THE CALL OF JEREMIAH by DAVID TUDOR ... - David T Williams

13
1.5.3.1 The call as cultic liturgy. Reventlow also presents the call
narrative as a liturgy in which the prophet is ordained to his ministry by
a cultic official. The evidence he presents is the supposed existence of
examples of a similar Heilsorakel elsewhere in the Old Testament,
although Kilian (1967:367) notes that it does not occur with certainty
elsewhere in the historical books or Psalms. (Reventlow (1963:51)
also notes its rarity in the Psalms, which is perhaps where such would
be expected.) Otherwise he notes the appearance of the "word" in
Jeremiah 1 (p26) which suggests for him a liturgy rather than an actual
theophany, and such motifs as the womb (p36), but these have
alternative explanations, particularly in the connection with creation,
which Reventlow notes (p38).
From consideration of Jeremiah 1 and other calls, Reventlow suggests
a nine-point liturgy (p70f), although Berridge (1970:29) doubts that
Jeremiah fits it. An important feature of this is the objection, which
Reventlow identifies as a cultic response to the ordainer. Now it is true
that an objection is a common feature of the call, but the variety of
forms of the various objections must weigh against their being just a
point in a liturgy, but rather reflect a genuine expression of distress at
God's call. Similarly the very variation in the call narratives would be
unlikely in a stylized liturgy. (It is worth noting at this point that
Reventlow includes an epiphany as a point in the liturgy. This is of
course no problem to him from a liturgical point of view, but is
significant in view of the fact that the theophany in Jeremiah is