Jeremiah 33:14-26 : the question of text stability and the devaluation of kingship

Abstract

The versions of the book of Jeremiah might be considered the result of the text's steady preservation and actualisation by its redactors. Those redactors are considered to have been part of a supporting group for which this text was significant. Using Jer 33:14-26, the most extensive of the null variants of the Masoretic Text (MT), and its biblical (in particular its intra-Jeremian) intertexts as an example, this article seeks the supporting group's worldview and frame of orientation, which expresses itself both in the redactors' modes of reworking their "Vorlage" as in the content of the changes they make. It has already been proposed (by Bogaert and Lust) that whoever was responsible for the adding of Jer 33:14-26, might also have been responsible for certain MT variants in Jer 23:5-6 and 31:35-38, which are quoted by Jer 33:14-26. The differences in the MT's mode of reworking both texts however have hardly been noticed. It is those differences which seem particularly well suited to shed light on the supporting group's relevancies and frame of orientation, according to which texts and traditions concerning the royal figure of David seem already to have gained a certain degree of text stability. The LXX frequently serves as a horizon for a better understanding of the MT's mode of reworking the text.