Portraits of the Prophet in the Book of Jeremiah

This chapter presents three different theological portraits of Jeremiah: Jeremiah as the (embodied) word of God, the lamenting Jeremiah, and Jeremiah as a political advisor to king and people. The introductory section discusses the historical and hermeneutic background for a literary, non-historicist reading of the book of Jeremiah and presents the approach in the article as “la seconde naïveté.” The portrait of Jeremiah as the word of God governs the presentation of the prophet in the book. It is conveyed through the call narrative and the initial audition-vision in chapter 1, which emphasizes how Jeremiah is supposed to do God’s work among the nations while God promises to protect the prophet. The second part, Jeremiah the Lamenter, presents three different portraits of the lamenting prophet: the prophet correlated with God, lamenting the apostasy of the people; the prophet correlated with the people, lamenting the absence of God; and the prophet lamenting his own charge as a prophet. Finally, Jeremiah is presented as a political advisor to both king and people, a task that is deemed to fail, due to the king’s obduracy and the people’s stubborn ignorance. The conclusion asks for the background of such a diverse presentation of one prophet and his message.

Louisa Mariah Woosely

Chapter 5 describes the life and evangelist work of Louisa Woosley. Following an exploration of The Great Awakening, Evangelical Protestantism, and religious institutionalism, this chapter places Woosley within the context of the female preaching debate and the question of whether women should have the authority to preach. Although ordained by the Cumberland Presbyterian Church, Woosely continued to face institutional resistance throughout her life. This chapter argues that her use of the authority of scripture and biblical interpretation aided her in constructing her call narrative and claiming her call to preach. Finally, this chapter analyzes her prophetic rhetoric as recorded in Shall Women Preach? Or, The Question Answered as evidence of the definitive affirmation she utilized in presenting a compelling case for the ordination of women.

Who is the holy seed?: Purity and identity in the Restoration Community

Interpreters often note the way in which the phrase ‘holy seed’ links Isa. 6.13 and Ezra 9.2. However, few explore how these texts apply the phrase to different communities/groups of people in ancient Judah. In Isaiah, the holy seed is the remnant in the land following the exile, whereas in Ezra, those returning from Babylon take the mantel for themselves. This essay, then, proceeds in three phases: first, it considers the function of Isa. 6.13 within the context of Isaiah’s call narrative, which helps situate Isaiah’s reference to the holy seed. Second, the study turns to Ezra 9.2 and examines how its reference to the holy seed operates in the Restoration narrative. Finally, the essay explores how this analysis of Isa. 6 and Ezra 9 clarifies our understanding of how these texts may have engaged each other in the early Restoration period.

Jeremiah as yhwh’s Stronghold (Jer 1:18)

In the book of Jeremiah, the prophet proclaims that Jerusalem will be destroyed by a foreign nation. According to the call narrative, however, Jeremiah himself is transformed into “a fortified city, an iron pillar, and a bronze wall” (Jer 1:18). While these architectural metaphors have often been explained with regard to Egyptian royal ideology, the article further explores their meaning and function within their literary context. Comparing characterizations of both the prophet and personified Jerusalem, the essay argues that Jer 1:18 offers a late comment to the book: Jeremiah functions as a stand-in for yhwh’s favorite city. A text-critical investigation of Jer 1:18 demonstrates—in contrast to former studies—that the mt pluses deliberately elaborate the prophet’s role by rendering him a substitute for the temple.

Small stories transposition and social media: A micro-perspective on the ‘Greek crisis’

In this article, I employ small stories research as a micro-perspective for the scrutiny of any crisis-related positionings of ‘Greece’ and ‘the Greeks’ that accompany the circulation of news stories from Greece in social media. My claim is that such positionings cannot be fully understood without reference to what stories get circulated, where, by whom, for/with whom and how. To substantiate this, I draw on a particular incident involving the assault of two female MPs by a male MP on a Greek TV breakfast show (June 2012). My analysis will show that the ways in which the Greek crisis is invoked or disregarded and erased in the social media transpositions of the incident are intimately linked with two key-narrative processes, which I call narrative stancetaking and resemiotizations (i.e. video-based or text-based) that involve a rescripting of the initial incident. In both cases, I will show how processes of story making are important for what is signalled as relevant and for how the context of the Greek crisis is made sense of, critiqued and ultimately backgrounded or erased in favour of more personalized and localized interpretations, grounded in the original and the transposed tales and tellings.

The Prophetic Objection in Ezekiel iv 14 and its Relation to Ezekiel's Call

W. Zimmerli has argued persuasively that Ezekiel iv 12-15 is a secondary addition to the series of sign acts found in iv 1-v 4, maintaining that the text was attached in its current location because of its affinity with the sign act that immediately precedes. In Ezekiel iv 12-15, Ezekiel protests Yahweh's instruction to prepare food using human excrement, a protest to which Yahweh responds in a conciliatory way. This paper accepts Zimmerli's analysis that the passage is secondary and seeks to offer an explanation for the voiced prophetic objection, heretofore not seen in the book. In short, it argues that this voiced objection functions to fill a void left in the call narrative of Ezekiel (i 1-iii 15), a void which needed to be filled for the prophet to be seen as legitimate. Further, it concludes that this addition stems from the hand of the prophet him-self and that it was added, in great part, for the purpose of asserting his legitimacy.