Jeremiah

McKane’s two-volume ICC commentary is demanding but remains one of the major scholarly achievements in Jeremiah studies. Its greatest strength is the extraordinary attention given to Hebrew philology and the ancient versions, which McKane treats not merely as witnesses for reconstructing the text but also as important early interpretations of difficult Hebrew. His influential “rolling corpus” model likewise offers a distinctive explanation for Jeremiah’s literary growth: earlier material generated localized interpretation, clarification and expansion rather than being shaped by a single comprehensive editorial programme. I would not accept every proposed secondary addition, and later commentators such as Lundbom, Allen and Jones provide important correctives to McKane’s tendency to atomize the text and underestimate larger literary design. Nevertheless, the originality of his model and the sheer depth of his textual and exegetical work make these volumes indispensable for serious study. Best used alongside a more synthetic commentary rather than alone.

Focus on textual and philology issues. [Full Review]