Jonah as Allegory

Scandinavian Journal of the Old Testament, 2018

Jonah 1 draws upon the myth of the battle against the sea. Most noticeable is the presence of the triad God, wind, and sea. These elements are present primarily in Genesis 1 & 8, Exodus 14 & 15, Enuma Elish and the Gilgamesh Epic, each retelling the myth of the cosmic battle. Jonah’s allusions, however, go beyond God, wind, and sea and include, for example, the use of Jonah’s name “dove” with reference to the flood accounts. The present essay illustrates these connections, among others, and maintains that the prophet Jonah represents Israel and that the book employs this common myth ironically, to the end that Jonah/Israel is punished rather than delivered through the actions of YHWH.

A Dove to the Land of War, 2018

This article contains chapter 2 of the book 'A Dove to the Land of War : The Book of Jonah Translated Word for Word and Explained'.The prophet Jonah is best known for the storm at sea and his stay in the big fish which – after three days – spits him out on dry land. Less well-known is his prayer in the fish, his later performance in the big city of Nineveh and his skirmish with a tabernacle, a miracle-tree, a worm, a scorching east wind and not in the last place with God. But what is the connection between all those incoherent images? They only seem to be gathered to tell an exciting story. And yet it’s evident from the language, the style and the composition, that the book of Jonah has been written very carefully. In this chapter a literary analysis is presented which reveales the literary character of the Book of Jonah as a very constructed short story with a complex structure. Questions are raised not about what really happened to Jonah, but what the writer of this small Bible book could have meant with his imaginative text. Those questions will be answered in the following chapters of the book. Connections with other stories in the Bible and rabbinical literature will be explained by considering the story of Jonah a Midrash-story which updates certain themes from the Torah and the Prophets in the time of the Persian occupation of the land of Israel after the Babylonian exile. An e-book and a paperback edition are for sale at Amazon.com.

Journal of Ancient Near Eastern Religions, 2013

The book of Jonah concludes with a puzzling rhetorical question by God, connecting plants, animals, and the people of Nineveh (4:10–11). This essay attempts to explain the logic of this rhetoric and to lay out its precise force, thereby clarifying the literary message of the book.

JSOT 35/3 (2011): 359-374

The book of Jonah has inspired scholarly investigation in diverse perspectives, such as debating its literary category (fable, parable, allegory), analyzing its narrative art (narrator, character roles, modes of speech, scenes), comic interpretation (satire, parody, farce), and ¿nally de¿ning the book of Jonah as an anthology of biblical religious thought (obedience, forgiveness, repentance, providence). This article examines the last perspective, namely, the theological, and, in particular, the concept of providence through several motifs: the sea, the ship, the great ¿sh and behemah ('beast'). The occurrence of these motifs in Psalm 104 (vv. 14, 24-26) and almost all of them in Psalm 8 (vv.

1 5 Then Jonah went out from the city and sat east of it. There he made a shelter for himself and sat under it in the shade until he could see what would happen in the city. 6 So the Lord God appointed a plant and it grew up over Jonah to be a shade over his head to deliver him from his discomfort. And Jonah was extremely happy about the plant. 7 But God appointed a worm when dawn came the next day and it attacked the plant and it withered. 8 When the sun came up God appointed a scorching east wind, and the sun beat down on Jonah's head so that he became faint and begged with all his soul to die, saying, "Death is better to me than life." 9 Then God said to Jonah, "Do you have good reason to be angry about the plant?" And he said, "I have good reason to be angry, even to death." 10 Then the Lord said, "You had compassion on the plant for which you did not work and which you did not cause to grow, which came up overnight and perished overnight. 11 Should I not have compassion on Nineveh, the great city in which there are more than 120,000 persons who do not know the difference between their right and left hand, as well as many animals?" Jonah 4:5-11, NASB

2021

This paper (1) analyzes the motif of the fish swallowing Jonah in light of similar episodes attested in Hellenistic Greek epics and other Hellenistic literary traditions and myths. In light of this evidence, it proposes a possible context in which the biblical story emerged. In addition, the paper (2) also analyzes how this motif developed in early Jewish and early Christian traditions, showing how both traditions shape this motif to fit familiar patterns of sea epics. From a larger perspective, this study both allows us (3) to rethink the attitudes towards seafaring that were traditionally attributed to Judeans in Hellenistic times, while also (4) offering new suggestions as to how we might reposition the epic genre in the Hebrew Bible.

Coreopsis: Journal of Myth and Theatre, 2017

This paper examines archetypal, initiatory symbolism in interconnected Biblical narratives, the Old Testament story of Jonah and the Fish (or Whale) and the apocryphal story known as the Harrowing of Hell, a metaphorical relationship alluded to in Jesus Christ’s cryptic reference to the “sign of Jonah.” An amplification of the imagery indicates the symbolic identity of these two mythico-ritual, structural motifs and relates the imagery in both stories to widely distributed primordial rebirth symbolism common to aboriginal people across the world. The interpretive framework for this literary analysis is grounded in a cross-cultural, trans-medial, multidisciplinary and interdisciplinary perspective derived from the psychological criticism of Carl G. Jung and scholars influenced by Jung’s archetypal theories, including Joseph Campbell (comparative mythology/literary mythology), Mircea Eliade (history of religions), Northrop Frye (archetypal literary criticism), and others. The study contributes to an interdisciplinary hermeneutic of archetypal, mythico-ritual imagery found in dreams, fairy tales, and religious myths and rituals, as well as literary and film narratives. Keywords: literary analysis, hermeneutics, myth-criticism, mythopoeic, mythopoetic, archetypes, amplification, theology, mythology, initiation, rebirth, monomyth, night-sea journey, individuation

The Journal of Hebrew Scriptures, 2010

This article examines the special role and function of animals in the book of Jonah. Throughout the book, all elements of creation (natural forces, flora and fauna) serve as emissaries of the Lord. Among animals, this applies specifically to the “great fish” and the worm. Their subjection to God’s will contrasts with the behavior of His human messenger, Jonah, who runs away and tries to evade his mission. At the end of the book animals are viewed as part of the penitent community and an object for divine forgiveness, alongside the human citizens of Nineveh. In fact, the book’s concluding words are “many beasts,” who also merit God’s mercy. I believe there may be a link between the role of animals in the story as divine emissaries and their special status as members of the community and as worthy of divine compassion.