Jonah

JONAH 1. The word “Jonah” in Hebrew means “dove” and in St. Jerome’s opinion, it also means “suffering.” Therefore, this Book is considered the one in which the Holy Spirit appears in the shape of a Dove (the Baptism of Christ), through the suffering Messiah, Who entered into the tomb as in the whale’s belly and arose to raise us with Him, granting us His Holy Spirit to work within us. St. Jerome says: [Jonah depicts the Resurrection of our Lord by passing three days and three nights in the belly of the whale, to grant us the initial zeal to achieve the descent of the Holy Spirit within us.] 2. Jonah, the son of Amittai, prophesied during the days of Jeroboam II, king of Samaria (2 Kings 14:25). He lived in GathHepher of Nazareth. He had prophesied that God would restore the boundaries of Samaria from the “...entrance of Hamath to the Sea of the Araba and to the Bay of Akabah in the South.” His prophecy for Israel was to save her from the oppression of Aram (Syria). 3. He was a prophet in Israel (the Northern Kingdom) around the year 825-784 BC. He was a contemporary of the prophet Amos. He wrote his prophecy after his return from Nineveh. 4. It was known in the Jewish tradition that Jonah was the son of the widow, whom Elijah the prophet rose from the dead at Zarephath of Sidonc (1 Kings 17:10-24). Some think that this is a valid tradition, because it is only fitting that such a prophet who loved Israel be sent to Gentile Nineveh to witness to them to repent, being himself a Gentile on his mother's side1. NINEVEH The capital of the Assyrian Empire, which was renovated by King Sennacherib to become his capital city (2 Kings 19:36). To some, the present city of Mosul is situated on half of old Nineveh2 and most scholars say that Nineveh was built on the east bank of the River Tigris at the mouth of Rafed, 27 miles away from where Tigris and Zab meet3. The Hebrews called the whole area around the meeting of Tigris and Zab “Nineveh” (Gen.10: l 1-12; Jon 1:2; 3:3). The people of Nineveh, who were originally Babylonians (Gen. 10:11), worshiped the goddess Ashtaroth. The city was known for its wealth, greatness and beauty and the Assyrian kings used to take their spoils of war there and considered the rest of the world enslaved to it. The prophet Nahum called Nineveh ‘the city of destruction” filled with lies and abduction, moreover the prophet Zpehaniah foretold of its destruction. Its kings were known for their great cruelty, their pastime was to cut off the noses of their captives of war, to drain their eyes and cut off their hands and ears; then display them to be ridiculed by the people. During the seventh century B, the Empire of Assyria started to collapse and disintegrate and in the year 625 B Nabopolassar, the Babylonian, decided to be independent of Nineveh. In the year 612 B he allied with his neighbors, the people of 1 Biblical Illustrator: The Minor Prophets, V.I. Jonah IV 2 J. Mckenzie: Dict. of Bible, p. 618. 3 The New Westminster Dict. of Bible, p.669. 4 Madai, stormed Nineveh and destroyed it. At that time it was easy because the Tigris had flooded the city and the water covered its streets and squares, consequently the city became a legend. NINEVEH AND THE CHURCH OF THE GENTILES Two Books in the Old Testament are addressed to the Gentiles. The Book of Obadiah concerns the people of Edom where the symbolic announcement of the destruction of the old bloody person (Edomites) together with raising of the new spiritual man (Zion) is shown. The Book of Jonah is about the people of Nineveh and symbolically presents the acceptance of the Gentiles for the faith and their announcing their repentance and return to God. While the Jews were resisting the prophets and persecuting them, the people of Nineveh accepted the preaching of Jonah and announced their true repentance. St. Jerome saw this as a symbol for the rejection of Christ by the Jews, our Lord about Whom their prophets had prophesied, while the Gentiles accepted the faith just by hearing about Him. Christ Himself said, ‘The men of Nineveh will rise in the judgment with this generation and condemn it, because they repented at the preaching of Jonah; and indeed a greater than Jonah is here” (Matt. 12:41). St. Jerome says: [the Jews became under the judgment while the world accepted faith. Nineveh practiced repentance while Israel perished in its lack of appreciation and withered away. They have the books but we have the Lord of the books; they have the prophets but we have the thought of the prophets. The letter kills them but we are vivified by the Spirit; theirs is the shackled Barahas and ours is the free Christ, the Son of God]. This reasoning was not only evident in Nineveh’s repentance but also in the faith of the mariners and their captain who feared God, offered sacrifices and made vows, i.e. the acceptance of the Lord by the Gentiles and their worshiping and serving Him. CHARACTERISTICS This book reveals the different facets of God’s love for humanity. He announces that He is the God of all; He cares for both Jews and Gentiles and wishes for the salvation of all. In