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Why Are There Two Different Versions of Jeremiah? | Hot Topics · The Bible in 3D

• 0:10
  Speaker 1: Greetings. Welcome to The Bible in three d. This is your host, Andrew. We are in a series entitled Hot Topics. We are in a subset, the second of three episodes dealing with difficulties in the Bible.
• 0:28
  Last time we looked at some additions to the New Testament that were not written by the original authors but what were put in later. They don't conflict with anything and we think we have some good reasons as to why they're there and that does work to encourage our faith. Today, we're going to look at a difficulty in the old testament and they call it the Jeremiah problem. Jeremiah was a prophet. There were three major prophets Isaiah, Jeremiah, Ezekiel.
• 1:05
  There were 12 minor prophets. Isaiah came first, then Jeremiah, then Ezekiel and
• 1:13
  Speaker 2: Jeremiah will cut to the bottom line here. The book
• 1:17
  Speaker 1: of Jeremiah has two different versions. We have two different versions of the
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  Speaker 2: book of Jeremiah. Now they vary in length and in arrangement, but they don't contradict each other.
• 1:35
  Speaker 1: I'm gonna go through and explain how this could happen. Why is this important? Well, in the Dead Sea Scrolls we found the great Isaiah scroll and of course everybody knew that if any book had been changed it'd be Isaiah because it's so hard to read. And it's the longest book in the Bible and most of it is in poetry which makes it even harder because we don't get the poetry. So it's written as
• 2:05
  Speaker 2: prose but it's really wasn't poetry. Oh. Alright. And when the Dead Sea Scrolls,
• 2:14
  Speaker 1: they found a scroll of Isaiah. It was written about one hundred and fifty BC and it was 9697% exactly like the Isaiah that's in our modern translations. And the three or 4% is absolutely nothing significant. It's not meaningful. It's not viable.
• 2:35
  You know, they're just transpositions and things. And essentially, that's true of the other books of the Bible that were
• 2:43
  Speaker 2: in the Dead Sea Scrolls, but not Jeremiah.
• 2:49
  Speaker 1: And so we're gonna talk about those two different versions, and then I'm gonna suggest to you why there is two versions.
• 2:57
  Speaker 2: So we've got the two versions
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  Speaker 1: of Jeremiah. One comes from what we call the Mesoretic text. This is the standard Hebrew text that is used by Jews today. The Hebrew manuscripts were rubbed and scrubbed about 600 to about 1000 AD. By the time we get to 1,000 AD,
• 3:24
  Speaker 2: the we get to the final final form of the the Hebrew text.
• 3:31
  Speaker 1: And this is found the earliest manuscript we have is called the Leningrad Codex, written about one thousand eight one thousand nine a d. And that Hebrew text is what the Christian the Protestant evangelical Bibles used for the Old Testament.
• 3:54
  Speaker 2: The other ancient document that we have is the Septuagint. Septuagint, of course, is a word for 70 and about second to third BC before Christ, an English translation was made of some Hebrew manuscripts.
• 4:17
  Speaker 1: And the Septuagint was widely used after that throughout the world because it was in Greek and we most people could, you know, more likely read Greek than Hebrew. The Dead Sea Scrolls have both versions of Jeremiah. They have one that mirrors the Masoretic text, although it wasn't final final form until one thousand eight AD. But clearly, one of the versions that are, like, hundred hundred and fifty BC of Jeremiah clearly comes from the Masoretic text or what the precursors, the proto Mesoretic text were. But they also had the Septuagint,
• 5:08
  Speaker 2: which again, to the second or third BC. And that version is different. These these two versions, first of
• 5:17
  Speaker 1: all, the Septuagint, the one that was the Greek translation, is about one eighth shorter than the Mesoretic text. In other words, the Mesoretic text has more words in it. And then there's the arrangement problem. So both arrangements begin and end the same, but the order of the material in the middle is different. There's what we call the oracles oracles against the nations.
• 5:52
  This is chapters 46 through 51 in the Septuagint, but in the Mesoretic excuse me. This is chapters 46 through 51 in the Mesoretic text. It is placed at the end of the book. But in the Septuagint, these oracles against the nation are placed in the middle of the book after chapter 25. And the oracles appear in a different order.
