Brueggemann, Walter. A commentary on Jeremiah: exile and homecoming. Grand Rapids: Eerdmans, 1998

Malina, Martin E.

English

Wilfrid Laurier University

ConsensusVolume 25Issue 1 Contextual Perspectives in Pastoral Care andCounsellingArticle 125-1-1999A commentary on Jeremiah: exile andhomecomingMartin E. MalinaFollow this and additional works at: http://scholars.wlu.ca/consensusThis Book Reviews is brought to you for free and open access by Scholars Commons @ Laurier. It has been accepted for inclusion in Consensus by anauthorized editor of Scholars Commons @ Laurier. For more information, please contact scholarscommons@wlu.ca.Recommended CitationMalina, Martin E. (1999) "A commentary on Jeremiah: exile and homecoming," Consensus: Vol. 25 : Iss. 1 , Article 12.Available at: http://scholars.wlu.ca/consensus/vol25/iss1/12119A Commentary on Jeremiah: Exile and HomecomingWalter BrueggemannGrand Rapids: Eerdmans, 1998502 pages, $32.00 softcoverThis hefty volume is a combined edition of Brueggemann’s original two-volume work, published until recently as part of the InternationalTheological Comnnentarysenes. The only new material is the introduction,which surveys the current state of Jeremiah studies.One of Brueggemann’s strengths as a scholar is his skill at findingconnections between divergent orientations in Old Testament studies, as isevident in this work on Jeremiah. At the outset, Brueggemann admits thateach recent approach—^whether history-oriented (Holladay), ideologically-motivated (Carroll), or canonical (Childs)—goes its own distinctive direction.However, for Brueggemann, “the cumulative effect... [of each approach] ismore important” in that it serves “to loosen the grip of historical-criticalmethods on Jeremiah studies”.While distancing himself from historical-critical methods, Brueggemannis nevertheless committed to a distinctive approach. He advocates aperspective that leads “inside” the text—to follow where the text itself seemsto point, “without premature judgments grounded in past interpretivecommitments”. He thus engages in scholarly differentiation from the text,allowing the text to speak for itself.On the first page of the commentary, Brueggemann announces themain theme which drives the narrative and poetry in Jeremiah. Most of theJeremiah tradition moves toward exile and is governed by the judgment ofYHWH; only a small portion of the tradition envisions hope andhomecoming. For Brueggemann, 587 B.C.E. (the beginning of theBabylonian exile) is the dominant and shaping event of not only Jeremiah,but the whole Old Testament as well. “587” is thereafter treated as ametaphor for exile and disruption.Brueggemann employs sociological analysis as a useful tool to deciphermeaning in the text: “The biblical text is understood...as located in, reflectiveof, and concerned for a particular social context that is determinative of itsshape and focus.” Therefore, he pays attention to the ways in which realityis constructed by the poetry. He resists seeking a historical placement of thetext, but rather seeks a placement of the text within various social voices ordynamic forces. It follows that Brueggemann handles the literature not as“descriptive” of what is, or a “prediction” of what will be, rather as “evocation”and “constructive” of another life world. In other words, the text functions as120 Consensusan “imaginative construct”.In his treatment of Jeremiah, Brueggemann focuses on the power oflanguage to propose an imaginative world that is an alternative to the onethat seems to be at hand. There is a marked distinction in Brueggemann’scommentary between the world that is, and the world that can be. The roleof the poetry in Jeremiah, indeed in the entire Old Testament, is to constructa reality through language that is in opposition to the dominant ideology-of-the-day. The text, concludes Brueggemann, must be heard and read “as acritique of the [dominant] ideology, and as a practice of alternativeimagination”.A reading from cover to cover of any commentary is probably not acommon practice among preachers and pastors. However, such a readingfor the purposes of this review uncovered recurring theological weavings.First, Brueggemann submits to a Deuteronomic reading of the text—onethat regards Israel’s life beginning in YHWH’s act of mercy and fidelity. TheDeuteronomic covenant tradition of faith emphasizes repeatedly theimportance of Israel’s proper response to YHWH, a response of obedientlistening. Not listening invites YHWH’s judgment.The second theological theme serves as a tension to the first. YHWH willnot be contained in the tradition of covenant because God wills relationshipwith Israel, despite Israel’s disobedience. “God is...more complex, free, andless controllable than a simple scheme of retribution would suggest .” God’spathos, while disrupting the claims of the Deuteronomic pattern ofobligation and sanction, results in a “subtle rhetoric” that is full of ambiguity,passion, and incongruity. Clearly, the text hails YHWH’s sovereignty andYHWH’s freedom. The coming and going of Jerusalem occurs notaccording to its own capacity for life and survival, but according to thesovereign inclinations of YHWH.Finally, Brueggemann highlights the theological tradition in Jeremiahthat is opposed to the “royal-temple ideology”. This dominant ideologyinsists that Jerusalem is immune from judgment. Once again, the Jeremiahtradition defends the centrality of covenant obligation to which no one—including Jerusalem—is immune.It is not difficult in this commentary to make the exegetical leap torelevance. Brueggemann allows the text to speak in a post-modern world.What the text meant, he asserts, has incredible power to mean now. Anystructure of domination which seeks autonomy and self-service, and whichdoes not listen to the prophetic voice authorized by YHWH (Brueggemanncites the American military, technological, consumer-oriented establish-ment as an example thereof), is subject to critique by the prophetic text.Conversely, when people today grieve endings and loss, God’s resilientBook Reviews 121power for newness is at work in such displacements. Brueggemann is, ineither case, careful not to mold the text to fit any particular contemporarysituation. Instead, he insists, “our situation needs to be submitted\.o the textfor a fresh discernment. In every generation this text subverts all our oldreadings of reality and forces us to a new, dangerous, obedient reading.”Brueggemann divides the 52 chapters of Jeremiah into 15 sections,each of which is accorded a summarizing title (e.g., “The Baruch document”36: 1 -45:5; “Oracles against the Nations” 46: 1-51 :64, “Judgment and Hope”21:1-25:38, etc.). The format lends itself well to research on specificpericopes not always defined by the traditional versing. Moreover, much ofwhat Brueggemann has to say is repeated in many of the sections. One neednot read the entire volume in order to retrieve critical elements ofBrueggemann’s theology. Each of the sections is subdivided intomanageable pericopes that usually move inductively from word studies,examination of grammatical nuances, images, and metaphors, togeneralizing comments and conclusions, which tie in with the largertheological themes Brueggemann weaves throughout his commentary.This edition lacks a subject index, and is not edited for post- 1990European political reality. Brueggemann refers often to the Soviet Union asan example of “Empire”. In his illustration of the prophet calling Israel tosubmit to Babylon, he cites as an example the Cold War rhetoric: “Better redthan dead.” Moreover, Brueggemann does not cite any works publishedlater than the early 1990s. Despite these drawbacks, Brueggemann’s workis a refreshing contribution to biblical interpretation, one that frees thebiblical text to speak for itself and embraces the ambiguity and incongruitycontained within.Martin E. MalinaSt. Peter’s Lutheran Church,Brodhagen, OntarioPriests, Prophets, Diviners, Sages: A Socio-Historical Study ofReligious Specialists in Ancient IsraelLester L. GrabbeValley Forge, PA: Trinity Press International, 1995xviii + 261 pages, $20.00 (AS PaperbackThis book by Lester L. Grabbe, Head of the Department of Theology andProfessor of Hebrew Bible and Early Judaism at the University of Hull in GreatBritain, is an example of the kind of sociology of ancient Israel being written