love He reveals the weakness of His prophet, not to slander him but to give hope to any weak soul; and in His love He brings out the good sides even of the Gentiles. He sheds light on the wisdom and gentleness of the captain and the sailors that they deserved to enjoy faith. God in His love uses even inanimate creatures to fulfill His aim concerning man: - He sent the strong winds. - He prepared the whale to swallow Jonah. - He sent a worm to eat the gourd and damage it. - He sent hot strong easterly winds to beat on Jonah’s head. These might all seem tough measures but they brought about the reconciliation of God with people and announced His love for them. 5 THE BOOK OF JONAH A CRITICAL APPROACH 1- AUTHORSHIP In his book ‘The Old Testament Introduction,” Raven summarizes the most important objections to the fact that Jonah is the author of this Book1. First: Nothing in the Book says that Jonah wrote it. The introduction is very similar to many other Books like Hosea, Joel, Micha, Zephaniah, Haggai and Zechariah. Second: The Book contained Aramaic words and expressions that were used in a more recent era than Jonah’s; e.g. “God of Heaven” [1:9] an expression which was used by Ezra, Nehemiah and Daniel and not by people before captivity. The response to that is that the usage of expressions after captivity only and not in books written before captivity does not necessarily mean that they were not known. As for the expression “God of Heaven” in particular, it did not appear in any of the Books before captivity except in Jonah, because the conversation was aimed at the pagan people such as the sailors and the king of Nineveh [3:7] and it was a suitable phrase to use with them. Using the Aramaic words there does not mean that they were not used earlier. It is very probable that they were quoted from the old Hebrew language even though they were not used in the Holy Writings before captivity. Third: Some see that the writer was from a later era backing that by the fact that he did not know the king’s name. The response to that is that even though the prophecy touches the lives of the people of Nineveh, it really aimed to show Israel the love of God for the Gentiles, His longing for their repentance and salvation, so there was no need to mention the king’s name. Fourth: Jonah’s poetic prayer (Ch.2) was influenced by the Psalms, i.e., written after the Psalms, e.g.: Verse 3 from Psalm 42:7; Verse 5 from Psalm 69:10; Verse 9 from Psalm 50:14. The response to that according to Raven is that this was not a proof that they were written later because by the same token it could be said that the Psalms were influenced by Jonah’s prayer. 2-A SYMBOLIC BOOK Some critics allege that this book presents mere symbolism and has no reality in it. To them, Jonah represents the insubordinate Israel and the whale that swallowed him is Babylon, which enslaved Israel. The belly of the whale is captivity and whatever salvation followed that symbolizes the redeeming work of God and freeing the people from captivity. They back their views with the following data: a. The Book came among the prophetic and not the historic Books. b. The repentance of the people of Nineveh was surprisingly fast and collective and the king’s decision was unexpected and that defies reality. 1 Raven: 0. T. Introduction. pp. 224-225. 6 c. It is incomprehensible that a person could survive in a whale’s belly for three days and three nights, offer a prayer of thanksgiving inside the whale, and come out alive. d. The events in this Book represented symbolic thinking announced in other Books: Nebuchadnezzar was likened to a dragon who swallows us: “Nebuchadnezzar the king of Babylon has devoured me, he has crushed me; he has made me an empty vessel, he has swallowed me up like a monster; he has filled his stomach with my delicacies, he has spit me out... I will punish Bel in Babylon, and I will bring out of his mouth what he has swallowed; and the nations shall not stream to him any more. Yes, the wall of Babylon shall fall. My people, go out of the midst of her! And let everyone deliver himself from the fierce anger of the Lord” (Jer. 51:34, 44, 45). Besides the time of captivity was represented by three days: “After two days He will revive us; on the third day He will raise us up, that we may live in His sight.” (Hops 6:2). Scholars respond to the aforementioned objections, emphasizing that this Book, filled with symbolism as it is, tells a true life story and they back their view as follows: a. The falling of the Book among the prophetic Books rather than the historic ones does not negate the historical reality of the Book. It was placed there because the writer was a prophet and because the incident had its prophetic side. Jonah’s praise also proved to be a beautiful prophetic verse, which announced the redeeming work of our Lord God. b. The objection to the unexpected rapid repentance of the king and his people is unacceptable. It is rather a feeble protest. The appearance of an alien prophet who had been thrown out by a whale after spending three days in his belly “fired up” the whole town and