The Temple Sermon and the Term maqom in the Jeremianic Corpus

Abstract

The Hebrew term (see PDFfor character) possessed a special significance in the literature of the Josianic period, pertaining exclusively to Jerusalem and its Temple. Jeremiah’s Temple Sermon (Jer. 7.1-15) alters the function and institutional implications of the term by employing the very methods of the deuteronomistic scribes who appropriated the term for Josianic purposes. As a result, the sacral nature of the term (see PDFfor character) is retained, as is the spirit of deuteronomistic ideology, but the privileged status of Jerusalem and the Temple is eliminated. The prophet’s rhetorical strategy had a dramatic effect on subsequent modes of sacral consciousness, especially during the period of Babylonian hegemony when members of the prophet’s audience were scattered well beyond the precincts of Jerusalem.