Book of Jonah

Book of Jonah, with Commentaries Saints.SQPN.com Published: 2010 Categorie(s): Tag(s): "Book of Jonah" Jonah "Old Testament" SQPN "Saints.SQPN.com" Catholic "Roman Catholic" Bible 1

The Book of Jonah with the text thereof, illustrated, and with commentaries from the New Catholic Dictionary and Catholic Encyclopedia 2

Jonas and the Book of Jonas

from the New Catholic Dictionary

(Hebrew: dove) Jonas was a minor prophet; one of the best sources for information about him is found in 4 Kings 14. The home of Jonas is now identified with El Meshed, about five miles northeast of Nazareth, in the tribal territory of Zebulon; thus he belonged to the northern kingdom. The period of his ministry is determined by its connection with the reign of Jeroboam II (783­743 BC), practically coinciding with the era of decline in the Assyrian Empire which came between the two powerful rulers, Adadnirari III (810­782 BC) and Theglathphalasar III (745­728 BC). Consequently we can account for much in Jonas's career: that he could foretell the victories of Jeroboam; that he could speak of the grandeur of Ninive as past; that he could preach to a nation once proud, now crushed.

The Book of Jonas comprises four chapters. Chapters 1 and 2 relate Jonas's

attempt to resist the order of God that he go to preach in Ninive, the capital of Assyria, and the story of his being swallowed by a great fish specially prepared by God. Chapters 3 and 4 record the accomplishment of his mission and the repentance of Ninive, Jonas is the prophet of God's mercy upon the Gentile nations. The composition of the book was formerly ascribed to the prophet himself, but more recent scholars regard it as written after the destruction of Ninive in 612 BC. Moreover the quotations of psalms in the canticle of Jonas, and the language of the book, which contains Aramaisms, would rather indicate a date about 450 BC. A few Catholic writers have taken the view that the story of Jonas is a parable and was intended to teach certain religious truths, e.g., that man is subject to God, that God in His mercy and goodness calls all men, even pagans, to salvation, etc., but the traditional view, commonly held by Catholics, is that it is a real history. On this point the Church continues the Jewish tradition which has always accepted this book as historic and canonic. Christ Himself proves its authenticity in Matthew 12 when He puts several facts on the same line of truth: Jonas in the whale's belly, the Judgment, the visit of the Queen of Saba to Solomon. The Book of Jonas is used in the Breviary on the Saturday of the fourth week in November, 3

and in the Missal on the Monday in Passion Week. The tenth prophecy

on Holy Saturday is taken from Jonas 3:1­10.

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The Book of Jonah Now the word of Yahweh came to Jonah the son of Amittai, saying, "Arise, go to Nineveh, that great city, and preach against it, for their wickedness has come up before me."

But Jonah rose up to flee to Tarshish from the presence of Yahweh.

He went down to Joppa, and found a ship going to Tarshish; so he paid its fare, and went down into it, to go with them to Tarshish from the presence of Yahweh. But Yahweh sent out a great wind on the sea, and there was a mighty storm on the sea, so that the ship was likely to break up.

Then the mariners were afraid, and every man cried to his god. They threw the cargo that was in the ship into the sea to lighten the ship.

But Jonah had gone down into the innermost parts of the ship, and he was laying down, and was fast asleep. So the shipmaster came to him, and said to him, "What do you mean, sleeper? Arise, call on your God! Maybe your God will notice us, so that we won't perish."

They all said to each other, "Come, let us cast lots, that we may know who is responsible for this evil that is on us." So they cast lots, and the lot fell on Jonah. Then they asked him, "Tell us, please, for whose cause this evil is on us. What is your occupation? Where do you come from?

What is your country? Of what people are you?"

He said to them, "I am a Hebrew, and I fear Yahweh, the God of heaven, who has made the sea and the dry land."

Then were the men exceedingly afraid, and said to him, "What is this

that you have done?" For the men knew that he was fleeing from the presence of Yahweh, because he had told them. Then they said to him, "What shall we do to you, that the sea may be calm to us?" For the sea grew more and more stormy. He said to them, "Take me up, and throw me into the sea. Then the sea will be calm for you; for I know that because of me this great storm is on you."

Nevertheless the men rowed hard to get them back to the land; but they could not, for the sea grew more and more stormy against them.

Therefore they cried to Yahweh, and said, "We beg you, Yahweh, we beg you, don't let us die for this man's life, and don't lay on us innocent blood; for you, Yahweh, have done as it pleased you." So they took up Jonah, and 5

threw him into the sea; and the sea ceased its raging. Then the men feared Yahweh exceedingly; and they offered a sacrifice to Yahweh, and made vows.

