On the Mr. Ed Show, guest host Joy Reid attacked Governor Palin for having Christmas trees in her photos of Christmas. The basis of the attack was Jeremiah chapter 10. Of course, Reid doesn't consider the entire chapter of Jeremiah or the historical context of the chapter, she merely cherry picks a part of the passage that is useful to her argument. She also ignores other salient Bible verses that give Jeremiah's words meaning.
The attack by Reid is based on photos of Palin's childhood used in a Fox special. Thus, this attack wasn't really on Sarah Palin as much as it was an attack on her parents, the Heaths. Gov. Palin, as a child, did not decide her environment, but her parents did. So Reid is really attacking Gov. Palin's parents, even though it was intended as an attack on Governor Palin herself.
So, let's take a look at the attack.
For reasons that I will not belabor, I am EXTREMELY knowledgeable of this section of Jeremiah. Joy Reid is wrong. She shows that she did not read the verse herself. She did not research it, and she is speaking as someone not well steeped in the history of the scriptures. Her error comes from ignorance and a lack of serious study of the scriptures.
Now, notice that Reid uses the NIV (the nearly inspired version) and only uses part of the verse. Here is what Reid claims Jeremiah 10:10 says
"For the practices of the peoples are worthless; they cut a tree out of the forest, and a craftsman shapes it with his chisel. They adorn it with silver and gold; they fasten it with hammer and nails so it will not totter. Like a scare crow in a cucumber field, their idols cannot speak; they must be carried because they cannot walk. Do not fear them; they can do no harm nor can they do any good."
Several issues are salient here.
1) First, the passage is not even Jeremiah 10:10, which just shows that Reid didn't actually find the verse herself in the Bible. She is merely reading a script, and has not done any of the work behind the script. If she had, she would have known that the passage she read was Jeremiah 10: 3-5. The passage she quotes isn't even Jeremiah 10:10. Jeremiah 10:10 in the NIV states,
"But the LORD is the true God; he is the living God, the eternal King. When he is angry, the earth trembles; the nations cannot endure his wrath."
A wise warning to a nation. It would have been useful had Joy Reid read that passage, but she did not. What she read was 3-5, so she doesn't even know what she is reading.
2) Further note the verse that Reid reads refers to "shapes it with his chisel." Now, I don't know what Joy Reid does with Christmas trees, but in my humble opinion, I do not believe that most people shape their Christmas tree with a chisel. That is an activity of a carpenter making something out of the tree. Chisels are used by carpenters to carve the wood or to debark it. This is a clear reference to someone making an idol, or furniture, or something from the tree. This is not a reference to a decorated Christmas tree.
3) The passage Joy Reid sites is incomplete. The full passage gives the real meaning of the verse. It begins with verse 2-6, and is a very clear reference to a specific group of people. It was not a reference to Christians, because there were no Christians or Christmas trees at that time. In looking at the complete text, that will become obvious. In the King James version it states,
"2 Thus saith the Lord, Learn not the way of the heathen, and be not dismayed at the signs of heaven; for the heathen are dismayed at them.
3 For the customs of the people are vain: for one cutteth a tree out of the forest, the work of the hands of the workman, with the axe.
4 They deck it with silver and with gold; they fasten it with nails and with hammers, that it move not.
5 They are upright as the palm tree, but speak not: they must needs be borne, because they cannot go. Be not afraid of them; for they cannot do evil, neither also is it in them to do good.
6 Forasmuch as there is none like unto thee, O Lord; thou art great, and thy name is great in might."
A close examination of the passage here is very informative and allows the readers to identify who is being referenced in Jeremiah Chapter 10. It begins with "being dismayed at the signs of the heavens." The reference to signs seems more fitting to astrology, or a civilization that relied on astrology, like perhaps the Babylonians, or the Chaldean people, who were about to lay siege to Jerusalem led by this guy named Nebuchadnezzar. Further, notice that type of tree referenced is a palm tree, so these are people of the middle east, or a place where Palm trees grow. They were people who decorate things carved out of wood with gold and silver, using chisels, nails, hammers and metal plating on the item Jeremiah is discussing in this passage. Seriously, I don't know many people who hammer and nail a Christmas tree, or chisel a tree. This sounds more like making a pagan idol or perhaps an ornate chair.
4) The historical context rules out the Jeremiah referencing Christmas anything, from trees to anything else Christmas related. Christmas is Christ's mass. Recall that Christians were not even identified as such during the life of Christ, and they were called followers of "the Way" during the immediate era after the resurrection and regarded as a sect of Judaism. This is long after Jeremiah was alive. He lives long before Jesus Christ, and long before the time of the Maccabees. Mathew 1:17 confirms that there are 14 generations between Jeremiah and Jesus, so there is no way that Jeremiah is speaking to the Christians in that verse.
5) Reid misapplies the historical context of the verses she reads. With the correct passage identified and the characteristics of the people identified and historical context has been identified, who is Jeremiah talking about?
The passage tells the reader that the people he is referring to a nation that looked to the stars to their fortunes, made idols out wood, plated them with gold, and that they stood upright like a palm tree. The civilization existed 14 generations before the birth of Christ. Is it possible that Jeremiah is referring to the Babylonian-Chaldean people that were outside the gates of the city of Jerusalem attacking them?