• 6:18
  But here's the thing, there is nothing conflicting. So the Septuagint does not conflict different order, maybe some more words, but whatever the Septuagint says does not conflict at all with anything in the longer translation. And then the additional words, again, nothing significant. Yeah. Some interesting things, but it's it has nothing to do with doctrine or teaching.
• 6:53
  Now here's where it gets interesting. It is clear because these were found in Cave 4 of the Dead Sea Scrolls and they found both versions together. It's clear that the Essenes back 250 to sixty eight AD considered them equally authoritative. One was just shorter and arranged a little differently than the longer one. And you go,
• 7:23
  Speaker 2: well, there's a problem.
• 7:26
  Speaker 1: Actually, there isn't. Let's talk about the four
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  Speaker 2: gospels, especially synoptic gospels, Matthew, Mark, and Luke.
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  Speaker 1: They used the same material. Okay? Two of them copied from Mark, and they added some other stuff in it. But nothing in any of the four gospels contradicts. They taught to a different audience.
• 7:51
  They used different teaching styles. One's didactic, one's dialectic, one's experiential. But it's the same stuff presented a little differently. Well, that's exactly what we have here.
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  Speaker 2: We have two versions written by Isaiah, excuse me, Jeremiah, and but they're different.
• 8:14
  Speaker 1: So we should do just like the Essenes and the Dead Sea Scrolls and Qumran. Treat them as both authoritative. Just, you know, you're looking at Jeremiah in three d, guys. Hence the title for this channel. How could this happen?
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  How could
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  Speaker 2: Jeremiah essentially write two different versions of the same thing. Well,
• 8:45
  Speaker 1: this is why it makes it very unique and I
• 8:47
  Speaker 2: think very, very plausible. Jeremiah was a prophet. What does it mean to be a prophet? A prophet speaks for God to the people and to the king of the Hebrews, Israelites.
• 9:05
  Speaker 1: And what is the subject? It always deals with a covenant that was made between God and the Hebrews through Moses. Now we think of the law of Moses and we think of the 10 commandments and sure. The thing of it is God actually gave Moses about 618 different laws. We just know the first 10.
• 9:32
  I didn't come up with that number. Supposedly the rabbis say that's the number. And so they come out of Egypt, all these miraculous things, they walk on dry land through the water, they have fire and smoke and all these things and water comes out of a rock. They finally get to Mount Sinai, also called Mount Horeb, and God says, I I want to make a covenant with you. Well, covenant is not a word we use today.
• 9:58
  So a modern word is a contract. I will be your God, I will take care of you, but but you have to do what I say. And so I give you all these laws and if you obey them, I will take care of you. And and you will you will always be successful. So the people go, okay, okay, yep, yep, we'll agree, we'll agree.
• 10:20
  So there's this big ceremony and, you know, all these animals are killed, their floats are cut, blood is thrown here, thrown on the people, thrown on the mountain, you know. Now today, we wouldn't have blood. We'd have a notary. Okay? Again, this is a contract.
• 10:38
  But the thing about this contract
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  Speaker 2: is it's it's forever contract. And you can't decide that you want out of the contract.
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  Speaker 1: You can't buy your way out. You you you know, this is a always eternal contract that will be fulfilled. Then it was fulfilled in Christ, but it's a contract. And so people say, yes, we will do this. And almost immediately they rebel.
• 11:07
  At some point, the rebellion is so bad, they don't wanna go into the promised land. And God says, You don't wanna go? Well, you don't have to go. So he leads them in a circle out in the desert for another thirty nine years until all of the men over the age of 20 are dead. So the children and grandchildren are now adults and they rise up to take the place of that generation.
• 11:33
  Realize the book of numbers consists of two census. The census at the beginning is of the original generation and of about 500,000 men. They all die in this thirty nine year period, and then there's a census at the end, which is now the, you know, younger generation. So think of it as, okay, all the boomers die out, now you got the gen x and the gen z guys standing up and okay. They're they're they get numbered and there's about half a million of them.
