Thursday, May 5, 2016

The Jewish Roots of Christianity: Exploring Jeremiah's New Covenant



What is New in Jeremiah’s New Covenant?


          
Although disputed, most scholars attribute Jeremiah 31:31-34 to the prophet Jeremiah, however some argue the verses under examination are not his ipsissima verba.[2] Jeremiah is one of the most interesting characters in the Old Testament. What makes this character a unique figure is the fact that he is the only prophet that writes before, during and after the exile and destruction of the temple in 586 B.C. While it is a historian’s job to explore the historic Jeremiah, for the objective of this paper and to further develop its purpose, I will construct a general idea of the Prophet through the Book of Jeremiah as it contributes to the examination of the verse. The Book of Jeremiah tells us the following things about Jeremiah: He is a man of God, he has been anointed, appointed and consecrated, he is called to a celibate life for the sake of his mission, he has been sent on mission and he is a man to whom promises have been made. 
Image result for jeremiahAs a result of these promises and his ministry, Jeremiah struggles, shows vulnerability and yet resiliency in his mission.[3] We learn that Jeremiah is a man that struggles with his calling from the start and is often ready to resign from the task assigned to him. In the Book of Jeremiah we also learn that he continually advocates for the people of Judah. We learn that Jeremiah is a prophet in every sense of the word—a man destined to suffer for knowing personally the will of Yahweh and Yahweh’s tender love towards Israel. If we attribute Jeremiah 31:31-34 to this understanding of the Prophet Jeremiah, then the verse under examination expresses words of pain and hope that are a result of a lived experience from the prophet. First, this oracle may be a direct message from Yahweh, but the oracle may speak of Jeremiah’s own personal struggle as well. The story of Jeremiah tells us that he experiences the pain of Yahweh and therefore the emphasis to have the Law in the minds and hearts of Israelites could be Jeremiah’s own desires as a product of his own experience failing to rescue them from destruction.

 It is a difficult task if not impossible, to date scripture with certainty. Scholars have different opinions for the date of Jer. 31:31-34. Some think of an early time in the prophet’s career with a final editing during or briefly after the exile, while others offer strong foundations that it happened during an early exilic date shortly after the fall of Jerusalem. Yet another group of scholars date the verses to the late exilic or even post-exilic period.[4] As Jeremiah’s words are not recorded chronologically in the book attributed to him, it is only safe to say that the verse can be place sometime during his long forty-five year ministry of preaching between 627 BC and 586 BC, concluding that they are closer to the dates prior to the exile.[5]
 Jeremiah follows a long lineage of prophets that warn the people of Judah of the tragedy that will fall upon them. Among them we can find Isaiah, Ezekiel, Micah, Zephaniah, Nahum and Habakkuk. 
Image result for Temple Destruction 586As the prophets reiterated the upcoming devastation to fall on Israel, the historical setting provides powerful insights about the nature of Jeremiah’s ministry and preaching, including the oracle being examined. Prior to the witnessing of his oracles of destruction, Jeremiah had witnessed the failed attempt of reformation from King Josiah.[6] In his oracles Jeremiah denounces idolatry as one of the most serious grievances against Yahweh. Many believed that the defeat of Josiah was a sign that other gods were angry since the people were worshiping Yahweh, which turned the Judahites to the worshiping of idols, for protection of the next generation.[7] The ministry of Jeremiah then can be summed up as the destruction of old ways and the re-construction of new,[8] and in his effort he would make idolatry the center of his condemnation. And while King Josiah would fail in his attempt to reform Judah through political and cultural transformation, Jeremiah would fail in his attempt to provide warning of worshiping of idols through prophecy. 