it was frightening to all. Jesus Christ spoke of the people of Nineveh that their repentance would condemn the people of Israel, and He announced that the children of that age were wiser than the children of the Kingdom. c. The symbols in Jeremiah and Hosea, which resemble the story of Jonah, i.e., likening the king of Babylon to a dragon and the three days of captivity, did not necessarily mean that the Book of Jonah is mere symbolism. It is rather more favorable to say that the two prophets obtained symbolism backing to this Book. d. As to the feasibility of the survival of a person inside the belly of a whale for three days and his offering thanks in there, that was, also objected to during the time of St. Jerome thus he defends that by saying, [Are these people believers or unbelievers? If they have the faith then they should believe what is told to them, how was it feasible for three young men to be thrown in the fire and the fire did not touch their clothes or make them smell of smoke? (Jer. 3:29) How did the waters separate and the sea become dry land and it firmed a wall on each side so that the people would cross? (Exod. 14:22-29). How could a hungry lion refrain from touching his victim (Daniel) who was thrown with him in his den?] These are all faith-influenced arguments: scientifically, Dr. Youssef Riad, a professor in the Faculty of Science, Alexandria University, did an interesting research in which he clarified the possibility of this happening1. Dr. Riad said that the Hebrew word ‘Dog’ which was translated “whale” recurred in the Old Testament 119 times and each time it was translated “fish,” and the Greek word in the New Testament “Kitos” means a monster from the deep” So both Testaments agree that it was a huge fish or a sea monster. He gave several factual examples of people and animals that had been 1 St. George’s Church, Sporting Alex., Egypt: The prophet Jonah and the whale. The Holy Bible and modern science: 3. 7 swallowed by different species of fish, especially the “Rhinodon typicus” without having their skeletons broken or greatly injured. For example, a marine in the British fleet fell into the sea while he was fishing and a fish of this species swallowed him and swam away. When the surrounding ships found it 48 hours later, they shot it with a canon and pulled it in order to take the soldier’s body out for burial. To their amazement they found him unconscious and they saved him and called him “Jonah of the 20th century’. e. The scholars did not stop at just responding to the objections; they also came up with the following seasonings: First: Our Lord Jesus Christ referred to the story of Jonah as a reality and He also mentioned the repentance of the people of Nineveh (Matt. 12:39-40; Luke 11:29-30) but none of the Jews objected and said that it was a symbolic story. Second: The tone of the Book is a simple, historic one and is not a symbolic poetic Book. It only includes one chapter, which is poetic, which tells of Jonah’s prayer in the belly of the whale. Besides the book mentions Jonah and his father as two real persons whose place of birth was well known (2 kings 14:25) also mentions well-known places such as Joppa [Yafaj, Tarshish and Nineveh; these names are not symbolic. Third: If the Book of Jonah was just a parable and not a true story written by someone other than Jonah, it would not have strongly criticized the prophet’s way of thinking. The Book is out to show the writer as a repentant prophet who personally and with divine inspiration writes his confession, divulging his deepest thoughts as though, with St. Peter, he offers tears of repentance and with St. Mark, the Evangelist, lists his own faults more than the other Evangelists did. At the same time he sheds light on the goodness of the Gentile sailors and an amazing readiness in the pagan king and all his people to accept the overwhelming love of God to all humanity. For, while the Gentile sailors appear as men of prayers (1:5) crying out to their gods before putting into practice their nautical experience, e.g., throwing the baggage overboard, Jonah showed himself as the only person on board who was fast asleep and God aroused him through the words of the Gentiles. This broad evangelical way of thinking which opened the doors of hope before the Gentiles and treated matters objectively could not have been possible for a Jewish writer to accept or to portray so candidly and clearly. It must have been someone like Jonah who had encountered death in the whale’s belly and was in touch with God who raises the dead regardless of their nationality. Fourth: Historically, Winckler compared the religious reformations of Adadnirari 111(812-783 B.C.) to those of Amnphis IV of Egypt and concluded that the former was the king whom Jonah found in Nineveh when he got there and from whom he found a royal readiness to accept his teachings1. ITS STRUCTURE 1- Jonah in the raging sea. Chapter 1 2- Jonah in the belly of the whale. Chapter 2. 3- Jonah in Nineveh. Chapter 3. 4- Jonah in the east of the city. Chapter 4. 1 Winckler: History of Babylonia and Assyria, p.232.