A Scroll for Future Days (36:1-32) 583not a beginning chapter as argued by some (Rudolph; Rietzschel 1966: 17;
Abrego 1983a; 1983b). The final prose collection in the Jeremiah book begins
with chap. 37. Chapter 36 at one time concluded a "Jehoiakim Cluster" of
narrative prose consisting of chaps. 25, 26, 35, and 36 (see Rhetoric and Com-
position for 25:1-14); in the present book-now including also the Book of
Restoration in chaps. 30-33-it concludes a mixed assemblage of prose narra-
tives from Jehoiakim and Zedekiah's reigns, beginning with chap. 24, not
chap. 26 (see "Excursus III: The Composition of Jeremiah 24-36," at the end
of 25:1-14). In the Jehoiakim Cluster-and also in the mixed assemblage-36
has its greatest affinity with 25, as others have noted (Jones; McKane).
The present segment (vv 1-8), which I have called the chapter's core narra-
tive, at one time doubled as an expanded colophon for the Jehoiakim Cluster,
also for the larger collection of chaps. 24-36 if these narratives ever had a
separate existence (Lundbom 1986b: 104-6). Baruch in 36:1-8 presents him-
self as the scribe who figured prominently in preserving the Jeremiah legacy,
something he does again in chap. 45, which later becomes the colophon con-
cluding his book of 51 chapters (LXX). The standard colophonic elements
identified by Leichty (1964) are present to a greater or lesser degree in 36:1-8;
45; and 51:59-64, but since all have embellishment more than what one finds
in the standard colophon, we have designated them "expanded colophons." If
then vv 1-8 are an early colophon for an assemblage of Jeremiah narrative,
Baruch has to be the scribe writing the text to which the colophon is affixed,
giving yet another reason for ascribing to Baruch this and other prose in the
book of Jeremiah. The two remaining narrative segments in vv 9-26 and 27-32
;rn~ l::iter ::irlrlitions to vv 1-8. Jn both, R::iruch continues ·as a major figure ·and
the scribe of record in the events that are taking place: in vv 9-26 he reads
the scroll twice in the Temple, and in vv 27-32 he writes a second scroll after
the first one is destroyed; then at a later time he adds more words from the
prophet. For more discussion on the expanded colophon in the book of Jere-
miah, including the Leichty criteria for colophons generally, see Lundbom
l 986b, and Rhetoric and Composition for chap. -45.
Among older scholars there was little debate over the genre, provenance,
and historical nature of the present chapter. It was taken to be biographical
prose (Giesebrecht, xxi; and Mowinckel 1914: 24: Source B), with most every-
one (including Mowinckel later on) viewing it as a composition written by
Baruch having a high degree of historical trustworthiness. Even Duhm could
say of chap. 36: "This important report about Jeremiah's literary activity stems
in the main from Baruch's book." Duhm ascribed only vv 27-31 to a later
editor, with v 32 again being credited to Baruch. Hyatt held a similar view.
Other commentators more recently, e.g., Rudolph, Weiser, Bright, Thomp-
son, Boadt, Holladay, and Jones, have affirmed the earlier consensus without
Duhm's proviso regarding vv 27-31. Rudolph finds phrases reminiscent of
Source C in vv 3, 7, and 31, but H. Weippert (1973: 141) and Holladay say
these belong to the diction of Jeremiah. Nicholson's view that the entire chap-
ter contains large-scale Deuteronomic editing is simply not borne out by the.