4 Baruch

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4 Baruch, also known as the Paraleipomena of Jeremiah when combined with the Epistle of Jeremy, is a text regarded as apocryphal by all Christian denominations except for the Ethiopian Orthodox Church. It is reguarded as pseudepigraphal, meaning that Baruch was not the actual author.

The term Paraleipomena of Jeremiah appears as the title in several ancient Greek manuscripts of the work, and means the things left out from Jeremiah.

The text appears to have been heavily edited, and while the start and end clearly portray Jeremiah as the hero, several other parts of the text elevate Baruch, from being a mere scribe, to the status of an intermediary between Jeremiah and God. Many parts of the text are believed to have been added by Christian writers, not the least obvious being the description of Jeremiah as being stoned to death due to his prophecying the coming of Jesus.

The underlying theological aim of the textually earlier parts of the text seems to be the advocacy of xenophobia, the divorce of foreign wives, and exile of those who will not divorce. Indeed, those who do not divorce are portrayed as the ancestors of the Samaritans, whom the Jews regarded as unworthy of their religion.