Jeremiah Through the Centuries

Mary Chilton Callaway is Associate Professor and Department Chair in the Theology Department at Fordham University, New York. She is the author of several published essays on the reception of Jeremiah, particularly in relation to developing ideas of the self in early modern Europe.

• List of Illustrations xiiiSeries Editors’ Preface xixAcknowledgments xxiTestimonia xxvJeremiah the Man xxvThe Book xxviiActualizations xxixIntroduction 1Theory and Practice of Reception History 3Jeremiah in Three Guises 4Jeremiah in Antiquity 5Medieval Jeremiahs 17Early Modernity 24Nineteenth and Twentieth Centuries 47Practical Notes for Using the Commentary 64Jeremiah 1 67Word of the Lord or Words of Jeremiah? (Jer 1:1) 67Jeremiah Before Birth (1:4–5) 69A Prophet to the Nations (1:5) 77Resisting God (1:6) 77Filling Jeremiah’s Mouth 81The Job Description (1:10) 82God’s Pun (1:11–12) 84What’s Cooking? (1:13–16) 88Jeremiah 2 93God’s Lawsuit (2:1–13) 94Leaky Cisterns or Living Water? (2:12–13) 95A Puzzling Verb Becomes a Word of Salvation (2:20) 98Prophetic Pornography (2:20–25) 99Jeremiah in the Synagogue (2:4–28) 101Jeremiah 3 103A Rare Allusion to God the Father (3:4,19) 103Holy Forgetting (3:15–18) 1053:24–25 106Jeremiah 4 107A Subversive Translation (4:1–2) 107The Circumcised Heart (4:4) 108Reading Metaphor (4:7) 109Does God Deceive? (4:9–10) 110Body and Soul (4:19–22) 110Apocalypse Now (4:23–28) 112Contradiction as Problem and Opportunity (4:27) 113Dressing Down a Gussied‐Up Female (4:29–31) 113Jeremiah 5 115Nothing Bad Will Happen to Us (5:12) 115Divine Fire Consuming Human Wood (5:14) 116An Appalling and Horrible Thing (5:30–31) 118Contents ixJeremiah 6 119Two Roads Diverged (6:16) 119Buying Salvation (6:20) 120Jeremiah as Fortress and/or Refiner (6:27) 120Jeremiah 7 123A Den of Thieves (7:1–15) 123A Troubling Contradiction (7:21–24) 124Jeremiah 8 127Reading Jeremiah as Science (8:7) 127The Balm of Gilead (8:22) 130Jeremiah 9 135A Fountain of Tears (9,1,18) 135Internalizing the Prophet’s Cry (9:2) 140Death Climbs in the Windows (9:21) 141Jeremiah 10 145Superstition and Science (10:2–5) 145Who Will Not Fear You? (10:7) 147Wise Fools (10:12–16) 147Humans Are Not Masters of Themselves (10:23–24) 149Correct Me, O Lord (10:24) 151Pour Out Thy Wrath (10:25) 151Jeremiah 11 153Let Us Put Wood in his Bread (11:19) 153Jeremiah 12 157A Lawsuit Against God (12:1–4) 157Shameful Revenues (12:13) 160Jeremiah 13 161Jeremiah’s Loincloth (13:1–11) 161Jeremiah’s Tears (13:17) 164Unsettling Images (13: 22–27) 164Jeremiah 14 167The Inn and the Manger (14:7–9) 167Jeremiah 15 169Saints Alive (15:1) 169Woe is Me, My Mother (15:10) 170Changing Fashions in Prayer (15:15) 171Is Jeremiah Blasphemous? (15:18) 172A Divine Reprimand Reconsidered (15:19) 174Jeremiah 16 177Prophetic Celibacy (16:1–4) 177Hunters and Fishers (16:16–18) 179Jeremiah 17 181Misplaced Trust (17:5) 181Is the Human Heart Deep, or Depraved? (17:9–10) 182The Partridge (17:11) 185Jeremiah 18 187The Surprise of Divine Freedom (18:1–12) 187Jeremiah 19 193Jeremiah Smashes a Jug 193Jeremiah 20–21 197Jeremiah in the Stocks (20:1–6) 197Divine Deception (20:7) 199Whose Violence and Destruction? (20:8) 207A Reproach and a Derision (20:8) 207A Burning Fire (20:9) 208Do Saints Curse? (20:13–18) 212Jeremiah 22 219The Burial of an Ass (22:18–19) 219Jeremiah and the Lost Ark (22:29) 220Jeremiah 23 223The Righteous Branch (23:5–6) 223False Prophets (23:9–40) 226Jeremiah 24 229Two Baskets of Figs (24:1–10) 229Jeremiah 25 231The Cup of the Wine of Wrath (25:15–31) 232Jeremiah 26–28 235Jeremiah’s Yoke (Jer 27:2; 28:1–17) 235False Prophets 237Jeremiah 29 239Build and Plant (29:1–6) 240Praying for the Enemy (29:7) 240Seventy Years (29:10) 242God’s Inscrutable Plans (29:11) 244Jeremiah as Contemporary Prophet (Jer 29:19) 245Jeremiah 30–31 247Hope in the Midst of Trauma (30:1–3) 247Rachel Weeps in Every Century (31:15–17) 248Gender‐Bending (31:22) 250The New Covenant (31:31–34) 252Jeremiah 32–33 257A Strange Real Estate Deal 257Jeremiah 34 259Taking Back the Gift of Freedom (34:8–22) 259Jeremiah 35 261Jeremiah 36 267Free Will and Divine Omniscience (36:3, 7) 268Word, Scroll, Book (36:2, 5, 18) 268Jehoiakim as Perennial Tyrant (36:20–26) 269Words and the Word (36:27) 272Jeremiah 37–38 277Dungeon and Cistern 277Ancient Allegories (38:1–13) 278A Model for Political Resistance (38:1–16) 280The Cistern as Spiritual Prison (38:1–6). 285Ebed‐Melek Rescues Jeremiah (38:7–13) 287Jeremiah’s Lie (38:24–27) 295Jeremiah 39 299Zedekiah Captured (39:4–7) 299Ebed‐Melech Becomes Abimelech (39:15–18) 301Jeremiah 40–43 303How Did the Prophet Escape the Burning City? (40:1–6) 304The Murder of Gedaliah (40:7– 41:17) 305How Long, O Lord? (42:7) 305The Stones of Tahpanhes (43:8–13) 306Jeremiah 44 309Uppity Women (44:15–19) 310Martyrdom of Jeremiah 312Jeremiah 45 319Jeremiah 46–51 323Babylon, the Golden Cup in God’s Hand (51:7) 325Jeremiah Speaks to a War‐Torn Twentieth Century (51:11) 326Thus Far the Words of Jeremiah (51:59–64) 328Glossary 329Brief Biography 333Bibliography 341Index 357