January 28-February 2, 2019
Readings for the Week
Theme of the week: Jeremiah’s story continues: In this week we read of Jeremiah’s prophetic words concerning the fall of Jerusalem and life for the exiles; persecution of Jeremiah, and the fall of Jerusalem.
Monday -Jeremiah chapters 21, 22 & 23
Tuesday -Jeremiah chapters 24, 25, 26, 27 & 28, Psalms 141
Wednesday -Jeremiah chapters 29, 30 & 31
Thursday -Jeremiah chapters 32, 33, 34 & 35, Psalm 140
Friday -Jeremiah chapters 36, 37 & 38, Psalms 88
Saturday -Psalm 139, Jeremiah chapter 39, Psalms 102
The Bible In A Year
Jeremiah week 2 of 3
A Framework for Understanding
Jeremiah (part 2)
The opening verses of this book give a time frame for Jeremiah’s life, but it is unclear if the prophet was born during the reign of Josiah or began his ministry during that period. There are several reasons for believing that Jeremiah’s work did not actually begin until after Josiah’s death:
• Jeremiah would have been working as a prophet bordering on 50 years – making him close to 60 years old, a very old man for his time
• King Josiah’s heart was extremely complementary to Jeremiah’s work, but nothing in the book is clearly in line with that king’s time frame
• There is nothing at all mentioned of Josiah’s reforms, which would indicate that Jeremiah was not actively working during those years
So it is likely that Jeremiah was born during the reign of King Josiah, somewhere around 627 BCE.
Jeremiah is one of the few people mentioned in the Bible who actually had a scribe working for him regularly, writing down what was happening and what was being said. The scribe’s name is Barak.
Jeremiah was carried by his own people into exile in Egypt. Presumably the text was finished there. It was originally written in Hebrew, and later translated in Greek. It is clear there was a sizeable amount of editing done, as the oldest Hebrew texts have significant variations from the Greek texts. (This results in differences in modern Christian Bibles which are translated into the local vernacular.)