At first glance, the Book of Jonah seems to be an anomaly among the minor prophets.  The book is not placed historically in time.  It consists of four chapters of narrative and includes very few prophetic sayings. Animals behave as if they are human beings.  The prophet does not deliver resounding messages but remains confused and unwilling throughout. His story ends not with consolation but with a challenging question posed by God.  The challenging question has added to the mystery of the book, and encouraged interpreters to see it as something of a puzzle.

A deeper look, however, reveals many connections between the Book of Jonah and other Biblical texts – specifically II Kings 23-26, the Deuteronomic code, various sacrificial psalms, Psalm 148 and, through it, Genesis 1-2:4.  Some of these texts are the background on which the Book of Jonah comments, while others actually echo the book.  An examination of the conversation between Jonah and other Biblical texts can help to shed light on the intention of the Book’s author.  Many of the confusing elements, including the lack of a date, the brevity and form of the prophecies and prayers, the animals’ behavior, the prophet’s confusion, and the ambiguous ending begin to make sense against the background of these other texts.  I shall begin this deeper look by briefly retelling the story of Jonah, with a focus on the elements highlighted by juxtaposition with the other biblical texts.

 

The Book of Jonah

Jonah is called by God to deliver a prophetic message: “The word of the Lord came to Jonah son of Amittai: Go at once to Nineveh, that great city, and proclaim judgment upon it; for their wickedness has come before Me.”   Jonah flees, and boards a ship to Tarshish.  But God impedes the ship’s progress with a stormy wind.  After the sailors entreat their own Gods unsuccessfully for help, they throw lots to see on whose behalf the storm has been conjured.  The lots correctly pick out Jonah, who confesses to fleeing from his God.  After some negotiation, the sailors agree to Jonah’s request to be thrown overboard.  The storm immediately subsides and the sailors are in awe of Jonah’s God.  Then and there they offer sacrifice and take vows to serve this God.

God sends a great fish to swallow Jonah, and Jonah remains in the fish’s belly for three days and three nights.  While in the fish’s belly, Jonah recites a possibly original formal sacrificial psalm. This prayer is accepted and God tells the fish to spit Jonah out onto dry land.

God tells Jonah again to go to Nineveh and prophesy, and this time Jonah follows through.  He gets one-third of the way into the city, crying out a five word prophetic oracle: “In forty days Nineveh will be destroyed.”  The people of Nineveh believe in God.  They call a fast day, and people of all ages don sackcloth.  When word reaches the king, he also dons sackcloth, sits on ashes, and issues a proclamation saying that all domestic animals must also participate in the fast.  In response, people and animals wear sackcloth; people turn from their wicked ways.  God has pity upon them and decides not to destroy the city.

Jonah observes all of this and decides it is a great evil.  He becomes angry.  He speaks another prayer, ending with the words, “Take my life God, for my death will be better than my life.” God answers, “Is anger better for you?”

Jonah exits the city, and builds himself a shelter to the east so he can observe the city’s fate.  God appoints a vine to bring shade to Jonah and Jonah is glad.  The next morning, God appoints a worm to attack the vine.  Jonah becomes exceedingly uncomfortable in the hot wind and wants to die.  This time, without any ceremonial formula, Jonah simply says, “My death will be better than my life.”

God answers, “Is it better for you to be angry about the vine?”  Jonah quips back, “It’s better for me to be angry so that I can die.”  God offers one final reply: “Jonah, you were concerned about the vine, over which you never labored, and which came into being and disappeared in a day.  Shouldn’t I be concerned about the great city of Nineveh, with over 12,000 people who don’t know their right hand from their left, and also many cattle?”

 

Deuteronomic History

The name of the protagonist of the Book of Jonah, Jonah ben Amittai, appears in a brief vignette in II Kings 23-26:

In the fifteenth year of King Amaziah son of Joash of Judah, King Jeroboam son of Joash of Israel became king in Samaria — for forty-one years.  He did what was displeasing to the Lord; he did not depart from all the sins that Jeroboam son of Nebat had caused Israel to commit.  It was he who restored the territory of Israel from Lebo-hamath to the sea of the Arabah, in accordance with the promise that the Lord, the God of Israel, had made through His servant, the prophet Jonah son of Amittai from Gath-hephr.  For the Lord saw the very bitter plight of Israel, with neither bond nor free left, and with none to help Israel.  And the Lord resolved not to blot out the name of Israel from under heaven; and he delivered them through Jeroboam son of Joash.

