The Development of Hebrew and the Book of Jeremiah

This chapter is a linguistic examination of the book of Jeremiah which contributes to understanding both the development of ancient Hebrew and the place of the book in that history. Since the inception of critical study of the Hebrew Bible, scholars have engaged in the linguistic periodization of its constituent texts. According to the regnant paradigm, Biblical Hebrew divides into pre-exilic Classical Biblical Hebrew (CBH) and post-exilic Late Biblical Hebrew (LBH). Scholars employ control samples and rigorous methods to identify linguistic features characteristic of particular chronolects and to periodize texts based on concentrations of characteristic features, all the while taking into account the “noise” caused by other sources of linguistic diversity, textual fluidity, and literary development. The present chapter focuses on linguistic diachrony and the book of Jeremiah. It examines where the book fits into the history of ancient Hebrew—arguing that it represents a transitional Hebrew between CBH and LBH; how diachronic sensitivity supports or contradicts theories concerning the book’s formation and development (including the theory of short and long versions and other notions of a composite text); and how the awareness of chronolects can contribute to the exegesis of interpretive cruxes.