Texts in Conversation
Jeremiah depicts the bones of kings, priests, and prophets removed from their graves, a picture that Baruch echoes by describing the bones of kings and ancestors being exposed. Both portray shame and disgrace beyond death through the loss of burial.
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2500 BCE
1000+ CE
Jeremiah 8:1
Hebrew Bible
1 The Lord says, “When that time comes, the bones of the kings of Judah and its leaders, the bones of the priests and prophets, and of all the other people who lived in Jerusalem will be dug up from their graves. 2 They will be spread out and exposed to the sun, the moon, and the stars. These are things they adored and served, things to which they paid allegiance, from which they sought guidance and worshiped. The bones of these people will never be regathered and reburied. They will be like manure used to fertilize the ground. 3 However, I will leave some of these wicked people alive and banish them to other places. But wherever these people who survive may go, they will wish they had died rather than lived,” says the Lord of Heaven’s Armies.
Date: 500–401 BCE (based on scholarly estimates)
Baruch 2:24
Deuterocanon
22 But if you won’t hear the voice of the Lord to serve the king of Babylon, 23 I will cause to cease out of the cities of Judah and from the region near Jerusalem the voice of mirth, the voice of gladness, the voice of the bridegroom, and the voice of the bride. The whole land will be desolate without inhabitant.’” 24 But we wouldn’t listen to your voice, to serve the king of Babylon. Therefore you have made good your words that you spoke by your servants the prophets, that the bones of our kings and the bones of our fathers would be taken out of their places. 25 Behold, they are cast out to the heat by day and to the frost by night. They died in great miseries by famine, by sword, and by pestilence. 26 You have made the house that is called by your name as it is today because of the wickedness of the house of Israel and the house of Judah.
Date: 200–50 BCE (based on scholarly estimates)
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Notes and References
"... The short citation at Baruch 2:24, though missing a direct quotation, still fulfils Koch’s criterion of citation as it explicitly references the words that the Lord spoke through the prophets, “And we did not listen to your voice to work for the king of Babylon, and you have established your words, which you spoke by the hand of your servants the prophets”. The words purported to be from the prophets include a promise that “the bones of our kings and the bones of our father would be carried out from their places”. The omission of a direct speech marker, though not obscuring the invocation of the prophets, minimizes the strength of the quotation and opens a greater possibility that the words following are not a direct quotation. As with Baruch 2:20‐23 above, Baruch does not specify which prophet(s) he is referring to, but once again the closest text comes from Jeremiah. Here the best parallel is Jeremiah 8:1 which says “At that time, says the Lord, they shall bring the bones of the kings of Judah and the bones of its rulers and the bones of the priests and the bones of the prophets and the bones of the inhabitants of Jerusalem out of their tombs ..."
Sean A. Adams, “Reframing Scripture: A Fresh Look at Baruch's So-Called 'Citations',” in Scriptural Authority in Early Judaism and Ancient Christianity, ed. Géza G. Xeravits et al. (Berlin: de Gruyter, 2013), 63–83.
* The use of references are not endorsements of their contents. Please read the entirety of the provided reference(s) to understand the author's full intentions regarding the use of these texts.
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