Bible Dictionary
JEREMIAH
JEREMIAH
“Jehovah lifts up.”
(a, b, c) Name of a Benjamite and two Gadites who joined David in Ziklag (1 Chr. 12:4, 10, 13).
(d) Head of a family of the tribe of Manasseh, east of the Jordan (1 Chron. 5:24).
(e) Man from Libna, father of Hamutal, the wife of King Josiah and mother of King Jehoahaz (2 Kings 23, 30, 31).
(f) Son of Habasinías and father of Jaazanías. rechabitate (Jer. 35:3).
(g) One of the chief priests who returned from Babylon with Zerubbabel (Neh. 12:1, 7). A patriarchal family carries his name to the next generation (Neh. 12:12).
(h) Priest, undoubtedly head of a patriarchal house; he put his seal on the covenant made by those who kept themselves separate from foreign peoples, in order to follow the Law of God (Neh. 10:2).
(i) The prophet Jeremiah.
The son of a priest named Hilkiah, of Anathoth, in the territory of Benjamin (Jer. 1:1), Jeremiah was called by a vision to the exercise of the prophetic ministry. He was then a young man aware of his lack of maturity, experience and eloquence.
The Lord stretched out his hand, touching Jeremiah’s mouth, and giving him divine words. He gave him power over nations and kingdoms, to uproot and destroy, ruin and overthrow. but also to build and plant.
The Lord informed him that he would be the object of violent opposition from the chiefs, the priests, and the people. but that his adversaries would not prevail over him (Jer. 1:4-10). Jeremiah began prophesying in the thirteenth year of Josiah’s reign, and continued until the capture of Jerusalem in the fifth month of the eleventh year of Zedekiah (Jer. 1:2, 3). Thus, the public ministry of the prophet was:
18 years under Josiah,
3 months under Jehoahaz,
11 years under Jehoiakim,
3 months under Joaquín,
11 years and 5 months under Sedecías, for a total of 41 years. And after this he did not abandon his prophetic ministry (Jer. 42-44).
The men of Anathoth, his hometown, were among his first adversaries. They threatened to kill him if he continued to prophesy.
Jeremiah continued to do so, despite the persecutions, but suffered cruelly from the opposition against the work of the Lord from his fellow citizens, members of the chosen people. The prophet refers to divine judgment (Jer. 11:18-23; 12:3).
The hostility, which began at Anathoth, became widespread, once again raising the appeal for God’s judgment (Jer. 18:18-23; cf. Jer. 20:12). Jeremiah remained faithful, despite slander and persecution.
In the fourth year of Jehoiakim’s reign, Jeremiah dictated the prophecies that he had spoken during the previous twenty years; Baruch, the scribe, wrote them on a scroll. For a reason that is not given, Jeremiah was prohibited from going to the Temple.
Thus, he ordered Baruch to go with the scroll to the house of God, and to read the prophecies there before the people who came on the occasion of fasting. In the end, he ended up showing the scroll to the king who, having ordered some columns read to him, tore it with a penknife, and threw it into the fire (Jer. 36: 1-26).
The Lord commanded Jeremiah to immediately dictate a second scroll similar to the first, but with additions (Jer. 36:27-32). An enemy of Jeremiah, the priest Pashhur, who was governor of the Temple, had Jeremiah flogged and put in the stocks, but the next day he set him free (Jer. 20:1-3).
During the siege of Jerusalem, Jeremiah’s prophecies announced the victory of the Chaldeans and the captivity of Judah; The Jewish authorities tried to consider them not from a religious point of view, but from a political and military point of view.
They claimed that these gloomy defeatist claims discouraged Jerusalem’s defenders. When the Chaldeans raised the siege in order to go to battle the Egyptian expeditionary troops that came to the aid of Zedekiah, Jeremiah wanted to take advantage of the opportunity to leave the city and go to Anathoth.
