Jeremiah Chapter 1: Bible Study for Atheists

[00:00:00] Hey everyone, Husband here. And I'm wife. If you've been listening to us, then you know we're all about reading the Bible and reacting to it on our first read-through. Cuss words, crying, laughing and more. We're passionate about creating a podcast that takes the sanctity out of the sacred text and simply stating it as we see it. But we can't do it without your help. We're asking for your support to help us keep this podcast going. There are two ways you can donate. Text Sactis. That's S-A-C-D-I-S.

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[00:01:13] Welcome to Sacrilegious Discourse. I'm husband. And I'm wife. Together we're reading the Bible for the

[00:01:21] very first time. We grew up without religion and wanted to know what all the fuss was about.

[00:01:26] Well, what have we learned so far? That God is a dick, and apparently some people believe in

[00:01:31] talking donkeys? We're not trying to pass ourselves off as experts. Nope, we're just reading the Bible

[00:01:36] for the first time and giving our first take reaction. If you'd like to join us in this venture,

[00:01:40] you might consider starting in episode one. Otherwise, jump in wherever you like.

[00:01:44] Alright, let's go read the Bible. Yeah, let's get to it.

[00:01:50] Husband. Wife. We are starting a new book. We sure are. What book are we starting?

[00:01:56] We are starting Jeremiah. We are. We are done with Isaiah and into Jeremiah.

[00:02:02] Yes. And he's not a bullfrog. He's not. He's a prophet. He is. Yeah. So we'll see how this one goes.

[00:02:11] I don't have high hopes, but it's not Isaiah at any rate.

[00:02:16] I have a prophecy. You. Yeah, I do. What is it? That God's gonna suck.

[00:02:21] Because God's a dick. Yeah, pretty much. Okay.

[00:02:26] Alright, you ready to get into Jeremiah? Yes. Let's do this. Okie-dokie.

[00:02:33] Hi, I'm Una Chaplin and I'm the host of a new podcast called Hollywood Exiles.

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[00:03:11] Okay, so we're about to hop into the book of Jeremiah. We sure are.

[00:03:19] And we know he's not a bullfrog, but other than that, we don't know a lot about it.

[00:03:23] I don't know shit about Jeremiah. Yeah. I don't either. Yeah.

[00:03:26] Well, I mean, I do now because I took some notes. Yeah. So I thought I would give

[00:03:30] us a little intro before I hop into chapter one. Okay, sure. So the book of Jeremiah is the longest

[00:03:36] book in the Bible. Oh, fucking hell. I know. It has fewer chapters. It only has 52 chapters.

[00:03:42] Those are gonna be longer chapters. That's what I'm getting out of that. Yeah.

[00:03:46] Although this first chapter isn't too long. It's like medium length, whatever.

[00:03:50] Sure. Judgment, repentance, faith, and restoration are major themes of this book.

[00:03:59] - The Bible. Jeremiah lived circa 650 BCE to circa 570 BCE. So he kind of followed up Isaiah. He was - I think they might have overlapped, maybe. But he came after Isaiah. Interesting. Okay. Jeremiah was also called Jeremiah's, or he's also known as the weeping prophet.

[00:04:27] I see. So I don't know why. I hope we figure that out. Alright. Jeremiah was one of the major prophets of the Hebrew Bible. And according to Jewish tradition, Jeremiah authored the book of Jeremiah, the books of kings, so both first and second kings. Okay. Alright.

[00:04:45] And the book of lamentation. Sorry, I lost my face. Which we have not got to. Right. Right. So apparently he did that one too. Okay. With the assistance and under the editorship of Baruch Ben-Neria his scribe and disciple. I've heard that name before. Baruch Ben-Neria? Yeah. It sounds familiar. Not to me. I don't know why. But I feel like I've heard that name before. Okay. Maybe it's a popular - I don't know. Well, if you figure it out, let me know.

[00:05:13] We should. I mean, it's a name. They got a name. Yeah. And you know, so that must mean they're something. Somebody. Yeah. Well, he either wrote it or helped Jeremiah write all that shit. Interesting. That sounds like a special episode later. Sure. Probably.

