Jonah, More Than A Mere Story
Submitted to Dr. Chuck Pitts
In Partial Fulfillment of the
Requirements of the Course
Minor Prophets of the Old
Testament
Spring 2000
By
Mike
Alexander
TABLE
OF CONTENTS
Jonah, More Than A
Mere Story (introduction to the paper) 1
The Significance of
the Fish 4
The Significance of
the Sign 6
The Significance of
the People 7
The Significance of
the “Choosing of Jonah” 8
Jonah and the
Parables of Jesus 9
Conclusion 10
Works Cited
JONAH
MORE THAN A MERE STORY
Many people think that Jonah is a big fist story, about the best fish story ever told. And fish stories have been the plight of every fisherman and to those people who have to listen to them. But Jonah is more than a mere story. Some believe that Jonah is the quintessential parable of the Old Testament. A parable can be defined as the reality of God revealed in word pictures or as a simple story with a higher spiritual meaning. The Hebrew parable mashal covers a wide range of meanings, more so than the Greek parabole. The mashal can refer to a proverb; riddle, anecdote, fable or allegory that defines the unknown by using what is known. “The Rabbinical parable illustrates its point by re-describing in drama, the nature of God and human responses to his love” (Young 1998, 3). The Greek parabole is defined as “the image of a story illustration thrown out as a comparison of the reality of the source with its fictional representation in words” (Young 1998, 3). Other scholars deny that the Book of Jonah is a parable because Jonah is not a fictional character and appears in the canon. Others also state that the mention of real places in history such as Joppa, Tarshish, and Ninevah would not appear in a parable. Parables are normally short and simple with uncomplicated plots and contain one major point. Jonah is much longer in length and has a complicated plot with many points for the reader to focus upon.
There are differences of opinion with some scholars stressing one aspect, some another, but all three elements – history, parable and allegory – seem to be present. Jonah appears to be a story based on historical data, cast in a somewhat parabolic form … and containing certain allegorical or symbolical references. Possibly a more accurate description would be to say that it is a sermon preached. to Israel using facts and references with which the people were familiar. (Pickard, 1974, 14)
Jonah could better be studied within the context of the Jewish haggadah. Haggadah or storytelling contains a message that has its own dynamic within the parameters of religious and ethical teaching. The haggadah takes a common place item, i.e. fish, water, pagans, etc. and uses them to be a hook to capture the listener’s attention. The story, usually most entertaining and sometimes captivating proclaims a powerful message that requires a decision. The focus of the haggadah is to understand the divine nature of God’s way among the people whom God loves. Young quotes L. Findkelstein (Sifre Deut. 49 [Sifre Devarim]), on the Rabbinical purpose of the haggadah: “If your desire is to know Him who spoke and the world came into being, then study Haggadah and from this study you will know him who spoke the world into being and you will cleave to His ways” (Young 1998, 5). The Haggadah communicates God’s love in a meaningful way to the most erudite scholar as well as to the common people.
Therefore it is best to read Jonah in light of haggadah. There are certain elements in the Jonah story that really act as a “hook” to grab the attention of the reader. Some of those elements (the water, the fish, and the people, the choosing of Jonah) are presented in this paper. The Jonah story is also present in the New Testament when Jesus refers to the sign of Jonah. The Jonah theme also appears in the parables Jesus taught. These will also be discussed in the paper.
Jonah 2:3 “You hurled me into the deep, into the very heart of the sea, and currents swirled about me; all your waves and breakers swept over me.”
To the Israelites, water represented death. The Israelites had a healthy fear of water with reason. They had been told the story of Noah and the flood and how everything had been destroyed. Then came the flight of the people from Egypt to the “Reed” sea and the fear of drowning was ever present. The opening of the sea by Moses was a true miracle but the fear did not subside for they saw the destruction of the Egyptians who were chasing them.