Yahweh prepared a great fish to swallow up Jonah, and Jonah was in the belly of the fish three days and three nights.

Then Jonah prayed to Yahweh, his God, out of the fish's belly. He said, "I called because of my affliction to Yahweh.

He answered me.

Out of the belly of Sheol I cried.

You heard my voice.

For you threw me into the depths, in the heart of the seas.

The flood was all around me.

All your waves and your billows passed over me.

I said, 'I have been banished from your sight;

yet I will look again toward your holy temple.'

The waters surrounded me, even to the soul.

The deep was around me.

The weeds were wrapped around my head.

I went down to the bottoms of the mountains.

The earth barred me in forever: yet have you brought up my life from the pit, Yahweh my God. "When my soul fainted within me, I remembered Yahweh.

My prayer came in to you, into your holy temple.

Those who regard lying vanities forsake their own mercy.

But I will sacrifice to you with the voice of thanksgiving.

I will pay that which I have vowed.

Salvation belongs to Yahweh."

Yahweh spoke to the fish, and it vomited out Jonah on the dry land.

The word of Yahweh came to Jonah the second time, saying, "Arise, go to Nineveh, that great city, and preach to it the message that I give you."

So Jonah arose, and went to Nineveh, according to the word of Yahweh.

Now Nineveh was an exceedingly great city, three days' journey across.

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Jonah began to enter into the city a day's journey, and he cried out, and said, "In forty days, Nineveh will be overthrown!"

The people of Nineveh believed God; and they proclaimed a fast, and put on sackcloth, from the greatest of them even to the least of them.

The news reached the king of Nineveh, and he arose from his throne, and took off his royal robe, covered himself with sackcloth, and sat in ashes.

He made a proclamation and published through Nineveh by the decree

of the king and his nobles, saying, "Let neither man nor animal, herd nor flock, taste anything; let them not feed, nor drink water; but let them be covered with sackcloth, both man and animal, and let them cry mightily to God. Yes, let them turn everyone from his evil way, and from the violence that is in his hands. Who knows whether God will not turn and relent, and turn away from his fierce anger, so that we might not perish?"

God saw their works, that they turned from their evil way. God relented of the disaster which he said he would do to them, and he didn't do it.

But it displeased Jonah exceedingly, and he was angry. He prayed to Yahweh, and said, "Please, Yahweh, wasn't this what I said when I was still in my own country? Therefore I hurried to flee to Tarshish, for I knew that you are a gracious God, and merciful, slow to anger, and abundant in loving kindness, and you relent of doing harm.

Therefore now, Yahweh, take, I beg you, my life from me; for it is better for me to die than to live."

Yahweh said, "Is it right for you to be angry?"

Then Jonah went out of the city, and sat on the east side of the city, and there made himself a booth, and sat under it in the shade, until he might see what would become of the city. Yahweh God prepared a vine, and made it to come up over Jonah, that it might be a shade over his head, to deliver him from his discomfort. So Jonah was exceedingly glad because

of the vine. But God prepared a worm at dawn the next day, and it chewed on the vine, so that it withered. It happened, when the sun arose, that God prepared a sultry east wind; and the sun beat on Jonah's head, so that he fainted, and requested for himself that he might die, and said, "It is better for me to die than to live."

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God said to Jonah, "Is it right for you to be angry about the vine?"

He said, "I am right to be angry, even to death."

Yahweh said, "You have been concerned for the vine, for which you have not labored, neither made it grow; which came up in a night, and perished in a night. Shouldn't I be concerned for Nineveh, that great city, in which are more than one hundred twenty thousand persons who can't discern between their right hand and their left hand; and also much livestock?"

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Jonah

from the Catholic Encyclopedia

The fifth of the Minor Prophets. The name is usually taken to mean "dove", but in view of the complaining words of the Prophet (Jonah 4), it is not unlikely that the name is derived from the root Yanah = to mourn, with the signification dolens or "complaining". This interpretation goes back to Saint Jerome. Apart from the book traditionally ascribed to him, Jonah is mentioned only once in the Old Testament, IV Kings 14:25, where it is stated that the restoration by Jeroboam II of the borders of Israel against the incursions of foreign invaders was a fulfillment of the

"word of the Lord the God of Israel, which he spoke by his servant Jonah the son of Amathi, the prophet, who was of Geth, which is in Opher".

