Associate Professor, Department of Biblical Studies, Faculty of Theology, University of Aarhus.

Project: "Normativity in the Book of Jeremiah."

The point of departure of the research project is that the Book of Jeremiah, as a part of the Biblical canon, is presumed to communicate an authoritative message. One methodological question in this connection is, how do we define the relation between authority and normativity? The two concepts are not identical but they do have an interface which justifies a concurrent treatment. Therefore, it is necessary from the outset to define what is meant by authority and normativity in the Bible – especially the Old Testament.

The methodological considerations will be followed by a socio-historical investigation of normativity and authority in the Book of Jeremiah. The authority in the Book of Jeremiah is presumed to be meant to create a normativity which can function in a society in crisis, i.e. the exilic/post-exilic early-Jewish society in Babylon and the Persian province of Yehud. This issue is dealt with from the angle of refugee-studies and PTSD-studies. PTSD (Post Traumatic Stress Disorder) usually causes confusion of norms. There are two strategies to prevent this: strengthening of norms and replacement of norms. The Book of Jeremiah is an example of strengthening of norms.

On this background the main question of the study is: How does the Book of Jeremiah communicate normativity? The hypothesis is that the narrated persona "Jeremiah the prophet" is the vehicle by which normativity is communicated. This prophet is communicated in poetry as well as in prose, which suggests an interaction between two different communication strategies. It is also the thesis that communication takes place through the narrative pattern that "the prophet" is both disjugated from and conjugated with God and the people. The same pattern can be seen in the relation between God on one side and prophet and people on the other.

Thus, the focus of the study will be twofold through analyses of the poetic texts and the narrative texts, respectively.

In the Book of Jeremiah there are two kinds of poetry: (a) oracles (in a general sense), i.e. the words of God and (b) confessions, i.e. human speech. These two kinds of oracles, however, are related by their connection to the same persona, Jeremiah the Prophet. The oracles stand in solidarity with God and thus in conflict with people, whereas the confessions stand in conflict with God, which may raise the question whether they stand in solidarity with people. Finally, there is a third kind of oracle, where God acts in solidarity with the people. The study will investigate the conjunctive and disjunctive strategies of these three types of oracles.

The question remains whether these strategies can be demonstrated in the narratives, which they probably can. The narrative about the writing down of the oracles of Jeremiah (Jer 36) is an example of the prophet’s absolute disjunction to the people (= the king) and his conjunction with the word of God. But are there also narratives which present a conflict with God similar to the conflict in the confessions? At least, we can refer to narratives dealing with the issue as to whether the prophet should stand in solidarity with the people or with its enemies, which are the tools of God (Jer 37-44).

On this background it should be possible to identify models which typify the interaction among the three parties: God – people – prophet, and perhaps between poetry and prose.

The aim of the project is to clarify, first of all, how normativity is communicated to the implied reader of the Book of Jeremiah and, secondly, whether such a normativity can be claimed to have contemporary legitimacy.