Lydia Einenkel

The Book of Jeremiah as a Novel? Lydia Einenkel

Essay from the year 2010 in the subject Theology - Biblical Theology, grade: A, University of Edinburgh (School of Divinity), course: Hebrew Prophecy, language: English, abstract: Many of the commentaries or essays which are written about Jeremiah call it not only the longest of the prophetic books in the Hebrew Bible but also the most complicated one and most difficult to understand. Thus the author of this essay asks how it is possible to make sense of this book. The understanding of prophecy and history and especially of the prophetic books in the Hebrew Bible has changed dramatically in the last decades. According to Robert R. Wilson the most important steps have been to consider the prophets as predictors of the future, as ethicists and theologians, as poets and mystics, as oracle givers as well as as authors and editors and last as interpreters of scripture. In this Essay the author will focus on the last two ways of interpretation for they are closely connected with literary criticism and thus open the door to understand the book of Jeremiah as a novel. Can the book of Jeremiah reasonable be seen as a novel and, if so, which consequence for the understanding and interpretation of the book has this approach?