Jeremiah 36 Footnotes

36:2 Even though God did not preserve this particular scroll as Scripture (the king destroyed it, v. 23), its contents were evidently preserved as Scripture within the book of Jeremiah. What God communicated to his people (v. 3) as his revelation through the prophet (v. 2) was first committed to memory before being dictated to Baruch (v. 4). Therefore, Jeremiah could replace the text after the scroll was lost, and, in the meantime, the Lord gave him additional revelation (v. 32). This is an example of one process of revelation—how God communicates his word to his people through inspired spokesmen (2Pt 1:21).

The scarcity of writing skills and materials in the ancient Near East required people to rely upon memory to a degree that is difficult to envision today within the technology of the modern Western world. As long as a culture remains stable, texts can be preserved through oral recitation and memorization with a high degree of reliability, especially if there is a group of people who share the tradition and can act as a check on errors that might creep in. The prophets of Israel did not work in isolation; they had disciples (Is 8:16)—in Jeremiah’s case, Baruch at least—to help preserve their words (see note on Lk 1:1-4). Some portions of Scripture may have existed in oral form for long periods of time, being committed to writing only when it appeared that the community that preserved them was in danger of being disrupted. Jeremiah’s scroll gives a glimpse of how this process operated in the short-term.

36:12 The writer recorded the names of those involved in this event (vv. 10,14,20,25-26; see Mk 5:22; 15:21; Lk 23:50; Jn 3:1; 18:10). From this we can draw two conclusions. First, the writer was an eyewitness to the event or had contact with eyewitnesses. Second, the event must have been recorded correctly, since there is a record of people who could have corrected any errors (Ac 26:26; 1Co 15:6). These facts support the reliability of this record as an example of the general reliability of the historical accounts in Scripture.

36:30 Jehoiakim’s son held the throne for only three months, which by all reasonable measures would be considered a failure (2Kg 24:8-15). Then Jehoiakim’s brother ruled in Jerusalem, but only as a “puppet“ of Babylon (Jr 24:18). The Bible does not expressly state that Jehoiakim’s corpse was exposed, but while the account of the death of a king often includes a record of his burial (1Kg 2:10; 11:43; 14:31; 15:8,24; 16:6,28; 22:50), Jehoiakim’s does not (2Kg 24:6; 2Ch 36:8). There is no substantive reason to doubt that Jeremiah’s prophecy about him was fulfilled.