Clearly the name of the protagonist of the Book of Jonah is more likely to be drawn from this mention in II Kings than the other way around.  One might use the name of a prophet whose biography evokes certain traditions in order to help create the context for a fantastic fable.  It seems less likely that one would insert a cartoon character into what looks like a sober royal history.

What kind of a prophet is the historical Jonah ben Amittai?  He appears as the prophet who predicts his king’s success in battle, even though the king has met all of the religious conditions for failure.  Either this Jonah is the kind of prophet who ingratiates himself to the king no matter what, or he is a prophet who knows something special about God’s forgiving nature.  The Book of Jonah situates its star between those two interpretations.  The star of the Book of Jonah undertakes what looks like a classical mythological journey as outlined by Joseph Campbell.  Jonah journeys from naivete, into the depths, emerging with new knowledge of God’s mercy — except it is not clear that Jonah ever realizes any new knowledge.  Perhaps in the end he remains the prophet who knows only how to discharge his duties as a state functionary.

Interpreting the protagonist of the Book of Jonah as a prophet employed by the national government sheds some light on his actions.  As a royal advisor, Jonah would have understood it to be his job to pronounce oracles of doom against the enemies of Israel and words of encouragement to his own king.  Instead, however, God calls him to warn one of Israel’s greatest enemies – Nineveh, capital of the Assyrian Empire — so that its inhabitants may have the chance to repent.  No wonder Jonah runs the other way when he hears the voice of God.  What the voice tells him to do is contrary to his understanding of the office of prophet.  Perhaps the author of Jonah is hinting that the message of the authentic voice of God is not always consistent with the expectations or program of the politically well-situated prophet.

 

Deuteronomy

The Book of Jonah, it seems, offers a critique of the centralized state-sponsored religion that would employ such a prophet.  Specifically, the book tells a story that pokes fun at several core assumptions of the Deuteronomic code.  The Deteronomic code mandates that:

-The king’s behavior is decisive for the fate of the nation (Samuel through II Kings).

-God has a special relationship with the people of Israel, and with their land (Deut. 6).

-Israelites should offer sacrifice to God only in the Jerusalem temple (Deut. 16:5-6).

-Proper sacrificial animals include cows and sheep (Deut 17:1; 18:3).

-Israelites should avoid methods of divination used by other nations and follow only God’s true prophets (Deut. 13:2-6; 18:10-15).

-If Israelites follow the rules, God will reward them; if they do not follow the rules, God will punish them (Deut. 11:13-21).

-Punishment may take the form of unreliable weather or destruction by enemies followed by desolation (Deut. 28 and 11:13-21).

The Book of Jonah opens with a partial superscription in which Jonah’s name and genealogy are given.  The dates of his prophetic career, however, are not given.  This may be a sign that the book is to be read as a fiction, existing in mythological time.  Or it may be a sign of the author’s opinion that prophetic activity need not always serve a king’s agenda. At the end of the Book of Jonah, God makes clear that his preservation of Nineveh was not a response to the king’s actions.  Instead, the creatures of greatest concern to God are those farthest from royalty: the uneducated, uninformed people who don’t know their right from their left, and animals.  The animals who repent and are saved are the very animals named in Deuteronomy as proper sacrificial animals.  Yet in the Book of Jonah they do not merely live and die in order facilitate the religious practice of human beings.  Instead, they have their own relationship with God.

In the Book of Jonah, Jonah tries to flee from God’s presence by leaving the land of Israel.  But God is present at sea, where He performs a palpable miracle.  At that exact place of God’s manifestation, the sailors offer sacrifice and take vows of commitment.  Jonah himself prays to God from — of all places — the digestive tract of a fish, and his prayer is accepted.

