Jonah

THE BOOK OF

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INTRODUCTION

JONAH was the son of Amittai, of Gath-hepher in Zebulun (called

Gittah-hepher in

Jos 19:10-13),

so that he belonged to the kingdom of the ten tribes, not to Judah. His

date is to be gathered from

2Ki 14:25-27,

"He (Jeroboam II) restored the coast of Israel from the entering of

Hamath unto the sea of the plain, according to the word of the Lord God

of Israel, which He spake by the hand of His servant Jonah, the son of

Amittai, the prophet, which was of Gath-hepher. For the Lord saw the

affliction of Israel, that it was very bitter: for there was not any

shut up, nor any left, nor any helper for Israel. And the Lord said not

that He would blot out the name of Israel from under heaven: but He

saved them by the hand of Jeroboam the son of Joash." Now as this

prophecy of Jonah was given at a time when Israel was at the lowest

point of depression, when "there was not any shut up or left," that is,

confined or left at large, none to act as a helper for Israel, it

cannot have been given in Jeroboam's reign, which was marked by

prosperity, for in it Syria was worsted in fulfilment of the prophecy,

and Israel raised to its former "greatness." It must have been,

therefore, in the early part of the reign of Joash, Jeroboam's father,

who had found Israel in subjection to Syria, but had raised it by

victories which were followed up so successfully by Jeroboam. Thus

Jonah was the earliest of the prophets, and close upon Elisha, who died

in Joash's reign, having just before his death given a token

prophetical of the thrice defeat of Syria

(2Ki 13:14-21).

Hosea and Amos prophesied also in the reign of Jeroboam II, but towards

the closing part of his forty-one years' reign. The transactions in the

Book of Jonah probably occurred in the latter part of his life; if so,

the book is not much older than part of the writings of Hosea and Amos.

The use of the third person is no argument against Jonah himself being

the writer: for the sacred writers in mentioning themselves do so in

the third person (compare

Joh 19:26).

Nor is the use of the past tense

(Jon 3:3,

"Now Nineveh was an exceeding great city") a proof that

Nineveh's greatness was past when the Book of Jonah was being written;

it is simply used to carry on the negative uniformly,--"the word of the

Lord came to Jonah . . . so Jonah arose

. . . now Nineveh was," &c.

(Jon 1:1; 3:3).

The mention of its greatness proves rather that the book was

written at an early date, before the Israelites had that

intimate knowledge of it which they must have had soon afterwards

through frequent Assyrian inroads.

As early as JULIAN and PORPHYRY, pagans ridiculed the credulity of Christians in

believing the deliverance of Jonah by a fish. Some infidels have

derived it from the heathen fable of the deliverance of Andromeda from

a sea monster by Perseus [APOLLODORUS, The

Library, 2.4,3]; or from that of Arion the musician thrown into the

sea by sailors, and carried safe to shore on a dolphin [HERODOTUS, History, 1.24]; or from that of

Hercules, who sprang into the jaws of a sea monster, and was three days

in its belly, when he undertook to save Hesione [DIODORUS SICULUS, Historical

Library, 4.42; HOMER, The Iliad,

20.145; 21.442]. Probably the heathen fables are, vice versa,

corruptions of the sacred narrative, if there be any connection.

JEROME states that near Joppa lay rocks, pointed

out as those to which Andromeda was bound when exposed to the sea

monster. This fable implies the likelihood of the story of Jonah having

passed through the Phœnicians in a corrupted form to Greece. That

the account of Jonah is history, and not parable (as rationalists

represent), appears from our Lord's reference to it, in which the

personal existence, miraculous fate, and prophetical

office of Jonah are explicitly asserted: "No sign shall be given

but the sign of the prophet Jonas: for, as Jonas was

three days and three nights in the whale's belly, so shall the Son of

man be three days and three nights in the heart of the earth"

(Mt 12:39, 40).

The Lord recognizes his being in the belly of the fish as a "sign,"

that is, a real miracle, typical of a similar event in His own history;

and assumes the execution of the prophet's commission to Nineveh, "The

men of Nineveh . . . repented at the preaching of Jonas; and

behold, a greater than Jonas is here"

(Mt 12:41).

It seemed strange to KIMCHI, a Jew himself, that the Book of Jonah

is among the Scriptures, as the only prophecy in it concerns Nineveh, a

heathen city, and makes no mention of Israel, which is referred to by

every other prophet. The reason seems to be: a tacit reproof of Israel

is intended; a heathen people were ready to repent at the first

preaching of the prophet, a stranger to them; but Israel, who boasted

of being God's elect, repented not, though warned by their own prophets

at all seasons. This was an anticipatory streak of light before the

dawn of the full "light to lighten the Gentiles"

(Lu 2:32).

Jonah is himself a strange paradox: a prophet of God, and yet a runaway

from God: a man drowned, and yet alive: a preacher of repentance, yet

one that repines at repentance. Yet Jonah, saved from the jaws of death

himself on repentance, was the fittest to give a hope to Nineveh,

doomed though it was, of a merciful respite on its repentance. The

patience and pity of God stand in striking contrast with the

selfishness and hard-heartedness of man.

Nineveh in particular was chosen to teach Israel these lessons, on

account of its being capital of the then world kingdom, and because it

was now beginning to make its power felt by Israel. Our Lord

(Mt 12:41)

makes Nineveh's repentance a reproof of the Jews' impenitence in His

day, just as Jonah provoked Israel to jealousy

(De 32:21)

city afforded as legitimate a field for the prophet's labors as Israel,

and with a more successful result (compare

Am 9:7).

The book is prose narrative throughout, except the prayer of

thanksgiving in the second chapter

(Jon 2:1-9).

The Chaldæisms in the original do not prove spuriousness, or a

later age, but were natural in the language of one living in Zebulun on

the borders of the north, whence Aramaic peculiarities would

readily arise; moreover, his message to Nineveh implies acquaintance

with Assyrian. Living as Jonah did in a part of Israel exposed to

Assyrian invasions, he probably stood in the same relation to Assyria

as Elijah and Elisha had stood to Syria. The purity of the language

implies the antiquity of the book, and the likelihood of its being

Jonah's own writing. Indeed, none but Jonah could have written or

dictated such peculiar details, known only to himself.

The tradition that places the tomb of Jonah opposite to Mosul, and

names it "Nebbi Junus" (that is, "prophet Jonah"), originated probably

in the spot having been occupied by a Christian church or convent

dedicated to him [LAYARD]. A more ancient tradition of

JEROME'S time

placed the tomb in Jonah's native village of Gath-hepher.