This last is but a paraphrastic rendering of the name Gath­Hepher, a town in the territory of Zabulon , which was probably the birthplace of the Prophet, and where his grave was still pointed out in the time of Saint Jerome. Mention is made of Jonah in Matthew 12:39 sqq., and in 16:4, and likewise in the parallel passages of Luke (11:29, 30, 32), but these references add nothing to the information contained in the Old Testament data. According to an ancient tradition mentioned by Saint Jerome, and which is found in Pseudo­Epiphanius, Jonah was the son of the widow of Sarephta whose resuscitation by the Prophet Elias is narrated in III Kings 17, but this legend seems to have no other foundation than the phonetic resemblance between the proper name Amathi, father of the Prophet, and the Hebrew word Emeth, "truth", applied to the word of God through Elias by the widow of Sarephta (1 Kings 17:24).

The chief interest in the Prophet Jonah centres around two remarkable incidents narrated in the book which bears his name. In the opening verse it is stated that "the word of the Lord came to Jonah the son of Amathi, saying: Arise and go to Ninive, the great city, and preach in it: for the wickedness thereof is come up before me." But the Prophet, instead of obeying the Divine command, "rose up to flee into Tharsis from the face of the Lord" that he might escape the task assigned to him.

He boards a ship bound for that port, but a violent storm overtakes him, and on his admission that he is the cause of it, he is cast overboard. He is swallowed by a great fish providentially prepared for the purpose, and

after a three day's sojourn in the belly of the monster, during which time he composes a hymn of thanksgiving, he is cast upon dry land. After this episode he again receives the command to preach in Ninive, and the 9

account of his second journey is scarcely less marvellous than that of the first. He proceeds to Ninive and enters "after a day's journey" into it, foretelling its destruction in forty days. A general repentance is immediately commanded by the authorities, in view of which God relents and spares the wicked city. Jonah, angry and disappointed, wishes for death.

He expostulates with the Lord, and declares that it was in anticipation of this result that on the former occasion he had wished to flee to Tharsis.

He withdraws from Ninive and, under a booth which he has erected, he awaits the destiny of the city. In this abode he enjoys for a time the refreshing shade of a gourd which the Lord prepares for him. Shortly, however, the gourd is stricken by a worm and the Prophet is exposed to the burning rays of the sun, whereupon he again murmurs and wishes to die. Then the Lord rebukes him for his selfish grief over the withering of a gourd, while still desiring that God should not be touched by the repentance of a city in which "there are more than a hundred and twenty thousand persons that know not how to distinguish between their right hand and their left, and many beasts." Apart from the hymn ascribed to

Jonah (2:2­11) the contents of the book are prose.

HISTORICITY Catholics have always looked upon the Book of Jonah as a fact­ narrative.

In the works of some recent Catholic writers there is a leaning to regard the book as fiction. Only Simon and Jahn, among prominent Catholic scholars, have clearly denied the historicity of Jonah; and the orthodoxy of these two critics may no longer be defended: "Providentissimus Deus" implicitly condemned the ideas of both in the matter of inspiration, and the Congregation of the Index expressly condemned the "Introduction" of the latter.

Reasons for the traditional acceptance of the historicity of Jonah: I. Jewish Tradition According to the Septuagint text of the Book of Tobias (14:4), the words of Jonah in regard to the destruction of Ninive are accepted as facts; the same reading is found in the Aramaic text and one Hebrew manuscript.

The apocryphal III Machabees 6:8, lists the saving of Jonah in the belly of the fish along with the other wonders of Old Testament history.

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Josephus clearly deems the story of Jonah to be historical.

II. The Authority of Our Lord This reason is deemed by Catholics to remove all doubt as to the fact of the story of Jonah. The Jews asked a "sign" — a miracle to prove the Messiahship of Jesus. He made answer that no "sign" would be given them other than the "sign of Jonah the Prophet. For as the Jonah was in the

whale's belly three days and three nights: so shall the Son of man be in the heart of the earth three days and three nights. The men of Ninive shall rise in judgment with this generation and shall condemn it: because they did penance at the preaching of Jonah. And behold a greater than Jonah here" (Matthew 12:40­1; 16:4; Luke 11:29­32). The Jews asked for a real miracle; Christ would have deceived them had He presented a mere fancy. He argues clearly that just as Jonah was in the whale's belly three days and three nights even so He will be in the heart of the earth three days and three nights. If, then, the stay of Jonah in the belly of the fish be only a fiction, the stay of Christ's body in the heart of the earth is only a fiction. If the men of Ninive will really not rise in judgment, neither will the Jews really rise. Christ contrasts fact with fact, not fancy with fancy, nor fancy with fact. It would be very strange, indeed, were He to say that He was greater than a fancy­formed man. It would be little less strange were he to berate the Jews for their real lack of penance by rating this lack in contrast with the penance of Ninive which never existed at all.