Jeremiah is telling them not to be afraid. Recall that Jeremiah was telling the people of Jerusalem to surrender to them and not be afraid of them, but also not to adopt their habits and customs. Jeremiah was writing inside of Jerusalem, as was another prophet of the same time named Habakkuk. Daniel was also alive at the same time, but Daniel was already in Babylonian captivity.
Notice what it says in Habakkuk 2:19, which is often regarded as a companion verse to this passage in Jeremiah. Habakkuk was the son of a Levite writes in Habakkuk 2:17-19,
"For the violence of Lebanon shall cover thee, and the spoil of beasts, which made them afraid, because of men's blood, and for the violence of the land, of the city, and of all that dwell therein.
What profiteth the graven image that the maker thereof hath graven it; the molten image, and a teacher of lies, that the maker of his work trusteth therein, to make dumb idols?
Woe unto him that saith to the wood, Awake; to the dumb stone, Arise, it shall teach! Behold, it is laid over with gold and silver, and there is no breath at all in the midst of it."
Or for those who prefer the NIV,
The violence you have done to Lebanon will overwhelm you,
and your destruction of animals will terrify you.
For you have shed human blood;
you have destroyed lands and cities and everyone in them.
and your destruction of animals will terrify you.
For you have shed human blood;
you have destroyed lands and cities and everyone in them.
18 “Of what value is an idol carved by a craftsman?
Or an image that teaches lies?
For the one who makes it trusts in his own creation;
he makes idols that cannot speak.
19 Woe to him who says to wood, ‘Come to life!’
Or to lifeless stone, ‘Wake up!’
Can it give guidance?
It is covered with gold and silver;
there is no breath in it.”
Or an image that teaches lies?
For the one who makes it trusts in his own creation;
he makes idols that cannot speak.
19 Woe to him who says to wood, ‘Come to life!’
Or to lifeless stone, ‘Wake up!’
Can it give guidance?
It is covered with gold and silver;
there is no breath in it.”
There is further confirmation of this in the book of Daniel. There is a discussion in that book of an incident that involves the failure to bow down to an idol when a dulcimer and a sackbut were played. Some guys get tossed into a furnace for their failure to bow to the idol, and they survive the flames. The reader can find this in Daniel Chapter 3.
Now, there is a chance that Jeremiah was not referring to the Chaldean people. He could have been referring to the Persians. There is an extra-canonical texts called "Bel and the Dragon" that begins with a discussion of an idol believed to be alive. Maybe Jeremiah was referring to Persians? But it is unlikely, because by the time Daniel is with the Persians, Jeremiah is long in Egypt teaching in Alexandria, if he is alive at all. There doesn't seem to be a correspondence between Daniel and Jeremiah at that point.
Whether Jeremiah was referencing Persians or Chaldean people is not certain. What is certain is that Jeremiah was NOT referencing Christians and Christmas trees.
Going back to the original verse in Jeremiah, it is clear that Jeremiah is warning the Jewish people not to learn the ways of the Chaldean-Babylonian people. The Chaldean people worshiped the stars and constellations, they made idols and plated them with gold and silver. Jeremiah was saying to the Jewish people not to learn the ways of the pagans while they were in captivity, but keep their Jewish faith.
The reference by Jeremiah is clearly not referring to Christians since there were no Christians at that time and it predates Christ himself by 14 generations. Further, the tradition of a "Christmas Tree" or a yule tree is from Europe, not Africa or the Middle East. It is unlikely that Jeremiah would have had contact with Norseman and followers of Odin, although I won't say it was impossible.Tales of Tea-Tephi notwithstanding, even those tales place Jeremiah's contact with the Irish long after the capture of Jerusalem and long after the reference was written.
Or perhaps Joy Reid is defending the Anglo centered views of Herbert W. Armstrong in her attack on Palin? Is Reid claiming that Jeremiah is Ollam Fodhla? That is the only way that Reid can claim that Jeremiah was referencing Norseman. But even then, one would expect Jeremiah to reference spruce trees, not palm trees.
If Jeremiah did encounter Norseman, it was likely to have been long after he established the school of the prophets in Egypt after the remnant of the Jews were in captivity by the Chaldean, or Babylonians. The description of the text and the historical context point to Jeremiah referencing idols of the Chaldean-Babylonian time or of the Persians. It is virtually impossible for it to have been a reference to Christmas trees unless Reid is advocating the Armstrong historic view. Even then, those would be Yule tide logs, not trees celebrating Christ's mass.
Joy Reid owes Governor Palin a major apology. Even more so, she owes the parents of Governor Palin an apology. In every way, Governor Palin has abides by Ephesians 6: 1-2. Palin, in showing those pictures, was paying homage to her parents. She was honoring them, something that seemed to escape Reid.
The next time Joy Reid wants to attack Christmas, she should read some Oliver Cromwell, Hugh Latimer, or Cotton Mathers. They all had cogent Christian arguments against the celebration of December 25th. But the argument Reid poses is historical wrong and reflects the poor scholarship and research of MSNBC.