Much can be said also about the Book of Jeremiah as literature. For the objective of this paper, I will contemplate where the verse in found in relation to the book and whether the verse stands alone or in relation to other literature found in the book in order to provide better understanding of the verse at hand. The Book of Jeremiah can be divided into five sections that help organize the large text. First, Jer. 1-25 speaks of oracles and accounts involving the evil of Judah under three kings: Josiah (1-6), Jehoiakim (7-20), and Zedekiah (21-24). Second, Jer. 25-36 tells stories about Jeremiah and oracles from the times of Jehoiakim and Zedekiah, (where we find the verse under consideration) Third, Jer. 37-45 is where we find the story of Jeremiah’s last days. Fourth, Jer. 46-51 reveals oracles against foreign nations, and finally, Jer. 52 outlines an appendix describing the fall of Jerusalem in 586 BC (taken from 2 Kgs. 25 to complete the story of Jeremiah’s words).[9] Also, Jer. 31:31-34 takes the form of a divine revelation to Jeremiah. This text is completely independent of any other texts within The Book of Jeremiah. The oracle does not have original connection with the sayings that precede it and follow it.[10] Thus, the verse must be examined independently from the chapter and only compared to other oracles of hope within The Book of Jeremiah for context. Chapters 30-31 (with Ch. 32-33) are frequently referred to as "The Book of Consolation." Jer. 31:31-34 is found here mainly because of the hope it portrays after a series of oracles foretelling destruction. While the oracles of hope are dispersed throughout the Book of Jeremiah, it provides information on how Jeremiah’s mission and prophecy shifts. Here, the prophet becomes an agent of hope and no longer a prophet that foretells of destruction. [11]

In conclusion, Jeremiah is probably speaking shortly before the exile (perhaps during the first major deportation in 594[12]), or during the exile, while personally experiencing the doom that has fallen on the people of Judah. Overall, Jeremiah had failed in his mission as a prophet trying to have the people of Judah turn to Yahweh. He preached against the worshipping of foreign idols and gods, against social injustice, and against the personal immorality of his age.[13] He was unable to prevent the destruction of Judah and the temple. Finally, this oracle illustrates how Jeremiah transformed from a prophet of despair to a prophet of hope.[14]

Now that a general external and internal context has been provided to the verse, let us approach the issue at hand. What makes this passage complex and ultimately profound is the notion of new. The term is only mentioned once in the entire Old Testament.[15] Hence, this paper raises the question: what is new about this particular covenant? The history of Israel had been established and defined by covenants. Scholars agree that while the Israelite history is full of covenants five are very significant: the Noahic Covenant, the Abrahamic Covenant, the Mosaic or Sinai Covenant, the Davidic Covenant, and the New Covenant of Jeremiah explored here.

In order to understand what is new about Jeremiah’s covenant, I will outline a brief explanation of how Israelites understood covenant-theology at the time. The word berit, often used to refer to a covenant in scripture, is unclear and scholars debate about several possible meanings including: to shackle, to bond, or to cut, although most agree that ultimately it came to refer to any form of binding.[16]  For Jews then, berit meant to be one with the counterpart of the contract. The analogy of a coin here is helpful. For Israelites, Yahweh’s covenant meant a union of two sides of a coin, where the coin itself it’s the bonding and either side reflect the statutes of each party.  It is far more precise to shift from etymology to theology here, in that the belief of a covenant captured the Jewish faith and religiosity. For the Jewish mind at the time, covenant referred to their story and Yahweh’s relationship to them. For Israelites, a covenant alluded to how they were bound to an unbreakable covenant-union with their God; how God had made known his love and his mercy to them; how God had given them commandments to guide their life; how they owed him worship, fidelity and obedience; and how they are marked by the sign of that covenant-bond.[17]And so, when Jeremiah begins with v31 and exclaims the coming of a new covenant, these concepts would have come alive to the Israelites at the time, particularly as they were experiencing the complete abolishment of the Sinai covenant in the renouncement of the Promised Land where they had prospered for so long. 
Israelites had been exposed to covenants in the Torah and embedded in their faith-experience years before Jeremiah. How is this covenant new? In order to answer this question, it is necessary to dissect the statues of the covenant and examined them independently. In v33 the first condition of the covenant reads: “I will put my law within them, and I will write it upon their hearts”; followed by the next statute continuing in v33, “…and I will be their God, and they shall be my people.” In v34, the next decree reads, “And no longer shall each man teach his neighbor and each his brother, saying, ‘Know the Lord,’ for they shall all know me, from the least of them to the greatest” to the last statue also found in v34,  “I will forgive their iniquity, and I will remember their sins no more.’[18] But of all the statutes in Jer. 31:31-34, only one may have been new to the Israelites at the time. The notion of apprehension or engraving the Law in the heart mentioned v33 is already stated in Deut. 6:67, Psalms 37:31, and in Ezekiel 36:26-27.[19] The statue proclaiming Yahweh becoming Israel’s God, and Israel becoming His people in v33 is a parallel to previous covenants. This statute goes back to Abraham in the first covenant in Gen. 17:7 and is also echoed throughout the whole Exodus in the Sinai Covenant.[20] The notion of forgiveness of sins in v34 is also not new. Sometimes appropriated by Christians, the promise has roots in Ex. 34:6, 7 and Ps. 103:8-12 and so this notion of the covenant is also not new.[21] However, the first promise in v34 referring to the knowing of the Lord is in fact new to the Israelite. In this new covenant, it is not the content of the covenant which will be different, but how it is learned. [22]





