God's Scribes How the Bible Became the Bible by Charles David Isbell Marco Polo Monographs

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MPM3: God's Scribes How the Bible became the Bible
by Charles D. Isbell
Contents __________________________________________ [iii] Foreword [iv-xiii] Preface [xiv] Contents [1-5] 1: An Overview of Biblical Chronology [6-25] 2: From Adam to Moses [26-38] 3: The Date of the Exodus [39-45] 4: The Covenant at Sinai [46-55] 5: Conquest and Consolidation [56-67] 6: Israelite Monarchy : Chronology [68-83] 7: The Monarchy : Early Texts [84-92] 8: Judah Alone [93-107] 9: Jeremiah : Prophet with a Broken Heart [108-111] 10: Pentateuchal Source "P" [112-126] 11: "By the Waters of Babylon" [127-147] 12: Restoration and Repatriation [148-155] 13: The Chronicler [156-171] 14: The Writings : Psalms [172-178] 15: The Writings : Wisdom [179-193] 16: The Writings : Miscellaneous [194-203] 17: Initial Stages of "Cannonization" [204-210] 18: Prophets Become "Torah" [211-224] 19: Final Stages of Cannonization [225-234] 20: Jewish Sects and their Canons [235-240] 21: Yavheh [241-262] Appendex: Review Essay [263-266] Bibliography [267-270] Index	ORDER NOW Who WROTE the Bible? This book explores how we answer that question, and what it means when we do! ISBN 0-9677201-3-3 Paperback Price $31.00 US Single Orders Volume Orders Excerpt Below About the author: Charles David Isbell was educated at Bethany College and Brandeis University (PhD), and has studied in Israel, Jordan and Germany. He currently teaches at Louisiana State University. Dr. Isbell has served congregations in Massachusetts as Cantor and/or interim rabbi. He has written over 100 articles and five other books in Biblical studies, Hebrew, and Aramaic.
REVIEWS "For Jews, Christians and Muslims, Isbell's balanced judicious treatment of the Hebrew Bible will appeal to all educated non-specialists." - by Dr. H. O. Forshey, Miami University, in CHOICE, Dec. 2000 Vol 38 No. 4. "This is an intriguing book and one worth perusing." - Rabbi David A. Teutsch, Reconstructionist Rabbinical College "The most honest Biblical discussion available today. This book should be in every home next to the Bible itself." - Dr. Lester Ness, Institute for the History of Ancient Civilizations
EXCERPTS

CHAPTER NINE:
Jeremiah : Prophet with a Broken Heart

(Jeremiah 1:1-10; 20; 26-45)

We have noted that the office of king and prophet were inextricably connected in ancient Israel and Judah. Before we study the captivity in Babylon, we must examine the man's career whose preaching furnished prophetic balance to Josiah and his successor, Yehoyakim.  

