linguistic:voice_change, quality:corruption
The Book of Baruch is a deuterocanonical book of the Bible, used in many Christian traditions, such as Catholic and Orthodox churches. In Judaism and Protestant Christianity, it is considered not to be part of the canon, with the Protestant Bibles categorizing it as part of the Biblical apocrypha. The book is named after Baruch ben Neriah, the prophet Jeremiah's scribe who is mentioned at Baruch 1:1, and has been presumed to be the author of the whole work. The book is a reflection of a late Jewish writer on the circumstances of Jewish exiles from Babylon, with meditations on the theology and history of Israel, discussions of wisdom, and a direct address to residents of Jerusalem and the Diaspora. Some scholars propose that it was written during or shortly after the period of the Maccabees. The Book of Baruch is sometimes referred to as 1 Baruch to distinguish it from 2 Baruch, 3 Baruch and 4 Baruch. Although the earliest known manuscripts of Baruch are in Greek, linguistic features of the first parts of Baruch (1:1–3:8) have been proposed as indicating a translation from a Semitic language. Although not in the Hebrew Bible, it is found in the Septuagint, and also in Theodotion's Greek version. It is considered to be a canonical book of the Old Testament by the Catholic Church, the Eastern Orthodox Church and the Oriental Orthodox Churches. In 80-book Protestant Bibles, the Book of Baruch is a part of the Biblical apocrypha. Jerome, despite his misgivings about the deuterocanonical books, included Baruch into his Vulgate translation. In the Vulgate it is grouped with the books of the prophets alongside Jeremiah and Lamentations. In the Vulgate, the King James Bible Apocrypha, and many other versions, the Letter of Jeremiah is appended to the Book of Baruch as a sixth chapter; in the Septuagint and Orthodox Bibles chapter 6 is usually counted as a separate book, called the Letter or Epistle of Jeremiah.