeneutics, biblical monotheism, early Jewish writings from Hellenistic times, and reception history of the Bible. Together with Luise Schottroff, she edited Feminist Biblical Interpretation: A Compendium, a feminist commentary on the Christian Bible and selected noncanonical writings. Barbara E. Reid, general editor of the Wisdom Commentary series, is a Dominican Sister of Grand Rapids, Michigan. She is the Carroll Stuhlmueller, CP Distinguished Professor of New Testament Studies, and president emerita of Catholic Theological Union (the first woman who held the position). She has been a member of the CTU faculty since 1988 and also served as vice president and academic dean from 2009 to 2018. She holds a PhD in biblical studies from The Catholic University of America and was president of the Catholic Biblical Association in 2014–2015. Her most recent publications are Luke 1–9 and Luke 10–24, co-authored with Shelly Matthews (WCS 43A, 43B; Liturgical Press, 2021); and At the Table of Holy Wisdom: Global Hungers and Feminist Biblical Interpretation (Paulist, 2023).Carol J. Dempsey, OP is professor of biblical studies at the University of Portland, Oregon, with special expertise in Old Testament and prophets. She holds a PhD in biblical studies from The Catholic University of America, and has authored several books including Jeremiah: Preacher of Grace, Poet of Truth (Liturgical Press, 2007) and Reading the Bible, Transforming Conflict.

• ContentsList of Abbreviations    viiList of Contributors    ixForeword: “Tell It on the Mountain”—or, “And You Shall Tell Your Daughter [as Well]”    xiAthalya Brenner-IdanEditor’s Introduction to Wisdom Commentary: “She Is a Breath of the Power of God” (Wis 7:25)    xvBarbara E. Reid, OPAuthor’s Introduction    xxxvBaruch: Introduction    1Baruch 1:1-15a Connecting Babylon and Jerusalem    5Baruch 1:15b–3:8 The Exiles’ Prayer    15Baruch 3:9–4:4 Where Wisdom Is to Be Found    39Baruch 4:5–5:9 Jerusalem, Woman-City and Mother of Israel    67Baruch 1–5 Looking Back as a Feminist Reader    91The Letter (Epistle) of Jeremiah (Bar 6:1-73)  A Deconstruction of Images    97A Personal Final Conclusion    133 Works Cited    135Index of Scripture References and Other Ancient Writings    145Index of Subjects    153

"Marie-Theres Wacker deals with two short biblical books that are relatively unknown to most readers and little studied within academic and church circles, and she discovers in them important gems of wisdom for our day. In her commentary, the close reading of the Greek text is brought into dialogue with feminist, postcolonial, and interreligious concerns. The supplementary contributors make these concerns concrete as they relate, for instance, the failures of the `fathers and rulers' (Bar 2:1) to the crisis of sexual abuse in the church, or place the mockery of idols in the Epistle of Jeremiah in dialogue with the voice of Dalit women from India today. This commentary will certainly lead many of us to pay much more attention to these short but challenging books."Eileen Schuller, McMaster University, Hamilton, Ontario, Canada