[00:05:28] The consensus among scholars is that there was a historical prophet named Jeremiah, and that portions of the book probably were written by Jeremiah and or his scribe Baruch, as I just said. Okay.

[00:05:41] Okay. All right. Jeremiah is an important figure in both Judaism and Christianity. Islam also regards Jeremiah as a prophet and his narrative is recounted in Islamic tradition. Interesting. Okay.

[00:05:54] Yeah. So I probably could have gone on and said more, but that I think plays the good foundation for. Okay. Who the fuck? Why? Right. Yeah. Yeah. Okay.

[00:06:03] So now we're going to start Jeremiah chapter one. Sounds great. The words of Jeremiah, son of Hilkiah, one of the priests at Anathoth in the territory of Benjamin. Okay.

[00:06:14] The word of the Lord came to him in the 13th year of the reign of Josiah, son of Amman, king of Judah, and through the reign of Joachim, son of Josiah, king of Judah, down to the 5th month of the 11th year of Zedekiah, son of Josiah, king of Judah, when the people of Jerusalem went into exile.

[00:06:34] Fuck. Right. That was a lot to follow. It really was. Um, toward that end, I am going to break away from reading for a second and go back to my notes here. Okay. Sure.

[00:06:45] So this chapter serves as an introduction to the book of Jeremiah and relates Jeremiah's calling as a prophet. And what we just read was the first three verses, which are referred to as the superscription, where they're not really verses.

[00:07:00] They're an intro. Got it. Yeah. There's the family line. This is why he's a prophet. Yeah, blah, blah, blah. Yeah. And we've seen that before in some books. I don't always point it out hardcore, but because this one is like, what the fuck?

[00:07:13] Yeah. So verses one through three serve as a superscription that gives the introduction to the whole book by stating authoritative claims for its content.

[00:07:23] For 40 years, Jeremiah conveyed the word of the Lord to the people from the 13th year of King Josiah in six 27 BCE until the deportation of the people from Jerusalem, about 587 BCE.

[00:07:38] Okay. Yep. And so we start off with these first three verses with telling us who Jeremiah is. And according to judges, the book of judges.

[00:07:50] Yeah. And a thought was one of the Levitical or priestly cities.

[00:07:55] So, you know, where I said.

[00:07:58] Right. That's where he's from. Yep. Located within the land of the tribe of Benjamin, about three miles northeast of Jerusalem. Okay. And so he wasn't in the city. He was on the outskirts of it. And from certain vantage points in Anathoth, the walls of Jerusalem would be in full view. Okay. So like I said, he grew up not in the great capital, but within sight of it. Sure. Okay. Yep. So that's where we are. Okay. And. Okay, let me.

[00:08:28] Get back to reading. Yeah. Okay. Sorry. I don't normally go back and forth like this, but it just started out so like abruptly. Yeah. Like this is a lot of information and three versus go. And I was like, right? Yeah. I'm gonna need you to break that down. Sure. I feel a little bit better now. Okay. All right. Yeah. The word of the Lord came to me. So now I'm Jeremiah. Right. Okay.

[00:08:53] Before I formed you in the womb, I knew you before you were born. I set you apart. I appointed you as a prophet to the nations. A last sovereign Lord, I said, I do not know how to speak. I am too young. But the Lord said to me, do not say I am too young. You must go to everyone I send you to and say whatever I command you. Oh, do not be afraid of them for I'm with you and I will rescue you, declares the Lord. Wow.

[00:09:20] Then the Lord reached out his hand and touched my mouth and said to me, I put my words in your mouth. See, today I appoint you over nations and kingdoms to uproot and tear down to destroy and overthrow to build and to plant.

[00:09:34] At the age of 13 at the age of third time. Okay. Okay. So now I'm going to go back to my notes a little bit because I have a little bit more to say. All right. Okay. King Josiah, you know, that's when he started. That's when Jeremiah got called originally.

[00:09:48] King Josiah was one of the better kings of Judah and he was zealous for reform. According to Second Chronicles, it was in the eighth year of Josiah's reign that he quote unquote, sought the Lord.

