Page:Catholic Encyclopedia, volume 8.djvu/397

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JEREMIAS


339


JERICHO


probably in the beginning the same structure as the others, a different initial letter to each of the original verses; it was not until later that a less careful writer developed each verse into three by means of ideas taken from Job and other writers.

(3) As to the structure of the strophe, it is certain that the principle followed in some cases is the change of the person of the subject as speaker or one ad- dressed. The first elegy is divided into a lament over Sion in the third person (verses 1-11), and a lament of Sion over itself (verses 12-22). In the first strophe Sion is the object, in the second, a strophe of equal length, the subject of the elegy. In 11", according to the Septuagint, the third person should be used. In the second elegy, also, the intention seems to be, with


lament a third choir is added. Literary criticism finds in the dramatic construction of the book a strong argument for the literary unity of Lamentations.

C. Liturgical Use of Lamentations. — The Lamen- tations have received a peculiar distinction in the Lit- urgy of the Church in the Office of Passion Week. If Christ Himself designated His death as the destruc- tion of a temple, " he spoke of the temple of his body " (John, ii, 19-21), then the Church surely has a right to pour out her grief over His death in those Lamen- tations which were sung over the ruins of the temple destroyed by the sins of the nation.

For a Renerul introduction to Jeremias and Lamentations see the Biblical Introductions of Cohnely. Vigouroux, Gioot, Driver. t'oRNiLL, Strack. For special questions of intro- du<ti>ii: VHKfSE. .J crrmioh flSSS): M\m\. Dcr ProphelJere-


the change of strophe, to change from the third person to the second, and from the second to the first person. In verses 1-S there are twenty-four members in the third person; in 13-19 twenty-one in the second person, while in 20-22, a strophe in the first person, the lament closes in a monologue. In the third lament, as well, the speech of a single subject in the first person alter- nates with the speech of several persons represented by "we" and with colloquy; verses 40-47 are clearly distinguished by their subject " we" from the preceed- ing strophe, in which the subject is one individual, and from the following strophe in the first person singular in verses 4S-.54, while the verses .5^5-66 represent a col- loquy with Jahweh. The theory of the writer, that in the structure of Hebrew poetry the alternation of persons and subjects is a fixed principle in forming strophes, finds in Lamentations its strongest con- firmation.

(4) In the structure of the five elegies regarded as a whole, Zenner has shown that they rise in a steady and exactly measured progression to a climax. In the first elegy there are two monologues from two different speakers. In the second elegy the monologue develops into an animated dialogue. In the third and fourth elegies the cry of lamentation is louder still, as more have joined in the lament, and the solitary voice has been replaced by a choir of voices. In the fifth


mia von Anatot (1889); Erbt, Jeremia und seine Zeit (Got- tingen, 1902); Gillies, Jeremiah, the Man and His Message (London, 1907); Ramsay, 5(i«/ies in /ere7nMi/i (London, 1907); Workman, jTAe T'eifo/yeremwiA (Edinburgh, 1889); Streane, The Double Text of Jeremiah (Cambridge, 1896) ; Scholz, Der masoretische Text und die Septuagintaixbersetzunfj des B. Jeremias (Ratisbon, 1875); Frankl, Studien iiber die LXX und Peschito zu Jeremia {IS73): Neteler, GZierferunff des B. Jeremias (.Miin- ster, 1870). Commentaries on Jeremias issued in the last decades. — Catholic: Scholz (Wiirzburg. 1880); Trochon (Paris, 1883); Knabenbauer, (Paris, 1889); Schneedorpek (Vienna, 1903). Protestant: Payne Smith in the Speaker's Commentary (London, 1875); Cheyne in Spence. Commentary (London, 1883-85); Ball (New York, 1890); Giesebrecht in NoWACK, Handkommentar (Gottingen. 1894) ; Ddhm in Marti, Kurzer Hand-Commentar (Tubingen and Leipzig, 1901); Dotjo- LAS (London, 1903); Orelli (Munich, 1905). Commentaries on Lamentations.— Catholic: Seissenberger (Ratisbon, 1872); Trochon (Paris, 1878); Schonfelder (Munich, 1887); Knabenbauer (Paris, 1891); Minocchi (Rome, 1897); Schneedorfer (Vienna, 1903); Zenner. Beitriige zur Erkld- runff der Klagelieder (Freiburg im Br.. 1905). Protestant: Raabe (Leipzig. 1880); Oettli (Nordlingen, 1889); Lohr (Gottingen. 1891); Idem in Nowack, Handkommentar (Got- tingen, 189:i); BuDDE in Marti, Kurzer Hand-Commentar {.Frei- burg im Br., 1H9S). For monographs see the latest commen- taries and the bibliographies in the Biblical periodicals.

M. Faulhaber. Jeremias, Epistle of. See Baruch.

Jericho. — Three cities of this name have success- ively occupied sites in the same neighbourhood. I. A city of Canaan taken and destroyed by Josue