A commentary on Jeremiah: exile and homecoming

Scholars Commons

Consensus
Volume 25
Issue 1 Contextual Perspectives in Pastoral Care and
Counselling
Article 12
5-1-1999
A commentary on Jeremiah: exile and
homecoming
Martin E. Malina
Follow this and additional works at: http://scholars.wlu.ca/consensus
This Book Reviews is brought to you for free and open access by Scholars Commons @ Laurier. It has been accepted for inclusion in Consensus by an
authorized editor of Scholars Commons @ Laurier. For more information, please contact scholarscommons@wlu.ca.
Recommended Citation
Malina, Martin E. (1999) "A commentary on Jeremiah: exile and homecoming," Consensus: Vol. 25 : Iss. 1 , Article 12.
Available at: http://scholars.wlu.ca/consensus/vol25/iss1/12
119
A Commentary on Jeremiah: Exile and Homecoming
Walter Brueggemann
Grand Rapids: Eerdmans, 1998
502 pages, $32.00 softcover
This hefty volume is a combined edition of Brueggemann’s original two-
volume work, published until recently as part of the International
Theological Comnnentarysenes. The only new material is the introduction,
which surveys the current state of Jeremiah studies.
One of Brueggemann’s strengths as a scholar is his skill at finding
connections between divergent orientations in Old Testament studies, as is
evident in this work on Jeremiah. At the outset, Brueggemann admits that
each recent approach—^whether history-oriented (Holladay), ideologically-
motivated (Carroll), or canonical (Childs)
—
goes its own distinctive direction.
However, for Brueggemann, “the cumulative effect... [of each approach] is
more important” in that it serves “to loosen the grip of historical-critical
methods on Jeremiah studies”.
While distancing himself from historical-critical methods, Brueggemann
is nevertheless committed to a distinctive approach. He advocates a
perspective that leads “inside” the text—to follow where the text itself seems
to point, “without premature judgments grounded in past interpretive
commitments”. He thus engages in scholarly differentiation from the text,
allowing the text to speak for itself.
On the first page of the commentary, Brueggemann announces the
main theme which drives the narrative and poetry in Jeremiah. Most of the
Jeremiah tradition moves toward exile and is governed by the judgment of
YHWH; only a small portion of the tradition envisions hope and
homecoming. For Brueggemann, 587 B.C.E. (the beginning of the
Babylonian exile) is the dominant and shaping event of not only Jeremiah,
but the whole Old Testament as well. “587” is thereafter treated as a
metaphor for exile and disruption.
Brueggemann employs sociological analysis as a useful tool to decipher
meaning in the text: “The biblical text is understood...as located in, reflective
of, and concerned for a particular social context that is determinative of its
shape and focus.” Therefore, he pays attention to the ways in which reality
is constructed by the poetry. He resists seeking a historical placement of the
text, but rather seeks a placement of the text within various social voices or
dynamic forces. It follows that Brueggemann handles the literature not as
“descriptive” of what is, or a “prediction” of what will be, rather as “evocation”
and “constructive” of another life world. In other words, the text functions as
120 Consensus
an “imaginative construct”.
In his treatment of Jeremiah, Brueggemann focuses on the power of
language to propose an imaginative world that is an alternative to the one
that seems to be at hand. There is a marked distinction in Brueggemann’s
commentary between the world that is, and the world that can be. The role
of the poetry in Jeremiah, indeed in the entire Old Testament, is to construct
a reality through language that is in opposition to the dominant ideology-of-
the-day. The text, concludes Brueggemann, must be heard and read “as a
critique of the [dominant] ideology, and as a practice of alternative
imagination”.
A reading from cover to cover of any commentary is probably not a
common practice among preachers and pastors. However, such a reading
for the purposes of this review uncovered recurring theological weavings.
First, Brueggemann submits to a Deuteronomic reading of the text—one
