Reading Bible Stories
• David and Goliath
• Daniel in the Lion’s Den
• Shadrach, Meshach, & Abednego in the Fiery Furnace
Why is it that certain biblical stories endure in
our faith primarily as children’s stories?
• Frederick Buechner offers us an interesting perspective in
his book The Hungering Dark:
“Not, I suspect, because children particularly want to
read them, but more because their elders particularly do
not want to read them or at least do not want to read
them for what they actually say and so make them
instead into fairy tales, which no one has to take
seriously. But for all our stratagems, the legends,
the myths continue to embody truths or intuitions
which in the long run it is perhaps more dangerous
to evade than to confront.”
Children’s Bible Stories
• Another possibility is that we give them to children because
these stories ask us to believe the impossible
• We’re much too hardened by reality for these kinds of stories
– Life teaches us early that the little guy rarely wins
– That hungry animals bite
– That if you play with fire you usually get burned
• But maybe children are the keepers of these stories because
they are the only ones with an imagination capable of handling
the truth—for God, even the impossible is possible
• And God is looking for people who will partner with him in
making the impossible possible
Frederick Buechner suggests that there is something rich in the Bible
Do you remember the first time you heard the story of Jonah?
stories that we give to children that adults would rather not hear.
What
do you
remember
hearing
this story
as a child?
What
about
Jonah’s
story isabout
difficult
for people
to hear?
What about it is difficult for you?
Introduction to Book of Jonah
• Jonah’s influence can be seen in such diverse
literature from Pinocchio to Moby Dick
Everyone “Knows” the Jonah Story
• This book continues to delight and challenge the
simple soul as much as the sophisticated scholar
• Children commonly love Jonah and many adults are
fascinated with it … it’s a whale of a tale!
• Outsiders who have minimal knowledge or interest in
the Bible know enough about Jonah to laugh at a joke
based on the story
• It is probably the best-known story in the Old
Testament and it is undoubtedly one of the great
literary masterpieces in the Bible
Introduction to Book of Jonah
• Jesus compares himself to Jonah (Matt. 12:41), while
images of the prophet appear more often in the
Roman catacombs than any other OT figure
An Easy Read
•
•
•
•
Mere 48 verses … divided by 13 weeks = 3.7 verses per week
Only 689 words in the original Hebrew text
Can be read in 7½ minutes
In the narrative of Jonah we:
– Meet a huge storm on the Mediterranean Sea
– Take a tour of Sheol
– Discover the insides of a great fish
– Watch a plant come and go in a day
– See Jonah suffer from a hot east wind over distant
lands
– Even meet repentant sailors and Ninevites
Telling the Jonah Story
Mary Margaret, 6 Years Old
Jonah Among the Major Religions
• Jonah (known as Yunus in Arabic) is central to Islam …
a whole chapter in the Koran bears his name on the
theme of repentance
• Until recently it played a part in the major liturgical
festivals of three religious traditions:
– Up to the Second Vatican Council, Jonah was read in
the Holy Saturday liturgy of the Roman Catholic
Church
– It still retains this place in the liturgical calendar of
the Greek Orthodox Church
– In Judaism, Jonah is the Haftarah
reading from the books of the Prophets
on Yom Kippur, the Day of Atonement
Jews close the Day of Atonement by
standing together and saying …
An Easy Read?
• The book of Jonah is hardly a “theological
lightweight”
• Augustine’s response to an inquiry made by
a potential Christian convert perhaps gets at
this best:
“What he asks about the
resurrection of the dead could
be settled … But if he thinks to
solve all such questions as …
those about Jonah … he little
knows the limitations of
human life or of his own.”
An Easy Read?
• Adding to Augustine’s comments is Father Mapple in Herman
Melville’s Moby Dick who states: “Even though Jonah is one
of the smallest strands in the mighty cable of the Scriptures,
the book is one of the most puzzling and intriguing of the
entire Old Testament.”
• Numerous questions abound about Jonah … a few include:
– Were the sailors and Ninevites actually “converted”?
– How does the psalm in chapter 2 fit into the narrative?
– How could a man stay alive in a large fish for three days and three
nights?
– What is this with the “Jack and the Beanstalk” plant in chapter 4?
– Why does the book end with a question?
WHO?
