A ‘Christian Writer’ from the Sixth Century BC
If you’re looking in the Old Testament for a Christian Writer role model (for some reason the OT is often the first stop for role models), you can’t do much better than Barukh ben Neriyah. Barukh was the close associate, friend, and amanuensis of the prophet Yirmeyahu (aka, in the mangled English form, Jeremiah). It’s evident that he did his job faithfully, for Yirmeyahu’s prophecies have come down to us complete, though possibly in a slightly jumbled order, and with a few explanatory add-ons. As I’m sure you know, Yirmeyahu’s message was a tough one. The Lord commissioned him to announce to his fellow Judaeans that they were about 90% likely to meet with total national catastrophe. This would be the result of persistent worship of false gods, oppression of the poor and weak, injustice, faithlessness, cheating, corruption, and refusal to adhere to a supranational power bloc. They had a faint chance of escape, dependent on a change of heart. In the event they did not take this path, and...