• 12:07
  And before they go into the promised land, they're on the East Side Of The Jordan.
• 12:14
  Speaker 2: And before they go in, Moses is aging out. And he wants that new generation to now commit to the covenant. And so we can read
• 12:27
  Speaker 1: about that in the book of Deuteronomy, only this time, God adds some extra stuff. And that is progressive discipline. And you can read that in the book of Deuteronomy, the blessings and the curses. If you keep the contract,
• 12:44
  Speaker 2: you get blessed. If you don't, then you
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  Speaker 1: get cursed. And these curses are progressive, like progressive discipline in the modern workplace. Now in a modern workplace, okay, the first time you get an oral reprimand and a written and then you go all the way to
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  Speaker 2: the end. And, of course, the end is you get fired. With these guys,
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  Speaker 1: all these bad things would happen to them, but ultimately, another nation would come in, destroy them, and take their land away, cut them out of the land, kill most of them, and and send the rest into exile. So the prophet's job was to speak for God and to tell the people, you're doing bad. Okay? You're not keeping the covenant and these things are gonna happen to you. Friends, you don't ever wanna be a prophet.
• 13:34
  The life of a prophet, it doesn't usually end well. Isaiah, we are told, was sawed in half. Jeremiah gets to Egypt and he's killed. You know, you don't ever wanna be a prophet, but you you are called to speak for God. And usually what you
• 13:51
  Speaker 2: say is stuff they don't wanna hear. Now, Jeremiah is kind
• 13:56
  Speaker 1: of an interesting guy because he's from the upper class. His father was a priest. So you don't take on the role of priest until you're at least 30. K? So sometime before he turns 30, God says you're not gonna be a priest, you're gonna be a prophet.
• 14:15
  And he has a career as a prophet for approximately forty years. The first half of his life as a prophet or his career, he is a speaking prophet. The second half of his career, he is a writing prophet. Now he still speaks when somebody will let him, but about midway point, God says, I want you to write down the things I'm gonna tell you to say, and I want that I want you to write down the things I told you to say in the last twenty years. What's the nice thing about being in that family?
• 14:55
  Jeremiah grew up in a country club, he went to the best private schools, you know. You know, he knows the high priest because he's a priestly family. You know, he can go to the palace and knock on the door and say, hey,
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  Speaker 2: you know, king, you know,
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  Speaker 1: I gotta talk and they'll let him in.
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  Speaker 2: He, you know, he's got he's got the a list.
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  Speaker 1: And so he's able to go and little by little, the kings are just tired of listening to him because they don't wanna be told they're bad. And the other priests and and other important people are are they don't wanna hear this, you know, that they're they're gonna get punished. When Jeremiah is told to write it down about halfway point, We are now in kind of the final cycle of the progressive discipline. The next twenty years or so is just going from bad to worse.
• 15:57
  Speaker 2: How bad was it? I'd like
• 15:59
  Speaker 1: to use the example of the prophet Ezekiel. He was taken in the second deportation to Babylon and he was raised up as a prophet to there's a little over 7,000 or so people that were taken, and I'll explain all that in a moment. And so he was raised up as a prophet to those people. And at some point, he's, you know, he's the guy that sees what they think is a UFO and all these kind of things, you know. Fascinating to read the first part of Ezekiel.
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  The important thing for us though
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  Speaker 2: is God wants to Ezekiel to understand how bad things are and why it will not end well for Judah. And so some, you know, heavenly entity takes Ezekiel in the spirit.
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  Speaker 1: You know, is sort like Ebenezer Scrooge, you know, the ghost of Christmas past comes and takes him and shows him all these things. I mean, he can see it, but he's kind of in the spirit. Well, that's what happens. And this heavenly being takes Ezekiel back to Jerusalem, and he takes him into the temple. Now nobody can see them, of course, because they're in the spirit.
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  And what the heavenly being shows Ezekiel is that the priest of Yahweh
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  Speaker 2: are worshiping and sacrificing to idols. I mean,
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  Speaker 1: come on. Isn't that, you know, kind of the most important commandment? Honor the Lord your God? And here you are worshiping idols? Showing how bad the the spiritual and religious side of of the culture had become.