The Significance of Jeremiah

The prophet Jeremiah is important to our study for four distinct reasons.  
I. Firstly, his career spans the reigns of two kings, one, Josiah, a model of piety and obedience to YHWH, the other, Yehoyaqim, an example of disobedience shown by his repeated attempts to seek solutions via political means at the expense of personal and national piety.  Because these two kings were so different from each other, we can sample the ways prophetic theologians interpreted their lives. Earlier, we reviewed the famous incident involving differing prophetic perspectives in the life of Micayehu ben Yimleh and the 400 "court prophets" headed by Zedekiah. Throughout his career, Jeremiah was destined to play the role of Micayehu, the lonely individual, called to resist the preaching of a majority. Why?  Because his analysis of what had already happened to the North made him conclude a similar fate awaited Judah. In other words, since Jeremian noted the same sins in Samaria and Jerusalem, he predicted a similar inevitable outcome, although no one else agreed.  
  Jeremiah fills his book with the fact that, not only did all the other prophets in Jerusalem disagree with him, but he wished fervently to disagree with himself! The powers in charge scorned and disbarred him for his sermons. He was captured and imprisoned in a dank cistern. The King himself burned his books! He even felt that YHWH had deceived him and cursed his life, so that in a Job-like lament he cursed the day of his own birth and wished he had died in his mother's womb (see Jeremiah 20 for the most poignant descriptions of his personal distress). But these tribulations could not shake his internal compulsion to announce the impending doom of his own country, his life-long task. 
  Finally came the ultimate indignity. When the Babylonians arrived in conquering force at Jerusalem, they viewed Jeremiah as a Babylonian sympathizer, evidently because they were familiar with his proclamations that Babylonian victory was inevitable. A few years later, a small group of Judahites decided to flee to Egypt, perhaps still hoping that Egyptian aid might rescue them from disaster. These people hauled Jeremiah along with them against his will, forcing him to spend the remaining years of his life exiled away from his beloved Judah among compatriots who had never believed or understood his messages.  In Egypt, we observe another classic example of the clash of prophetic ideology so typical of Jeremiah's entire career. In response to his sermon against continued worship of the idol Asherah, the argument flung in Jeremiah's face was the following.  During the reign of Manasseh, our ancestors worshipped Asherah and prospered. It was only when Josiah banned worship of the Asherah that he died in ignominious fashion, the people of God were abandoned and Jerusalem fell to foreigners (see Jeremiah 44:15-19). Jeremiah was forced to concede what Micayehu had earlier said, that only the playing out of future events would certify which prophet was true and which was false (compare Jer 44:28 with I Kings 22:28).            
II. Secondly, Jeremiah was born into a family of levitical priests.  Thus the combination of his birth and his calling brought together in the mind of a single individual the perspectives of two of the great spiritual guilds of ancient Israel's prophecy and priesthood.  A third guild, "Wisdom," will be discussed in detail later.  We noted earlier that both priests and prophets were intimately involved in advising the young king Josiah about the cultic and religious reforms undertaken during his reign.  So we may confidently believe that Jeremiah would have been in strong support of such measures.  
Jeremiah combines these two religious perspectives "prophetic and priestly" in a fashion never witnessed before his day. In a later section, we will have occasion to return to this theme of Jeremianic influence on the priestly theologians who edited the final form of the Torah, as well as upon the major biblical prophets of the period in Exile, especially Ezekiel and 2nd Isaiah.
III. Thirdly, Jeremiah was heavily involved in current affairs involving not only his beloved Judah but also BOTH of the great powers of his day, Egypt and Babylon, as well as with a number of other less important foreign nations. We have already hinted at this circumstance with our remarks about his sojourn in Egypt. The fact that his sermons include his opinions about Philistia, Moab, Ammon, Edom, Syria, and others, links Jeremiah with the great tradition among the earlier prophets who had advised not only about internal spiritual matters but also about foreign affairs. These include Elisha, as we have seen, but also Isaiah (see chapters 13-23), Amos (chapters 1-2) and several others. Thus we have clear testimony to the prophetic idea that YHWH is sovereign not only over Israel or Judah, but indeed over every nation under heaven.  Such an assumption is essential to efforts to reformulate of Yahwism into what was to become Judaism. Yahwism might have needed a land, a Temple, a king, but Judaism as perceived by the spiritual giants of the Exile, would flourish without all of these ingredients. 
IV. Fourthly, there is fascinating biblical (textual) evidence about Jeremiah's employment of a professional scribe to write down his prophetic words, as well as explicit instructions pertaining to the transmission of these written words to future generations. This practice did not begin with Jeremiah, for there is evidence from much earlier eras of prophetic involvement in the whole scope of writing and transmitting prophetic messages. 

"The Sons of the Prophets"

As early as the eleventh century BCE, reference is made to "a band (hevel) of prophets" (I Sam 10:5) or to "a company (qahal) of prophets" (I Sam 19:20).  Both terms evidently describe roving bands of ecstatics who believed themselves to be in the service of YHWH. There is no mention that these roving groups were involved in any type of writing activity, although there is a specific reference to the tradition that "Samuel" wrote in the book and placed it before YHWH, (I Sam 11:25), a short statement that points to an early interest in the writing AND preservation of Israelite traditions. What is more, the presence of a "band of prophets" in early tradition also points to the existence of a tightly bound sub-group in society, whose members would be aware of, and transmit across generations, rules and regulations, unique stories and traditions of the guild.
  Further indications of this idea is in the traditions about Elisha and "the sons of the prophets."   These stories stem from the ninth century North, but were not published in written form until their appearance as part of the Deuteronomic History in the South some 200 years later. This naturally raised the question of how so many quaint and distinct stories about the great prophetic leaders like Elijah, Elisha, Micayehu, and others, ultimately came to be included in the official history of Judaism, in the literary composition we call the "Deuteronomic History."  The question is particularly pertinent in light of the fact that these stories preserve so many specific and personal details of the different prophetic  leaders and their groups of students.  Not only are there stories about serious issues like anointing of kings in Israel and Syria (II Kings 8:13), but also amusing little vignettes about things as mundane as a group outing to fell trees for a school building expansion project (II Kings 6:1-7). Where indeed would anyone living in Judah find information of this nature about prophets in the North?
  Surely the most plausible answer is that a formal professional guild existed trans-generationally, a guild committed to a study of leaders and traditions of the past but also dedicated to their transmission into the future.

