SEVEN LETTERS RELATING TO JEREMIAH

 

                                          Letter from a Prophet (assemblage, 2005)

Of course, in one sense the whole book of Jeremiah is one long letter, not only to the Jews at the time but in a wider sense to us today. But within this book are at least three specific letters, all found in Jeremiah 29. The changes in authors and addressees make this chapter a little hard to comprehend, so here is a rough guide on how to read it:

Jeremiah 29:1-23 (illustrated above) – Jeremiah writes from Jerusalem to the first group of exiles in Babylon to tell them one basic truth, namely that they will be there for the long haul. Thus, he advises them to settle down and raise families there and pray for the welfare of Babylon. In fact, this is just what exiles such as Daniel and his three friend did, and they were able to act as leaven in that pagan land.

Jeremiah 29:24-28 – Next we learn that a false prophet, Shemaiah, has written a letter to Jerusalem instructing the overseer of the Temple that he should have arrested Jeremiah for sending such a discouraging letter to the exiles. But fortunately the overseer and Jeremiah are friends, so the prophet quickly becomes aware of the letter.

Jeremiah 29:30-31 – Lastly, God instructs Jeremiah to write back to the exiles exposing Shemaiah for his lies and using God's name in vain.

The next two documents of interest, titled The Book of Baruch and Letter of Jeremiah were actually written quite later than the events of Jeremiah's time, but were included in the Greek translation of the Old Testament and are part of the Apocrypha, those writings are accepted as genuine (to one extent or another) by the Roman Catholic Church and the Eastern Orthodox churches but rejected for the most part as canonical by the Protestant churches. If you do find them in an English translation of the Bible, they may be found lumped together or listed separately, actually embedded within the text of Jeremiah or found within the Apocrypha.

The Book of Baruch purports to be written by Jeremiah's brother and scribe, who is prominently mentioned in chapters 32, 36, 43 and 45 of Jeremiah. One expert on the books of the Apocrypha, Robert Dentan, expresses his opinion that the “Book of Baruch has no particular historical or religious value.” Only the first 14 verses clearly deal with a letter sent by Baruch in Babylonia to the Jews remaining in Judea. In his message, Baruch first echoes the concept of Jeremiah 29:1-23 concerning prayers to be given for the good of Babylon and its leaders, but then he goes on at some length confessing that the exiles deserve whatever treatment they get due to their disobedience to the words of God. The rest of the book is a mixture of prose and poetry, including a hymn to wisdom and a prayer for mercy before concluding with a mixture of eventual hope for the exiles along with (paradoxically) a closing curse on the nation of Babylon. This last element seems strangely out of place considering how the book began.

Although the Letter of Jeremiah possesses some of the formal literary characteristics of a canonical OT book, the same cannot be said of its actual contents. Dentan characterizes it as “a rambling polemic against idolatry, but of a far lower and much less imaginative character than in Wisdom 13-15 (another apocryphal writing). Thus, there is really no distinction in what the author says in the three major parts of the letter. The author, obviously not Jeremiah, repeats the same thought over and over again in a very heavy-handed manner – idols are not gods at all since they are just made out of physical materials. Supposedly it was written by Jeremiah to the Babylonian exiles, but few accept that as fact.

The last two letters relating to Jeremiah are of quite a different type. They are among what has been known by archeologists as the Lachish Letters, These were communications written on ostraca (fragments of broken pottery) from a Jewish military scout positioned outside the city of Lachish to his commander within the city.

1. In one of these letters, the scout reports that he saw the signal fires of the city of Azekah go out. Jeremiah 34:1-7 reports to the King of Judah what happened when Nebuchadnezzar's army attacked. In verse 7, Jeremiah talks of the time “when Babylon was fighting against Jerusalem and against the only other cities of Judah that were left, Lachish and Azekah.” So the Lachish letters actually contain an eye-witness account of the exact moment when Azekah fell, but before Lachish had been taken. And the Hebrew word for “signal fire” in the letter is the same one that Jeremiah uses in Jeremiah 6:1 – “Blow the trumpet in Tekoa, and raise a signal on Beth-haccherem.”

2. On another ostracon, the same scout mentions a prophet who had been proclaiming warnings about a coming disaster, which had the effect of “making the people's hands weak,” in other words, demoralizing them. That was precisely what Jeremiah had been doing at the time, but for a different reason. In Jeremiah 38:1-4, the prophet had made the dire prediction to all the people that the city of Jerusalem was soon going to be taken by the Babylonians. So he urges them to surrender to save their lives. In response, the king's officials say, “This man ought to be put to death, because he is discouraging the soldiers who are left in this city.” The underlined phrase in Hebrew is literally “making the hands weak,” the same idiom found in this Lachish letter.