Baruch
Baruch ties Wisdom directly to the Torah in chapter 4, and that's a real theological step.
Read this if you…
- want one of the Apocrypha — books Protestants cut but Catholics and Orthodox kept
- like the Wisdom poem at its center: Wisdom personified as a gift God gave to Israel alone
- care about exile literature: writing from Babylon, trying to keep a defeated people's identity alive
Skip this if you…
- don't want to read explicitly religious/Christian texts
Why It Matters
Baruch ties Wisdom directly to the Torah in chapter 4, and that's a real theological step. Wisdom here isn't abstract philosophy you could find anywhere. It's the specific thing God gave Israel through Moses.
Depicted in Art
A monumental, white-bearded Jeremiah looms over the seated Baruch, who poises his quill above an open scroll to take down the prophecy.
Washington Allston, 1820
Baruch, robed and bearded, sits brooding against a massive stone wall, the destroyed city implied behind him.
Gustave Doré, 1866
Red-chalk study of Baruch's head and torso, his hand clutching drapery, prepared for the Lateran prophet oval.
Francesco Trevisani, 1718
Recommended Editions
King James Version
Cambridge University Press · 1611
The most influential and commonly quoted translation in English. The prose rhythm everyone else is responding to, even modern translations.
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Deep Dive
What It's About
This summary gives away plot details.
Notable Quotes
“Afterward did he shew himself upon earth, and conversed with men.”
“He hath found out all the way of knowledge, and hath given it unto Jacob his servant, and to Israel his beloved.”