Jeremiah 10:1-5

THE NOTHINGNESS OF THE FALSE GODS, Jeremiah 10:1-5.

Several eminent German critics have pronounced against the genuineness of the first sixteen verses of this chapter. Among these is the scholarly and evangelical Nagelsbach. Some regard the passage as interpolated from Isaiah, while others, and among them Nagelsbach, reject this theory of its origin. Upon this general question we observe:

1 . The external evidence for the passage is practically perfect. It receives the unanimous testimony of the Hebrew MSS. and the ancient Versions. The partial qualification which this statement needs is, that four of the verses, namely, 6, 7, 8, and 10, are wanting in the Septuagint. But inasmuch as we meet with similar omissions everywhere in the Septuagint it being estimated that about 2,700 of the Hebrew words in this book are unrepresented in that Version very slight significance should attach to this fact. The only considerations which should shake our faith in the genuineness of these verses are those which come from within. And in the general it should be said, that internal evidence should be allowed to stand against clear and unanimous external testimony only when of the most positive and conclusive character. The hypothesis of ungenuineness should be accepted only when it becomes certain that no other can be admitted.

2 . The reasons urged against this passage are: ( a) That it interrupts the continuity of thought. But Jeremiah nowhere shows close logical coherence. The book is full of sudden and marked transitions. Its character is emotional rather than logical. ( b) That the subject matter indicates a later time. But the passage is not inappropriate to any time, and especially to this one, in which idolatry was a living issue. ( c) That the language differs from that ordinarily employed by Jeremiah. The opposite is the truth. The passage contains some of his characteristic expressions, such as the term vanity, for idols, day of visitation, etc., etc. (See a full list of these in Keil, in loc.) We conclude, then, that there is no sufficient ground for denying the genuineness of the passage. The eleventh verse of this chapter is in Chaldee, probably because it was a current aphorism familiar alike to the Jews and the Chaldeans, and inserted here in its popular form.