[00:10:00] And a few years later began an aggressive campaign to purify Israel of idolatry and to return to the Lord.

[00:10:08] So God called both Josiah and Jeremiah to serve him and his people at the same time. I see. So this would have been better served to like greed will way back then.

[00:10:18] Sure. Sure. Sure. Sure. So in that list of kings that they gave that we were in the first three verses and we were like WTF, that's a lot of things.

[00:10:29] Right. There were two kings that were omitted and that was in verse three specifically and they were probably omitted because their reigns were so short comprising only three months each.

[00:10:41] Oh, wow. Yeah. If you remember, like when we read kings, like there were some that didn't make it very long.

[00:10:46] Yeah. And that's why they were omitted from that list. Let's see.

[00:10:51] Just making sure I don't need any other notes here. Okay. Oh, it says the fifth month. The official ministry of Jeremiah ends at the time of the deportation of the people from Jerusalem in July or August of 587 BCE.

[00:11:09] In the early part of the sixth century BCE, which is going to be very interesting to see kind of like, because we're seeing them right. This is going to butt right up against the exile.

[00:11:19] Yeah. So like we're going to see how this whole thing transitions into that or at least gets close to it anyway.

[00:11:25] Exactly. Exactly. So with regard to the call and preparation. Yeah.

[00:11:32] Of the call and preparation to the prophet Jeremiah, right. Ancient Jewish legends say that Jeremiah was so called that he was born circumcised and that he came out of the womb prophecy.

[00:11:47] Right. I was like, Oh, I have to include that in my notes.

[00:11:51] In fact, as the legend goes in his out of the womb prophecy, he

[00:11:57] He complained of the faithlessness of his mother. When she protested, he had to explain

[00:12:03] that he meant "mother" as a symbol for Jerusalem. He's like, "Bitch, I ain't talking about you."

[00:12:09] Oh my God. You know, these are like, fish stories, right? The shit is just crazy.

[00:12:17] Yeah, yeah, he came out on certain. Because he was so holy. Like, how's your dick look

[00:12:22] like? That'll tell me how holy you are. What does your dick look like? Like, okay.

[00:12:29] In verse 6, where he was like, "Dude, I'm too young. I can't do this." Like, what?

[00:12:35] Jeremiah was probably anywhere from 17 to 20 years old at this time. It was in the 13th

[00:12:41] year of... Oh, that King's reign. Yeah, Josiah's reign. Yeah. He likely felt that his inexperience

[00:12:47] due to his young age prevented him from being a good or authoritative messenger of God's word.

[00:12:52] Got it. So, you know. Blah, blah, blah. Sure. Okay. So, back to reading. Yep. Okay.

[00:12:58] The word of the Lord came to me. What do you see, Jeremiah? "I see the branch of an

[00:13:04] almond tree," I replied. The Lord said to me, "You have seen correctly, for I am watching

[00:13:10] to see that my word is fulfilled." Okay. Okay. Right. I gotta go back to my notes again.

[00:13:17] Okay. I know. I know. I'm doing that a lot this time around. Yeah. But there was a lot

[00:13:21] in this. Okay. Okay. So, that thing that I just read, "Ana Thoth remains a center for

[00:13:29] almond growing to this day. And if you visit the area in early spring, you will witness

[00:13:33] the unforgettable sight of almond trees in bloom. But that's not the important bit." Okay.

[00:13:39] Here we go. This is why I wanted to read this. "The Hebrew word for almond tree seikhed is

[00:13:45] close to and derived from the Hebrew word for wachful, sokhed." Okay. These verses contain

[00:13:53] a play on words that is lost in English. So, when he said, "You have seen correctly,

[00:13:59] for I'm watching to see that my word is fulfilled." That was a play on words. Okay. He's like,

[00:14:04] "I see an almond tree." Sure. So, that makes it a little, "Okay, I'll let you have that

[00:14:10] because I love word play." Right. Yeah. So, I just wonder how many times we've missed

[00:14:15] stuff like that, where we're like, "That's stupid." Right. Right. I mean, I'm certain

[00:14:21] there is so much lost in translation. Yeah. Well, not even lost in translation. But stuff

[00:14:27] that I didn't look closely enough at notes to see if there was anything that me and you

[00:14:33] would have missed. Sure. Sure. The scholars might have- Oh, I'm sure we've missed tons.

