Abstract
Jeremiah 18:1–12 is a favourite passage often quoted and preached from pulpits. This prose passage however is much more complicated than taken at the face level. A one-dimensional reading misses the intricacies of these verses. The potter scene in verses 1–4 has its first application in verses 5–6 and again in verses 11–12. It is a question how verses 7–10 relate to the other sections in this narrative. The argument presented in this article is that verses 18:7–10 present a different theological viewpoint and serves to clarify what is to be understood what שׁוב in verse 4 implies in real terms. This illustrates that the biblical text is organic and not static, and shows instances of ongoing interpretation within the text itself.Contribution: This article offers original research in the field of biblical studies, more specifically in the field of the Old Testament. This is in line with the scope of HTS Theological Studies. The article aims at indicating that detail textual analysis reveals the complexity of the text tradition we are dealing with.
Highlights
The narrative of the potter in Jeremiah 18:1–12 is one of the most known, loved and quoted passages.1 Upon closer reading and analysis of Jeremiah 18:1–12, I have realised that the text is much more complicated than at face value
The first is knowledge of Jeremiah 1:10; the second is the application of creation imagery in the potter scene ()רֵצֹוי, which implies Yahweh’s sovereign rule over the nations of the world; and third, ‘by right of creation Yahweh assigns providential power to “anybody I deem appropriate” to have it (27:5; cf. 18:4)’
The verbs ‘build- up’ and ‘plant’ are used in verse 9. Another point of difference with Frese is that he does not take cognisance of the formulaic repetition of the verbs we find in 1:10 and at several other places in the book of Jeremiah
Summary
The narrative of the potter in Jeremiah 18:1–12 is one of the most known, loved and quoted passages. Upon closer reading and analysis of Jeremiah 18:1–12, I have realised that the text is much more complicated than at face value. The first is knowledge of Jeremiah 1:10; the second is the application of creation imagery in the potter scene ()רֵצֹוי, which implies Yahweh’s sovereign rule over the nations of the world (cf Fretheim 2002:271–272); and third, ‘by right of creation Yahweh assigns providential power to “anybody I deem appropriate” to have it (27:5; cf 18:4)’ His first point is obvious, but the other two points stretch the argument somewhat, the correspondence to creation vocabulary is present in both verses 4 and 11. Yahweh allows for human’s possible actions (Allen 2012:214) It is not clear when this clarification section of 7–10 was made in respect to the potter-event narrative, the idea of repentance ( )ׁשובis not foreign to Jeremiah, but formed a key aspect of Jeremiah’s preaching (cf Biddle 2004:3; Jones 1992:257). There is some similarity in vocabulary between 18:7–10 and verse 11, in particular the occurrence of verb ׁשובpromoting the same theological idea as in 7–10, namely that the people of Judah could ‘turn’ their fate by their response of obedience
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