Introduction

This quest for criteria for critical discernment of prophetic authenticity will start in what is arguably the only book in the Old Testament to engage with the issue in a focussed and explicit rather than ad hoc way – Jeremiah. The general reason for the presence of such criteria within the book would appear to be the particular context within which Jeremiah's prophetic ministry was situated. The final years of the kingdom of Judah (late seventh and early sixth centuries) raised in an unprecedentedly disputed way the question of what kind of future, if any, the kingdom was to have, especially in relation to the growing power of Babylon. Jeremiah's witness in this context was contested by other prophets in a way that is not evidenced in the books associated with Hosea, Amos, Isaiah, or Micah, or the post-exilic prophets. It is not that the words of these other prophets do not encounter their own opposition, but such opposition is predominantly expressed in terms of a reluctance to take their challenge seriously rather than in terms of alternative Yahwistic prophetic messages.