[00:14:38] Yeah. So, okay. I'm going back to reading now. And again, apologies for going back and

[00:14:43] forth. I don't normally do this, but you can see why I had to put that right. Yeah, it's

[00:14:47] a lot. Okay. "The word of the Lord came to me again. What do you see? I see a pot that

[00:14:53] is boiling," I answered. "It is tilting toward us from the north." "The Lord said to me,

[00:15:00] 'From the north, disaster will be poured out on all who live in the land. I'm about

[00:15:05] to summon all the peoples of the northern kingdoms,' declares the Lord. Their kings

[00:15:09] will come and set up their thrones in the entrance of the gates of Jerusalem. They will

[00:15:14] come against all her surrounding walls and against all the towns of Judah. I will pronounce

[00:15:20] my judgments on my people because of their wickedness and forsaking me in burning incensed

[00:15:26] other gods, and in worshiping what their hands have made, get yourself ready, get ready,

[00:15:33] stand up and say to them, 'Whatever I command you, do not be terrified of by them or I will

[00:15:39] terrify you before them.'" Wow. Don't be scared or I'll give you something to be scared

[00:15:43] about it. Wow, yeah, yeah, yeah. "Today I have made you a fortified city, an iron pillar

[00:15:50] and a bronze wall, to stand against the whole land, against the kings of Judah."

[00:15:56] It's officials, it's priests and the people of the land. They will fight against you, but will not overcome you for I am with you and will rescue you to clear the Lord.

[00:16:06] Wow, God really cares about this Jeremiah, dude.

[00:16:09] Yeah.

[00:16:10] Yeah, so that is it for Jeremiah chapter 1.

[00:16:16] Okay.

[00:16:16] That was a very strong introduction to this new character.

[00:16:22] Yeah, like we're off to the races with this one, I don't find it so far.

[00:16:26] Yeah, there was a, I mean, they had backstory, they had, you know, what, like, gave his

[00:16:31] authority reasons and like, said how he was starting out, like, this is very much, this

[00:16:38] is a much better story, yeah, so far.

[00:16:41] I like too that it, there's a note about it that he wrote this either with or it was

[00:16:49] written by an editor, you know, his disciple or follower, or helper.

[00:16:55] I would think that would mean that this is going to be a little bit stronger, like as

[00:16:58] far as the way it's read and the way it reads.

[00:17:02] Yeah, so I'm into it so far, so far, in so far as it's the Bible.

[00:17:06] Yeah, it's still, right, I mean, God's still going to be apparently destroying Israel and

[00:17:12] you know, people are not doing good enough things and it's still going to be the same

[00:17:17] thing.

[00:17:18] Right, but at least this might be a little bit less painful.

[00:17:22] Yeah, yeah.

[00:17:23] And that's a plus in my book.

[00:17:25] I agree.

[00:17:26] I agree.

[00:17:27] Um, while before we wrap up completely here, I would do want to remind people that tomorrow.

[00:17:30] Um, so if you're listening to this on Monday when it comes out tomorrow, Tuesday, Tuesday,

[00:17:35] we do a live, um, discord event every single Tuesday at 10 p.m.

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[00:17:50] No one there knew how to use discord before joining hardly.

[00:17:53] I still don't know.

[00:17:55] Yeah, wife still doesn't know something she's getting better though.

[00:17:58] I got into the room a couple of times by myself, and they don't even call it a room.

[00:18:02] I don't even know what the fuck it's called.

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[00:18:09] So please join.

[00:18:10] Um, and then that was Jeremiah chapter one.

[00:18:14] Sure as fuck was, which means that tomorrow we're going to be back with Jeremiah chapter

[00:18:19] two.

[00:18:20] All right, we'll see you guys then.

[00:18:25] Bye.

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