Texts in Conversation
4 Baruch repeats the command not to turn right or left, echoing Deuteronomy and Proverbs. This language, connected to faithful obedience, shows how 4 Baruch intentionally imitates older wisdom traditions in its language and themes.
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2500 BCE
1000+ CE
Deuteronomy 5:32
Hebrew Bible
31 But as for you, remain here with me so I can declare to you all the commandments, statutes, and ordinances that you are to teach them, so that they can carry them out in the land I am about to give them.” 32 Be careful, therefore, to do exactly what the Lord your God has commanded you; do not turn right or left! 33 Walk just as he has commanded you so that you may live, that it may go well with you, and that you may live long in the land you are going to possess.
Date: 750–400 BCE (based on scholarly estimates)
4 Baruch 7:11
Paralipomena of Jeremiah
Pseudepigrapha, Hebrew Bible Expansions
10 Even if all the birds of heaven surround you and want to fight with you, struggle — the Lord will give you strength. 11 And do not turn aside to the right or to the left, but straight as a speeding arrow, go in the power of God, and the glory of the Lord will be with you the entire way. 12 Then the eagle took flight and went away to Babylon, having the letter tied to his neck; and when he arrived he rested on a post outside the city in a desert place. 13 And he kept silent until Jeremiah came along, for he and some of the people were coming out to bury a corpse outside the city.
Date: 100 CE (based on scholarly estimates)
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Notes and References
"... The imperative not to turn to the right or the left is distinctively biblical; compare LXX Deuteronomy 5:32; Joshua 1:7; 23:6. Indeed, the precise Greek equivalent (with μήδε instead of μήτε) occurs in LXX Proverbs 4:27 (the parallel is all the more notable in that LXX Proverbs 4:27 is not only preceded and followed by imperatives to go “straight” (25: ὀρθά; 26: ὀρθάς; 27b: ὀρθάς) but also accompanied by a promise that God will “guide your journeys” (27). 4 Baruch has evidently imitated Proverbs, and an intertextually astute audience might have recalled the end of Proverbs 4 ..."
Dale C. Allison, 4 Baruch: Paraleipomena Jeremiou (Berlin: De Gruyter, 2019), 418–419.
* 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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