| The Confessions of Jeremiah (Jer 11:18-20[1]; 12:1-6[2]; 15:10-21[3], 17:14-18; 18:18-23; 20:7-13)[4] are not memoirs[5]; they are laments (Hebrew: qinot).[6] Jeremiah is not an individual pouring out his personal feelings[7]; he is a mourner crying out for Jerusalem whom Yahweh allowed the Babylonians to destroy.[8] Contemporary psychological understandings of the individual and emotions are sometimes projected back onto biblical traditions like the Confessions creating pastoral interpretations which help people of faith today survive suffering. If Jeremiah suffers, then suffering is not a punishment for sin; if Jeremiah cries out against Yahweh, then others may do the same.[9] Biblical traditions, however, do not focus on individuals; they look at the world from the perspective of their communities.[10] Furthermore, the relationship between individuals and their households, villages, clans and tribes in the world of the Bible is not parallel to the relationship between individuals and society today. Likewise, personality in the world of the Bible is corporate, not individual.[11] Now community is a collection of individuals; then community was a single body with individual personalities. Even in legal traditions the corporate households of defendants are as much on trial as the individual defendants. Now individuals and their communities are emotionally and legally distinct from one another; then individuals and their communities were interchangeable. Now the living and the dead are joined only in memory; then the living and the dead members of communities were interchangeable. Long dead ancestors were actively present to their living descendants and the living incarnated their dead ancestors. Today actions and emotions are equally important, even in the law. Murderers must not only take a life – an action, but also have clearly premeditated to take that life – an emotion. In the Bible actions are important; emotions are not. Israel’s love for Yahweh in Deuteronomy, for example, is not a metaphor for a parental or conjugal emotion. Love is a Near Eastern idiom describing the legal relationship created by covenants between patrons and clients. Love is not an emotion; it is a legal obligation. Lamenting the destruction of a city was a Sumerian ritual. The Sumerians settled and farmed between the Tigris and Euphrates Rivers as early as 3200 B.C.E. Archaeologists have recovered their laments for Ur, Sumer, Nippur, Eridu and Uruk. Wars in the world of the Bible were never simply struggles between two peoples – Babylon and Judah, but between two members of the divine assembly – Marduk and Yahweh. Each Sumerian lament indicts the city’s divine patron for failing not only to protect it from a military disaster but also for creating a profound crisis of faith. Similarly, the laments of Jeremiah indict Yahweh for both the physical and spiritual suffering caused by the destruction of Jerusalem. The two most common genres in Psalms are hymns and laments. Laments can have five components. There are complaints which describe the suffering. There are petitions which identify how victims want Yahweh to respond. There are declarations of innocence certifying that the victims are without sin. There are professions of faith affirming that despite suffering victims are still faithful to Yahweh. There are vows made by the victims to tell the stories of their deliverance. The laments of Jeremiah contain the same components as the laments in Psalms. Occasionally, however, the laments of Jeremiah include Yahweh’s response to the petitions. Jeremiah and Psalms indict Yahweh for failing to protect Jerusalem from its enemies (Ps 44[12], 60, 74, 79, 80-83, 89). The laments in Psalms have a profession of faith (Ps 44:1-8), * a complaint (Ps 44: 9-16), *a declaration of innocence (Ps 44:17-22), and a petition (Ps 44: 23-26). The Laments of Jeremiah (Jer 11:18-23) also have a complaint (Jer 11: 18-19), 18a profession of faith (Jer 11:20) and a p2etition (Jer 11: 20). In time the Laments in Jeremiah inspired the five laments for Jerusalem now in the book of Lamentations (Lam 1:1-11; 2:1-22; 3:1-66; 4:1-22; 5:1-22) and the laments of Jesus for Jerusalem (Matt 23:32-39; Luke 13:34-35; 19:41-43).