Writing and the Disciples of Isaiah

Isaiah and his writing activity in the 8th century furnish a more concrete example to us of the specific practice involving the writing and preservation of prophetic materials. Once again it is necessary to understand the historical situation in which Isaiah conducted part of his career. As we have seen, following the devastation of Samaria in 722/721, Judahite kings faced the ultimate question of how to assure the survival of their small kingdom in the face of the failure of their brothers to the north. The immediate predecessor of Hezekiah was Ahaz (735-715), a man who had constantly sought for political answers rather than spiritual ones.  During his reign, with Assyria breathing down her neck, Samaria made an alliance with her long time enemy, Syria, and sought to entice Judah into their coalition to fight against Assyria.  Isaiah believed such an alliance would be disastrous and advised the king not to join. When Ahaz determined to sue for terms with Assyria, Isaiah advised against that action as well. When his words were ignored, the young prophet realized only future events would indicate whether he had "prophesied" (advised the king) falsely or not. He thereupon received instructions from YHWH to, "take a large tablet for yourself and write on it" (Isaiah 8:1).  Having complied, Isaiah subsequently commanded, "Bind up the testimony, seal the teaching among my disciples, and I will wait for YHWH" (Isaiah 8:16-17).  Here are clear references to [i] the writing down of a prophetic message, [ii] the guild ("disciples" [limmudim]) clustered around the great master, [iii] the preservation (binding and sealing) of a prophetic writing from one point in time into the future, awaiting its confirmation in history. In a variation from the Micayehu incident, where the accuracy of his prediction was to be learned in twenty-four hours, the time that might be required before Isaiah's preaching accuracy could be confirmed was unknown.  Perhaps this new circumstance furnished part of the necessity felt by Isaiah to transcribe his words into written form that could be preserved for a lengthy period. Such an act obviously presupposes some kind of a trans-generational guild of organized prophetic professionals, and further clarifies how the messages of a prophet who preached only in Judah could finally be published in Babylonia.

