GEMS FROM JEREMIAH (29) Jeremiah & Jesus, part I: Pagan empires & the people of Yahweh

 


“Jesus came to Caesarea Philippi. There he put this question to his disciples: “Who do people say that the son of man is?” “John the Baptist,” they replied. “Others say Elijah. Others say Jeremiah, or one of the prophets.” (Gospel of Matthew 16.13-14)

 

     It’s striking to note that when people looked at Jesus, one of the figures from Israel’s past that came to mind was the prophet Jeremiah.  Obviously, there was something about the way that Jesus spoke and acted that reminded people of one of the prophets they heard about when the Scriptures were read in the synagogues.  Was this a mistake on the part of Jesus’ contemporaries?  Perhaps they simply lacked the appropriate category through which to understand Jesus?  Indeed, Jesus could not be contained within any single category from the Jewish thought world; however, it seems clear from the Gospels that Jesus did indeed play the part of a prophet.  As the New Testament Evangelists tell the story of Jesus, they make it clear that Jesus was actually much more than a prophet; however, they are also clear that the carpenter’s son from Nazareth was not less than a prophet.  The closer we look at Jeremiah and Jesus in parallel, the more obvious it becomes that Jesus’ public activity possessed a thoroughly prophetic character; furthermore, Jeremiah can help us understand how Jesus came to embrace his identity as the very embodiment of Yahweh (i.e., incarnation).

     Let’s begin by looking at the historical context of both Jeremiah & Jesus.  Though the lives of these two prophets are separated by roughly six centuries, the situation of the people of God was remarkably similar in the 6th century B.C. and the first century AD.  In fact, ever since the conquest of the city of Samaria (capital of the Northern Kingdom of Israel) by the Assyrians in 722 B.C., the people of God would be subject to a series of pagan empires, the only exception being the century-long Hasmonean dynasty, beginning with the Maccabean revolt against the Seleucids (Hellenic Syrians) in 167 and ending with the capture of Jerusalem by the Romans in 63 B.C. (not for the last time).  Both Jeremiah and Jesus sought to speak for God in times of international upheaval which had immediate and disastrous consequences for their own nation, times during which the people of God had to live their faith in the context of both internal controversy (how best to express their identity) and external pressures (threats of pagan cultural assimilation and oppression).  Both Jeremiah and Jesus lived and died in religious/political contexts fraught with controversy, treachery and violence…in a word, powder-kegs.  Sound familiar?

     For a detailed discussion of the life and times of Jeremiah, please refer to the posts dated 17-25 of September 2023.  Long after Jeremiah’s death in Egypt, and while most of Judah’s population was in exile (Jerusalem having been destroyed in 587), Babylonia was conquered by the Persians in 539 B.C.  The Persian emperor, Cyrus the Great, allowed those Jews who wished to do so to return to Judah and rebuild the Temple and the City of Jerusalem.  A minority of the exiles took up the challenge to rebuild their nation on their ancestral land.  The second Jerusalem Temple was dedicated in 515 B.C.  In the fourth century, Alexander the Great would conquer the vast Persian empire as well as Egypt.  Upon Alexander’s death in Babylon in 323 B.C., his empire was divided into 4 parts, with Judah finding itself uncomfortably situated between two warring Hellenic dynasties – the Ptolemies in Egypt to the South and the Seleucids in Syria to the North (cf. Dn. 11).  The Seleucid king Antiochus IV infamously banned the practice of Judaism (i.e., the circumcision of male children, as well as observance of the Sabbath and the kosher laws).  In 167 B.C., Judas “Maccabeus” and his family began a successful revolt against Antiochus which culminated in the rededication of the Temple (and the inauguration of the Festival of Hanukkah).  The resulting Hasmonean dynasty eventually degenerated into a sibling rivalry for the throne of Judah, and both sides appealed to the Roman legions, under the command of Pompey, to intervene.  Pompey was only too happy to oblige and, following a 3-month siege, captured Jerusalem in 63 B.C. and brought Judah under the hegemony of the ever-expanding Roman empire.  When the Parthians captured Jerusalem, the Romans backed an Idumean warlord by the name of Herod (“the Great”) who, with the help of the legions of Mark Antony, recaptured Jerusalem for Rome in 37 B.C. (Herod was granted the title “King of the Jews”).  Towards the end of Herod’s reign, in the Jerusalem suburb of Bethlehem, a son would be born to a certain Miriam from Nazareth.  Indeed, Herod’s megalomaniacal attempt to suppress all rival claimants to his throne led Yeshua’s parents to seek safety in Egypt…

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