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Hebrew Studies 40 (1999) 324 Reviews prophetic figure, such that a new prophetic call issues forth to these children-the people as a corporate entity. Overall this is a serviceable volume that would prove helpful to the work of exegesis and may provide a provisional model for how graduate students could work with intertextual readings of biblical texts. The treatment of Hebrew grammar and vocabulary, while not extremely technical, requires the reader have competence with the language. Finally, one useful feature would have been the inclusion of indices that would allow the reader to cross-reference material Willey presents in her argument. Vicloria Siapleion Union Theological Seminary New York. NY 10027 vla4@columbia.edu A COMMENTARY ON JEREMIAH: EXILE AND HOMECOMING. By Walter Brueggemann. pp. xiv + 502. Grand Rapids, MI: William B. Eerdmans, 1998. Paper, $32.00. In Jer 36:32, we are told that following the burning of Jeremiah's prophecies by Jehoiakim, they were rewritten "and many similar words were added to them:' Brueggemann's two-volume commentary on Jeremiah published as part of the International Theological Commentary series met no such unhappy fate, but nevertheless reappears in a one-volume format with a new preface and introduction. The object of the book is to provide the believing reader (Jewish or Christian) with an accessible, God-oriented commentary on the text of Jeremiah. Questions of the authenticity of the book which bears Jeremiah's name are of secondary interest. This is also true, by and large, of those of historical background and language, although reference is made to the Hebrew text from time to time. For Brueggemann, it is the final form of a passage. or indeed of a book which speaks to us today. In this respect. Brueggemann owes much to the canonical interpretations of Brevard Childs and Ronald Clements, although lacking the explicit Christian overtones which characterize the work of these scholars. The pastor and the seminary student will fmd this book a very welcome addition to their library. Brueggemann's exposition of the text is adequate in its detail, and always lucid. Helpful footnotes direct the reader to further reading on historical background and scholarly viewpoints (although not to those scholars whom he terms "ideological" in their approach, e.g., Hebrew Studies 40 (1999) 325 Reviews Carroll, McKane). Within the text of the commentary, the main ideas of a passage are often summarized with a list of bullet points. For all of this, Brueggemann deserves praise. His commentary successfully achieves what it sets out to do on this level. For those who are new to Jeremiah studies, it may well score over the more heavyweight works of Carroll, McKane, or Holladay, since Brueggemann's exposition provides the text with a feeling of unity. By the same token, however, Brueggemann's reading is not as "innocent" as he would like to suggest. Just as the book of Jeremiah is a commentary which tells us more about the values and belief system of the people who wrote it than about the prophet, so its contemporary equivalent is often as revealing about Brueggemann's view of the world as the purported subject of the commentary. For those already familiar with Brueggemann's work on Jeremiah, particularly if they have read his two-volume commentary, the most significant part of the book will be the introduction in which Brueggemann assesses the major commentaries which have appeared in the past decade or so. For Brueggemann, Holladay's work is an important example of traditional historical-critical scholarship in that he attempts to establish a concrete connection between the text and what he sees to be the historical reality of Jeremiah the prophet; in contrast, Carroll and McKane are working towards distancing the book of Jeremiah from any recoverable historical background, preferring to focus on the history of the text. Brueggemann's argument is that we have come to a dead end in Jeremiah studies. The general non-acceptance of Holladay's Jeremianic biography by the scholarly world in favor of something to a greater or lesser extent approaching that of Carroll signifies that the historical critical method of looking at Jeremiah, if not dead already, is on its way out...

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