Jeremiah and His Secretary

A century after Isaiah, the activity of Jeremiah and his scribe Baruch adds many details to the picture of how prophetic messages came to be written, subsequently expanded, and finally collected and preserved for the future.  In this instance, the Bible offers instructive evidence about writing and prophets that cannot be overlooked. [a] We have clear statements that Jeremiah dictated to a secretary  at least some messages (see Jer 45:1; 36 passim), thus shortening the time gap between oral preaching and writing down of the prophetic word.  
[b] It is the 36th chapter of the Book of Jeremiah that gives us the most insight, opening with a description of how the master prophet dictated to Baruch specific messages which were intended to be read publicly at a Temple service (36:10). The grandson of one Shaphan the Scribe  anxiously convoked several royal "officials" and reported the reading of Baruch to them (36:11-13). This probably means that he was head of the guild, organized in the time of David, that was responsible for recording official palace records.  This group dispatched Yehudi to summon Baruch and require him to read Jeremiah's words before them (36:14-15). 
  Confirming that these were words dictated by Jeremiah, the palace officials became fearful. We must remember why. Hebrew davar means either an uttered "word" or a done "deed."  In Genesis one, creation itself had been accomplished by the speaking of YHWH.  Even for such fearful prophetic words of doom to be uttered aloud was like the smashing of a flask of bacteria. Their very utterance might in fact lead to their accomplishment. The famous episode of Bilam (Balaam) in Numbers 22-24 is the classic example of this perspective.  A man who would speak such destructive words had to be stopped at all cost.  Leaving the written text in the safe keeping of Elishama the scribe, the nervous officials reported to King Yehoyakim (36:16-20), whereupon the King ordered the "scroll" (MeGiLLah) to be brought and read in his presence (36:21). After three or four columns of text had been read, the King would cut them out from the body of the whole and fling them contemptuously into the fire until the entire written text had been consumed (36:23).
  We are expected here to recall the very different reaction of King Josiah when a "scroll" had been read in his presence only 16 years earlier.  Josiah had burned places of idol worship, not the scroll.  Josiah had listened to and had obeyed the prophetic word of "Moses" (Deuteronomy?).  But Yehoyakim had scoffed at the prophetic word of Jeremiah and had attempted to destroy it. This outrageous behavior by the King impelled Jeremiah to respond, which he did by dictating his messages again to Baruch (36:28).  But we are also told that for the second edition of his messages, the prophet added "many similar words" to the original text (36:32). Clearly, then, this episode gives us a broad hint of the way in which the words of Jeremiah may have been written, revised and expanded, and preserved, surviving his death to be transmitted to future generations.  
  There is more. Near the end of his life, when his prediction of Babylonian defeat had been verified, and he was brought into Egypt against his wishes (Jer 43:1-7), Jeremiah continued to preach the word of YHWH, especially mocking the idea that Egypt would be the salvation of those who had fled there (Jer 42-44). His presence in Egypt certainly accounts for the fact that the Greek translation of the Book of Jeremiah differs so radically in several places from the standard Hebrew version in our Bible, for it was in Egypt that the Bible was first translated from Hebrew into Greek.  This gives us pause to consider another important fact. What we now have in the biblical books almost certainly could not have been the only form these writings ever took. Perhaps, if the evidence were somehow available to us, we could see that all biblical books, and not just Jeremiah, circulated in more than one edition before achieving a final and fixed form as the books we now possess. We will return to this theme later. 
  Yet another short statement in the present "canonical" Book of Jeremiah deserves mention in this discussion.  In the final verse of chapter fifty-one, we find the following: "The words of Jeremiah extend this far" (Jer 51:64b). The Hebrew text is literally "as far as here are the words of Jeremiah."   Now such a statement, couched in the third person, can hardly have come from the prophet Jeremiah, especially since he is quoted frequently throughout the book, speaking in first person ("I").   We are struck immediately by the fact that though the end of chapter fifty-one may be the end of the prophetic words of Jeremiah, it is not the end of the Jeremiah Book.  A lengthy fifty-second chapter was deemed appropriate to use in concluding the messages and career of the great prophet.
  Further analysis teaches us a major contextual distinction between the end of chapter fifty-one and the message of chapter fifty-two, i.e., between the end of the messages BY Jeremiah and the end of the book that came to be included in the biblical canon ABOUT him. Everything prior to 51:64b has focussed on the circumstances in which Jeremiah has lived and preached, with special emphasis being given to his interpretation of the threat posed to Judah by Babylonia.  But chapter fifty-two is a lengthy quotation from the final verses of the Deuteronomic History (2 Kings 24:18-25:30), the narrative which chronicles the events between 598 BCE and 562 BCE. Delamarter demonstrates that "Jeremiah is borrowing from 2 Kings," rather than the other way around.  The earlier date marks the initial conquest of Jerusalem by Nebuchanezzar and the defeat, capture and exile of the sitting king at the time, Jehoiachin.  On the later date, Jehoiachin had been released from prison.  In other words, this final chapter presents written confirmation of the truth that Jeremiah had proclaimed throughout his career.  Jerusalem DID fall.  A Davidic king DID go into exile.  The sinfulness of Judah DID produce disaster, much as the same sinfulness in Samaria had spelled her doom earlier.  
  The person who shares this confirmation about Jeremiah is someone other than the prophet himself.  He is a compiler, a conservator of tradition, what we might call an editor.  We do not know how  he came to have an early copy of Jeremiah's messages in his possession. We know nothing personal about him at all, not even his name.  We may assume that he was a member of the guild of "prophets," but whether he had studied with Jeremiah himself we cannot say.  He was doubtless sitting in Babylonian exile himself when he added his explanatory comments on Jeremiah¡¯s work.  His very existence, testified to by a single short phrase, illustrates much of what we have said about the growth of books of prophecy.  By careful analysis of the biblical text itself, we have learned about the impulse under certain conditions to write down significant prophetic messages.  
  We have seen the necessity for at least one second edition, a revised and expanded version of Jeremianic sermons. We have witnessed the involvement of scribal professionals (Baruch) who transcribed oral messages into written form.  We have met a new generation disciple who preserved and commented on the master's works, a disciple who represents for us both inter-generational editing and international (from Judah to Babylon) work involved in preserving and publishing a prophetic work.  

