Jeremiah and Gandalf

In my novel By the Waters of Babylon (available now) there’s a scene in which twelve-year-old Ya’el meets the prophet Jeremiah.

You might be familiar with Jeremiah. He’s famous for his bitter denunciations of the ruling powers of Judah during the beginning of the 6^th century BCE. He’s so famous for this, in fact, that he has his own word in the English language: jeremiad.

In writing the passage, I pictured him as a gruff old man with a long gray beard, of kindly disposition but furious and impassioned when seized by the spirit of God. In thinking back on this portrayal of him, it occurred to me recently that in my imagination he’s awfully similar to my favorite wizard, Gandalf Greyhame, of The Hobbit and Lord of the Rings.

This surely does a disservice to both figures, but there are some similarities. Both were passionately committed to fighting evil and injustice. Both had more than normal human abilities to call on in doing this. Both lived in times of terrible danger and upheaval: Gandalf during the rise of the Dark Lord and Jeremiah during the run-up to the destruction of Jerusalem and the Babylonian Exile. And both of them fought these threats with every fiber of their being.

The differences are also worth noting. First and foremost, Gandalf is a fictional character. Sorry, LOTR fans. I regret this too. But what can you do?

Jeremiah, on the other hand, was very real. So far, no direct archaeological evidence for the man has been found. However, seal impressions have been unearthed for many of his contemporaries from the Book of Jeremiah. Among these are his enemies Gedaliah and Yehucal; and his scribe Baruch ben Neriah who wrote down his prophesies.

Another way that they’re different is that we know virtually nothing about Gandalf’s background and birth, or even if he was born. Jeremiah, though, tells us a little about himself. He’s from a landed priestly family from the town of Anatot. He has a cousin from whom he buys a plot of land. And he’s so lonely and distraught from the hatred and ridicule directed at him that he wishes he had never been born.

And their appearance? We don’t need to guess with Gandalf. We know. Without a doubt, he looked like Ian McKellen.

When it comes to Jeremiah, there have been many paintings over the centuries. The artists all thought they knew what he looked like, and they were all wrong.

He looked like Gandalf.