Life «Anew». A literary-theological study of Jer. 30-31

This book is a study of the hebrew text of Jer 30-31 using techniques of poetic analysis and having as an underlying focus the question of exegetical method. It examines the text in terms of its diction, prosody, syntax and imagery with a view to understanding the unit in its historical and literary contexts, and presents Jer 30-31 as a literary whole in which every element works together to communicate a single message: the promise of a new future, gratuitous gift of god. The careful literary analysis of this poetic cycle demonstrates that while the concept of salvation is the essential focus of the "little book of consolation" (Jer 30-31), the ideas of suffering and punishment are also highly developed and found throughout the whole. The book concludes with a brief consideration of the extraordinary use of the feminine image in Jer 30-31 and offers some hypotheses for its presence. in its use of literary poetic analysis this work moves beyond the questions of diachronic studies and thus implies that synchronic reading, with its focus on the final text as the ultimate bearer of meaning, is a valid exegetical method.