Texts in Conversation
In 1 Samuel 2 a curse falls on the priest Eli’s family line, fulfilled when his descendants are banished to the village of Anathoth. Jeremiah opens with the prophet introduced as a priest from Anathoth, making him an heir of an already-cursed line.
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2500 BCE
1000+ CE
1 Samuel 2:35
Hebrew Bible
34 This will be a confirming sign for you that will be fulfilled through your two sons, Hophni and Phinehas: in a single day they both will die! 35 Then I will raise up for myself a faithful priest. He will do what is in my heart and soul. I will build for him a lasting dynasty, and he will serve my chosen one for all time. 36 Everyone who remains in your house will come to bow before him for a little money and for a scrap of bread. Each will say, “Assign me to a priestly task so I can eat a scrap of bread.”’”
Jeremiah 1:1
Hebrew Bible
1 The following is a record of what Jeremiah son of Hilkiah prophesied. He was one of the priests who lived at Anathoth in the territory of the tribe of Benjamin. 2 The Lord’s message came to him in the thirteenth year that Josiah son of Amon ruled over Judah. 3 It also came in the days of Jehoiakim, son of Josiah, king of Judah, and continued until the eleventh year of Zedekiah, son of Josiah, king of Judah, until the people of Jerusalem were taken into exile in the fifth month of that year.
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Notes and References
… Jeremiah is from the village of Anathoth: located just north of Jerusalem, this town carries with it a certain freight of meaning in Judean tradition. The larger story of Anathoth actually begins at the end of 1 Samuel 2, when a prophetic word is spoken by an itinerant man of God against the house of Eli. At the climax of that sweeping oracle, the man of God announces that Eli’s line is about to be replaced, and any descendants will therefore be subservient: “I will raise up for myself a faithful priest, who shall do according to what is in my heart and in my mind. I will build him a sure house, and he shall go in and out before my anointed one forever” (1 Samuel 2:35–36). It has long been recognized that built into the Deuteronomistic History is a prophecy/fulfillment schema: in these texts, if a prophetic word is spoken, it will somehow find its fulfillment, notwithstanding a host of narrative vicissitudes. The prophetic word of 1 Samuel 2 finds its fulfillment in 1 Kings 2:27, as Abiathar is banished by Solomon to Anathoth …
Bodner, Keith
"An Ironic Overture in the Book of Jeremiah" in Häner, Tobias and Virginia Miller (eds.) Irony in the Bible: Between Subversion and Innovation
(pp. 219-220) Brill, 2023
* 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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