The last post in Auckland

Just finishing off my last evening in Auckland, have had a brilliant catch up with Brett and Kristen, plus Richard and Jane who very kindly made room in their schedule to come over and have tea.

Lots of exciting conversations and learning spots today from Bruggermann, most of which are too convoluted to explain in less than 500 words. We’ve been dealing with Jeremiah today, and one of the theses is that Jeremiah does a fair amount of pastoral care. There is some debate as to what extent his “confessions” are personal prayers or whether they function as a metaphor for post exilic Judaism.

Then there is the way Jeremiah is quoted from less extensively in the book until by the end we hear more from the scribes eg Baruch. Prof calls this the development of scribalism and it is this scribalism that enables the development of Judaism.

There are lots of ironies. For example, it is the elite, the leadership that are criticised. Yet they are the ones that are dragged off to Babylon and it is the Babylon exiles who maintain the texts and the possibility of the development of a post exilic Judaism. The scribes keep the text, preach from it and interpret it. This is a highly educated, academic elite. Perhaps they ought to have kept the people from sinning. Instead, their failure is redeemed in exile and so we have Ezra, a scribe, leading the worship and the return to Jerusalem.

I am off to Parachute tomorrow, or at least to Hamilton and I suspect I might succumb to the temptation of a nice comfy bed with Bill and Annie rather than making it out to Parachute Friday night. But I am looking forward to a chance of direction with lots of music and even more catching up. Yay.