Prophet Baruch

Baruch, son of Neriah, was the disciple, secretary, and devoted companion of the Prophet Jeremiah during the final years of the kingdom of Judah and the Babylonian conquest of Jerusalem. The biblical account names him as the scribe who wrote down Jeremiah's prophecies as the prophet dictated them, and Orthodox tradition venerates him as a prophet in his own right, commemorating him on September 28.

According to the Book of Jeremiah, when the prophet was prevented from speaking publicly, he dictated his oracles to Baruch, who wrote them on a scroll and read them aloud to the people in the Temple (Jeremiah 36:4). The king of Judah burned the scroll rather than heed its warnings, and Baruch shared in his master's persecution, being hated, by the tradition's account, for his attachment to the truth. He remained faithful to Jeremiah through the destruction of Jerusalem by the Babylonians.

After the fall of Jerusalem, Baruch accompanied Jeremiah into Egypt, where the remnant of the Jewish people had fled. Accounts of his later life differ: some traditions hold that he died in Egypt in the sixth century before Christ, while others, drawn from rabbinic sources, relate that he returned to Babylon after witnessing Jeremiah's death and burying his body. The deuterocanonical Book of Baruch is traditionally credited to him; it is received by the Orthodox Church and by the Roman Catholic Church, though regarded by Protestants as non-canonical.