Name
Name and Author
• The book derives its name from the first verse “Now the
word of the Lord came to Jonah the son of Amittai …”
• In 2 Kings 14:25 a prophet of this same name is said to come
from Gath-hepher, a place about 5 miles north of Nazareth in
the Northern Kingdom of Israel
• According to this reference he must have lived during the
time of Jeroboam II (~793 – 753 BC) and he was a
contemporary of the prophets Amos and Hosea
• He prophesied about the extension of the borders of Israel
• Other than this we know nothing of Jonah apart from what is
told in the book
Author
• The author of the book is not specified, but there are no
compelling reasons to assume that Jonah was not the author
• If the book was written by someone other than Jonah it does
not affect its authenticity since the writer is not specified
Jonah, Son of Amittai
• Every writing prophet in the Bible has God’s name as
part of his own … except Jonah
• For example:
 Jeremiah – “God will uplift”
 Isaiah – “Salvation of Yahweh”
 Micah – “Who resembles God?”
 Hosea – “God who delivers”
• Jonah (yô-nāh) is the
Hebrew noun for “dove”
What’s in a Name?
• One characteristic of many OT names is that they predict
subsequent narrative action … often in the shadowy
foreimage of a Hebrew name we are able to anticipate
what the future holds. For example:
– Eglon’s name suggest the Hebrew word for calf; this ruler of
the occupying Moabite power turns out to be a “fatted calf”
ready for the slaughter through the wiles of the judge Ehud
– Ahab’s wife from the kingdom of Tyre and Sidon – the
infamous Jezebel – has a name that means “no nobility”
– Moses means “to draw out”
• He was drawn out of the waters of the Nile as an infant
• Then as 80-yr old man, Moses miraculously leads Israel
through the Red Sea and draws them out of Egypt, out of
house of bondage
• Moses also miraculously draws water out of a rock, twice
Jonah, a “Silly Dove”
• Hosea 7:11 -- “Ephraim is like a dove [Jonah], silly and
without sense, calling to Egypt, going to Assyria.”
• Here “dove” is synonymous for “double-minded”
• The word “silly” means spiritual foolishness and
gullibility
• “Without sense” signifies infidelity and lack of
discernment
Jonah, a “Silly Dove”
• Hosea 7:11 -- “Ephraim is like a dove [Jonah], silly and
without sense, calling to Egypt, going to Assyria.”
• So Ephraim is not like a dove in its innocence, but
rather like a dove in its aimless activity, flying from
one place to another – first to Egypt, then to Assyria
– as a frightened and gullible people who trusts not
in Yahweh
More Than Frightened Dove
• However, Hosea is talking more than just timidity
here
– He constantly emphasizes Israel’s culpable ignorance
– The people had abandoned covenant knowledge of
Yahweh (4:6)
– Enmeshed in theological error, they misjudge the
political situation and have no self-knowledge
– Israel demonstrates blindness at its worse in the
people’s incomprehensible refusal to return to Yahweh
or to seek Him, in spite of the severity of all the
disasters that had overwhelmed them since they
deserted God (Amos 4:6-22; Jeremiah 44)
– Israel failed to return even in spite of the gracious
warmth and openness of God’s constant invitation
(14:3)
Jonah = Dove = Israel
• In many respects, this dovish demeanor depicted
in Hosea matches the person called “dove,” Jonah
• Jonah is not only a historical individual, he also
represents Israel
• In other texts the dove is easily put to flight,
seeking a secure refuge in the mountains (Ezek
7:16; Psalm 55:6-8)
• The dove moans and laments when in distress
(Isaiah 38:14, 59:11; Nahum 2:7)
• With everything that dove means in these OT
texts, that Jonah is name Jonah is suggestive
Jonah, Son of Amittai
• “Amittai” means something like “Yahweh is
true/faithful”
• The Hebrew phrase “son of” frequently expresses a
category:
– A “son of valor” (1 Sam 14:52) is a “valiant man”
– Conversely, a “son of iniquity” (Psalm 89:22) is an
“iniquitous man”
• Jonah’s lineage may be a wordplay on that kind of
usage of “son”
– If so, Jonah should be a “son of faithfulness/truth;” that
is a “faithful/truthful man”
– The irony of Jonah’s relationship with his father is that
the prophet will abandon “faithfulness” at the first
opportunity
– He will speak the “truth” in chapter 3 only under duress
WHAT?
