What is the Letter of Jeremiah?
Jeremiah is one of the major prophets of the Old Testament and is very important in the history of the Hebrew people. It is understandable that later readers would be drawn to him. One way of demonstrating this respect was to create a writing in his name.
The Letter of Jeremiah is one such writing. While we do not know exactly when it was written, it is from no later than the second century BC. It is sometimes included as the sixth chapter of Baruch.
The main theme of this letter is that of polemic against idol worship. This is a form of writing among certain Jewish works that point out the foolishness of idolatry. It is not just that these gods don’t exist, it is the absurdity of a person carving an idol out of wood, that is creating the idol, and then bowing down to it as if it was the creator.
You can find the text for the Letter of Jeremiah online but I’m using the one found in the The New Oxford Annotated Bible.
