The Polemics of Exile in Jeremiah 26-45 [Hardcover]

This book examines an important collection of texts in the book of Jeremiah.In demonstrating how the trustees of Jeremiah's prophetic legacy made their case for authority, this book reveals how Israelite religion evolved into early Judaism, in which scribes eclipsed prophets and priests as the mediators of divine will, and in which the interpretation of text became a mode of divine revelation in its own right.In demonstrating how the trustees of Jeremiah's prophetic legacy made their case for authority, this book reveals how Israelite religion evolved into early Judaism, in which scribes eclipsed prophets and priests as the mediators of divine will, and in which the interpretation of text became a mode of divine revelation in its own right.Scholars typically view Jeremiah 26-45 as a collection of episodes constructed during the Babylonian exile that attempts to prove the authenticity of Jeremiah's prophetic status. But Jeremiah's prophetic legitimacy was already widely accepted during the period of the Babylonian exile. These chapters serve a different purpose, namely, to provide a response by the Deuteronomistic scribes to the rise of the Ezekiel tradition and the Zadokite priesthood that threatened their influence among the exilic population.1. The hermeneutics of citation: Jeremiah 26; 2. The identification of legitimate Israel: Jeremiah 26-32:15; Excursus 1. The redaction of Jeremiah 1-25:13+OAN; Excursus 2. The re-engagement of the royal line in Jeremiah 33:14-26; 3. The standards of faith and intermediation: Jeremiah 34-36; 4. The fall of Judah, the descent into Egypt, and Baruch ben Neriah: Jeremiah 37-45; Excursus 3. The 'words of Jeremiah' and Seraiah's colophon in the MT and LXX traditions; 5. The polemics of exile; 6. The exilic coalition between the Shaphanides and Levites.Review of the hardback: 'Leuchter is fully conversant with recent Jeremianic scholarship, and it is in his interaction with this scholarship that he generates new ideas about the text.l`