Full Description
Baruch and the Letter of Jeremiah are among the so-called deuterocanonical books of the Bible, part of the larger Catholic biblical canon. Except for a short article in the Women's Bible Commentary, no detailed or comprehensive feminist commentary on these books is available so far. Marie-Theres Wacker reads both books with an approach that is sensitive to gender and identity issues. The book of Baruch—with its reflections on guilt of the fathers, with its transformation of wisdom into the Book of God's commandments, and with its strong symbol of mother and queen Jerusalem—offers a new and creative digest of Torah, writings, and prophets but seems to address primarily learned men. The so-called Letter of Jeremiah is an impressive document that unmasks pseudo-deities but at the same draws sharp lines between the group's identity and the "others," using women of the "others" as boundary markers.
Contents
Contents
List of Abbreviations vii
List of Contributors ix
Foreword: "Tell It on the Mountain"—or, "And You Shall Tell Your Daughter [as Well]" xi
Athalya Brenner-Idan
Editor's Introduction to Wisdom Commentary: "She Is a Breath of the Power of God" (Wis 7:25) xv
Barbara E. Reid, OP
Author's Introduction xxxv
Baruch: Introduction 1
Baruch 1:1-15a Connecting Babylon and Jerusalem 5
Baruch 1:15b-3:8 The Exiles' Prayer 15
Baruch 3:9-4:4 Where Wisdom Is to Be Found 39
Baruch 4:5-5:9 Jerusalem, Woman-City and Mother of Israel 67
Baruch 1-5 Looking Back as a Feminist Reader 91
The Letter (Epistle) of Jeremiah (Bar 6:1-73) A Deconstruction of Images 97
A Personal Final Conclusion 133
Works Cited 135
Index of Scripture References and Other Ancient Writings 145
Index of Subjects 153
