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Heart Transformation in the Prophets: Jeremiah and Ezekiel

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Heart Transformation in the Prophets: Jeremiah and Ezekiel chapter 3 Heart Transformation in the Prophets: Jeremiah and Ezekiel While influential, Deuteronomy 30 is not the only text that deals with con- ceptions of empowerment to obedience via the motif of heart-change. Before investigating Second Temple interpretations of this motif with a view to open- ing up respective understandings of grace, transformation, and agency, we need to consider how the prophets Jeremiah and Ezekiel relate the competency of the moral agent to the transformation of the heart. Surveying these prophetic books will heighten our sensitivity to the hermeneutics at work in later read- ings, especially given Paul and his contemporaries’ propensity towards intra- textual exegesis. 3.1 The Heart and Its Transformation in the Book of Jeremiah Jeremiah also employs the metaphor of ‘heart-change’ to describe human transformation.1 As with Deuteronomy, in Jeremiah the heart is the nucleus of the moral Self and provides the ‘moral control and guidance center’ of the person.2 The problems with and solutions to Israel’s moral failures are located in the heart. Following the heart has lead Israel away from Yhwh and towards other gods (9:14). Her heart is stubborn and rebellious (5:23), polluted by evil (3:17; 4:14; 16:12; 18:12), and in need of circumcision (4:4). In fact, Israel’s uncircumcised heart puts her under the same judgement as the rest of the nations (9:24–25). :the point is clear 3,על־כל־מול בערלה Regardless of how one renders the phrase 1 See 4:4; 24:7; 31:33; 32:39–40; cf. 3:16–17, 9:24–25. 2 Thomas Küger, ‘Das “Herz” in der alttestamentlichen Anthropologie’, in Anthropologische Aufbrüche: alttestamentliche und interdisziplinäre Zugänge zur historischen Anthropologie, ed. Andreas Wagner, FRLANT (Göttingen: Vandenhoeck & Ruprecht, 2009), 109. as ‘circumcised and uncircumcised alike’. Listing על־כל־מול בערלה Some prefer to render 3 Judah second, however, would have been odd if she was considered a distinct category; so William McKane, A Critical and Exegetical Commentary on Jeremiah, ICC (Edinburgh: T&T as a single group, the lxx has ‘all those who על־כל־מול בערלה Clark, 1986), 1:214. Taking are circumcised in their foreskins’ (πάντας περιτετμημένους ἀκροβυστίας αὐτῶν). Judah’s pres- ence in the list could be due to a possible political alliance she had with other circumcising © koninklijke brill nv, leiden, ���5 | doi ��.��63/9789004�773�8_�04 42 chapter 3 Israel would be judged with the nations because Yhwh considered his people uncircumcised, being uncircumcised of heart. It is the heart, as opposed to external ritual, which Yhwh tests (3:10; 11:20; 17:10). The assumption that phys- ical circumcision on its own secured special favour with God was a grave mis- take (9:23–24).4 Until it penetrated the heart, circumcision was incomplete.5 How then was Israel’s situation to be rectified and was such rectifica- tion within her power to achieve? The answer to the first question is found in Jeremiah’s prophetic vision about Israel’s restoration.6 From the outset, Jeremiah holds out the possibility of a future hope beyond exile (3:16–17).7 That hope will be characterized by a transformative reshaping of Israel’s reli- gious life,8 including a spiritual renewal. One day people will no longer follow after the stubbornness of their evil hearts (3:17).9 Behind this future fidelity is a gift-event. Yhwh promises to give ‘a heart -Yhwh (24:7). For Jeremiah, ‘knowing Yhwh’ is an ethical (לב לדעת) ’to know relational concept. To know Yhwh is concomitant with having one’s sins for- given (31:34) and practicing justice (22:16). Not to ‘know Yhwh’ is connected to having a heart for dishonest gain, spilling innocent blood, and practicing oppression (22:17).10 Up until 24:7, descriptions about the heart are entirely negative. By giving the people ‘a heart to know’, Yhwh would remedy their impaired moral competence.11 nations; so William L. Holladay, Jeremiah: A Commentary on the Book of the Prophet Jeremiah, 2 vols., Hermeneia (Philadelphia: Press, 1986), 1:319. For a syntactical and histor- .being a reference to partial circumcision, see Richard C על־כל־מול בערלה ical argument for Steiner, ‘Incomplete Circumcision in Egypt and Edom: Jeremiah (9:24-25) in the Light of Josephus and Jonckheere’, Journal of Biblical Literature 118 (1999), 497–505. 4 So Douglas Rawlinson Jones, Jeremiah: Based on the Revised Standard Version (Grand Rapids: Eerdmans, 1992), 171; Robert P. Carroll, Jeremiah: A Commentary, OTL (London: SCM, 1986), 252. 5 Weinfeld, ‘Spiritual Metamorphosis of Israel’, 34. 6 See esp., 3:16–17; 4:3–4; 9:24–25; 3:16–17; 24:5–7; 29:10–13; 31:31–34; 32:38–40. 7 ‘In those days’ and ‘at that time’ may be conventional language for introducing the escha- tological horizon; so Jones, Jeremiah, 101. 8 So Jack R. Lundbom, Jeremiah 1–20: A New Translation with Introduction and Commentary, 2 vols., AB (New York: Doubleday, 1999), 314. 9 On the unity between vv 16–17, see Weinfeld, ‘Spiritual Metamorphosis of Israel’, 16–20. 10 On ‘know’ as indicating obedience, see Jeremiah Unterman, From Repentance to Redemption: Jeremiah’s Thought in Transition, JSOT (Sheffield: JSOT, 1987), 76–80. 11 Terence E. Fretheim, Jeremiah, Smyth & Helwys Bible Commentary (Macon: Smith & Helwys, 2002), 347..
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