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📜 **BARUCH – HISTORICAL OVERVIEW (2nd–1st century BC)**
**Source: Greek composition, falsely attributed to Jeremiah’s scribe**

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### 🔹 ORIGIN:

* **Language:** Greek
* **Date:** Written between **200 and 50 BC**
* **Not found** in Paleo-Hebrew, Aramaic Scriptures, or early Square Script (no vowels).
* Not present in the **Dead Sea Scrolls**.

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### 🔹 CLAIMED AUTHORSHIP:

* **Baruch ben Neriyah**, the scribe of the prophet Jeremiah
* But the style, theology, and Greek phrasing **reveal it was written centuries later** — well after the Babylonian exile
* Part of a trend where Greek-speaking Jews **attributed older names to new writings** for credibility

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### 🔹 THEMES:

* Mourning for Jerusalem's destruction
* Calls for repentance and return to Torah
* Contains long prayers and confessions of sin
* Tries to blend Hebrew longing for restoration with **Hellenistic literary style**

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### 🔹 TEXTUAL EVIDENCE:

* **Never quoted in Hebrew Bible**
* **Not preserved in Paleo-Hebrew scrolls or Aramaic canon**
* First appears in **Greek Septuagint**, then copied into Catholic canon
* Lacks any **Torah scroll format** — it is entirely prayer/poetry prose, unlike prophetic scrolls

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### 🔹 WHAT THIS PROVES:

Baruch was **not** written by Jeremiah’s companion.
It was **a Greek religious work**, meant to sound Hebrew, but composed **under Greek rule** — possibly during **Antiochus IV’s persecution** or soon after the Maccabean revolt.

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