The sailors are not Israelites, and in fact call out to their native Gods when the storm first appears.  They cast lots, a divination practice that seems to be condemned by Deuteronomy.  Nonetheless, the lots reveal the truth about God’s intentions.  Neither physical location nor native customs block the way to God.  All one has to do is recognize God’s power over natural phenomena.  God can invoke this power at will, to teach particular lessons to individuals.  It is not a power reserved for the collective reward and punishment of the Israelite people.

The protagonist of the Book of Jonah, however, seems trapped by the Deuteronomic teachings.  He is continually befuddled by God’s unexpected actions, which challenge his entire understanding of his office.  His success in saving Nineveh would surely have made him unemployable at the Israelite royal court.  Demoralized and confused, he asks God to take his life.

 

Sacrificial Psalms

Jonah’s elegantly formulated request to die, as well as his poetic plea to be released from the belly of the fish, show how thoroughly he bears the stamp of professional prophet.  He is a master of the language of prayer.  Ironically, he finds his skills less than relevant to the tasks demanded of him in the story.

References to “priests and prophets” at the “house of the Lord” in II Kings 23:2 and Jeremiah 26:7 suggest that prophets were employed at the temple.  Other references, such as Jeremiah 27:18 suggest that prophets played the role of intercessor.  Several psalms, such as Psalm 20 seem to consist of a petition to God, a pause for sacrifice, and a pronouncement that the sacrifice is accepted and the petition granted.  Thus some scholars believe that prophets may have been employed at the temple to compose appropriate prayers to accompany sacrifices.  Compositions would have woven together information about the particular situation and standard prayer formulas.

The protagonist of the Book of Jonah is portrayed as having outstanding skills in prayer composition. When Jonah prays from the belly of the fish, he begins his prayer with a series of metaphors that express his particular petition.  “I called out to God in my trouble, and he answered me from the belly of She’ol,” he prays, “Your waves broke over me.”  He ends his prayer with a formulaic reference to the Temple.  “May my prayer come to you in your Holy Temple…with the voice of thanksgiving I will sacrifice to you.”  Either Jonah has not yet figured out that God’s presence extends outside the boundaries of the Temple, or he is only able to pray using the standard formulas he knows.  Nonetheless, his beautifully composed and presumably heartfelt prayer is accepted by God.

When Jonah seeks to die, his suicidal prayer is also formulaic.  He begins with his current situation, saying “I fled from Tarshish.”  He continues with formulaic words of worship from the Book of Exodus, words that presumably activate God’s compassion: “because I know you are gracious, merciful, extending your hands, full of lovingkindness, who has pity on evildoers.”  Finally, he ends with his specific request: “Take my life God, for my death will be better than my life.”  But God does not accept this prayer, even though it is properly formulated.  Instead, God responds by playing on Jonah’s words, initiating a verbal sparring match about what is best for Jonah.

Devising fancy language turns out not to be a game which Jonah can use to get the best of God.  Perhaps much to Jonah’s surprise, the most simple language seems to evoke the strongest responses.  Jonah’s prophetic oracle to the people of Nineveh is only five words long, yet it is immediately effective.  And at the end of the book, God drops the verbal sparring only after Jonah makes a relatively straightforward request to die.  At that point, God finally explains the purpose of his actions towards Nineveh.

The Book of Jonah accomplishes a stunning literary reversal.  On the one hand, the events of the story are completely fantastical, contrary to nature and to human nature.  On the other hand, the character who comes across as out of touch with reality is Jonah himself.  He carries in his mind a model of reality dictated by the Deuteronomic code and his professional duties.  When he actually encounters God, and steps out of his familiar environment, his model fails him completely.  Giant fish obeying God’s command, sailors sacrificing (building a fire!) on board a ship, bloodthirsty enemies experiencing an instant group theophany, animals wearing sackcloth — these seem to represent the realities of life, while Jonah’s rigid world view represents fantasy and error, a mere political agenda and a set of professional skills.

 

Psalms of Praise

Psalm 148 seems to represent the same school of thought as the Book of Jonah.  However, it takes the thought one step forwards.  While the Book of Jonah rejects the Deuteronomic program, Psalm 148 offers an alternative theology.