[13] Midwives intoned hymns praising Yahweh for delivering newborns from the water and darkness of the womb just as Yahweh delivered the Hebrews through the water and darkness of the sea and delivered the cosmos from the water and darkness of chaos. Similarly, mourners intoned laments to announce the passing of the dead from the human plane into the afterlife. As the legal representatives of the dead, the laments of mourners petitioned the long-dead to accept the newly-dead as members into their households on the divine plane. The primal scream of newborns was a legal petitions to enter the households of the living; the keening of mourners was a legal petition for admittance into the afterlife. Mourners were the midwives for the dead. Both were the guardians of the thresholds which newborns crossed to enter the human plane and which the dead crossed to enter the afterlife. Midwives opened the eyes and cleared the airways of the newborn; mourners closed the eyes and mouths of the dead. Midwives washed and anointed the bodies of the newborn, mourners of the newly dead. Midwives swaddled newborns; mourners shrouded the dead. Midwives nursed the newborn; mourners placed food at graves for the dead. Jeremiah is not weeping for himself, but lamenting for the people of Jerusalem. These laments are not a unique biography of personal pain, but part of a long and rich tradition of communal grieving in the Bible. Much the same could be said for the book of Job and the Suffering Servant Songs in the book of Isaiah (Isa 42:1-9; Isa 49:1-6; Isa 50:4-11; Isa 52:13—53:12). [1] Jer 11:18-23Complaint (Jer 11:18-19)
18Yahweh made it known to me, and I knew;
Profession of Faith (Jer 11:20)
20But you, Commander of the Divine Warriors, who judge righteously, Petition (Jer 11:20) Let me see your retribution upon Babylon, 21 Therefore thus says Yahweh concerning the people of Anathoth – where the Babylonians set up their headquarters -- who seek your life, and say, ‘You shall not prophesy in the name of Yahweh, or you will die by our hand’— 22therefore thus says the Commander of the Divine Warriors: I am going to punish them; the young men shall die by the sword; their sons and their daughters shall die by famine; 23and not even a remnant shall be left of them. For I will bring disaster upon the people of Anathoth – for collaborating with the Babylonians -- the year of their punishment. [2] Jer 12:1-612You will be in the right, O Lord,
[3] Jer 15:10-21Complaint (Jer 15:10)10 Woe is me, my mother! Why did you give birth to me -- a man of strife and contention to the whole land? I have not lent, nor have I borrowed, yet all of them curse me. 11Yahweh said: Surely I have intervened in your life* for good, surely I have imposed enemies on you in a time of trouble and in a time of distress.* 12Can iron and bronze break iron from the north? 13 Your wealth and your treasures I will give as plunder, without price, for all your sins, throughout all your territory. 14I will make you serve your enemies in a land that you do not know, for in my anger a fire is kindled that shall burn forever. Petition declaration of innocence
Complaint
says Yahweh. The book of Job The “Suffering Servant Songs” in the book of Isaiah (Isa 42:1-9; Isa 49:1-6; Isa 50:4-11; Isa 52:13—53:12) The “servant of YHWH" sacrifices himself, accepting the punishment due others. The songs were identified by Bernhard Duhm (1892). Some scholars identify the servant as an individual like Zerubbabel, Jehoiachin, Moses, Cyrus the Great, Isaiah or Jesus; most consider the servant to be the people of Judah. [6] Budde K. 1882 Das hebraische Klagelied ZAW 2:1-523 identified the qinah meter: a colon of two unequal lines, the first one longer by a least one word. [7] Further Reading on Emotions Kruger, Paul A. 2001. A Cognitive Interpretation of the Emotion of Fear in the Hebrew Bible. Journal of Northwest Semitic Languages 77-89. ______. 2005. Depression in the Hebrew Bible: An Update. Journal of Near Eastern Studies 64:187-92. ———. 2004. On Emotions and the Expression of Emotions in the Old Testament: A Few Introductory Remarks. Biblische Zeitschrift 48:213-28. ———. 2000. A Cognitive Interpretation of the Emotion of Anger in the Hebrew Bible. Journal of Northwest Semitic Languages 26:181-93. Kuhn, Karl A. 2009. The Heart of Biblical Narrative: Rediscovering Biblical Appeal to Emotions. Minneapolis: Fortress. Smith, Mark S. 1998. The Heart and Innards in Israelite Emotional Expressions: Notes from Anthropology and Psychobiology. Journal of Biblical Literature 117:427-436. Wolde, E. J. 2008. Sentiments as Culturally Constructed Emotions: Anger and Love in the Hebrew Bible. Biblical Interpretation 16:1-24. Aichele, George. 