Before the Church · c. 300–200 BC
The Letter of Jeremiah
Anonymous
What it is
A warning to exiles bound for Babylon not to fear the idols carried in procession there. Seventy-two verses of relentless mockery, each closing with a refrain: they are not gods, so do not fear them. Their tongues are polished by carpenters, they cannot save themselves from rust, bats and swallows perch on their heads.
Why it lasted
The most sustained anti-idol polemic in ancient Jewish literature, and the model for the argument Paul makes at Athens and Lystra. Printed as Baruch chapter six in the Vulgate and separately in the Greek.
Scripture it works from
Where to read it
Public domain and free to read in full, though not held here. The archives below have it.
These open a search on each archive rather than a direct link, which is the honest way to point at an edition nobody here has checked line by line.
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