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  Then this heavenly being takes him and shows him some important people there in Jerusalem and they're diddling little boys.
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  Speaker 2: Oh my. I mean, oh my.
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  Speaker 1: And it sounds like our culture doesn't it? Okay. But I digress. The point to Ezekiel is this is how bad it's become, and so it's time for judgment. So you have to get the 7,000 or so that were in the second deportation.
• 18:16
  You have to you have to help them to understand that this this is why this has to happen and you've just seen proof of it. Alright. So these are the kind of things that are happening in the life of Jeremiah. He knows that. And he hires this young guy whose name is Baruch.
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  Speaker 2: Okay. Baruch,
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  Speaker 1: he's an aristocrat. He's a young man. He, you know, like Jeremiah a generation later, you know, grew up in a country club, went to all the private schools, knows everybody, you know. You can always get a you can always get into the restaurant and the rest of my yeah. Alright.
• 19:02
  Speaker 2: Baruch's older brother, I think his name is Sariah, was an important official working for the king.
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  Speaker 1: And at some point, under Zedekiah, he became the chamberlain.
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  Speaker 2: So think of this as the state department.
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  Speaker 1: Soraya's got a really important job. Alright? He's working for the state department, and he's pretty high up.
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  Speaker 2: And that's what Baruch I mean, he idolizes his older brother,
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  Speaker 1: that's what he wants to do. And it's clear that as time goes on and he's described and he's writing down all this stuff for Jeremiah, it's getting dangerous. At some point, they throw Jeremiah in a well. He's imprisoned. And so Jeremiah sends Baruch to go, you know, read all these condemning prophecies.
• 19:57
  You know, your life in
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  Speaker 2: your hands and Baruch's kinda freaking out. I believe it's chapter 43 where God it's
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  Speaker 1: the shortest chapter in the Bible. And God speaks through Jeremiah directly to Baruch to Baruch and he says, Baruch, it's not gonna end well. There is gonna be no state department. There is gonna be no Judah. There is gonna be no king.
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  There's gonna be no Jerusalem. He didn't say it that way but his point is
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  Speaker 2: wrath is coming. The shekels
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  Speaker 1: in your pocket are worthless. The land your property owns is worthless or it will be worthless. All the a listers will be dead. He says, you seek great things for your life. You wanna become secretary of state or something.
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  Don't. You wanna be CEO? Don't work for those things.
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  Speaker 2: He says, you know, serve faithfully as the secretary and I will give you your life. Wherever you go, I will give you your life. You will not die. You'll die in old age. You know, isn't that,
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  Speaker 1: you know, really a gift for all of us, especially as I get as I'm an old man now. You know, all those trophies, they they don't mean anything. You're going to have your life. Rejoice in that. So that's the kind of stuff that's going on here.
• 21:32
  Now as Baruch comes on as the secretary, the final phase as I said begins in six zero five BC. This general Nebuchadnezzar of the neo Babylonians, he fights a battle and he he's the underdog. And he defeats the Egyptians at the battle of Kirkemesh. This is probably one of the greatest battles in ancient history because nobody was expecting that. And during this process, many of the the little small little kingdoms up there, you know, near Assyria and Babylonia, they're they're supporting the Egyptians.
• 22:20
  Well, the Egyptians lose. So Nebuchadnezzar just kinda goes from kingdom to kingdom, knocks down the door, steals money, takes hostages, you know, and explains to people, you work for me now. Okay. They take youth and it looks like it was the nobility that was taken. That's a six zero five BC back to Babylon and the Daniel would have been one of them.
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  Now people will say I'm wrong for what I'm gonna
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  Speaker 2: say now, but I'm not making this up.
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  Speaker 1: The prophet Isaiah said this. The prophet Isaiah is talking to king Hezekiah. King Hezekiah did something stupid in front of
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  Speaker 2: the Babylonians and Isaiah said, because of what you just did, the Babylonians will
• 23:08
  Speaker 1: come back someday and they will take your own flesh and blood as eunuchs to work in the palace in Babylon. Well, Meshach, Sadrach, and Abednego, and Daniel, that's what happened to them. So if you're gonna be a slave, just word to the wise. Always volunteer to work out in the field.
