Failed Leaders. The Nature and Content of Prophetic Rivalry in Jeremiah 23:9-22

Abstract

The book of Jeremiah poses many questions to researchers. This study addresses the conflict between Jeremiah and rival prophets in Jeremiah 23:9-40. It is important to note that the book of Jeremiah focusses on the role the prophets played in the Judean society in the years preceding the calamity of the Babylonian exile. Prophetic studies mainly concentrated on the prophetic conflict reported in chapters 27-29 in Jeremiah. By presenting and substantiating arguments pertaining to the fact that it is a reasonable assumption to make that the conflict in Jeremiah 23:9-40 revolved around failed leadership, a research question was formulated with regard to the nature and content of the conflict.

The main hypothesis formulated for the study was based on the premise that prophetic leadership in Judah had failed. It is stated that the nature and content of the conflict are characterised by the discussion about prophetic leadership and its failure. The issue concerning the conflict between the rival prophets was supported by the redaction-critical research done in this thesis, but also through the rhetorical analysis of the selected passages. The rhetorical analysis has revealed how Jeremiah, whose view is dominant in the discourses, has profiled his rivals as morally corrupt (cf. Chapter 3) and inauthentic (cf. Chapter 4). The nature and content of the failed leadership of the rival prophets are further illuminated by conceptual studies of four concepts, namely, ‘adultery,’ ‘deceit,’ ‘שָׁלוֹם-theology’ and the notion of ‘the council of Yahweh’ (cf. Chapter 5). In Chapter 6, a discussion is presented regarding how the various oracles in the cycle on the prophets in Jeremiah 23:9-40 relate to each other. The research done is approached by means of a text-linguistic, redactional-critical and literary and socio-rhetoric study of the demarcated texts.

The book of Jeremiah poses many questions to researchers. This study addresses the conflict between Jeremiah and rival prophets in Jeremiah 23:9-40. It is important to note that the book of Jeremiah focusses on the role the prophets played in the Judean society in the years preceding the calamity of the Babylonian exile. Prophetic studies mainly concentrated on the prophetic conflict reported in chapters 27-29 in Jeremiah. By presenting and substantiating arguments pertaining to the fact that it is a reasonable assumption to make that the conflict in Jeremiah 23:9-40 revolved around failed leadership, a research question was formulated with regard to the nature and content of the conflict. The main hypothesis formulated for the study was based on the premise that prophetic leadership in Judah had failed. It is stated that the nature and content of the conflict are characterised by the discussion about prophetic leadership and its failure. The issue concerning the conflict between the rival prophets was supported by the redaction-critical research done in this thesis, but also through the rhetorical analysis of the selected passages. The rhetorical analysis has revealed how Jeremiah, whose view is dominant in the discourses, has profiled his rivals as morally corrupt (cf. Chapter 3) and inauthentic (cf. Chapter 4). The nature and content of the failed leadership of the rival prophets are further illuminated by conceptual studies of four concepts, namely, ‘adultery,’ ‘deceit,’ ‘שָׁלוֹם-theology’ and the notion of ‘the council of Yahweh’ (cf. Chapter 5). In Chapter 6, a discussion is presented regarding how the various oracles in the cycle on the prophets in Jeremiah 23:9-40 relate to each other. The research done is approached by means of a text-linguistic, redactional-critical and literary and socio-rhetoric study of the demarcated texts.