Image result for jewish religious authorities in first centuryThe nuance of the covenant proclaims a prophetic imagining of a post-exilic community where knowledge of God (through the internalized Torah) is shared by all without any intermediary teaching authority.[23] Jeremiah uses the faculty of a prophet to visualize a community of equals in the understanding, comprehension and discernment of God. Jer. 31:31-34 proclaims a new covenant in that it challenges the pre-established social and religious order in the accessibility of knowing Yahweh, which was a radical thought for Judaism at the time. In this oracle, Jeremiah is calling for a personal relationship with Yahweh that excludes religious authority. In To Build, To Plant, Brueggemann suggests that these verses imply that “there will be common, shared access to this knowledge of God—which evidences fundamental egalitarianism in the community; on the crucial matter of connection to God, the least and the greatest stand on equal footing. No one has superior, elitist access, and no one lacks what is required.”[24] The notion of the knowing of God without intercessor is supported by the Pirke Aboth. In Ch. 3:3 it states, "But when two sit and there are between them words of Torah, the Shechinah rests between them, as it is said: 'Then they that feared the Lord spoke one with another....'" (3:3).[25]  The verses are product of a time when Jeremiah had seen the fail attempts of Josiah and the ones before him to try to impose the Law on the people. Jeremiah had lost hope for an institutionalized and top-bottom religion and passing down of tradition: prophets, priests, kings and courtiers had failed to use the responsibility they had been given.[26] They had failed to teach the Torah and now Jeremiah envisions a community with no need of these religious roles in order for Israelites to know Yahweh.
            Thus, in Jewish theology, this new covenant is much more a reiterated covenant. This prophetic oracle stands out not only for its nuance but its relevance of hope and its radical claim challenging religious authority. Jeremiah had undergone three failed kingdoms in Judah that tried to impose the Law of Yahweh. He had seen Yahweh use the Babylonians as a tool to chastise Israel. Now, he is proclaiming words of hope by asserting that this knowing will not require priests, kings, or prophets. In other words, the new covenant is new in that it embodies or internalizes the Torah in lived experience. Jeremiah exclaims that no longer will it be necessary for the religious authorities to teach it, because the Israelites will know what it means to hope in Yahweh. This knowing will be in the minds and in the hearts of the Israelites: it will be in their personal exilic experience. This exilic experience did not discriminate, but came down on all Israelites despite their rank or social status. Consequently, Jeremiah’s clause on how the least to the greatest will know Yahweh is an equalizer that levels the playing field. As all Israelites are equal in the knowledge of Yahweh, religious authorities are no longer necessary. Thus, the newness of the covenant entails how of learning will be acquired, through experience, and not on what will be acquired, that is the content.

