Jeremiah Under the Shadow of Duhm: A Critique of the Use of Poetic Form as a Criterion of Authenticity

Joe Henderson offers a critique of the assumption that poetic form in the book of Jeremiah indicates authenticity. This assumption undergirds Bernhard Duhms reconstructions (1901) of the prophets biography and the books composition, the basic components of the dominant paradigm for twentieth-century Jeremiah scholarship. Henderson argues that Duhms model is best understood as an attempt to bring the book into conformity with nineteenth-century systems of aesthetics, historiography, and theologyand with the Grafian reconstruction of the history of Israels religion. The accord between these systems and Duhms assumption about poetic form has less to do with their common grasp of the historical reality of Hebrew prophecy than with their common roots in the Romantic theory of prophetic and poetic inspirationa theory forged by Robert Lowth in his exposition (1752) of the poetry he found in the prophetic books.

Henderson contends that continued adherence to Duhms foundational assumption has held back recent attempts to move beyond Duhm and overcome the fragmentation of the book entailed by his model. Rhetorical critics, who maintain that Jeremiah 210 is unified by the structural devices of the historical prophet, and redaction critics, who maintain that Jeremiah 1120 is unified by the theological agenda of Deuteronomistic editors, both rely on the assumed authenticity of the poetry. Henderson observes that although these scholars have uncovered evidence of dramatic presentation in Jeremiah 220, they have failed to see that the dramatic nature of these chapters undermines their use for Duhms historical-critical projects and reveals what actually unifies themnarrative progression.