• 23:31
  Speaker 2: It's hard work but,
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  Speaker 1: you know, if you make the application to work in the big house, they have to make sure that you won't misbehave with the girls so yeah. You're neutered. So that happened. About 2,000 of these young guys are taken as hostages and, you know, only those that end up in the palace, of course, get the cut. I've talked about that in my episodes on Daniel.
• 23:59
  Honestly, if you listen to those, I think you'll cry. So this should have been a warning to the king and the people. Okay. We're getting into the final phases of Deuteronomy where, you know, progressive discipline. Okay.
• 24:15
  The Northern Kingdom of Israel had already been taken and scattered and they were all gone because they had abandoned God.
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  Speaker 2: And now Judah is
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  Speaker 1: going along the same path. So there's a king and he's like, okay, okay, I'll support you. You know, at some point, Nebuchadnezzar goes home, his dad dies, he becomes a king, and the king rebels. And five ninety seven BC, Nebuchadnezzar comes back and he says, I told you not to do that. And so he takes the king
• 24:52
  Speaker 2: and it looks like 7,000 other Jews, you know,
• 25:00
  Speaker 1: and money and goes back to Babylon. And sets a new person, this guy named Zedekiah on the throne. You know, it's all the same family. They're all brothers, sons, grandsons, that kind of stuff. So this guy Zedekiah, he's the last king, set him on the throne.
• 25:18
  And it's like, better watch out, better not shout. I'm telling you why, because bad things will happen to you if you rebel. Well, does Ezekiel do? He rebels. So 587, 586 or so, Nebuchadnezzar comes back or he sends somebody back and he's like, okay boys, three times and you're out.
• 25:41
  And so no more mister nice guy. He takes the city, he he destroys all the cities around Jerusalem. Okay. So destroying all the little cities even Lakish and eventually he gets to Jerusalem and takes the city. They break down the wall.
• 25:59
  They destroy the temple. Most people are killed. And Zedekiah is taken out and all of his sons are brought before him and he has to watch as the Babylonians slaughter his sons. And when they're done killing his sons, they gouge out his eyes and take him back blinded back to Babylon. It's kinda like a monkey.
• 26:25
  Alright. Everything that you weren't supposed to do, they did. They got all these warnings including a twenty year buildup of these deportations. And they still continue to dishonor God and not do what God told them. And so this is Jeremiah.
• 26:44
  He is called the weeping prophet. Jeremiah wrote obviously two versions of the book of Jeremiah. He wrote Lamentations. I think it's Lamentations three twenty two and twenty three. Because the Lord's great love we are not consumed for his compassions never fail.
• 27:02
  They are
• 27:03
  Speaker 2: new each morning. Great is your faithfulness. I recite that every morning in my morning prayer.
• 27:10
  Speaker 1: First and second Kings are also attributed to Jeremiah. Well, obviously he dictated and Baruch did all the writing. Alright. So we get to the end, they lose, and the commander is rounding everybody up that he hasn't killed, take them back to Babylon. And they they bring Jeremiah in Jeremiah in before the commander.
• 27:33
  And he says, so you're Jeremiah.
• 27:36
  Speaker 2: Yes, sir. They they say you're a prophet. What is that? We we don't have prophets. Okay.
• 27:44
  I I speak for my God Yahweh when he tells me to speak.
• 27:51
  Speaker 1: Oh, you're a holy man. Yeah. Yeah. I'm a holy man. Yeah.
• 27:56
  Speaker 2: I'm a holy man.
• 27:57
  Speaker 1: And so they tell us that you told Zedekiah and all these people not to rebel. Why why did you do that? Well, because my God Yahweh told me to do that.
• 28:09
  Speaker 2: Oh, okay. So the commander gets
• 28:13
  Speaker 1: a gives him a get out of jail free card. He gives him a pass. And he tells Jeremiah,
• 28:21
  Speaker 2: you can go anywhere you want. You're not
• 28:24
  Speaker 1: a prisoner. You're not a hostage. You did what God told you to do and you supported us. Your friends don't like you but okay. You can go wherever you want.
