Deus Inimicus: Divine Word and Hostile Divine Presence in the Book of Jeremiah

Abstract

This article makes the case that the Jeremianic tradition construes the divine word as a mode of divine presence—indeed, a locus of hostile divine presence. This oft-neglected biblical conceptualisation of divine presence has the potential to call into question our submerged assumptions about the nature of divine presence, absence, and hiddenness. The investigation traces the echoes of the mīs pî pīt pî rituals in Jeremiah 1 as well as the relationship between the word of Yhwh and the written word. The book of Jeremiah itself emerges as an embodiment of hostile divine presence. Jeremiah’s Deus Inimicus mysteriously abides in the Jeremianic scroll.

Keywords

• jeremiah
• divine presence
• divine absence
• hostile divine presence
• divine word
• divine hiddenness
• mīs pî pīt pî