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Commentary Index | Return to PrayerRequest.com | DownloadGreater Men and Women of the Bible by James Hastings: 453. Jonah
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Literature
Benvie, A., Higher on the Hill (1900), 44.
Burrell, D. J., The Religion of the Future, 289.
Butcher, C. H., Sermons Preached in the East (1890), 101.
Cooke, G. A., The Progress of Revelation (1910), 65.
Cox, S., Expositions, ii. (1888) 75.
Funcke, O., The School of Life (1885).
Gosse, P. H., Rivers of the Bible (1850), 89.
Holden, J. S., The Pre-Eminent Lord (1909), 171.
Liddon, H. P., Sermons Preached on Special Occasions (1897), 164.
Macaskill, M., A Highland Pulpit (1907), 42.
McGarvey, J. W., Jesus and Jonah (1896).
Macgregor, W. M., Some of God's Ministries (1910), 90.
Mackennal, A., Christ's Healing Touch (1884), 87.
Maclaren, A., Expositions: Ezekiel to Malachi (1908), 177.
Macnaughtan, G. D., Two Hebrew Idylls (1901), 93.
McWilliam, T., Speakers for God (1902), 333.
Matheson, G., The Representative Men of the Bible, ii. (1903) 217.
Montefiore, C. G., The Bible for Home Reading, ii. (1899) 408.
Neale, J. M., Sermons Preached in Sackville College Chapel, iii. (1878) 135.
Owen, J. W., Some Australian Sermons (1892), 30.
Perowne, T. T., Jonah (Cambridge Bible) (1879).
Robertson, S., The Rope of Hair (1911), 212.
Smith, G. A., The Book of the Twelve Prophets (Expositor's Bible), ii. (1898).
Tipple, S. A., Days of Old (1911), 65.
Whiton, J. M., New Points to Old Texts (1889), 215.
Whyte, A., Bible Characters: Ahithophel to Nehemiah (1899), 127.
Wray, J. J., Honey in the Comb (1887), 147.
Biblical World, xii. (1898) 190 (A. W. Ackerman); xix. (1902) 378 (W. Caldwell).
Dictionary of the Bible, ii. (1899) 744 (E. König).
Dictionary of the Bible, ii. (Single-volume, 1909) 491 (W. T. Smith).
Encyclopœdia Biblica, ii. (1901), col. 2565 (T. K. Cheyne).
The story of the wilful prophet is one of the best known and most misunderstood in the Old Testament-an occasion for jest to the mocker, a cause of bewilderment to the literalist believer, but a reason for joy to the critic. The Old Testament reaches here one of its highest points, for the doctrine of God receives in it one of its clearest and most beautiful expressions, and the spirit of prophetic religion is revealed at its truest and best.
1. The Book of Jonah used to be regarded as Jonah's composition, but that belief is now generally abandoned, except in the Roman Catholic Church. Since Nineveh is clearly referred to as no longer standing-“Now Nineveh was an exceeding great city” (Jon_3:3)-the terminus a quo cannot be placed earlier than about 600 b.c. (fall of Nineveh, 606 b.c.). The terminus ad quem is fixed by the mention of the Twelve Prophets in Sir_49:10, c. 200 b.c. The date therefore lies between 600 and 200.
The ancient Jews seem to have regarded the book as historical (3Ma_6:8; Tob_14:4; Tob_14:8; Jos., Ant. IX. X. 2), and were followed by Christian interpreters. Modern scholars are greatly divided. Archdeacon Perowne, J. Kennedy, and Clay Trumbull have defended the old view. Kleinert, König, C. H. H. Wright, G. A. Smith, and Cheyne treat the book as an allegory of the fortunes of the people. Jonah “the dove” represents Israel. Jonah the prophet stands for Israel, which was to prophesy among the nations. The sea figures the destruction which repeatedly fell on Israel. Cheyne supplements the symbolical key by the mythological. The fish (that is, the dragon, the subterranean sea) refers to Babylon, which swallowed Israel, not to destroy it but to give opportunity for repentance; and the link between Jonah and the original myth is found in Jer_51:34; Jer_51:44. Kautzsch, Driver, Nowack, and Marti see in the story a didactic narrative founded on an ancient tradition.
2. The prominence given by Christian expositors to the incident of the fish has tended to obscure the chief aim of the writing-to protest against the narrowness of thought and sympathy which prevailed among the Jews of the time, and was daily growing in intensity. Whoever the author was, he had higher thoughts about God than most of his contemporaries, perhaps it may even be said than any other of the writers of the Old Testament, and entertained more charitable feelings towards the Gentile world than most of his people. The God of Israel, he believed, cared for all men. Penitent Gentiles-and many in Gentile circles were ready to repent if only they were taught-could obtain pardon as readily as penitent Jews. Nay, Jehovah sought their repentance. Nowhere in pre-Christian literature can be found a broader, purer, loftier, tenderer conception of God than in this little anonymous Hebrew tract. How high the teaching of the book rose above later Judaism, say the Judaism of the time of Christ and the following generation, is strikingly shown by the way in which it is summarized by Josephus (Ant. IX. X. 2). There is not a word there about the penitence of the Ninevites, or God's remonstrance with Jonah. The main lesson of the book is absolutely ignored by the proud Pharisaic priest. Another leading thought of the book is the duty of Israel to make its God known to the Gentiles.
3. In the book itself there is anecdote and poetry, but no history, in the usual sense of that term. In this respect it is peculiar and unique among the so-called books of the prophets. In all the rest of these the contents are made up of the discourses of the prophets, more or less interleaved with contemporary history. The complete absence of both these elements from the Book of Jonah strikes every careful reader as marking it off from all the other memoirs of the prophets into a place and character of its own. It is, in fact, a group of incidents so put together as to produce scenes of dramatic effect and also to imprint upon the reader's heart the evangelical lesson of the grace of God in the forgiveness of all true penitents.