JONAH (Book)
The fifth of the “Minor Prophets.” The importance of the biographical element distinguishes it from other prophetic writings. It can be divided into three sections:
(a) Jonah’s disobedience (Jon. 1). Jehovah had ordered him to go to Nineveh and prophesy against that city, to which he rebelled. He embarked at Joppa (the same port that appears in Acts 9:38, which today is called Japhah) to flee to Tarshish.
A violent storm broke out, and the ship was in danger. The sailors cast lots to find out what was the cause of this misfortune. The lot fell on Jonah. Having told the sailors that he had disobeyed Jehovah his God, he added: “Cast me into the sea, and the sea will be still for you” (Jon. 1:12). The sailors did so despite him, and the storm ceased. A large fish that the Lord had prepared swallowed Jonah (Jon. 1:14-17).
(b) Jonah’s prayer (Jon. 2). Astonished to find himself still alive in the bosom of the sea, the prophet thanks God, who had saved him, and expresses the certainty of his final liberation. The fish vomits Jonah onto the land.
(c) Jonah’s preaching and the results of it (Jon. 3-4). Upon receiving the order for the second time to go to Nineveh, Jonah obeys and proclaims his message. The Ninevites publicly repent, and God forgives the city.
This meekness displeases Jonah; He feels full of spite, not only because the repentance of the people had made his prophecy null and void (because both the prophet and his hearers were waiting for the events, Jon. 3:9; 4:2), but also probably because Jonah sensed that the survival of Nineveh would determine the crushing of his own homeland.
By drying the gourd, so useful to protect oneself from the heat of the sun, the Lord teaches his prophet the lesson of divine compassion towards his creatures, regardless of their ethnic origin.
Jonah’s motive for fleeing was probably a narrow and misunderstood patriotism. The prophet feared that Nineveh would repent and that God’s mercy would preserve the city; In short, he openly desired the destruction of Nineveh (Jon. 4:2, 4, 11), the powerful enemy of Israel.
The preservation of Nineveh was to entail judgment on Israel.
The object of the book is to teach above all that God’s merciful designs do not exclusively have to do with the children of Abraham, but also with the Gentiles, still ignorant of the law of Israel. In addition to this great lesson, the book of Jonah is an illustration of several typical truths:
(a) Nineveh repents for the preaching of a single prophet, while Israel remains insensitive despite the many prophets who have been sent to it (cf. Mt. 12:41). There is a general fact that will be repeated in the future: The Gentiles accept divine teaching more readily than Israel: the Gentiles do not follow the moral law more easily, but they do accept the totality of Revelation more readily (cf. Is. 2:2-4 with v. 5).
(b) Jonah, an Israelite servant of God, is sent to preach to the Gentiles, which shows that God wants to use his people to lead the Gentiles to repentance and faith. Jonah is not the only Israelite who illustrates this truth: Elijah was sent to a widow in Zarephath (1 Kings 17); Elisha healed Naaman the Syrian (2 Kings 5); Christ spoke of God to the Samaritan woman, and healed the daughter of a Syrophoenician woman (Jn. 4; Mr. 7).
(c) Jonah, the deserted prophet, is thrown into the sea, but is saved so he can fulfill his mission. Certain commentators have drawn an allegorical interpretation of this fact: Jonah would symbolize the people of Israel, chosen to be a witness of divine truth to the nations.
Sent to Nineveh, the prophet refuses to give his message from God, just as Israel rejects the Messiah and allows him to be crucified by the Gentiles, instead of bringing them the gospel. The prophet, fleeing by sea in a ship, is buffeted by the storm and finally swallowed by the fish; In the same way, the people, in the midst of the most terrible trials, are “swallowed” by deportation (cf. Jer. 51:34, 44) and by worldwide dispersion.
Jonah is not digested by the fish, just as the Jews are not assimilated by other peoples; the prophet invokes Jehovah (Jon. 2), in the same way that Israel in exile remembers God, and ardently desires his restoration.
The fish vomits Jonah on the coast of Palestine, from where he had left, in the same way that the nations will leave Israel on the coasts of her homeland. Then, God addresses Jonah a second call; The prophet finally obeys, heading to Nineveh, and the city becomes a mass. In the same way, Israel, upon returning to Palestine, finds there repentance and a new vocation to evangelize the Gentiles, who will be converted in turn (Is. 66:18-20; 2:2-4; Zech. 8 :20-23).
(d) Jonah, cast into the depths of Sheol, emerges from the abyss alive (Jon. 2:2, 6). According to Mt. 12:40, he is a type of the buried Messiah and resurrected three days later.
(e) The book of Jonah can be considered a true treatise on missions among the Gentiles. Indeed, it illustrates the guilt and lostness of the world without God; the love of the Lord towards all his creatures, the call he makes to them, the salvation offered, the announcement of judgment; the role of the Lord’s messenger, his motives and the consequences of his disobedience; the possibility of renewal of his calling; the repentance and liberation of an entire people; the demonstration, in short, that the last can become the first.
Author, date and authenticity.
The word of Jonah quoted in 2 Kings 14:25 must have been proclaimed at the beginning of the reign of Jeroboam II, around 780 BC. The book of Jonah does not give a date, but it is undoubtedly written by the same prophet upon his return from Nineveh. The visit to Nineveh could have taken place between 780 and 750 BC.
