A01=J.Edward Wright
Author_J.Edward Wright
Category=DNBH
Category=QRAX
Category=QRJ
Category=QRM
Category=QRVC
eq_bestseller
eq_biography-true-stories
eq_isMigrated=1
eq_isMigrated=2
eq_nobargain
eq_non-fiction
Product details
- ISBN 9781570034794
- Weight: 333g
- Dimensions: 165 x 236mm
- Publication Date: 31 May 2003
- Publisher: University of South Carolina Press
- Publication City/Country: US
- Product Form: Hardback
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This work traces the evolution of a biblical figure whose legacy grew from that of a scribe who edited or wrote the Book of Jeremiah to a divine sage granted a tour of heaven itself. It charts the significance of a minor figure who gradually became a larger-than-life hero in the Jewish and Christian popular imagination. In addition to exploring biblical and postbiblical depictions, it also shows how the various portrayals reveal the leadership models and religious values of early Jewish and Christian communities. It suggests that these communities reinvented Baruch to meet the pressing issues of their day. The text examines the scribe as depicted in the Bible, noting his distinction as one of the few characters whose existence can be attested by archaeological evidence. A loyal friend of Jeremiah, Baruch is recorded to have received a mysterious oracle from God in the midst of Jerusalem's destruction by the Babylonians. The volume explores how beliefs about this message provided the postbiblical impetus for Baruch's transformation into an apocalyptic seer.
J. Edward Wright is director of Judaic Studies and an associate professor of Hebrew Bible and early Judaism at the University of Arizona. He holds a Ph.D. from Brandeis University. The author of The Early History of Heaven, selected by Choice magazine as one of its Outstanding Academic Books for 2000, Wright has received several national and international research fellowships, including a Yad Hanadiv/Rothschild Foundation Fellowship at Hebrew University. He lives in Tucson.