Water denotes swallowing up and death. Yet it is also closely linked with the presence of the Spirit of God. This is part of the general principal that in God’s revelation no sign is ever purely negative because God’s own action is never negative. Most signs are ambivalent, and that which denotes death also has within it the promise of life. At the beginning of the creation story, the waters symbolize the void, nothingness, and the abyss. But we cannot stop there: the Spirit of God moves over the face of the waters. (Ellul 1971, 41)
When Jonah is thrown into the sea, he is plunged into death, nothingness. His psalm, although a song of thanksgiving, gives one a distinct description of a drowning victim. One can imagine the fear of sinking and the absence of air, of being caught with reeds binding every part of the body including the head and the struggle just to be freed. The description is frightening. When a person encounters this force, he/she loses all she/he is. The only way Jonah can escape this situation is because God gives him his spirit, The Holy Spirit, “who is linked with the water and who works mysteriously in the work of death” (Elull 1971, 41-42). The Holy Spirit is evident in the presence of the Dove, the cloud and the ark and draws humankind back from destruction and leads them to life. Jonah is given a new beginning and he is a new creation. This is a symbol of the meaning of baptism.
The swallowing up of Jonah is a sign of baptism. It is not just the water, but it is the significance of the drowning. He disappeared spiritually and entered into Sheol and returned from it. This same experience happens when a person enters into baptism with Christ. This is the intimate and complete union with Christ. Baptism is not just the integration with the church as an organization, but more so into the Body of Christ.
As Jonah is in the story a baptized man, prophetically set in the precise situation of Christ, so the baptized person is united with Christ, not just prophetically now, but because he reproduces the death and resurrection in this act and thereby participates in the body of Christ which is on earth and whose head is in heaven. The two adventures, that of Jonah and that of the baptized, both have truth only to the degree that it is the Holy Spirit who makes them participate in and contemporary with the adventure, the life of Jesus Christ himself. (Ellul 1971, 68)
John was baptizing people to demonstrate their repentance and return to the values of their faith, a renewal of their faith. When Jesus came, a new dimension in the meaning of baptism took place. The baptism of Jesus gave the meaning of new life, a new creation to humankind. The water represented death and resurrection to a new life. Jonah really showed the way and Jesus even brought mention of Jonah when he speaks of the sign of Jonah in (scripture). In this manner Jonah becomes a Christ figure in the Old Testament. He crossed into death and came back.
Was it a real fish? Scholars have debated through the ages the significance of the fish. Mythology gives way to the idea of sea monsters and serpents plaguing the waters. Sailors have a great fear of these monsters. Golka quotes Hans Walter Wolff (Studient zum Hanabuch, 24) “the big fist resembles the sea monster of the Heracles and Perseus sagas. Sent by Poseidon, it threatens Hesione (who is tied to a rock) and Andromeda, respectively. The two heroes kill the monster by climbing into its throat.” (Golka 1988, 89). Golka goes on to state the fish described in Jonah is of a different nature. It is no hostile monster to be killed but is merely a “friendly means of transport at Yahweh’s command; and Jonah, by Jove, is no hero – rather, he is an anti-hero, if there ever was one!” (Golka 1988, 89)
However there is mention of sea
serpents found in scripture. In Amos, one finds “And though they hide from my sight at the bottom of the sea, there I
will command the serpent, and it shall bite them”(9:3). One also finds in
Isaiah 27:1; “In that day the Lord with
his hard and great and strong sword will punish Leviathan the fleeing serpent,
Leviathan the twisting serpent, and He will slay the dragon that is in the
sea”.
Some speculate that the above refer to the same fish that swallowed Jonah. Literalists continue to research zoological possibilities of a large fish that could swallow a man. William Pickard quotes E.B. Pusey as surmising that “on the basis of certain maritime stories that it was a white shark (squalus carcharias)”(Pickard 1974, 69). Reportedly in 1768 a sailor fell overboard and was allegedly swallowed by a twenty-foot shark. The shark was shot and immediately discharged the sailor into the water unhurt. The shark was later displayed in Erlangen, Nurnberg and other places. Other scholars have stated they believe the fish to be a sperm whale. However, the only thing one reads in Jonah is that it was a large fish.
The significance of the fish is not the fish. The fish is more than a fish. The fish represents Sheol, the place of the dead. It represents death. The great fish to some is the source of Jonah’s salvation. To some it is a fantasy fish that never existed, but is just a part of the “fish story”. The important point to realize is that the fish was not a sign of grace, but a “climax of condemnation, the seal on the act of death, the present of what is beyond remedy” (Ellul 1971, 44). It is Sheol, damnation. Jonah has gone beyond the agony and death and has arrived in hell that has been “prepared by God to enforce the total separation of man and God” (Ellul 1971, 44). And yet Jonah cannot escape God, for God is even present there and hence he remembers and calls on Yahweh to be his savior through a psalm of thanksgiving.
