Let us now listen to Duhm, who analyses the book into six
groups of passages. These are (a) i.–xxv., the “words of Jeremiah.”
(i. 1); (b) xxvi.–xxix., passages from Baruch’s biography of Jeremiah;
(c) xxx.–xxxi., the book of the future of Israel and Judah; (d)
xxxii.–xlv., from Baruch; (e) xlvi.–li., the prophecies “concerning
the nations”;[1] (f) lii., historical appendix. Upon examining these
groups we find that besides a prose letter (ch. xxix.), about
sixty poetical pieces may be Jeremiah’s. A: Anathoth passages
before 621, (a) ii. 2b, 3, 14–28; ii. 29–37; iii. 1–5; iii. 12b, 13, 19, 20;
iii. 21–25; iv. i, 3, 4; these form a cycle, (b) xxxi. 2–6; 15–20; 21,
22; another cycle. (c) iv. 5–8; 11b, 12a, 13, 15–17a; 19–21; 23–26;
29–31; visions and “auditions” of the impending invasion.
B: Jerusalem passages. (d) v. 1–6a; 6b–9; 10–17; vi. 1–5; 6b–8;
9–14; 16, 17, 20; 22–26a; 27–30; vii. 28, 29; viii. 4–7a; 8, 9, 13;
14–17; viii. 18–23; ix. 1–8; 9 (short song); 16–18; 19–21; x. 19, 20,
22; reign of Josiah, strong personal element. (e) xxii. 10 (Jehoahaz).
xxii. 13–17; probably too xi. 15, 16; xii. 7–12 (Jehoiakim). xxii.
18, 19, perhaps too xxii. 6b, 7; 20–23; and the cycle xiii. 15, 16;
17; 18, 19; 20, 21a, 22–25a, 26, 27 (later, Jehoiakim). xxii. 24;
xxii. 28 (Jehoiachin). (f) Later poems. xiv. 2–10; xv. 5–9; xvi.
5–7; xviii. 13–17; xxiii. 9–12; 13–15; xi. 18–20; xv. 10–12; 15–19a,
and 20, 21; xvii. 9, 10, 14, 16, 17; xviii. 18–20; xx. 7–11; xx. 14–18;
xiv. 17, 18; xvii. 1–4; xxxviii. 24; assigned to the close of Zedekiah’s time.
Two Recensions of the Text.—It has often been said that we have virtually two recensions of the text, that represented by the Septuagint and the Massoretic text, and critics have taken different sides, some for one and some for the other. “Recension,” however, is a bad term; it implies that the two texts which undeniably exist were the result of revising and editing according to definite critical principles. Such, however, is not the case. It is true that “there are (in the LXX.) many omissions of words, sentences, verses and whole passages, in fact, that altogether about 2700 words are wanting, or the eighth part of the Massoretic text” (Bleek). It may also be admitted that the scribes who produced the Hebrew basis of the Septuagint version, conscious of the unsettled state of the text, did not shrink from what they considered a justifiable simplification. But we must also grant that those from whom the “written” Hebrew text proceeds allowed themselves to fill up and to repeat without any sufficient warrant. In each case in which there is a genuine difference of reading between the two texts, it is for the critic to decide; often, however, he will have to seek to go behind what both the texts present in order to constitute a truer text than either. Here is the great difficulty of the future. We may add to the credit of the Septuagint that the position given to the prophecies on “the nations” (chs. xlvi.–li. in our Bible) in the Septuagint is probably more original than that in the Massoretic text. On this point see especially Schmidt, Ency. Bib. “Jeremiah (Book)” §§ 6 and 21; Davidson, Hastings’s Dict. Bible, ii. 573b–575; Driver, Introduction (8th ed.), pp. 269, 270.
The best German commentary is that of Cornill (1905). A skilful translation by Driver, with notes intended for ordinary students (1906) should also be mentioned. (T. K. C.)
JEREMY, EPISTLE OF, an apocryphal book of the Old
Testament. This letter purports to have been written by
Jeremiah to the exiles who were already in Babylon or on the
way thither. The author was a Hellenistic Jew, and not improbably
a Jew of Alexandria. His work, which shows little
literary skill, was written with a serious practical purpose.
He veiled his fierce attack on the idol gods of Egypt by holding
up to derision the idolatry of Babylon. The fact that Jeremiah
(xxix. 1 sqq.) was known to have written a letter of this nature
naturally suggested to a Hellenist, possibly of the 1st century
B.C. or earlier, the idea of a second epistolary undertaking, and
other passages of Jeremiah’s prophecy (x. 1–12; xxix. 4–23)
may have determined also its general character and contents.
