JEREMIAH: QUESTIONS AND ANSWERS

Jeremiah 1:4-5 In our readings, the Lord clearly distinguishes between those prophets He directly and specifically called and the numerous false, self-serving prophets of the day. There must have been other prophets who are unknown to us who were righteous and God-fearing. My question arises from The Daily Bible comment stating that one became a prophet "typically by training." Can you give details on such training? Who would have been eligible for the training? How did they receive the messages they were to speak?

Some commentators confidently state that there were schools in ancient Israel where one learned the craft of becoming a professional prophet. However, this contention is partially based on the customs known to exist in other ancient Middle Eastern cultures. The biblical evidence for such schools is very sparse, and the norm for the righteous prophets of the Bible is for them to be chosen by God directly, whether they welcomed the call or not. Therefore I can't really address the last two questions since (1) we simply do not know enough about such training and (2) conditions in the prophetic field appear to have changed considerably from 1000 to 500 BC.

It is the biblical term “sons of the prophets” (designating a band or guild of disciples of a particular God-sent prophet) that appears to lend credence to the existence of prophetic schools in Israel. This term appears in the following passages:

    I Samuel 10:5,10 There is a roving band of prophets associated with Samuel who go into an ecstatic frenzy accompanied by music (somewhat like a Pentacostal revival meeting).

    I Samuel 19:20 Samuel is said to be in charge of them.

    II Kings 2:3-15 There are groups of followers accompanying Elijah in Bethel and Jericho. They apparently receive prophecies from him.

    II Kings 4:1; 6:1-7 These same “sons of prophets” are now under Elisha's charge as servants.

    II Kings 9:1-3 A member of the company acts as Elisha's servant and is himself called a prophet.

From these passages we can agree with The New Bible Commentary: Revised (p. 738) that the sons of prophets around 1000 BC “gathered around a great prophet to hear his instruction and to share his work.” On occasion, one of these “sons” could even be elevated to the status of prophet himself. Witness the call of Elisha (Elijah's servant) to take Elijah's place. Elisha asked Elijah for that honor, and Elisha basically left the question up to God to show Elisha a sign that his wish was granted. (II Kings 2:9-15)

We hear nothing more concerning the “sons of prophets” until the 8^th century B.C. when Amos comes on the scene. By this point of time there was apparently a distinction between official prophets who served more or less as yes-men to the rulers and those who were unofficial prophets called directly by God. (Dictionary of the Old Testament Prophets, p. 589) The first class of prophets may have arisen from schools where techniques of divination were taught. (The International Bible Commentary, p. 911; Amos, The Anchor Bible, p. 778) Amos (see 7:14) indignantly states that he is neither a (official) prophet or the son of a prophet (member of the prophetic guild where one is taught how to prophesy as means of earning a living).

Similar groups of “schooled” prophets are apparently still present in Zechariah's time (ca. 510 B.C.). In Zechariah 13, he castigates these so-called prophets and their unclean spirits for their lies in the name of the LORD. They will be forced to admit that they are not really prophets at all but are only tillers of the soil. This is an interesting contrast to Amos, who really was a prophet of God but similarly protested that he was only a herdsman and a dresser of sycamore trees.

Jeremiah 18:18 What do Jeremiah's enemies mean when they say, “Come, let us make plans against Jeremiah, for the teaching of the law by the priest will not cease, nor will counsel from the wise, nor the word from the prophets.”

They are basically making the sarcastic comment that the world will not end if Jeremiah is silenced. In fact, they are correct in their statement; God would raise up another spokesman to take Jeremiah's place if it should become necessary. In a way, it is like Caiaphas' inadvertent prophecy that “it is better for you to have one man die for the people than to have the whole nation destroyed.” (John 11:50) God can use even his enemies to speak His truth.

It is interesting that the three forms of godly communication that Jeremiah's enemies list are roughly equivalent to the three major divisions of the Hebrew Bible:

    The Law, or Torah: The Pentateuch

    The Writings: Poetry and Wisdom Books

    The Prophets: Former Prophets (most of the history books) and Latter Prophets (most of the major and minor prophets)

In the New Testament, these three divisions are called “the law of Moses, the prophets, and the psalms.” (Luke 24:44)

Jeremiah 34:9 The passage says no one was to hold their fellow Jew in bondage. To this point in the chronological reading I do not recall the use of the word “Jew” in referring to an Israelite or Hebrew. Do other translations use a different word/name? When and how did this name originate? Does the use of this description/designation help scholars date the writing of Jeremiah?

You have a very sharp eye! There is only one other occurrence of “Jew” prior to this passage and it is also found in Jeremiah (32:12). Comparing different translations of Jeremiah 34:9, it is rendered as “Jew” in the Living Bible, RSV, KJV, Jerusalem Bible and the older editions of the NIV. TEV and the latest NIV use the term “Hebrew” while NRSV and NEB say “Judean.” The more literal translation is Jew or Judean.

