On scroll-making in ancient Jerusalem

Biblical Theology Bulletin, Spring, 2003 by Walter Brueggemann

And in chapters 40-41 (41:5, 9, 11; 41:2), Gedaliah, grandson of Shaphan, is made governor by the Babylonians after the monarchy is terminated.

From this evidence we may draw two conclusions. First, Shaphan and his family were major, major political players in Jerusalem; and second, their view was that it is prudent--and YHWH's will--to surrender to Babylon.

There is no doubt that this advocacy of surrender to Babylon is the reason that Gedeliah, the grandson of Shaphan, received the governorship from Babylon after the termination of the monarchy. The policy advocated by Shaphan and supported in the prose accounts of the book of Jeremiah, is antithetical to royal policy that was to resist Babylon. The royal policy of resistance against Babylon was thought by Shaphan to be political suicide and thought by Jeremiah to be against the will of YHWH (Wilson: 247-48).

The other important connection to notice is that Jeremiah relies on Baruch the scribe, son of Neriah. In Jeremiah 51:59, moreover, Jeremiah dispatches Seriah, son of Neriah and therefore brother of Baruch, to throw a scroll in the Euphrates as a prophetic sign. From this we may deduce that Jeremiah was deeply tied to a scribal political presence, a group of the learned that was not committed to the urban power structure of the city of Jerusalem. It is most likely that this particular group of scribes stood apart from the general population of scribes that was characteristically allied to and in the service of the urban elites. Thus these particular scribes are as noteworthy for their peculiar loyalty among scribes as the family of Shaphan stands out among the urban elites and as Jeremiah stands out among the prophets who most often supported dominant social forces and dominant social opinion. In all three cases--scribes, Shaphan, and Jeremiah--these scribes, political leaders, and this prophet are set apart from the conventional scribes, political leaders and prophets who characteristically support the regime:

   For from the least to the greatest of them, everyone is greedy
   for unjust gain; and from prophet to priest, everyone deals
   falsely. They have treated the wound of my people carelessly,
   saying, "Peace, peace," when there is no peace. They
   acted shamefully, they committed abomination; yet they
   were not ashamed, they did not know how to blush.
   Therefore they shall fall among those who fall; at the time
   that I punish them, they shall be overthrown, says the Lord
   [Jer 6:13-15; see 8:10-12]

We now notice some remarkable lines of convergence in this seventh-sixth century scroll-making that was preoccupied with the failure of Jerusalem and that advocated policies against the crown:

* Jeremiah is the point person for this movement, the one with immense powers of poetic imagination and with a claim to prophetic authority.

* Shaphan and his family provide serious political muscle for the movement, so that they are not only supporters of Jeremiah but his patrons, for his prophetic-poetic passion cohered with their practical political judgment concerning Babylon.