Jonah 1:17 “… and Jonah was inside the fish three days and three nights.”
The amount of time spent in the large fish gives great significance to the death, burial and resurrection of Jesus who refers to the sign of Judah in Matthew 12:38-41:
Then some of the scribes and Pharisees said to him, “Teacher, we wish
to see a sign from you”. But he answered, “An evil and adulterous generation
seeks for a sign; but no sign shall be given to it except the sign of the
prophet Jonah. For as Jonah was three days and three nights in the belly of the
whale, so will the Son of man will be three days and three nights in the heart
of the earth. The men Of Nineveh will arise at the judgment with this
generation and condemn it; for they repented at the preaching of Jonah, and
behold, something greater than Jonah is here”.
And again finds the sign of Jonah in Luke 11:29-32
When the crowds were increasing, he began to
say, “This generation is an evil generation; it seeks a sign but no sign shall
be given except the sign of Jonah. For as Jonah became a sign to the men of
Nineveh, so will the Son of man be to this generation…. The men of Nineveh will
arise to the judgment with this generation and condemn it; for they repented at
the preaching of Jonah, and behold something greater than Jonah is here.
Jesus rejects the need of a sign but refers to the readings in the Old Testament. It is interesting to note that Jesus when responding to Satan in the wilderness replied to every question asked: “It is written”. His response is based on the knowledge of the scriptures. There is no need for Jesus to give a sign. It is most important to note that sometimes one may find it is important to read the New Testament against the background of the Old Testament.
Jonah 1:16 “At this the men (pagan sailors) greatly feared the Lord and they offered a sacrifice to the Lord and made vows to him.”
Jonah 2:5 “ The Ninevites believed God. They
declared a fast, and all of them, from the greatest to the least, put on sackcloth.”
The people mentioned and not mentioned in the story is a vital focus in the book of Jonah. The story of Jonah is written for the Jews by a Jew. It is to carry a strong message to the Jews about the inclusiveness of God’s love to all nations and to all people, no matter how unlovable or evil the other nations or people may be. It is interesting to note that this book was not written as a “powerful manifest on behalf of one group against another” (Golka 1988, 72).
The first people to be addressed in the story are the group of sailors who sail the ship headed to sea with a defiant servant aboard. These sailors are pagans doing their simple job when a great storm interrupts their trip. They discover the source of the problem and decide to follow what the problem says to do and throw him in the sea. When this occurs, the sea is calm and the sailors see the power of the God that this man had run from. Realizing this power, these pagans turn their attention to this God and offer sacrifices. This took a great amount of courage on their part. So God is made known even to the pagans at the point of his servant’s rebellion.
The other people in the story to be recognized live in the city of Nineveh, known for its evil and its spiritual depravation. It is a place that someone like Jonah would never want to enter for fear of death. It would be like being thrown to the wolves with no way out. Ellul gives one of the best descriptions of this city and compares it to Babylon.
Like Babylon, Nineveh was the place of man’s omnipotence. It was man’s counter-creation confronting God’s creation. It was the place of human pride, which allies itself with demons and rejects God. It was the world fast closed against God. Spiritually this was what Nineveh represented. (Ellul 1971, 27)
The book of Jonah is a book that deals with the importance of missionary work on the part of the believer. Little did Jonah realize the impact that he would have on the lives of the pagan sailors. Even when they discover his rebellion in following his God, they are brought to their knees and found their salvation from the angry sea. The Ninevites actually listen to the word of the messenger and repent and their city is saved because of the word of the one man chosen to give it to them. The important point here is to realize the power of the Word of God when spoken by the one chosen to deliver it.
Jonah 1:1 “The Word of the Lord came to Jonah, son of Amittai.”
