“See and Read All These Words”: The Concept of the Written in the Book of Jeremiah by Chadwick Lee Eggleston Department of Religion Duke University Date:_______________________ Approved: ___________________________ Ellen F. Davis, Supervisor ___________________________ Stephen B. Chapman ___________________________ James L. Crenshaw ___________________________ Carol L. Meyers ___________________________ Charlie Piot Dissertation submitted in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy in the Department of Religion in the Graduate School of Duke University 2009 ABSTRACT “See and Read All These Words”: The Concept of the Written in the Book of Jeremiah by Chadwick Lee Eggleston Department of Religion Duke University Date:_______________________ Approved: ___________________________ Ellen F. Davis, Supervisor ___________________________ Stephen B. Chapman ___________________________ James L. Crenshaw ___________________________ Carol L. Meyers ___________________________ Charlie Piot An abstract of a dissertation submitted in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy in the Department of Religion in the Graduate School of Duke University 2009 Copyright by Chadwick Lee Eggleston 2009 Abstract Unusually for the HB, the book of Jeremiah contains a high number of references to writers, writing, and the written word. Written during the exilic period, the book demonstrates a key moment in the ongoing integration of writing and the written word into ancient Israelite society. Yet the book does not describe writing in the abstract. Instead, it provides an account of its own textualization, thereby blurring the line between the narrative and the audience that receives it and connecting the text of Jeremiah to the words of the prophet and of YHWH. To authenticate the book of Jeremiah as the word of YHWH, its tradents present a theological account of the chain of transmission from the divine to the prophet, and then to the scribe and the written page. Indeed, the book of Jeremiah extends the chain of transmission beyond the written word itself to include the book of Jeremiah and, finally, a receiving audience. To make the case for this chain of transmission, this study attends in each of three exegetical chapters to writers (including YHWH, prophets, and scribes), the written word, and the receiving audience. The first exegetical chapter describes the standard chain of transmission from the divine to the prophet to the scribe, demonstrating that all three agents in this chain are imagined as writers and that writing was a suitable conduit for the divine word. The narrative account of Jeremiah’s textualization is set forth, with special attention to the way in which the narrative points beyond itself to the text of Jeremiah itself. The second exegetical chapter builds upon this argument by iv attending to the written word in Jeremiah, pointing especially to Jeremiah’s self- references (e.g., “in this book,” “all these words”) as a pivotal element in the extension of the chain of transmission beyond the words in the text to the words of the text. Finally, the third exegetical chapter considers the construction of the audience in the book of Jeremiah, concluding that the written word, as Jeremiah imagines it, is to be received by a worshiping audience through a public reading. v Dedication For Mandy טובת־שכל ויפת תאר vi Contents Abstract .............................................................................................................................. iv Abbreviations ...................................................................................................................... x Acknowledgements ........................................................................................................... xv Introduction ......................................................................................................................... 1 Prefatory Note on Terminology: On Theology and the Religious .................................... 11 1. Writing the Written in Jeremiah ................................................................................... 20 1.1 Writing as degeneration ........................................................................................ 22 1.2 Writing as progress ............................................................................................... 28 1.3 Writing as dictation ............................................................................................... 38 1.4 Writing as deconstruction ..................................................................................... 46 1.5 Righting the written in Jeremiah ........................................................................... 51 1.5.1 Transition v. integration ................................................................................... 52 1.5.2 Writing’s political and religious functions ...................................................... 62 2. Inscribing Writers in the Book of Jeremiah .................................................................. 69 2.1 The chain of transmission ..................................................................................... 71 2.2 Scribes as writers .................................................................................................. 75 2.2.1 Scribes as writers behind the text ..................................................................... 77 2.2.2 Scribes as writers within the text ..................................................................... 86 2.3 Prophets as writers .............................................................................................. 103 2.3.1 Prophets as writers behind the text ................................................................ 103 2.3.2 Prophets as writers within the text ................................................................. 108 vii 2.4 Divine writers...................................................................................................... 118 2.4.1 Divine writers in the ancient Near East ......................................................... 119 2.4.2 YHWH as writer ............................................................................................ 126 2.5 Summary ............................................................................................................. 138 3. Inscribing the Written in the Book of Jeremiah .......................................................... 140 3.1 Jeremiah’s account of textual inscription ........................................................... 141 3.2 Scrolls beyond the plot ...................................................................................... 156 160 ..................................................................................... הספר הזה /”This scroll“ 3.2.1 168 .......................................................................... הדברים האלה / ”These words“ 3.2.2 3.3 Scrolls within the plot ......................................................................................... 176 4. Inscribing Audiences in the Book of Jeremiah ........................................................... 189 4.1 Audiences in the book of Jeremiah ..................................................................... 191 4.1.1 Orality and audiences in Jeremiah (mouths) .................................................. 198 4.1.2 Aurality and audiences in Jeremiah (ears) ..................................................... 204 4.1.3 Beyond or/aurality – intermediaries textual and human ................................ 209 4.1.4 The worshiping audience ............................................................................... 222 4.1.5 Summary ........................................................................................................ 226 4.2 Audiences of the book of Jeremiah ..................................................................... 227 4.2.1 Audience ambiguity and address ................................................................... 228 4.2.2 Aurality and the receiving audience............................................................... 231 4.2.3 Jeremiah, the Psalms, and the worshiping audience ...................................... 234 4.2.4 Summary ........................................................................................................ 239 viii Conclusion ...................................................................................................................... 241 Avenues for further research ..................................................................................... 249 Bibliography ................................................................................................................... 258 Biography ........................................................................................................................ 277 ix Abbreviations AB Anchor Bible ABD Anchor Bible Dictionary . Edited by D.N. Freedman. 6 vols. New York, 1992 ABRL Anchor Bible Reference Library ANET Ancient Near Eastern Texts Relating to the Old Testament . Edited by J.B. Pritchard. 3d ed. Princeton, 1969 AOAT Alter Orient und Altes Testament AOTC Abingdon Old Testament Commentaries ARA Annual Review of Anthropology ARM Archives royales de Mari ASNU Acta seminarii neotestamentici upsaliensis ATANT Abhandlungen zur Theologie des Alten und Neuen Testaments BCSMS Bulletin of the Canadian Society for Mesopotamian Studies BHS Biblia Hebraica Stuttgartensia