How is the new covenant relevant today? What does it teach us in its original interpretation? The prophet Jeremiah moved from a moment of grief and affliction to words of hope. He writes them not because the Israelites needed to hear those words (and they needed to), but instead because Yahweh reminds his people that he remains faithful to his promise. For the Israelites, this is not a new covenant but a reiteration of the Sinai covenant with one nuance. Jeremiah’s new covenant speaks to us in the same way that all covenants in the Old Testament do, through the providential care from Yahweh despite our unfaithfulness. As echoed throughout the Old Testament, Yahweh’s promise remains true despite the poor efforts of Israelites to honor their part of the covenant. However, Jeremiah’s New Covenant also brings about a new understanding. Jer. 31-31-34 teaches the challenge of authority in that it makes it possible for everyone to know Yahweh. Jeremiah’s covenant shows us that painful experiences teach better than religious dogma. The destruction of the temple and exile in 586 BC was the most painful experience of the people of Israel and this event would affect all Jews alike—equally, from the least of them to the greatest. In his oracle, Jeremiah claims that pain and suffering do not discriminate but plague everyone. These experiences of pain and suffering, however, can be a tremendous opportunity to know Yahweh and to tattoo his love on our hearts and remember it in our minds according to the prophet. Jeremiah teaches us that this type of knowing is not external, it is not dogmatic, it is not intellectual and it is not a product of determination; rather this type of knowing comes from painful experience. From a covenant perspective, Jeremiah speaks of this source of bonding as one that goes beyond the Torah and the Law itself. By rejecting religious authority, Jeremiah’s oracle envisions a covenant that is deeply personal. He rejects institutionalized dogma and social religious identity to emphasize an individualized relationship with Yahweh. The covenant is new in this sense: Yahweh reveals who He is to us in our most personal and painful experiences. The covenant explains that these painful experiences are an equalizer to know Yahweh in that no one escapes suffering. And while we all face suffering, our experiences of them are deeply personal and offer us opportunities to immerse ourselves in the providential love of covenantal partnership with Yahweh. This knowing is eternal, forever in our minds and hearts.



[1] Bright, John. Exercise in Hermeneutics: Jeremiah 31:31-34
[2] Potter, Harry D. The New Covenant in Jeremiah 31:31-34

[3] Brueggemann, Walter. The Book of Jeremiah: Portrait of the Prophet.

[4] Becking, Bob. Text-internal and text-external chronology in Jeremiah 31:31-34
[5] Boadt, Lawrence. Reading the Old Testament: An Introduction
[6] Boadt, Lawrence. Reading the Old Testament: An Introduction
[7] Gnuse, Robert K. Phd., Thibeaux, Evelyn PhD., Ryan, Thomas F. The Jewish Roots of Christian Faith. Online
[8] Brueggemann, Walter. The Book of Jeremiah: Portrait of the Prophet.
[9] Boadt, Lawrence. Reading the Old Testament: An Introduction
[10] Bright, John. Exercise in Hermeneutics: Jeremiah 31:31-34
[11] Gnuse, Robert K. Phd., Thibeaux, Evelyn PhD., Ryan, Thomas F. The Jewish Roots of Christian Faith. Online
[12] Boadt, Lawrence. Reading the Old Testament: An Introduction
[13]Gnuse, Robert K. Phd., Thibeaux, Evelyn PhD., Ryan, Thomas F. The Jewish Roots of Christian Faith. Online
[14] Gnuse, Robert K. Phd., Thibeaux, Evelyn PhD., Ryan, Thomas F. The Jewish Roots of Christian Faith. Online
[15] Potter, Harry D. The New Covenant in Jeremiah 31:31-34
[16] Boadt, Lawrence. Reading the Old Testament: An Introduction
[17] Boadt, Lawrence. Reading the Old Testament: An Introduction
[18] Didache Bible
[19] Wallis, Wilber B. Irony in Jeremiah’s Prophecy of a New Covenant.
[20] Wallis, Wilber B. Irony in Jeremiah’s Prophecy of a New Covenant.
[21] Wallis, Wilber B. Irony in Jeremiah’s Prophecy of a New Covenant.
[22] Jewish Study Bible. Tanakh Translation.
[23] Rhymer, David. Jeremiah 31:31-34
[24] Brueggemann, Walter. The Book of Jeremiah: Portrait of the Prophet.
[25] Pirke Aboth (Avot) Sayings of the Jewish Fathers
[26] Potter, Harry D. The New Covenant in Jeremiah 31:31-34

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