2006. Recycling the Bible: A Response. Pages 195-201 in Recycled Bible. Atlanta: Society of Biblical Literature. Black, Fiona C. 2006. The Recycled Bible: Autobiography, Culture, and the Space between. Pages 1-10 in Recycled Bible. Atlanta: Society of Biblical Literature. ———. 2006. Writing Lies: Autobiography, Textuality, and the Song of Songs. Pages 161-183 in Recycled Bible. Atlanta: Society of Biblical Literature. Blenkinsopp, Joseph. 1994. The Nehemiah Autobiographical Memoir. Pages 199-212 in Language, Theology, and the Bible. Oxford: Clarendon Pr. Phinney, D. N. 2008. Life Writing in Ezekiel and First Zechariah. Pages 83-103 in Tradition in Transition. New York: T & T Clark. Schutte, P. J. W. 2005. When they, we and the Passive Become I: Introducing Autobiographical Biblical Criticism. Hervormde teologiese studies 61:401-16. Aichele, George. 2006. Recycling the Bible: A Response. Pages 195-201 in Recycled Bible. Atlanta: Society of Biblical Literature. Black, Fiona C. 2006. The Recycled Bible: Autobiography, Culture, and the Space between. Pages 1-10 in Recycled Bible. Atlanta: Society of Biblical Literature. ———. 2006. Writing Lies: Autobiography, Textuality, and the Song of Songs. Pages 161-183 in Recycled Bible. Atlanta: Society of Biblical Literature. Blenkinsopp, Joseph. 1994. The Nehemiah Autobiographical Memoir. Pages 199-212 in Language, Theology, and the Bible. Oxford: Clarendon Pr. Phinney, D. N. 2008. Life Writing in Ezekiel and First Zechariah. Pages 83-103 in Tradition in Transition. New York: T & T Clark. Schutte, P. J. W. 2005. When they, we and the Passive Become I: Introducing Autobiographical Biblical Criticism. Hervormde teologiese studies 61:401-16. [10] Further Reading on Corporate Personality RA Freund - Scandinavian Journal of the Old Testament, 1997 The individual and the group in the Bible through Ezekiel. ND Hirsh - 1958 - HUC-JIR Kaufman, Philip. 1968. The One and the Many : Corporate Personality. Worship 42:546-58. Lang, Bernhard. 1985. Anthropological Approaches to the Old Testament. Philadelphia, Pa; London: Fortress Pr; SPCK. Letlhare, Bernice. 2000. Corporate Personality in Botswana and Ancient Israel: A Religio-Cultural Comparison. Pages 474-480 in Bible in Africa. Leiden; Boston: Brill. Malina, Bruce. The Individual and the Community-Personality in the Social World of Early Christianity. Biblical Theology Bulletin: A Journal of Bible and Theology, Vol. 9, No. 3, 126-138 (1979)xxxMorris, Colin. The Discovery of the Individual 1050-1200. Toronto: University of Toronto Press, 1987. Was Kierkegaard a" Biblical" Existentialist? xxxE Perry - The Journal of Religion, 1956 - JSTOR Porter, Joshua R. 1965. Legal Aspects of the Concept of Corporate Personality in the Old Testament. Vetus testamentum 15:361-80. Robinson, H. W. 1980. Corporate Personality in Ancient Israel. Fortress Pr. Rogerson, John W. 1985. The Hebrew Conception of Corporate Personality : A Re-Examination. Pages 43-59 in Anthropological Approaches to the Old Testament. Philadelphia, Pa; London: Fortress Pr; SPCK. ———. 1970. Hebrew Conception of Corporate Personality : A Re-Examination. Journal of Theological Studies 21:1-16. [11] Further Reading on Individuality Freund, Richard A. 1997. Individual Vs Collective Responsibility : From the Ancient Near East and the Bible to the Greco-Roman World. SJOT 11:279-304. Liwak, Rü. 1988. Literary Individuality as Problem of Hermeneutics in the Hebrew Bible. Pages 89-101 in Creative Biblical Exegesis. Sheffield, Eng: Journal for the Study of the Old Testament Pr. Malina, Bruce J. 1979. The Individual and the Community : Personality in the Social World of Early Christianity. Biblical Theology Bulletin 9:126-38. Morgan, Richard. 1992. Prophetic Individuality. Anvil 9:137-48. Morris, Brian. 1991. Western Conceptions of the Individual. New York: Berg Pubs. Morris, Colin. 1987. The Discovery of the Individual 1050-1200. Univ of Toronto Pr. Perry, Edmund F. 1956. Was Kierkegaard a Biblical Existentialist. Journal of Religion 36:17-23. [12] Psalm 44Profession of faith (Ps 44:1-8)1We have heard with our ears, O God,
Declaration of innocence (Ps 44:17-22)
Petition (Ps 44: 23-26)
|
| Jeremiah: memoirs or laments? |