Jeremiah Invented: Constructions and Deconstructions of Jeremiah Edited by Else K.Holt and Carolyn J.Sharp. LHBOTS 595. London: Bloomsbury T & T Clark, 2015. Pp. xxi + 145. $94.00.

Abstract

This volume collects papers originally presented in the Society of Biblical Literature's Writing/Reading Jeremiah section (2009–2013). The essays explore various dimensions of historical, ideological, and artistic constructions and characterizations of the prophet Jeremiah as a literary persona, both in portions of the biblical book and other media. The collection does not have a unified methodology or ideology, and there are no subdivisions of the articles. Rather, the point of departure is the move away from earlier scholarship's focus on attempts to reconstruct the prophet's historical biography to an interest in Jeremiah as a literary persona that has dominated Jeremiah research since the 1990s. From this starting point, the volume's essays examine topics such as the portrayals of king and prophet, gendered metaphors, Jeremiah's confessions, prophetic sign acts, connections with Lamentations and the Servant of Deutero-Isaiah, and later artistic representations of Jeremiah. The collection's most remarkable feature is the explicit interdisciplinary connections made with polyphonic and dialogical perspectives, structuralist analysis, gender criticism, trauma theory, Mesopotamian art studies, contemporary performance art, and more. Several of the individual studies will be useful to students and scholars on various levels, and the volume as a whole provides an example of self-conscious, culturally aware interpretation and a reminder of the impact of readers’ contexts on all interpretation.