Critics question its authenticity, and consider the work as a legend, a myth, a parable. They claim not to be able to admit its miraculous elements; but the miracles cited here are no more incredible than the plagues of Egypt, the crossing of the Red Sea, the pillar of fire and smoke, the manna, the rock of Horeb, or the resurrection of Christ.
Those who refuse to admit the possibility of such miracles place the writing of the book after the exile, around the 4th century BC. or later. But the historical character of the work and its unity can be evidenced for the following reasons:
(a) The style is narrative, the names are not symbolic. The reader without prior opinions receives the impression that this is an authentic story. It is indisputable that Jonah himself was a historical figure. Jesus claims that Jonah spent three days and three nights in the belly of the great fish.
He also affirms the miracle of the repentance of the inhabitants of Nineveh upon hearing Jonah’s preaching. Thus, the entire account of the book of Jonah is authenticated by the authority of Christ. The importance given by the Lord to Jonah’s miracle is so great that he can declare that no other sign than this will be given to his generation (Mt. 12: 39-41; Luke 11: 29-32).
If we admit the authority of the Son of God, the rejection of the authenticity of the book of Jonah and its supernatural character is unsustainable. Nor can it be considered a mere legend or parable.
(b) Much ridicule has been cast on the story of Jonah’s “whale,” because whales cannot swallow a man; Furthermore, they rarely appear in the Mediterranean. But the truth is that the text does not speak of a whale, but of a large fish, a sea monster.
There are large sharks that can swallow men whole. During the last century and the present, several news stories have circulated about people rescued alive from the entrails of large marine animals.
In Princeton Theological Review, for example, the case is recounted of a man who, having fallen into the sea, was rescued three days later, unconscious but alive, when a whaler captured a marine mammal and cut it open (vol. 25 [1927], p. 636). There is no reason to doubt the story, except disbelief that does not accept that God can intervene, and that ignores the power of God.
(c) The immensity of Nineveh (Jon. 3:3; 4:11), which had been questioned by certain critics, has been confirmed by archaeological excavations. The inner city had a perimeter of fourteen kilometers and was spread out into numerous suburbs separated by a good number of kilometers (see NINEVEH).
(d) Due to the presence of Aramaicisms in the text, it has been argued that this indicates a late date. But an Aramaic influence cannot be ruled out in the northern kingdom in the times before Jeroboam II, due to the many commercial contacts with the outside world. The correspondence with Jeremiah and certain psalms have no weight in this argument, as documented in the study by R. D. Wilson “The Authenticity of Jonah,” in Princeton Theological Review, vol. 16, PP. 280-298, 430-456.
(e) The argument for why the king of Assyria is called “king of Nineveh” in Jon. 3:6 does not hold, since similar appeals are used in other passages of the OT. The king of Israel is called king of Samaria (1 Kings 20:43; 21:1), and the king of Syria is called king of Damascus (2 Chron. 24:23).
(f) In general, critics reject the “psalm” of chapter 2, but thereby destroy the symmetry of the book, in which each half comprises two chapters. These authors accuse Jonah of not uttering a prayer but a song of deliverance; With this they exhibit their ignorance that the very essence of prayer is trust and thanksgiving.
It should be noted that this psalm is Jonah’s thanksgiving not for having escaped from the fish, but for having escaped drowning. All the expressions of his prayer have this meaning.
(g) For critics, any universalist notion of salvation is late and even post-exilic. But this conception is arbitrary, because from the very beginning the Bible affirms that God’s objective is to save the entire human race and all the nations of the earth (Gen. 9:17; 12:3; 18:18; 49:10; Ps. 72:8-11, etc.).
(h) It is perfectly plausible that the Ninevites repented. His empire was then in a precarious situation, and his history mentions the epidemics of the years 765 and 759 BC, as well as a total eclipse in the year 753, all of which were considered signs of divine wrath.
It is true that we do not know what relations may exist between these signs and Jonah; but the arrival of a foreign prophet, of whom the Ninevites were able to learn about his strange odyssey, could move them. Let us note here that it is a question of his repentance, and not of his total conversion.
In the same way there were national revivals in Judah under the reigns of Hezekiah and Josiah; However, these did not last very long; The national return to God was temporary and did not prevent the final tragedy.
As for the silence of profane history about it, if it was a fleeting repentance, since the fulfillment of the prophecy of destruction had not occurred, it is possible that the hearts of the Ninevites soon turned to their old ways (cf. Jer. 34:8-11 ff).
All the more reason that pagan historians would have passed this episode in silence. In any case, the argument of silence has no real foundation. A few decades ago, due to the fact that there was no known extra-biblical reference to the Hittites (Hittites), the 47 allusions to the Hittites in the Bible were declared an error.
The archaeological discoveries made subsequently have reduced all previous statements to nothing. There remains the possibility that one day the tablets that would be the Ninevite account of Jonah’s preaching and its consequences will come to light from the ruins of Nineveh.
Meanwhile, there is no reason not to fully accept the testimony of prophecy and of Jesus Christ, accepting as just the superinscription of this small book: “The word of the Lord came to Jonah the son of Amittai…” (Jon. 1:1) .