Accused of deserting and wanting to go over to the Chaldeans, he was imprisoned (Jer. 37: 1-15), where he remained for a long time. King Zedekiah had him taken out and left him in the prison courtyard (Jer. 37:16-21), but soon the princes had him thrown into the bottom of an empty cistern, with the bottom full of mud, to let him die. there (Jer. 38:1-6).
An Ethiopian eunuch took pity on Jeremiah, and obtained permission from the king to take him out of there and return him to the prison yard; The prophet was there when Jerusalem was taken (Jer. 38:7-28).
The Chaldeans considered that Jeremiah had suffered for them, and Nebuchadnezzar gave orders to watch over him. Nebuzaradan, having given him provisions and gifts, placed him under the protection of Gedaliah, whom Nebuchadnezzar had appointed governor of Judah (Jer. 39:11-14; 40:1-6).
When Gedaliah was murdered by Ishmael, Jeremiah exhorted the Jews not to go to Egypt, but all to no avail. They left for Egypt, forcing Jeremiah to follow them (Jer. 41:1; 43:7). Jeremiah delivered his last predictions at Tahpanhes, in the land of Egypt (Jer. 43:8-44:30). Neither the date nor the circumstances of his death are known.
BETHEL
is the name of a Canaanite city in the ancient region of Samaria, located in the center of the land of Canaan, northwest of Ai on the road to Shechem, 30 kilometers south of Shiloh and about 16 kilometers north of Jerusalem.
Bethel is the second most mentioned city in the Bible. Some identify it with the Palestinian village of Beitin and others with the Israeli settlement of Beit El.
Bethel was the place where Abraham built his altar when he first arrived in Canaan (Genesis 12:8; Genesis 13:3). And at Bethel Jacob saw a vision of a ladder whose top touched heaven and the angels ascended and descended (Genesis 28:10-19).
For this reason Jacob was afraid, and said, “How terrible is this place! It is nothing other than the house of God, and the gate of heaven »and he called Bethel the place that was known as «Light» (Genesis 35-15).
Bethel was also a sanctuary in the days of the prophet Samuel, who judged the people there (1 Samuel 7:16; 1 Samuel 10:3). And it was the place where Deborah, the nurse of Rebekah, Isaac’s wife, was buried.
Bethel was the birthplace of Hiel, who sought to rebuild the city of Jericho (1 Kings 16:34).
When Bethel did not yet belong to the people of Israel, Joshua had to battle against the king of Bethel and other kings and defeated them (Joshua 12-16).
When the people of Israel had taken possession of the promised land, in the division by tribes it was assigned to the Tribe of Benjamin (Joshua 18-22), but in later times it belonged to the Tribe of Judah (2 Chronicles 13:19).
It was one of the places where the Ark of the Covenant remained, a symbol of the presence of God.
In Bethel the prophet Samuel judged the people.
Then the prophet Elisha went up from there to Bethel; and as he was going up the road, some boys came out of the city and mocked him, and said to him: “Go up, bald man; Come up, bald! When he looked back and saw them, he cursed them in the name of the Lord. Then two bears came out of the forest and tore to pieces forty-two boys” (2 Kings 2:23).
After the division of the kingdom of Israel, Jeroboam I, king of Israel, had a golden calf raised at Bethel (1 Kings 21:29) which was destroyed by Josiah, king of Judah, many years later (2 Kings 23:15). .
Bethel was also a place where some of the Babylonian exiles who returned to Israel in 537 BC gathered. (Ezra 2:28).
The prophet Hosea, a century before Jeremiah, refers to Bethel by another name: “Bet-Aven” (Hosea 4:15; Hosea 5:8; Hosea 10:5-8), which means ‘House of Iniquity’, ‘House of Nothingness’, ‘House of Vanity’, ‘House of Nullity’, that is, of idols.
In Amos 7: 12-13 the priest Amaziah tells the prophet Amos that he flee to Judah and no longer prophesy in Bethel because it is the king’s sanctuary, and the head of the kingdom.