The Psalm opens and closes with a call for praise to God - Halleluyah.  Verses 7-12 explicitly call on an odd assortment of beings to praise God — listing just about every creature except the people of Israel.  This list seems to echo the cast of characters in the Book of Jonah. In some cases the two texts use synonyms to refer to the creatures and in other cases they use the exact same expression:

Verse 7 says that sea serpents and creatures of the depths should praise God. In the Book of Jonah, a fish comes and goes at God’s command.

Verse 8 lists several weather phenomena, concluding with the wordsruach se’arah oseh devaro.  So’ar is the expression used in the Book of Jonah for the stormy wind God calls upon the boat headed for Tarshish.

Verse 9 notes that plants obey God’s word. In the Book of Jonah, a vine does God’s bidding.

Verse 10 lists four categories of animals, all mentioned in Genesis 1, that fulfill God’s words.  Two of these, behemah (domestic cattle) and remes(creeping things) appear in the Book of Jonah.  The behemah fast, wear sackcloth, and are saved.  The worm, a remes, appears when God appoints it.

Verse 11 says that the kings of the land and all the nations do what God says.  In the Book of Jonah, the King of Nineveh responds immediately to the word of God delivered by Jonah.

Verse 12 says that the old and the young obey God.  In the Book of Jonah, everyone, from the old to the young fasts and dons sackcloth.

In the Book of Jonah, God acts as if He is the God of animals, plants, weather, and foreigners.  In turn, these beings act as though they recognize God.  Psalm 148 seems to offer a philosophical argument that explains this behavior.  God created everything through divine command, and everything obeys God’s commands. Thus, everything in the heavens and earth is thus called to praise God, including angels, luminaries, weather events, animals, human beings of all nations and all ages.

The premise of this argument is drawn from the creation story in Gen. 1-2:4.  In Gen. 1-2:4, God specifically creates each of these beings (or, in the case of human beings, their forebears) through the spoken word.  And the process of creation is not linked with any specific geographic location.  If there is a link between Psalm 148 and the Book of Jonah, then perhaps the author of Jonah is also consciously playing on Gen. 1-2:4.

 

Conclusion

A thematic examination of the Book of Jonah shows that the author is self-consciously in conversation with other theological ideas expressed in Biblical literature.  An examination of the language of the book suggests that the author’s hand may appear elsewhere in the Bible, or that the author was part of a school that made use of particular literary and linguistic motifs.  The characteristics of the school might have been a rejection of the Deuteronomistic particularism, a criticism of the co-optation of religion for political purposes, an awareness and acceptance of the creation story of Gen. 1-2:4, and a positive belief in the universal reign of one God over all creatures.

In this short paper, I have only scratched the surface of this investigation.  I can identify three obvious areas in which this paper falls short.

This investigation does not situate this interpretation of the Book of Jonah in the larger conversation of Biblical scholars.  I know, for example, that I differ with Blenkinsopp on several points, including the following. Blenkinsopp says that the Book of Jonah is not a midrash on the possibly historical Jonah ben Amittai and that its main point is that God can repent. I see the Book of Jonah as offering a comment on the passage in II Kings, and identify a different main theme.

This paper does not exhaustively cite all of the connections I have noticed between the Book of Jonah and other scriptural texts.  For example, it appears right after Amos in the order of the Twelve, and Amos is another prophetic voice who champions a kind of universalism.  This order might indicate a conscious thematic organization.  For another example, Psalm 107 clearly refers to the adventure of the sailors in the Book of Jonah, placing it in a context that calls for human beings to praise the Lord. A closer examination of Psalm 107 might offer clues about the connections between the author of Jonah and other schools of thought in Biblical literature.

I have not made use of all of the clues that could broaden the web of the project.  I did not reflect on the historical period in which more universalistic theologies began to emerge and make suggestions about the dating of the Book of Jonah, nor did I refer it to the emergence of the Genesis 1 creation story, to which it can be linked through Psalm 148.  Of course, broadening the web in these directions might lead to a map of the entire polemic that is played out in Biblical literature — and that is well beyond the scope of this project!

 

– Laura Duhan Kaplan, 2003

Image: Mac clip art