4 Baruch / Paraleipomena Jeremiou

Summary:

The night before Jerusalem's destruction, the Lord reveals to Jeremiah that the city is to be attacked by his angels so it can be handed over to the Chaldeans. He instructs Jeremiah to hide the Temple vessels and to accompany the exiles to Babylon. Baruch is to stay in Jerusalem until their return. Jeremiah's requests that his faithful servant Abimelech be spared. Sent out of the city to gather figs at the farm of Agrippa, Abimelech takes a 66-year nap. When he awakens, his figs are still fresh, but he does not recognize his surroundings. He is eventually reunited with Baruch, who takes his awakening as a sign that the exiles will soon return and the fresh figs as proof of the resurrection. Baruch sends a letter to Jeremiah, urging him to return with the exiles. Back in Jerusalem, Jeremiah has a vision of divine mysteries, including the coming of Jesus Christ.

Titles: 

Greek: Paraleipomena Ieremiou, "Things omitted from the Prophet Jeremiah"

Ethiopic: "The Rest of the Words of Baruch" 

Sources: 

Jeremiah, 2 Kings, 2 Chronicles, Ezra, Nehemiah

Departs from these in several respects

Canonical Status: Old Testament Pseudepigrapha Authors:

Written under the pseudonym of Baruch, the prophet Jeremiah's scribe, in the fictional setting of the events surrounding the Babylonian conquest of Jerusalem and the destruction of the temple by the Babylonians in 586 bc

Chs. 1-4, in which Jeremiah is the central figure, by an unknown Jew Chs. 5-8, in which Baruch is central, by an unknown (Pharisaic) Jew Ch. 9 by a Christian redactor, who made other interpolations

Date:

After the destruction of the Temple in AD 70, but probably before the second Jewish revolt in AD 132 Probably during the first third of the 2nd century AD (probably in Palestine)

Original Language:

Only Greek, Ethiopic, Armenian, Old Church Slavonic, and Romanian versions survive Evidence supports a Semitic Vorlage (probably Hebrew)

Notes prepared by George Lyons (Professor of Biblical Literature)

for the Wesley Center for Applied Theology at Northwest Nazarene University

Copyright 2000 by the Wesley Center for Applied Theology

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