The prophet Jeremiah states that “the house of Israel was ashamed of Bethel” (Jeremiah 48:13), because of their idolatry and, specifically, the worship of the golden calf.
PUTEOLI
(lat.: “small fountains”).
Two days after arriving in Rhegium, the ship carrying Paul arrived at Puteoli, which was then an important maritime city.
The apostle found Christians there, and enjoyed their hospitality (Acts 28:13).
It was located on the northern coast of the Gulf of Naples, near the site of present-day Pouzzoles.
The entire surrounding region is volcanic, and the Solfatare crater rises behind the city.
PUT
Name of a nation related to the Egyptians and neighbors of their country (Gen. 10:6).
Put is mentioned with Egypt and other African countries, especially Libya (Nah. 3:9) and Lud (Ez. 27:10; Is. 66:19 in the LXX. Put appears between Cush and Lud in Jer. 46:9; Ez. 30:5).
In the LXX he is translated as Libyans in Jeremiah and Ezekiel. Josephus also identifies it with Libya (Ant. 1:6, 2), but in Nah. 3.9 is distinguished from the Libyans.
Current opinion is divided between Somalia, Eastern Arabia and Southern Arabia (Perfume Coast).
PURPLE
A coloring substance that is extracted from various species of mollusks. The ancient Tyrians used two types of them: the “Murex trunculus”, from which the bluish purple was extracted, and the “Murex brandaris”, which gave the red.
The ink of its coloring matter varies in color depending on the region in which it is fished.
Piles of murex shells, artificially opened, have been discovered in Minet el-Beida, port of ancient Ugarit (Ras Shamra), which gives evidence of the great antiquity of the use of this purple dye (see UGARIT).
Due to its high price, only the rich and magistrates wore purple (Est. 8:15, cf. the exaltation of Mordecai, v. 2, Pr. 31:22; Dan. 5:7; 1 Mac. 10 :20, 62, 64; 2 Mac. 4:38; cf. v 31; Luke 16:19; Rev. 17:4).
The rulers adorned themselves in purple, even those of Midian (Judg. 8:26). Jesus was mocked with a purple robe (Mark 15:17).
Great use had been made of purple-dyed fabrics for the Tabernacle (Ex. 25:4; 26:1, 31, 36) and for the high priest’s vestments (Ex. 28:5, 6, 15, 33; 39: 29). The Jews gave symbolic value to purple (Wars 5:5, 4).
PURIM
(Heb., plural of “luck”).
Haman cast lots to determine a day of good omen for the destruction of the Jews.
As Haman’s designs were undone, the liberation of the Jews was marked by an annual festival (Est. 3:7; 9:24-32) on the fourteenth and fifteenth days of the month of Adar.
This festival is not mentioned by name in the NT, although there are exegetes who assume that it is the one referred to in Jn. 5:1.
This festival continues to be celebrated within Judaism: the book of Esther is read, and curses are pronounced on Haman and his wife, blessings are pronounced on Mordecai and the eunuch Harbonah (Est. 1:10; 7: 9).
PURIFICATION, PURITY
In the Mosaic Law four ways to purify oneself from contamination were indicated:
(a) Purification of contamination contracted by touching a dead person (Num. 19; cf. Num. 5:2, 3),
(b) Purification from impurity due to bodily emissions (Lev. 15; cf. Num. 5:2, 3).
(c) Purification of the woman in labor (Lev. 12:1-8; Luke 2:21-24).
(d) Purification of the leper (Lev. 14).
To this, the scribes and Pharisees added many other purifications, such as washing hands before eating, washing vessels and dishes, showing great zeal in these things, while inside they were full of extortion and iniquity (Mark 7: 2-8).
In Christianity the necessary purification extends:
to the heart (Acts 15:9; James 4:8),
to the soul (1 Pet. 1:22), and
to the conscience through the blood of Christ (Heb. 9:14).
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BETHEL
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