Bible Study Class 2003

To be held on Sundays at the Church (entry from St Peters Street) at 0900 followed by light breakfast at 1000.

Note: These classes have now finished. Latest bible study class.

Three studies of the Prophecy of Ezekiel

Led by Dr Andrew Mein, Westcott House, Cambridge

Jeremiah

Led by Rev Peter Jennings, Methodist Minister, Royston

Introduction

The first two sentences of the Book of Jeremiah summarise the book's contents (the "words of Jeremiah") and assign it a date (the reigns of the last four kings of Judah, the Southern Kingdom). One soon discovers, however, that the book is neither a straightforward chronicle of that historical period nor simply a verbatim collection of the prophet's utterances.

Basic chronology

The Text

There are real problems with the text of the Book of Jeremiah as we have received it. The early Church read the Jewish Scriptures in a Greek translation - probably the Septuagint (LXX). The Hebrew text which the LXX translators were using was about 15% shorter than the text (the Massoretic text) which is reflected in the English language versions of Jeremiah. In Qumran, the home of the Essene library, interestingly, by the First Century CE, the two Hebrew texts existed and were preserved side by side.

The Importance of Jeremiah

In the times when Jeremiah lived and prophesied, the world of the Ancient Near East was breaking up, to be reset to another pattern. A tiny little state like Judah could not hope for real political independence. To realise this, common sense rather than divine inspiration was needed, but only Jeremiah was clear-sighted enough to see what was coming. Everyone else had illusions. YHWH would preserve the inviolability of Zion. By playing off Egypt against Babylon, the situation could be saved, etc, etc.

The religious problem was more fundamental than the political one. The reforms of Josiah had produced a sense of complacency; the centralisation of worship at the one Temple in accordance with God's will was surely pleasing to God and would reap its reward. The shock of the final blow in 586 was devastating. The leaders, administrators, thinkers and priests were deported to Babylon. Some fled to Egypt; those left behind had to continue as best they could as a district of the Babylonian empire, maintaining such maimed rites as were possible in diminished circumstances. YHWH had been proved, they thought, powerless. But for forty years Jeremiah had taught with unequalled vigour that punishment was at hand for a guilty nation. The foreigner was the destined instrument of YHWH, though even the foreigner was subject to the law of YHWH. Jeremiah's second thoughts on the reforms of 621 had already pointed the way to God's people's survival of the ordeal. Religion was primarily an interior matter, and so YHWH could be worshipped everywhere. Judaism was beginning the process by which it was to evolve into a universal religion.

But for forty years Jeremiah had taught with unequalled vigour that punishment was at hand for a guilty nation. The foreigner was the destined instrument of YHWH, though even the foreigner was subject to the law of YHWH. Jeremiah's second thoughts on the reforms of 621 had already pointed the way to God's people's survival of the ordeal. Religion was primarily an interior matter, and so YHWH could be worshipped everywhere. Judaism was beginning the process by which it was to evolve into a universal religion.

Here, as clearly as anywhere in the Hebrew Bible, we see the Providence of God at work. There is something special in the call and career of Jeremiah. He is the supreme example of the prophet's inspiration; we can trace his hesitations and his doubts, which are ended by his unwilling declarations of Thus says the Lord. In Jeremiah we see an individual isolating himself from the community and daring to stand alone with God.

Hear the Word of the Lord

Each session we shall look at one of these specific texts

Epilogue

Jeremiah was, as it were, the "Cassandra" of the Bible - fated always to tell the truth but never to be believed. But without doubt Jeremiah retained popular acclaim for 600 years after his death...

2 Maccabees 15: 11-16 "...who prays much for the people and the holy city - Jeremiah, the prophet of God."

Matthew 16: 14 "...some say John the Baptist, some Elijah, and others Jeremiah or one of the prophets."

When the 'man in the street' looked at the life and ministry of Jesus, Jeremiah was a name that sprang to mind.

Finally, read Jeremiah 43: 8-13 (especially v.13). Go, in your mind's eye, to the Thames Embankment and look at "Cleopatra's Needle". It was one of the obelisks from the Temple of the Sun at Heliopolis (Heb. Beth-Shemesh). Jeremiah's eyes may have looked at it and Jeremiah's fingers may have touched it. But he was there. Cross the centuries and feel at one with Jeremiah.