• 28:34
  The commander leaves and they take whatever people they can find back.
• 28:40
  Speaker 2: And there is some Jew that's put
• 28:44
  Speaker 1: I think it's anyway, there's some Jew that's put in charge of what's left at Jerusalem. Now some of the other cities were taken but they were destroyed. So there are still some people but, you know, it's not too
• 28:55
  Speaker 2: many. And so Jeremiah
• 29:01
  Speaker 1: is trying to work with those that are left and some bad guys rise up. And they now want to rebel against the Babylonians. And you're like, guys, did you not watch what happened over the last twenty years? Eventually, these bad guys round up as many of the Jews that are still there and they hightail it to Egypt. Well, you know, Egypt is an enemy of the Babylonians.
• 29:27
  So essentially, you've got quite eventually, you've got quite a Jewish community that that's living I think it's Tannis was the name of the city in Egypt. In fact, when Joseph takes Mary and the baby and they're fleeing from King Herod, they go to Egypt until Herod dies. Well, where did they go? Well, they would have gone to these Jewish communities that had been set up after the destruction of of Jerusalem by by the Babylonians. Now, here's kinda long story to say.
• 30:04
  I think you can see how two versions. So for the first twenty years or first part of the
• 30:10
  Speaker 2: forty years, Jeremiah
• 30:13
  Speaker 1: is speaking and then he's dictate once he hires Baruch. And so, you know, Baruch's got Manila folders all over his desk with, okay, I copied this down. Oh oh, I got another story. That's one of the frustrating things about reading Jeremiah is that it's in loose chronological order in that the beginning and the end are in chronological order. But a lot of the chapters in the middle are not in chronological order.
• 30:40
  They're grouped together by topic, and some of them are, you know, one chapter, the next chapter might be many years later or could be many years before. And I think you can see how during all that confusion Barak is writing all this stuff down and okay. There are people in Jerusalem who before conquest who obviously thought that Jeremiah was a prophet and he was speaking God's word. I think when everybody was taken to Babylon after the final five eighty six their conquering. We know that they took manuscripts which eventually in the Babylonian or Persian order were were transformed into, you know, the basic model of our old testament.
• 31:33
  Refined a little bit, but there you go. I think they had copies of Jeremiah's stuff. But it wasn't, you know, in a coherent form, you know, because there's stuff all over. I believe that when Jeremiah and Baruch got to Egypt, Jeremiah was gone. Well well, Barry, we gotta get back to what we're doing.
• 31:56
  And so and and so I think he then dictates it all over again. Obviously, in a little bit shorter form. So that I think is where we get the two the two versions. Again, nothing contradicts little different arrangement. There's some extra chapters.
• 32:17
  Again, nothing of significance. Jeremiah is not a problem. It's not a difficulty if you understand the history and you understand what's going on. I'm really amazed as I study those two men, Baruch and Jeremiah. Jeremiah was a crying prophet.
• 32:40
  That's what they call him. Because of what God told him to say, he cried. He had to bring the bad news. He knew what was going to happen to people and he just wept and wept bitterly. And here was Baruch.
• 32:59
  Thought the world was ahead of him. Only to be told, no. The best thing that's gonna happen to you is you're gonna keep your life. I don't know what times we're coming into friends, but I pray that God will give you your life. Whatever hardships that we're gonna face, and I think we are, God is there.
• 33:22
  And he will direct our lives just as he directed Jeremiah and Baruch. In Jesus name I pray dear Lord, give us encouragement, give us faith knowing that you hold all things in your hand and you work all things together for the good of those who put their faith in you. In Jesus name, I pray. Amen.
• 33:45
  Speaker 3: Thank you for tuning in to this episode of The Bible in three d. We're so grateful for listeners like you. Your encouragement helps us create and share more transformative content that strengthens communities worldwide. If this episode inspired you, consider supporting our nonprofit mission with a donation at cogworksmedia.org. Also, be sure to check out our other podcast, Biblical Reflections, for more faith insights.
• 34:12
  God bless.