A study of the phrase "from the least to the greatest" in the book of Jeremiah by Joseph M. Gleason
OUTLINE
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Do New Covenant Theologians understand Jeremiah 31:31ff correctly? Are they justified in using this passage as proof that all members of the New Covenant are regenerate? When Jeremiah said that all people would know the Lord "from the least to the greatest", did he intend to convey the strict idea of "100% of the people without exception", or was he simply using hyperbole?
How did Jeremiah use the phrase, "from the least to the greatest"?
Let's look at the texts:
And their houses shall be turned over to others, fields and wives together; for I will stretch out My hand against the inhabitants of the land,” says the LORD. “Because from the least of them even to the greatest of them, everyone is given to covetousness; and from the prophet even to the priest, everyone deals falsely. (Jeremiah 6:12-13)
Was there not even one "inhabitant of the land" who wasn't given to covetousness? Did every person in the entire land "deal falsely", without exception? How about the prophet Jeremiah himself?
Why has this people slidden back, Jerusalem, in a perpetual backsliding? They hold fast to deceit, they refuse to return. . . . Even the stork in the heavens knows her appointed times; and the turtledove, the swift, and the swallow observe the time of their coming. But My people do not know the judgment of the LORD. Behold, they have rejected the word of the LORD; So what wisdom do they have? Therefore I will give their wives to others, and their fields to those who will inherit them; because from the least even to the greatest everyone is given to covetousness; from the prophet even to the priest everyone deals falsely. (Jeremiah 8:5-10)
Did all of God's people, without exception, backslide? Did everyone, without exception, reject the word of the Lord? How about the prophet Jeremiah himself? Did God give Jeremiah's wife to others? Was Jeremiah himself a covetous Israelite who dealt falsely?
Now all the captains of the forces, Johanan the son of Kareah, Jezaniah the son of Hoshaiah, and all the people, from the least to the greatest, came near and said to Jeremiah the prophet, “Please, let our petition be acceptable to you, and pray for us to the LORD your God, for all this remnant (since we are left but a few of many, as you can see), that the LORD your God may show us the way in which we should walk and the thing we should do.” (Jeremiah 42:1-3)
Did 100% of the people talk to Jeremiah, without exception? How about the mute? How about the sick? How about the infants?
And it happened after ten days that the word of the LORD came to Jeremiah. Then he called Johanan the son of Kareah, all the captains of the forces which were with him, and all the people from the least even to the greatest, and said to them, “Thus says the LORD, the God of Israel, to whom you sent me to present your petition before Him: ‘If you will still remain in this land, then I will build you and not pull you down, and I will plant you and not pluck you up. For I relent concerning the disaster that I have brought upon you. Do not be afraid of the king of Babylon, of whom you are afraid; do not be afraid of him,’ says the LORD, 'for I am with you, to save you and deliver you from his hand. And I will show you mercy, that he may have mercy on you and cause you to return to your own land.’ (Jeremiah 42:7-12)
Was the Lord addressing every single person, without exception? How about the mentally handicapped? How about the infants? Was God telling them not to fear the king of Babylon? Or was the Lord only speaking to those who had the mental capacity to fear the Babylonian king in the first place?
Therefore thus says the LORD of hosts, the God of Israel: "Behold, I will set My face against you for catastrophe and for cutting off all Judah. And I will take the remnant of Judah who have set their faces to go into the land of Egypt to dwell there, and they shall all be consumed and fall in the land of Egypt. They shall be consumed by the sword and by famine. They shall die, from the least to the greatest, by the sword and by famine; and they shall be an oath, an astonishment, a curse and a reproach! For I will punish those who dwell in the land of Egypt, as I have punished Jerusalem, by the sword, by famine, and by pestilence, so that none of the remnant of Judah who have gone into the land of Egypt to dwell there shall escape or survive, lest they return to the land of Judah, to which they desire to return and dwell. For none shall return except those who escape." (Jeremiah 44:11-14)
Of the people from Judah who rebelled and went into Egypt, did the Lord put every last one of them to death, without exception? Did anyone survive at all? Did anyone escape?