that regards Israel’s life beginning in YHWH’s act of mercy and fidelity. The
Deuteronomic covenant tradition of faith emphasizes repeatedly the
importance of Israel’s proper response to YHWH, a response of obedient
listening. Not listening invites YHWH’s judgment.
The second theological theme serves as a tension to the first. YHWH will
not be contained in the tradition of covenant because God wills relationship
with Israel, despite Israel’s disobedience. “God is...more complex, free, and
less controllable than a simple scheme of retribution would suggest .” God’s
pathos, while disrupting the claims of the Deuteronomic pattern of
obligation and sanction, results in a “subtle rhetoric” that is full of ambiguity,
passion, and incongruity. Clearly, the text hails YHWH’s sovereignty and
YHWH’s freedom. The coming and going of Jerusalem occurs not
according to its own capacity for life and survival, but according to the
sovereign inclinations of YHWH.
Finally, Brueggemann highlights the theological tradition in Jeremiah
that is opposed to the “royal-temple ideology”. This dominant ideology
insists that Jerusalem is immune from judgment. Once again, the Jeremiah
tradition defends the centrality of covenant obligation to which no one
—
including Jerusalem—is immune.
It is not difficult in this commentary to make the exegetical leap to
relevance. Brueggemann allows the text to speak in a post-modern world.
What the text meant, he asserts, has incredible power to mean now. Any
structure of domination which seeks autonomy and self-service, and which
does not listen to the prophetic voice authorized by YHWH (Brueggemann
cites the American military, technological, consumer-oriented establish-
ment as an example thereof), is subject to critique by the prophetic text.
Conversely, when people today grieve endings and loss, God’s resilient
Book Reviews 121
power for newness is at work in such displacements. Brueggemann is, in
either case, careful not to mold the text to fit any particular contemporary
situation. Instead, he insists, “our situation needs to be submitted\.o the text
for a fresh discernment. In every generation this text subverts all our old
readings of reality and forces us to a new, dangerous, obedient reading.”
Brueggemann divides the 52 chapters of Jeremiah into 15 sections,
each of which is accorded a summarizing title (e.g., “The Baruch document”
36: 1 -45:5; “Oracles against the Nations” 46: 1-51 :64, “Judgment and Hope”
21:1-25:38, etc.). The format lends itself well to research on specific
pericopes not always defined by the traditional versing. Moreover, much of
what Brueggemann has to say is repeated in many of the sections. One need
not read the entire volume in order to retrieve critical elements of
Brueggemann’s theology. Each of the sections is subdivided into
manageable pericopes that usually move inductively from word studies,
examination of grammatical nuances, images, and metaphors, to
generalizing comments and conclusions, which tie in with the larger
theological themes Brueggemann weaves throughout his commentary.
This edition lacks a subject index, and is not edited for post- 1990
European political reality. Brueggemann refers often to the Soviet Union as
an example of “Empire”. In his illustration of the prophet calling Israel to
submit to Babylon, he cites as an example the Cold War rhetoric: “Better red
than dead.” Moreover, Brueggemann does not cite any works published
later than the early 1990s. Despite these drawbacks, Brueggemann’s work
is a refreshing contribution to biblical interpretation, one that frees the
biblical text to speak for itself and embraces the ambiguity and incongruity
contained within.
Martin E. Malina
St. Peter’s Lutheran Church,
Brodhagen, Ontario
Priests, Prophets, Diviners, Sages: A Socio-Historical Study of
Religious Specialists in Ancient Israel
Lester L. Grabbe
Valley Forge, PA: Trinity Press International, 1995
xviii + 261 pages, $20.00 (AS Paperback
This book by Lester L. Grabbe, Head of the Department of Theology and
Professor of Hebrew Bible and Early Judaism at the University of Hull in Great
Britain, is an example of the kind of sociology of ancient Israel being written


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