Skip to content
Pentecost
Major Prophets

Jeremiah

Old TestamentLate 7th-6th century BCHebrew

Jeremiah proclaims judgment before Jerusalem's fall, grieves over the people, and promises a new covenant written on the heart. His book gives the Church language for both lament and hope.

Jeremiah — manuscript, icon, or classical biblical art from Wikimedia Commons.
Jeremiah.jpg — 18 century icon painter

Why Jeremiah Matters

Jeremiah proclaims judgment before Jerusalem's fall, grieves over the people, and promises a new covenant written on the heart. His book gives the Church language for both lament and hope.

The book's central themes include covenant breaking, tears, exile, and the new covenant. Read inside the whole canon, those themes are not isolated topics but part of Scripture's unified witness to God's covenant work and to Christ.

Canonical Reception

Jeremiah is received across the Christian traditions and belongs to the Hebrew Scriptures. Its place in the canon anchors how the Church reads its witness to Christ. In this entry it is marked as recognized in the Protestant canon, the Roman Catholic canon, Eastern Orthodox canons, Oriental Orthodox canons, the Hebrew Bible.

Reading With The Church

A faithful reading of Jeremiah asks first what the text says in its own setting, then how its words are received in the full scriptural economy. The goal is not to flatten historical context into later theology, but to hear the book as part of the one biblical canon read by the Church.

Key Passages
  • Jeremiah 1:5
  • Jeremiah 7:4
  • Jeremiah 20:9
  • Jeremiah 31:31-34