The origin of the term comes from the tribe of Judah. Thus, a descendant of Judah was called a Judean, or Jew for short. In II Kings 16:6, “Jew” was first applied to all the inhabitants of the Southern Kingdom, in contrast to the Israelites of the Northern Kingdom. During the exile (as in the books of Daniel and Esther) and after the exile (see the books of Ezra and Nehemiah), the term began to be used to designate all people of Jewish origin and was a synonym for Israelite.

Jeremiah's writings during and after the siege of Jerusalem fit perfectly into this transitional time frame. In Jeremiah 32:12 “Jew” refers to some men in Jerusalem who happened to be nearby. These were obviously members of the Southern Kingdom only. However, in Jeremiah 34:9 he specifically defines “Jew” as being a fellow Hebrew and refers back to the appropriate Mosaic regulations which applied to all descendants of Israel, not just the Judahites. Thus, this is probably the first usage of the term to refer to all God's chosen people.

Jeremiah 23:5-8 Jeremiah 23 notes “the days are coming” and refers the righteous branch of David; verses 7-8 that follow again state “the days are coming” but refer to the descendants of Israel being brought up “out of the land of the north and out of all the countries where he had banished them.” This latter description would seemingly imply that these “days that are coming” are referring not to the time of Jesus, but to the time when the Israelites would return after exile. If so, why is this considered Messianic?

Good question! Whether verses 7-8 are referring to the Last Days or the Return from the Exile is a matter of opinion. Some commentators go with the strict rule in interpreting prophecy that the closest adequate fulfillment (i.e. Return from the Exile) is always the best one.

Others basically dismiss any fulfillment that has already happened. These scholars generally look for tell-tale signs that the prophecies in question were not literally fulfilled. For example, the phrase “all the countries” is seen to be a tip-off that the Babylonian/Persian Exile is not the one being referred to. This school of commentators concentrates on future events only.

The safest approach splits the difference by recognizing that many Old Testament prophecies have already been fulfilled, but may presage similar events yet to take place. Thus, “the days are coming” of verses 7-8 refers primarily to the return in the Persian period, but also has messianic implications for the future.

The other confusing thing about Jeremiah's prophecies is the way he seems to skip around in a non-chronological manner, as you note. This can be seen in the passage in question, as I found by wading through the Encyclopedia of Biblical Prophecy by J. Barton Payne. It is a very useful compendium of knowledge from a historical premillennial viewpoint, but not easy to read. Payne divides up the passages in Jeremiah 23:1-8 according to the time of their fulfillment and comes up with the following:

    Verses 1-2 Divided Kingdom

    Verse 3a Persian Kingdom

    Verse 3b Period of the Church

    Verse 4 Millennium

    Verse 5a Life of Christ

    Verses 5b-6 Millennium

    Verses 7-8 Persian Kingdom

Payne notes that throughout the Book of Jeremiah, the prophecies are neither given in the order they were received from God nor according to the order of their fulfillment. Some random comments gathered from experts on this book confirms this apparent disarray:

"Why the book was arranged as it was, we do not know. Every outline of Jeremiah is somewhat arbitrary.”

    "In fact, it is hard to discern a principle underlying the order of the book.”

    "What makes these [prophetic] books particularly, and one might say needlessly, difficult is the very manner of their arrangement--or, to be more accurate, their apparent lack of arrangement......one can scarcely blame [the reader] for concluding that he is reading a hopeless hodgepodge thrown together without any discernible principle of arrangement at all.”

    "It must be obvious even from a cursory examination that the contents of the prophecy are not arranged in what, to the western mind, would be called a logical order.”

    "Neither of the standard criteria for arranging the prophetic books, chronology and subject matter, works very well in an analysis of this book.”

    "When we come to inquire whether any principles of arrangement can be observed in the book of Jeremiah, we have to admit that any consistent principles escape us."

“It lacks the sequence which assists the mind to maintain attention and comprehension.”

“The structure of the book as a whole remains a topic under discussion among interpreters, and no consensus has yet developed to account for it.”

    “...the search for coherence in Jeremiah studies can be described as being in 'ferment.'”

Based on my own research into the subject, I believe that the arrangement of this book is according to a symmetrical literary plan rather than a chronological or logical one. This structure is somewhat difficult to discern and I haven't pinned it down yet to my total satisfaction, but it appears to be present nonetheless. (See my post on “Jeremiah: Introduction to the Literary Structure”)

The Daily Bible is especially useful in reading a difficult book like Jeremiah since it re-groups the prophecies according to a more logical order from our modern point of view. But we should not lose sight of the fact that (1) a great deal of personal judgment by the editor goes into the new order of presentation and (2) the Holy Spirit had a reason for the book being written in its originally transmitted form.