What about Those Rechabites? (35:1-19) 571Many commentators (Giesebrecht; Cornill; Peake; Streane; Rudolph;
Weiser; Bright) have cited the first-person narrative as an indication of authen-
ticity. Even those arguing for a "Deuteronomic" editing in vv 12-19 (Duhm;
Rudolph, who takes the whole chapter to be Source C; cf. Mowinckel 1914:
31, 58-59; and Hyatt), believe the narrative goes back ultimately to Baruch and
is basically authentic. The argument for a "Deuteronomic" editing-here as
elsewhere-rests largely on Duhm's late dating of the heavy prose, i.e., prose
having accumulatio and stereotyped phraseology. Thiel ( 1981: 44-48) and
Migsch ( 1997), who build on earlier source criticism, are thus occupied with
later "Deuteronomic" redactions. The heavy prose belongs to the authentic
Jeremiah tradition (H. Weippert 1973: 121-48; Holladay) and can no longer be
taken as a mark of exilic or postexilic authorship/editing.
The LXX text is again shorter than MT, but not the better text by a wide mar-
gin (pace Cornill; Janzen 1973; Holladay; McKane). Many of its readings are
inferior, confused, or just plain wrong, in addition to which are nine arguable
cases for LXX haplography in the chapter, some not noted as LXX omissions in
BHS and none treated as haplographic loss by Cornill, Janzen, Holladay, or
McKane. As Giesebrecht once again points out, readings in the other Versions
usually support MT.NOTES
35:1. The word that came to Jeremiah from Yahweh. On this superscription, see
Notes for 7:1 and 21:1. The T expands to "word of prophecy."
in the days oflehoiakim son nflnsiah, king ofludah. The LXX omits "son of
Josiah," which is present in S, T, and Vg. The date here ("in the days of Je-
hoiakim") is general, leaving us uncertain about precisely when the reported
event took place. Blayney dated it in the fourth year of Jehoiakim, 605 B.C.,
associating it with Nebuchadrezzar's campaign against the Philistines.
Cheyne, too, put it before the first arrival of Nebuchadrezzar, in the summer
of 606 B.C. In my earlier work (Lundbom 1975: 107-8 [= 1997: 141]), I also
dated the event before 605 B.C., noting that in this year Jeremiah was de-
barred from entering the Temple (36:5) and that a year later both he and
Baruch went into hiding (36:19, 26). I had doubts about Jeremiah making
any more public appearances, much less one in the Temple, while Jehoiakim
was still on the throne. Jeremiah reenters public life just before Jerusalem's
surrender to Nebuchadrezzar in 597 B.C., at which time we find him advising
the newly-enthroned Jehoiachin and the queen mother to give themselves up
( 13: 15-23 ). So if a date preceding Jerusalem's surrender to Nebuchadrezzar
in 597 is to be assigned to the event here, it would have to be at the very end
of Jehoiakim's life. This is the conclusion of Rudolph, who says a date of 605
is not possible because the Syrians were not then an ally of Nebuchadrezzar.
Yet they may have been. Following Carchemish Syria belonged to Nebucha-
drezzar, and a Syrian contingent could certainly have accompanied him on
his march to Philistia in 604 B.C. A more pressing question in attempting to