Merged from Hilkiah Extra-biblical sources

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Hilkiah of Anathoth, father of Jeremiah? Or some other Hilkiah, not necessarily from Anathoth?

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Unless there is an explicit statement tightly identifying Hilkiah the High Priest with Hilkiah the father of Jeremiah, I would like to ask that we loosen the language which indicates "He was the High Priest over the Temple of priests that were in Anathoth in the land of Benjamin". I suspect this claim regarding Anathoth might be based entirely upon said identification of the "two Hilkiahs". I am supposing that the source of Anathoth as the herein-cited home of Hilkiah the High Priest is in fact Jeremiah 1:1: "The words of Jeremiah, son of Hilkiah, of the priests that were in Anathoth in the land of Benjamin." If I surmise correctly, the High Priest is being associated here with Anathoth precisely because it is assumed that he is Jeremiah's father. Can someone please clarify for me whether or not the Scriptures actually tie this all together?

As I understand it, we remain uncertain "to this day" :~) that Hilkiah, the High Priest who discovered the scroll of the Torah in the Temple and sent it to King Josiah via the latter's scribe, Shaphan, is in fact the same man who is the father of Jeremiah. See e.g. Richard Elliott Friedman, Who Wrote the Bible?, 2nd edition (paper, HarperCollins New York, 1997), p. 126: "Not to overstate the case, we do not know if Jeremiah's father was the same priest Hilkiah who found the book."

Thanks in advance to anyone who can document this. DThrax 02:26, 4 November 2007 (UTC)Reply