Apocrypha
IV Baruch
Paraleipomena of Jeremiah
9 chapters · read and listen
Reading note
An apocryphal or pseudepigraphal text — outside the canon of the Western churches, yet widely circulated among ancient Jews and Christians. Published here from a public-domain translation, edited for continuous reading.
Chapters
Dossier
The story of Abimelech, who falls asleep in the shade of a tree and wakes sixty-six years later with the figs still fresh in his basket, not knowing that the exile began and ended while he slept.
Where this text comes from
Probably written in the 2nd century AD, in Greek, with a final Christian layer added to an older Jewish text. It is also called Paraleipomena of Jeremiah — the things omitted from Jeremiah. It circulated in Ethiopic, Armenian and Slavonic.
Why it is not in the Bible
Outside the canons. The Christian addition in the last chapter, with Jeremiah announcing Christ and being stoned, makes clear the hands that transmitted it, but never won it a place on any list.
What you will find
- Abimelech's sixty-six-year sleep, one of the oldest tales of its kind in Western literature.
- The eagle that carries letters between Jerusalem and Babylon and raises a dead man to prove it speaks for God.
- The Temple vessels given to the earth for safekeeping until the people return.
- The separation of those who married Babylonian wives on the return from exile, and the city they found: Samaria.
Frequently asked questions
- What does Paraleipomena of Jeremiah mean?
- It is the other name for 4 Baruch, and means the things left out of Jeremiah — the book presents itself as the complement to what the prophet did not tell.