Jeremiah, prophet of the Bible:

We know more about Jeremiah than any of the other pre-Exilic writers because he dictated his sermons and autobiography to his scribal pupil, Baruch. His life was closely interwoven with the tragic history of his country. He saw the nation as woefully sinful, hastening to its doom. Under the threat of Nebuchadnezzar's Babylonian army, he became unpopular by preaching defeatism. He said the people and their rulers were themselves the authors of their danger through their own wickedness. The enemy was merely the instrument of God's wrath, and was thus bound to prevail.

But he actually preached hope and became the father of Judaism. For he said that Israel could perform the mission given to it by God just as well in exile and dispersal as within the confines of its petty nation-state. Jeremiah was not preaching despair; on the contrary, he was preparing his fellow Israelites to meet despair, and overcome it. He was trying to teach them how to become Jews, to invent Judaism. After the fall of Judah Jeremiah was dragged into Egypt, the first Jew.