If Jeremiah wrote it, it must be OK: on the attribution of lamentations to Jeremiah in early rabbinic texts

Despite the absence of any formal attribution of the book of Lamentations to the prophet Jeremiah in the Hebrew Bible, the rabbis of the Talmudic period chose to perpetuate and reinforce this idea. The question explored is how this benefited them. Using Jorge Gracia’s discussion of the “pseudo-hist...

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Main Author: J. Kalman
Format: Article
Language:English
Published: University of the Free State 2009-12-01
Series:Acta Theologica
Online Access:https://journals.ufs.ac.za/index.php/at/article/view/2251
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author J. Kalman
author_facet J. Kalman
author_sort J. Kalman
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description Despite the absence of any formal attribution of the book of Lamentations to the prophet Jeremiah in the Hebrew Bible, the rabbis of the Talmudic period chose to perpetuate and reinforce this idea. The question explored is how this benefited them. Using Jorge Gracia’s discussion of the “pseudo-historical author,” the influence of the rabbinic assumption of Jeremiah’s authorship of Lamentations on their exegesis of the book is explored. The rabbis were troubled by a number of theologically challenging verses and the claim of authorship opened the door to their use of the book of Jeremiah to explain away these difficulties.
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spelling doaj-art-8f072965005c4c92bf87da4abda318b62025-02-11T10:05:25ZengUniversity of the Free StateActa Theologica1015-87582309-90892009-12-0129210.38140/at.v29i2.2251If Jeremiah wrote it, it must be OK: on the attribution of lamentations to Jeremiah in early rabbinic textsJ. Kalman0Hebrew Union College—Jewish Institute of Religion, United States of America & University of the Free State Despite the absence of any formal attribution of the book of Lamentations to the prophet Jeremiah in the Hebrew Bible, the rabbis of the Talmudic period chose to perpetuate and reinforce this idea. The question explored is how this benefited them. Using Jorge Gracia’s discussion of the “pseudo-historical author,” the influence of the rabbinic assumption of Jeremiah’s authorship of Lamentations on their exegesis of the book is explored. The rabbis were troubled by a number of theologically challenging verses and the claim of authorship opened the door to their use of the book of Jeremiah to explain away these difficulties. https://journals.ufs.ac.za/index.php/at/article/view/2251
spellingShingle J. Kalman
If Jeremiah wrote it, it must be OK: on the attribution of lamentations to Jeremiah in early rabbinic texts
Acta Theologica
title If Jeremiah wrote it, it must be OK: on the attribution of lamentations to Jeremiah in early rabbinic texts
title_full If Jeremiah wrote it, it must be OK: on the attribution of lamentations to Jeremiah in early rabbinic texts
title_fullStr If Jeremiah wrote it, it must be OK: on the attribution of lamentations to Jeremiah in early rabbinic texts
title_full_unstemmed If Jeremiah wrote it, it must be OK: on the attribution of lamentations to Jeremiah in early rabbinic texts
title_short If Jeremiah wrote it, it must be OK: on the attribution of lamentations to Jeremiah in early rabbinic texts
title_sort if jeremiah wrote it it must be ok on the attribution of lamentations to jeremiah in early rabbinic texts
url https://journals.ufs.ac.za/index.php/at/article/view/2251
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