Jeremiah Through the Centuries. Mary Chilton Callaway
Luther King, Jr. ‘The Significant Contributions of Jeremiah to Religious Thought’ (unpuslished seminary paper, 1948) inThe Papers of MLK, Jr. Vol. 7, p. 181
“He was accused of fantasizing, being stubborn, disturbing the peace and being an enemy of the people, as have those in every age even up to the present day who were seized and possessed by God.”
Dietrich Bonhoeffer, sermon, 21 January 1934, DBWE 13, p. 347
“Jeremiah was truly the genius of torment and dissent; the Euripides, the Pascal or the Dostoevsky of the Old Testament.”
Thomas Römer, ‘La conversion du prophète Jérémie à la thèologie deutéronomiste,’ 1997
“Polarity of emotion is a striking fact in the life of Jeremiah. We encounter him in the pit of utter agony and at the height of extreme joy, carried away by divine wrath and aching with supreme compassion.”
Abraham Joshua Heschel, The Prophets
The Book
“The book of Jeremiah is all doom.”
Talmud, Baba Batra 14
“In order that nothing be lacking in the sense even though much is lacking in the words, I have prepared the warp and the woof for you; you yourself will weave the most beautiful garment.”
Jerome, In Hieremiam, Prologue
“Frequently in the first part there is something in a later chapter which really took place before that which is spoken of in an earlier chapter. So it seems as though Jeremiah did not compose these books himself, but that the parts were taken piecemeal from his utterances and written into a book. For this reason one must not worry about the order or be hindered by the lack of it.”
Martin Luther, Preface to the Prophet Jeremiah, 1532
“It is a necessary thing to the understanding of the prophets to know the stories of the times wherein they prophesied.”
Myles Coverdale, Marginal Note to Jer. 1:1, 1535
“We may all very profitably read the Prophet Jeremy, who is full of incitation to repentance and new obedience.”
John Trapp, Commentary on Jeremiah, 1660
“The prophecies of Jeremiah, which are related historically, are also taken from various chronicles; for not only are they heaped together confusedly, without any account being taken of dates but also the same story is told in them differently in different passages.”
Benedict Spinoza, A Theologico‐Political Treatise, 1670
Were I … to write in such a disordered manner, no body would read what was written, and every body would suppose, that the writer was in a state of insanity. The only way to account for the disorder is, that the book is a medley of detached unauthenticated anecdotes, put together by some stupid book‐maker, under the name of Jeremiah.”
Thomas Paine, The Age of Reason, Part II 1795, Paris, pp. 48, 52
“The prophet’s individuality is so impressed on his writings as to disarm suspicion of their authenticity.”
Christopher Wordsworth, Bishop of Lincoln, 1875, The Books of Jeremiah, Lamentations, and Ezekiel in the Authorized Version, p. x.
“Though it was ‘the word of the Lord,’ these communications were ‘words of Jeremiah;’ his personality, temperament, experiences, style of thought, modes of expression, are all stamped upon these Divine messages. Inspiration does not obliterate, scarcely subordinates individuality.”
Preacher’s Complete Homiletic Commentary, Vol. 17: 8, Funk & Wagnalls, 1892
“As a lad I started to read the Scripture through according to the familiar schedule, three chapters each weekday and five on Sunday, by which we were assured that in a single year we could complete the reading of the Book. I got safely through Numbers and Leviticus, even Proverbs did not altogether quench my ardor, but I stuck in the middle of Jeremiah and never got out. I do not blame myself, for how can a boy read Jeremiah in its present form and understand it?”
Harry Emerson Fosdick, The Modern Use of the Bible, 1930, p. 21
“It is a hardy adventurer who decides to brave the book of Jeremiah.”
Andrew Shead, www.matthiasmedia.com
“The book of Jeremiah does not contain stories about arks or whales or a talking donkey. The stories in this book can be a little difficult for children to understand.”
Annabelle Lee, eHow Contributor to site for children’s activities for Jeremiah Bible Stories
Actualizations
“I myself was initiated under Moses the God‐beloved into his greater mysteries, yet when I saw the prophet Jeremiah and knew him to be not only himself enlightened, but a worthy minister of the holy secrets, I was not slow to become his disciple.”
Philo of Alexandria, Cherubim II.49
“Jeremiah’s case is the case of all the Ministry, placed between two gulfs, two seas, two rocks, two fires: God’s curse, and the world’s hatred.”
John Hull Lectures upon the Lamentations of Jeremiah, 1620, p. 6
“Although he were not … free from all fault (for he had his out‐bursts) yet he was … a man of singular sanctimony and integrity, good of a little child, a young Saint, and an old Angel; an admirable Preacher … a pattern to all Preachers of the Gospel.”
John Trapp, A Commentary or Exposition upon the Book of the Prophet Jeremiah, London, 1660, p. 219
“How comes it that such ancient faith has so wholly faded from among Christian mankind? Where shall we to‐day look for a preacher, fearless, plain‐spoken, earnest, sincere, like Jeremiah? If he were among us, would he fare much better than the prophet?”
Cunningham Geikie, Hours with the Bible: From Manasseh to Zedekiah, 1887, p. 158
“Jeremiah has proved a sympathizing companion and comforter in seasons of individual suffering and national calamity from the first destruction of Jerusalem down to the siege of Paris in our own day.”
In Preface by the General Editor to Carl Wilhelm Eduard Nägelsbuch’s Book of Jeremiah, 1871, p. i
“Children, being with God does not make one happy. We learn this from Jeremiah.”
Dietrich Bonhoeffer, children’s meditation, 1927, in The Young Bonhoeffer, p. 514
“Jeremiah was a bullfrog.”
Hoyt Axton, 1971
“Among the prophets Jeremiah seems to me the most ‘modern’ of sensibilities, kin to the wager of Paschal, Kierkegaard’s bleak isolation and abandonment, Hopkins’ dark night, let us dare say, kin to Graham Green’s: ‘My salvation is: I do not believe my disbelief.’”
Dan Berrigan, Jeremiah: The World, the Wound of God, Minneapolis: Fortress, 1999, p.88
“ Who reads Jeremiah for pleasure?”
M.D. Aeschliman, Review of Jonathan Swift: A Hypocrite Reversed, National Review October 24, 1986, p. 54
“‘He’s a right Jeremiah.’ That means a depressing and pessimistic person who will be the wet blanket at every party.”
Alan Pain, I am Jeremiah (Don’t Laugh), East Sussex, Kingsway, 1990
“What’s wrong with America is not a very complicated question. It can put in just a few words from the Prophet Jeremiah.”
Darryl Walker, America’s Return: Solutions from the Prophet Jeremiah, Tate Publishing, 2016
“Jeremiah