Dean O. Wenthe (editor) - Jeremiah, Lamentations (Ancient Christian Commentary on Scripture) (Ancient Christian Commentary on Scripture, OT Volume 12)

Ancient Christian

Commentary on Scripture

Old Testament

XII

Jeremiah, Lamentations

Edited by

Dean O. Wenthe

General Editor

Thomas C. Oden

InterVarsity Press

Downers Grove, Illinois

InterVarsity Press

P.O. Box 1400, Downers Grove, IL 605151426

Internet: www.ivpress.com

E-mail:

2009 by the Institute of Classical Christian Studies (ICCS), Thomas C. Oden and Dean O. Wenthe

All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced in any form without written permission from InterVarsity Press.

InterVarsity Press is the book-publishing division of InterVarsity Christian Fellowship/USA, a movement of students and faculty active on campus at hundreds of universities, colleges and schools of nursing in the United States of America, and a member movement of the International Fellowship of Evangelical Students. For information about local and regional activities, write Public Relations Dept., InterVarsity Christian Fellowship/USA, 6400 Schroeder Rd., P.O. Box 7895, Madison, WI 53707-7895, or visit the IVCF website at <www.intervarsity.org>.

Scripture quotations, unless otherwise noted, are from the Revised Standard Version of the Bible, copyright 1946, 1952, 1971 by the Division of Christian Education of the National Council of the Churches of Christ in the U.S.A., and are used by permission.

Selected excerpts from Fathers of the Church: A New Translation, 1947, used by permission of The Catholic University of America Press, Washington, D.C. Full bibliographic information on volumes of Fathers of the Church may be found in the Bibliography of Works in English Translation.

Selected excerpts from The Works of Saint Augustine: A Translation for the 21st Century, edited by John E. Rotelle, 1990. Used by permission of the Augustinian Heritage Institute.

Selected excerpts from Cassiodorus , Explanation of the Psalms, translated by P. G. Walsh, Ancient Christian Writers 51, 52 and 53, 1990, 1991; Origen , An Exhortation to Martyrdom, Prayer and Selected Writings, translated by Rowan A. Greer, The Classics of Western Spirituality, 1979; Tertullian, Treatises on Penance, translated and annotated by William P. Le Saint, S.J., S.T.D., Ancient Christian Writers 28, 1959 by Rev. Johannes Quasten; Rufinus , A Commentary on the Apostles Creed, translated and annotated by J. N. D. Kelly, D.D, Ancient Christian Writers 20, 1954 by Rev. Johannes Quasten; St. Prosper of Aquitaine , The Call of All Nations, translated and annotated by P. De Letter, S.J., Ancient Christian Writers 14, 1952; The Works of St. Patrick, St. Secundinus: Hymn on St. Patrick, translated and annotated by Ludwig Bieler, Ancient Christian Writers 17, 1953 by Rev. Johannes Quasten and Rev. Joseph C. Plumpe; Theodoret of Cyrus , On Divine Providence, translated and annotated by Thomas Halton, Ancient Christian Writers 49, 1988 by Walter J. Burghardt and Thomas Comerford Lawler; Origen , The Song of Songs: Commentary and Homilies, translated and annotated by R. P. Lawson, Ancient Christian Writers 26, 1956 by Rev. Johannes Quasten; St. John Chrysostom , Baptismal Instructions, translated and annotated by Paul W. Hawkins, Ancient Christian Writers 31, 1963 by Rev. Johannes Quasten and Rev. Walter J. Burghardt, S.J.; The Sermons of St. Maximus of Turin, translated and annotated by Boniface Ramsey, O.P., Ancient Christian Writers 50, 1989 by Boniface Ramsey, O.P.; St. Cyprian , The Lapsed, The Unity of the Catholic Church, translated and annotated by Maurice Bvenot, S.J., Ancient Christian Writers 25, 1956 by Johannes Quasten. Reprinted by permission of Paulist Press, Inc. <www.paulistpress.com> .