The Inspired Bible

Perhaps this is an appropriate time to address biblical "inspiration." Talmudic discussions sometimes centered on whether a particular book had been authored via human wisdom only, or had been written, "by the holy spirit." We will discuss some disputed books later. Common understanding of inspired results in a view of "Scripture" as a group of documents, somehow mysterious; miraculously handed down from heaven, absolutely perfect in form, every word, every letter, carrying specifically divine significance. The consequence of such a view is that disobedience to any part of biblical teaching may be interpreted as tantamount to direct rebellion against the God who is viewed as Author of it all. Such a hard line stance presents severe difficulties to most modern minds.  What is hailed as "the proper interpretation" of these divine words differs, sometimes radically, from group to group, so that "disobedience" often comes to be equated with disagreement with a particular sub-group.  As a practical matter, of course, it is impossible to agree with all the possible variations of the meaning of these divine words. Even worse, such a starting point absolutely fails to reckon with the kinds of evidence just presented, and it is clearly evidence of very human activity students making choices about their teachers classic works; guilds determining as a group which traditions to hand down to subsequent generations; multiple versions of biblical stories; and more. In other words, what we have seen, as testified to by Scripture itself, is a fully human enterprise, and the polar opposite of a deity who writes the Bible and hands it down for mute and unquestioning acceptance of humans. 
  This transmission and handing down were not rote exercises. To the contrary, students of great master prophets did not simply transmit mechanically, they often added their own words, they updated many time-bound references in original sermons, they explained moral and political significances of earlier messages.   They did these things in addition to making basic decisions about which sermons deserved to be taught and updated, choosing from among all messages that were available to them.  In short, they stayed in intellectual   dialogue with the prophetic masters across the centuries.  In the chosen example from Jeremiah 51, at least one student/editor made serious structural additions to the meaning and significance of the earlier master prophet's "book."  Jeremiah would have been proud, and he surely would have approved of the decision by one student to record the historical verification of his life work. 
  Furthermore, from a modern perspective comes an alternate imperative. If our reconstruction of creative processes involved a piece of biblical literature is correct, then what is needed is not unquestioning acquiescence to a simplistic point of view, but a decision about whether to become actively involved in the process that is now approaching 3,000 years of age. There has always been the necessity of picking and choosing which words to learn and teach. As our discussion of Jeremiah 51:64b showed, quite often we can easily identify within a biblical text the difference between a statement uttered by a prophet and later editorial explanations about that prophet's work. This illustrates that the process of updating and making an original work relevant to a subsequent era was well entrenched in Judaic tradition from early times. 

The Inspiration of Ezekiel

Perhaps a symbolic reflection of this entire process just described is found in Ezekiel 2:8-3:15.  There we are told that the prophet, living in Babylon, was shown a scroll containing warnings and lamentations about the spiritual condition of Judah in Exile. Three things stand out from this text.  First, the 6th century exilic prophet "eats" the scroll (Ezek 3:1-3), signifying his complete identification with past prophetic messages.  Secondly, it is clear the prophet was commissioned to preach not only past words which he had engorged, but also new and fresh words that came directly from YHWH (see Ezek 3:10). 
  Thirdly, the fact that prophetic words would be contained on a written scroll is treated in the narrative as a rather unremarkable (=well known) phenomenon. Of course, this last phenomenon also fits with the evidence we have just reviewed regarding Ezekiel's two great predecessors, Isaiah and Jeremiah. 
  One fact that troubles modern readers is the custom observed by later students of a master of remaining anonymous. So, for example, not only short editorial statements in Jeremiah, but also some of the Bible's greatest prophetic literature (Isaiah 40-66), the marvelous messages of comfort and consolation obviously written from Babylon, are not ascribed, but are appended to the words of the more famous Isaiah of Jerusalem. It is too cynical to say that this was done simply to assure their wider circulation and acceptance. It is more plausible to assume that the tradents of Second Isaiah had been thoroughly trained in the prophetic traditions of the school of Isaiah and that they firmly believed the messages they were composing to be an honorable continuation of the spirit and ideology that had long been taught within their group, dating all the way back to the great 8th century master prophet himself.
Click HERE to read Dr. Charles David Isbell's essay, "History" and "Writing"!

Click HERE to read Dr. Charles David Isbell's essay, " More Comments on the Davies-Dever Exchange"!

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