The purpose of this article is to show the redactional intention of Jer. 1:4-10 which describes Jeremiah as a Moses-like prophet, from the perspective redaction criticism and tradition approach. on the one hand, Jeremiah"s call to the prophetic office...
The purpose of this article is to show the redactional intention of Jer. 1:4-10 which describes Jeremiah as a Moses-like prophet, from the perspective redaction criticism and tradition approach. on the one hand, Jeremiah"s call to the prophetic office shares similar motifs - for examples, vision confirming the call, the divine appointment of the prophet, the hesitant response of the chosen, and God"s rejection to the hesitant response - with Moses, Gideon, and Isaiah, on the other hand, its own characteristics make Jeremiah a warrior-like figure with kingly authority as well as a prophet to the nations. This study shows that the characteristics in the call of Jeremiah were composed in order to bring hope to the people of Judah after the fall of Judah. In this respect, Jeremiah was sanctified Jeremiah by God before he came forth out of the womb. That means Jeremiah was ordained to prepare holy wars as a kind of kingly figure who was chosen in his mother"s womb. The motif that Jeremiah was consecrated to his office before his birth, has several parallels in Ancient Eastern texts dealing with the legitimacy of the kings. Moreover the answer, ‘I am a lad’ that Jeremiah confessed can be understood in this regard. In the Old Testament, the Hebrew term נע ר translated into lad in Jeremiah"s confession, has various meanings, one of which is to be a "warrior". For the redactional intention to describe Jeremiah as the Divine warrior-like figure, the prophet is presented as accepting God"s calling humbly but deliberately, in contrast with Moses who repeated the hesitant response to God"s calling. Thus Jeremiah"s call to prophetic office in Jer. 1:4-10 provided a powerful warrior-like prophet against the nations for the readers of post-exilic community who had sought new hope for the future.