This story begins the moment when God decides to choose Jonah. Jonah truly represents the whole of Israel and not only Israel, but also the church. No wonder God does not rest when the person he has chosen has opted to turn his back and go in the opposite direction. When Jonah turns away, the whole church and the world is at stake. Jonah has been chosen for a purpose. “God’s election is never a choice, which stops with the choice” (Ellul 1971, 23). When God speaks to humankind, it is to engage him in a work, an action. This is also true with the Christian today, who like Jonah is lost in the “slumber of his activities, his good works, his chorales, his theology, his evangelizing, his communities” (Ellul 1971, 31). And like Jonah, he/she loses the perspective that we are to be a light in the darkness. It is easier to run the other direction than to love the unlovable. The other interesting point in Jonah is that humankind cannot choose death if God has a plan for them. If one is chosen, he/she will fulfill that call of being chosen even if they choose death. God would not allow Jonah his wish for Jonah had a mission to fulfill.
The Jonah theme (Jonah as the religious insider) appears in the parables of Jesus. “Divine forgiveness for the religious ‘outsider’, with the ‘insider’ looking on grudgingly, is a frequent subject in Jesus’ parables” (Golka 1988, 131). In the parable of the unmerciful servant (Matthew 18:23-35), the servant is a Jonah figure who has received pardon from his master, but does not pardon his own servant. In the parable of the prodigal son (Luke 15: 11-32), the Jonah figure is the dutiful son who has stayed home and served his father and refuses to forgive his brother, although the father has forgiven his wayward son. In the parable of the Pharisee and the tax collector (Luke 18:9-14), the Jonah figure is the Pharisee and the tax collector is the Ninevah figure. The Pharisee boasts of all that he is to Yahweh and the tax collector who represents the King of Nineveh simply asks God to be merciful to a poor sinner. In the parable of the laborers in the field (Matthew 20:1-16), the Jonah figures are the ones who arrived at the very earliest part of the day to labor. The Ninevah figures are the ones who come at the final hour and still receive the full benefits of the master. In Matthew 20:15 the master responds to the question of the laborers: “Do you begrudge my generosity?” which is similar to God’s question to Jonah about his right to be angry because the city was saved. Today the question arises again. Do “religious insiders” allow “the outsiders” to understand the forgiveness of God?
The story of Jonah has many more facets to be discussed. The above statements only open the door for more investigative study. Whether or not one accepts this story as literal of fictional is left to the reader. It is an open-ended question. It is more important to note that the most important element of the Jonah story is that it carries an opportunity for one to move outside of his/her religious box and share the divine forgiveness that has been extended to all. It allows one to see that this is more than a story. It is a transportation vehicle to help one understand a higher spiritual truth. So many times we hear stories but we do not hear the meaning.
The book of Jonah is an astonishing theological development. This is the type of postexilic Jewish theology in whose tradition Jesus of Nazareth stands. When Jesus describes humanity as ultimately dependent on divine forgiveness (e.g. Luke 15: 11-32), he continues the tradition of the book of Jonah. This does not make the author of the book of Jonah a ‘secret Christian’, but it identifies Jesus as a Jew who stands in the best tradition. (Golka 1998, 127)
WORKS CITED
Allen, Leslie C. 1976. The Books of Joel, Obadiah, Jonah and Micah. Grand Rapids, MI:
William B. Eerdmans Publishing Company.
Anderson, Bernhard W.1986. Understanding The Old Testament. Englewood Cliffs, NJ:
Prentice-Hall.
Blair, J. Allen. 1963. Living Obediently. Neptune, NJ: Loizeaux Brothers.
Ellul, Jacques. 1971. The Judgment of Jonah. Grand Rapids, MI: William B. Eerdmans
Publishing Company.
Hageman, G.E. 1927. The Prophet Jonah. Boston, MA: The Stratford Company.
Friedemann W. Golka and Knight,
George A.E. 1988. Revelation of God, A
Commentary
on the Books of The Song of Songs and Jonah. Grand Rapids, MI: William B. Eerdmans Publishing Company.
Pickard, William M. 1974. Rather Die Than Live – Jonah. New York: Board of Global
Ministries, The United Methodist Church.
Stuart, Douglas. 1987. Word Biblical Commentary Hosea- Jonah. Waco, TX: Word
Publishing Company.
Young, Brad H. 1998. The
Parables, Jewish Tradition and Christian Interpretation.
Peabody, MS: Hendrickson Publishers, Inc.