The writer warned the exiles that they were to remain in captivity for seven generations; that they would there see the worship paid to idols, from all participation in which they were to hold aloof; for that idols were nothing save the work of men’s hands, without the powers of speech, hearing or self-preservation. They could not bless their worshippers even in the smallest concerns of life; they were indifferent to moral qualities, and were of less value than the commonest household objects, and finally, “with rare irony, the author compared an idol to a scarecrow (v. 70), impotent to protect, but deluding to the imagination” (Marshall).
The date of the epistle is uncertain. It is believed by some scholars to be referred to in 2 Macc. ii. 2, which says that Jeremiah charged the exiles “not to forget the statutes of the Lord, neither to be led astray in their minds when they saw images of gold and silver and the adornment thereof.” But the reference is disputed by Fritzsche, Gifford, Shürer and others. The epistle was included in the Greek canon. There was no question of its canonicity till the time of Jerome, who termed it a pseudepigraph.
See Fritzsche, Handb. zu den Apok., 1851; Gifford, in Speaker’s Apoc. ii. 286–303; Marshall, in Hastings’ Dict. Bible, ii. 578–579. (R. H. C.)
JERÉZ DE LA FRONTERA (formerly Xeres), a town of
southern Spain, in the province of Cadiz, near the right bank
of the river Guadalete, and on the Seville-Cadiz railway, about
7 m. from the Atlantic coast. Pop. (1900), 63,473. Jeréz is
built in the midst of an undulating plain of great fertility. Its
whitewashed houses, clean, broad streets, and squares planted
with trees extend far beyond the limits formerly enclosed by the
Moorish walls, almost entirely demolished. The principal
buildings are the 15th-century church of San Miguel, the 17th-century
collegiate church with its lofty bell-tower, the 16th-century
town-hall, superseded, for official purposes, by a modern
edifice, the bull-ring, and many hospitals, charitable institutions
and schools, including academies of law, medicine and commerce.
But the most characteristic features of Jeréz are the
huge bodegas, or wine-lodges, for the manufacture and storage of
sherry, and the vineyards, covering more than 150,000 acres,
which surround it on all sides. The town is an important
market for grain, fruit and livestock, but its staple trade is in
wine. Sherry is also produced in other districts, but takes
its name, formerly written in English as sherris or xeres, from
Jeréz. The demand for sherry diminished very greatly during
the last quarter of the 19th century, especially in England,
which had been the chief consumer. In 1872 the sherry shipped
from Cadiz to Great Britain alone was valued at £2,500,000;
in 1902 the total export hardly amounted to one-fifth of this
sum. The wine trade, however, still brings a considerable
profit, and few towns of southern Spain display greater commercial
activity than Jeréz. In the earlier part of the 18th century
the neighbourhood suffered severely from yellow fever; but it
was rendered comparatively healthy when in 1869 an aqueduct
was opened to supply pure water. Strikes and revolutionary
disturbances have frequently retarded business in more recent
years.
Jeréz has been variously identified with the Roman Municipium Seriense; with Asido, perhaps the original of the Moorish Sherish; and with Hasta Regia, a name which may survive in the designation of La Mesa de Asta, a neighbouring hill. Jeréz was taken from the Moors by Ferdinand III. of Castile (1217–1252); but it was twice recaptured before Alphonso X. finally occupied it in 1264. Towards the close of the 14th century it received the title de la Frontera, i.e. “of the frontier,” common to several towns on the Moorish border.
JERÉZ DE LOS CABALLEROS, a town of south-western
Spain, in the province of Badajoz, picturesquely situated on
two heights overlooking the river Ardila, a tributary of the
Guadiana, 12 m. E. of the Portuguese frontier. Pop. (1900),
10,271. The old town is surrounded by a Moorish wall with six
gates; the newer portion is well and regularly built, and planted
with numerous orange and other fruit trees. Owing to the lack
of railway communication Jeréz is of little commercial importance;
its staple trade is in agricultural produce, especially in
ham and bacon from the large herds of swine which are reared
in the surrounding oak forests. The town is said to have been
founded by Alphonso IX. of Leon in 1229; in 1232 it was extended
by his son St Ferdinand, who gave it to the knights
templar. Hence the name Jeréz de los Caballeros, “Jeréz of
the knights.”
JERICHO (יְרִחוֹ, יְרּיחוֹ, once יְרִיחֹה, a word of disputed
meaning, whether “fragrant” or “moon [-god] city”), an
important town in the Jordan valley some 5 m. N. of the Dead
Sea. The references to it in the Pentateuch are confined to
rough geographical indications of the latitude of the trans-Jordanic camp of the Israelites in Moab before their crossing of
the river. This was the first Canaanite city to be attacked and
reduced by the victorious Israelites. The story of its conquest is
- ↑ li. 59–64a, however, is a specimen of imaginative “Midrashic” history. See Giesebrecht’s monograph.
