Jeremiah 1 Footnotes
Share
1:1-3 This introduction is in the third person and mentions the beginning and end of Jeremiah’s ministry. It was probably written by the later compiler of the book. That would not diminish the authority of this paragraph as part of the inspired word of God. The book of Jeremiah was both inspired and inerrant in its final, canonical form as Baruch or others wrote it, whether under Jeremiah’s direct oversight or subsequently. For other third-person references to authors within their books written mostly in the first person, see Dt 1:1-5; 34:5-12; Ec 12:9-10; Am 7:12,14. Other biblical authors refer to disciples or scribes who actually wrote, or preserved, their words (Is 8:16; Rm 16:22).
1:5 This passage could be understood to mean that God interacted with Jeremiah before he was born (see note on Ps 139:16) as an affirmation of the personhood of the preborn. More likely, it means that God determined to make Jeremiah his spokesman before he ever existed, and brought about that design after he was born. These words can also be taken as Jeremiah’s expression of the fact that he could never get away from his calling as a prophet—it was “[in]born” in him—even though he sometimes wanted to (Jr 20:6-9,14-18).