Prayer Tents Bible References - Prayer Tents

BARUCH

(Heb. bārûḵ)

1. The son of Zabbai. He assisted in the reconstruction of the temple walls under the leadership of Nehemiah (Neh. 3:20).

2. One of the 80 leaders who ratified the covenant of Nehemiah (Neh. 10:6). As one of the 22 signatories of priestly descent, Baruch agreed to strict Torah observance and abstinence from exogamous contacts with the “peoples of the land.”

3. The son of Colhozeh, listed in a census of Judean repatriates (Neh. 11:5). His son Maaseiah was one of the chiefs of the province who volunteered to live in Jerusalem.

4. The son of Neriah, and grandson of Maaseiah. Baruch (“one who is blessed”) is presented in the book of Jeremiah as a close companion and scribe of the prophet (Jer. 36:26, 32). He is a prominent character in chs. 32, 36, 43, 45.

During the siege of Jerusalem by the Babylonians in early 587 b.c.e. Baruch participated in a business transaction between Jeremiah and Hanamel, Jeremiah’s cousin (Jer. 32:12-15). The transaction involved the purchase of familial land for the purpose of preventing the loss of family property. Jeremiah entrusted the deeds of purchase to Baruch, who was instructed to place them in an “earthenware jar, in order that they may last for a long time” (Jer. 32:14). As a symbolic act, the transaction serves to illustrate that Judah would survive the present tragedy and be rebuilt and reconfigured as a new-yet-old community — beyond exile and dislocation.

In the fourth year of Jehoiakim — a year that signals danger and the dismantling of Judah’s social and symbolic structures — Baruch writes on a scroll all of Jeremiah’s oracles dated from the “days of Josiah” to the present (Jer. 36:1-8). Jeremiah’s scribe then reads the scroll in the temple on a holy day, since the prophet himself is barred from entrance. Baruch’s reading creates considerable “alarm” among court officials, who ask Baruch to repeat the scroll’s contents in their presence. After the scroll is reread before the royal officials, Jehudi then reads it to King Jehoiakim, who systematically destroys it. Following the destruction of the scroll, Jeremiah dictates another scroll to Baruch with additional material of like substance (Jer. 36:32).

Some scholars discern in Jeremiah’s dictation of scrolls to Baruch important clues for understanding the origins of the book of Jeremiah. Among those who hold such a view, there exists little consensus as to the content of these Urtexts. Other scholars, however, argue that the genre and Tendenz of Jer. 36 preclude judgments regarding the historical development of the book. For the latter, the pericope is more theological and didactic than historical or referential.

The remaining references to Baruch in Jeremiah “foreground” his obedience and faithfulness (cf. the exemplary behavior of Ethiopian Ebed-melech in Jer. 38:7-13; 39:15-18) in contrast to the rebellion and obduracy of the nation, which is on its way to destruction. In ch. 45 Baruch is promised his life amid a crumbling world. Notwithstanding this promise, Baruch, like Jeremiah, must suffer profoundly as a result of his vocation (Jer. 45:1-5) and eventually must face the same fate as the Judean nation: dislocation and exile to a faraway land (43:1-7).

Although Baruch is a relatively minor figure in the book of Jeremiah, Second Temple constructions transform him into an independent and principal character. Thus, while Baruch is denied the prominence he so much desired during his lifetime (Jer. 45:5), he is ironically immortalized in later Jewish literature, as 2 Baruch, which foretells his assumption.

Bibliography. W. Brueggemann, “The ‘Baruch Connection’: Reflections on Jer 43:1-7,” JBL 113 (1994): 405-20; R. P. Carroll, Jeremiah. OTL (Philadelphia, 1986); W. L. Holladay, Jeremiah 1. Herm (Philadelphia, 1986); Jeremiah 2. Herm (Minneapolis, 1989).

Louis Stulman

Prayer Tents Bible References - Prayer Tents

BARUCH

Eerdmans Dictionary of the Bible (2000)