The whole force of these striking contrasts is lost, if we admit that the story of Jonah is not fact­narrative. Finally, Christ makes no distinction between the story of the Queen of Sheba and that of Jonah (Matthew 12:42). He sets the very same historical value upon the Book of Jonah as

upon the Third Book of Kings. Such is the very strongest argument that Catholics offer for the firm stand they take upon the ground of the factnarrative of the story of Jonah.

III. The Authority of the Fathers Not a single Father has ever been cited in favor of the opinion that Jonah is a fancy­tale and no fact­narrative at all. To the Fathers Jonah was a fact and a type of the Messias, just such a one as Christ presented to the Jews.

Saints Jerome, Cyril, and Theophilus explain in detail the type­ meaning of the facts of the Book of Jonah. Saint Cyril even forestalls the objections of the Rationalists of today: Jonah flees his ministry, bewails God's mercy 11

to the Ninivites, and in other ways shows a spirit that ill becomes a Prophet and an historical type of Christ. Cyril admits that in all this Jonah failed and is not a type of Christ, but does not admit that these failures of Jonah prove the story of his doings to have been a mere fiction.

To the Rationalist and to the advanced Protestant Biblical scholar these arguments are of no worth whatsoever. They find error not only in Jewish and Christian tradition but in Christ Himself. They admit that Christ took the story of Jonah as a fact­narrative, and make answer that Christ erred; He was a child of His time and represents to us the ideas and errors of His time. The arguments of those who accept the inerrancy of Christ and deny the historicity of Jonah are not conclusive.

* Christ spoke according to the ideas of the people, and had no purpose in telling them that Jonah was really not swallowed by the fish. We ask: Did Christ speak of the Queen of Sheba as a fact? If so, then He spoke of Jonah as a fact — unless there be some proof to the contrary. * Were the book historical in its narrative, certain details would not be omitted, for instance, the place where the Prophet was vomited forth by the sea­monster, the particular sins of which the Ninivites were guilty, the particular kind of calamity by which the city was to be destroyed, the name of the Assyrian king under whom these events took place and who turned to the true God with such marvellous humility and repentance.

We answer, these objections prove that the book is not an historical account done according to later canons of historical criticism; they do not prove that the book is no history at all. The facts narrated are such as suited the purpose of the sacred writer. He told a story of glory unto the God of Israel and of downfall to the gods of Ninive. It is likely that the incidents took place during the period of Assyrian decadence, i.e., the reign of either Asurdanil or Asurnirar (770­745 B.C.). A pest had ravaged the land from 765 till 759 B.C. Internal strife added to the dismay caused by the deadly disease. The king's power was set at naught. Such a king might seem too little known to be mentioned. The Pharaoh of Mosaic times is not deemed to have been a fiction merely because his name is

not given.

Jewish tradition assumed that the Prophet Jonah was the author of the book bearing his name, and the same has been generally maintained by 12

the Christian writers who defend the historical character of the narrative.

But it may be remarked that nowhere does the book itself claim to have been written by the Prophet (who is supposed to have lived in the eighth century B.C.), and most modern scholars, for various reasons, assign the date of the composition to a much later epoch, probably the fifth century B.C. As in the case of other Old Testament personages, many legends, mostly fantastic and devoid of critical value, grew up around the name Jonah.

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About This Book The introductory material is taken from the 1911, New Catholic Dictionary.

The text is from the public domain World English Bible. The lengthier commentary after the text is by James F Driscoll, and is taken from the 1910, Catholic Encyclopedia. The images, in order are • detail from Jonah, by Michelangelo Buonarroti, 1511, Cistine Chapel, Vatican; swiped off the Web Gallery of Art • detail from Jonah Swallowed up by the Whale, by Giotto di Bondone, c.1305, Cappella Scrovegni (Arena Chapel), Padua, Italy; swiped off the Web Gallery of Art • Jonah Cast Forth By the Whale, by Gustave Dore; swiped off the Wikipedia web site • Jonah Preaching to the Ninevites, by Gustave Dore; swiped off

the Wikipedia web site • photograph of the statue Jonah, by Lorenzetto, c.1519, Santa Maria del Popolo, Rome, Italy; swiped off the Web Gallery of Art More free ebooks are available at the web site Saints.SQPN.com, and it's just a small part of SQPN ­ the Star Quest Production Network.

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