It would certainly appear that the destruction was total, except for the very interesting ending to verse 14: "For none shall return except those who escape."
Clearly, when God said He would kill everyone, "from the least to the greatest", He certainly did not mean He would kill every last person without exception. Many would die, but not all.
With that fact in mind, let us turn to the one other place where Jeremiah uses the phrase, "from the least to the greatest":
Jeremiah 31
Behold, the days are coming, says the LORD, when I will make a new covenant with the house of Israel and with the house of Judah— not according to the covenant that I made with their fathers in the day that I took them by the hand to lead them out of the land of Egypt, My covenant which they broke, though I was a husband to them, says the LORD. But this is the covenant that I will make with the house of Israel after those days, says the LORD: I will put My law in their minds, and write it on their hearts; and I will be their God, and they shall be My people. No more shall every man teach his neighbor, and every man his brother, saying, ‘Know the LORD,’ for they all shall know Me, from the least of them to the greatest of them, says the LORD. For I will forgive their iniquity, and their sin I will remember no more.” (Jeremiah 31:31-34 -- also quoted in Hebrews 8:10-12)
There is nothing in this text to suggest that Jeremiah is using the phrase, "from the least to the greatest", any differently than he uses it elsewhere in the book of Jeremiah. Every time he uses that phrase, there are exceptions -- people who are not ultimately included in the curse or the blessing -- even though God makes the blanket statement that "all people" will be the recepients, "from the least to the greatest". This is just a manner of speaking -- biblical hyperbole -- and is never intended to convey the idea of complete mathematical inclusion without exception.
It is also interesting to note that the phrase, "from the least to the greatest", is used elsewhere in Scripture: Jonah 3:5, and Acts 8:10. And in both cases, the phrase is used exactly the same way Jeremiah used it. The phrase does include a great number of people. But it never includes all people without exception.
Thus, regarding Jeremiah 31:31-34, the lofty claims of New Covenant Theologians are quite unfounded. NCT people fail to use responsible exegesis to determine the biblical meaning of "from the least to the greatest" in Jeremiah 31. And therefore, they fallaciously determine that all members of the New Covenant, without exception, must be regenerate believers in Jesus. But a careful *Scriptural* look at the phrase, "from the least to the greatest", proves that their dogmatic claims are unfounded.
One person suggested to me that Jeremiah 31:31ff would still prove that New Covenant membership is 100% regenerate, even if the phrase "from the least to the greatest" was removed. He said the reason is because Jeremiah uses other universal language in this passage, such as the word "all". But in truth, that language doesn't change my argument one bit. In the passages cited above, not only is the "least to greatest" phrase used, but universally-inclusive words such as "all" and "none" are used as well. Nevertheless, these passages are not referring to "all people without exception". Consider the Jeremiah 44 passage, for example. God said that he would kill "all" the people, and that "none" of them would escape. Nevertheless, a few *did* escape.
NCT dogmatic interpretation of Jeremiah 31:31ff simply doesn't hold up to exegetical scrutiny. All throughout the book of Jeremiah, hyperbolic language is used, declaring that this or that would happen to "all" of the people, or to "none" of the people, "from the least to the greatest". Yet in every single case, not every person is actually included . . . there are *exceptions*.
If New Covenant Theologians are ever going to understand Jeremiah 31:31ff, they will first need to understand its context within the book, and they will need to pay close attention to the way Jeremiah uses universal language throughout the book.
New Covenant Theologians are in error, from the least of them to the greatest.
Article written by Joseph M. Gleason – November, 2007
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Want to read some excellent books on Covenant Theology? --- For a great easy-to-understand introduction, I recommend A Simple Overview of Covenant Theology by C. Matthew McMahon. --- For a terrific, detailed, exegetical look at Covenant Theology, I highly recommend The Economy of the Covenants Between God and Man by Herman Witsius.
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