Baruch

Baruch ('the Blessed'), the son of Neriah, the faithful friend and secretary of the prophet Jeremiah. During the siege of Jerusalem by Nebuchadnezzar he was flung into prison along with the prophet, and found release only on the fall of the city (586 B.C.). He afterwards accompanied his master to Egypt, but of his after-life nothing certain is known. An apocryphal work in the Greek language has come down to us bearing his name, which contains in noble and glowing language a promise of future glory for Israel, and predicts the rebuilding of Jerusalem. There is usually appended to it, as chapter vi., a letter of the prophet Jeremiah to the exiles in Babylon. The Book of Baruch is the only book in the Apocrypha resembling the Prophets. It was held in little esteem by the Jews, and it is not until the time of Irenæus that it is quoted by Christian writers either in the East or West. It seems most probable that the present book was worked up by an Alexandrine editor, perhaps from an original Hebrew fragment.