Selected excerpts from Tertullian: Adversus Marcionem, translated and edited by Ernest Evans, Oxford Early Christian Texts, 1972. Used by permission of Oxford University Press .

Selected excerpts from Bede the Venerable , Homilies on the Gospels: Book TwoLent to the Dedication of the Church, translated by Lawrence T. Martin and David Hurst, Cistercian Studies 111, 1991; Commentary on the Acts of the Apostles, translated by Lawrence T. Martin, Cistercian Studies 117, 1989; Pachomian Koinonia: The Lives, Rules, and Other Writings of Saint Pachomius, vols. 2 and 3, translated by Armand Veilleux, Cistercian Studies 46 and 47, 1981, 1982. Used by permission of Cistercian Publications, Kalamazoo, Michigan. All rights reserved .

Selected excerpts from Gregory of Nazianzus: On God and Christ: The Five Theological Orations and Two Letters to Cledonius, translated by Frederick Williams and Lionel Wickham, Popular Patristics Series, 2002; St. Irenaeus of Lyons: On the Apostolic Preaching, translated and introduced by John Behr, Popular Patristics Series, 1997. Used by permission of St. Vladimirs Seminary Press, Crestwood, N.Y.

ISBN 978-0-8308-1482-4

Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data

Jeremiah, Lamentations/edited by Dean O. Wenthe; general editor

Thomas C. Oden.

p. cm.(Ancient Christian commentary on Scripture. Old

Testament; 12)

Includes bibliographical references and Index.

ISBN 978-0-8308-1482-4 (cloth: alk. paper)

1. Bible. O.T. JeremiahCommentaries. 2. Bible. O.T. LamentationsCommentaries. I. Wenthe, Dean O. II. Oden, Thomas C.

BS1525.53.J47 2008

224.207709dc22

2008033931

Ancient Christian Commentary Project Research Team

General Editor

Thomas C. Oden

Associate Editor

Christopher A. Hall

Operations Manager and Translations Project Coordinator

Joel Elowsky

Research and Acquisitions Director

Michael Glerup

Editorial Services Director

Jill Burnett Comings

Original Language Version Director

Konstantin Gavrilkin

Graduate Research Assistants

Jennifer Barry-Lenger

Kathleen Gallagher Elkins

Stephen Finlan

Melissa M. Hartley

Jennifer T. Kaalund

Shanell T. Smith

Jeffery Wittung

Administrative Assistant

Judy Cincotta

Several features have been incorporated into the design of this commentary. The following comments are intended to assist readers in making full use of this volume.

Pericopes of Scripture

The scriptural text has been divided into pericopes, or passages, usually several verses in length. Each of these pericopes is given a heading, which appears at the beginning of the pericope. For example, the first pericope in the commentary on Jeremiah is 1:15 Jeremiahs Call from the Womb. This heading is followed by the Scripture passage quoted in the Revised Standard Version ( rsv ) across the full width of the page. The Scripture passage is provided for the convenience of readers, but it is also in keeping with medieval patristic commentaries, in which the citations of the Fathers were arranged around the text of Scripture.

Overviews

Following each pericope of text is an overview of the patristic comments on that pericope. The format of this overview varies within the volumes of this series, depending on the requirements of the specific book of Scripture. The function of the overview is to provide a brief summary of all the comments to follow. It tracks a reasonably cohesive thread of argument among patristic comments, even though they are derived from diverse sources and generations. Thus the summaries do not proceed chronologically or by verse sequence. Rather they seek to rehearse the overall course of the patristic comment on that pericope.

We do not assume that the commentators themselves anticipated or expressed a formally received cohesive argument but rather that the various arguments tend to flow in a plausible, recognizable pattern. Modern readers can thus glimpse aspects of continuity in the flow of diverse exegetical traditions representing various generations and geographical locations.