Fern-Seed and Elephants
• While addressing a group of theological students in
Cambridge, C. S. Lewis expressed grave reservations about
the presuppositions and conclusions of some biblical critics
• As a sheep “telling shepherds what only a sheep can tell
them”, Lewis made a number of astute observations
• His first bleat concerned the lack of ability of biblical scholars
to make literary judgments:
“Whatever these men may be as Biblical critics, I distrust
them as critics. They seem to me to lack literary judgment, to
be imperceptive about the very quality of the texts they are
reading . . . These men ask me to believe they can read
between the lines of the old texts; the evidence is their
obvious inability to read (in any sense worth discussing) the
lines themselves. They claim to see fern-seed and can't see
an elephant ten yards away in broad daylight.”
• At heart of this complaint lay the inability of critical scholars
to recognize correctly the literary genre of biblical books
Miracles?
• The other bleat concerned “the principle that the miraculous
does not occur”
“Scholars, as, scholars, speak on it with no more authority
than anyone else. The canon ‘If miraculous, unhistorical’ is
one they bring learned from it. If one is speaking of
authority, the united authority of all the Biblical critics in
the world counts here for nothing. On this they speak
simply as men; men obviously influenced by, and perhaps
insufficiently critical of, the spirit of the age they grew up in.”
• Now these bleats draw attention to two issues which have
figured prominently in modern discussions on the book of
Jonah:
– How should we classify this short work?
– What are we to make of the miracles recorded within it?
Genre: Classification of Jonah
• While it is clear that Jonah differs from other prophetic
books, it is not clear how its genre should be classified
• Biblical scholars classify Jonah in a multitude of ways:
Didactic Fiction
COMEDY
TRAGEDY
Didactic History
Ironic
Short
Story
Parody
Issues with Classifying Jonah
• It is uncertain that some of these genres were
known in the Ancient Near East
• Most of the genres identified assume that the
book of Jonah is a work of fiction
• By calling Jonah “legend,” “folklore,” “didactic
fiction,” “parable,” etc., scholars are expressing
their own lack of confidence in the historical
reliability of the book
• Let’s examine a few of these genres …
Jonah as Viewed by a Few in the Early Church
• Some of the Early Church Fathers
(including Augustine, Jerome, and
Gregory Nazianzus) believed that the
book of Jonah was largely allegorical
• In fact allegory was their preferred
method of interpretation for some of
the Old Testament
What is an Allegory?
• Allegory is a method of teaching truths or
principles by means of symbolic fictional
narrative
• A good example is John Bunyan’s
Pilgrims Progress
• This is an exciting fictional story
that conveys the truth that the
Christian life is a spiritual pilgrimage
Jonah as Allegory
• This view sees Jonah as the people of Israel
• Nineveh represents the heathen world to whom Israel has
the task of proclaiming the message of repentance
• Jonah's unfaithfulness is thus Israel's unfaithfulness to her
task of being a light to the Gentiles
• Jonah swallowed up by the fish is Israel in captivity
• Jonah cast up on land is Israel returned from captivity
• Therefore, returned Israel is to make religious truth known
to the heathen
• However, when these heathen become recipients of God's
grace by conversion, Israel is to be rejected because of her
dissatisfaction with the LORD's mercy to the Gentiles
Allegorical?
• Majority of modern bible scholars dismiss this idea
• Allegorical approach encounters difficulty when pressed
for details:
– Jonah's own urging for the crew to cast him into the sea (1:12)
is hardly applicable to Israel being led into captivity
– The suggestion that Jonah's imprisonment in the fish
represents the Babylonian captivity is also less than
convincing, especially when it is recognized that the fish is
portrayed as an instrument of deliverance, not punishment
• This is not to deny that in certain respects Jonah can be
considered as typical or representative of Israel
• A representative or typical significance for Jonah would
assume certain analogies between Jonah and Israel, while
with allegory one would expect a detailed correspondence
of the story with Israel's history
Jonah as Parable
• Majority of modern scholars tend to identify the
book Jonah as a parable
• That term is “easier to swallow” (pun intended)
than calling the book fiction
• Parable comes from Greek word parabolee,
meaning “to cast beside”
• It is a simple [fictitious] story that illustrates a
moral attitude or a religious principle
• Usually a familiar idea is “cast beside” an
unfamiliar idea in such a way that the comparison
help us get a better understand and grasp the
unfamiliar idea
Old Testament Parables
• There are a few parables in the Old Testament:
– 2 Samuel 12:1-4 – Nathan’s story to David about rich and
poor shepherds (“You are the man!”)
– Ezekiel 17:2-10 - the two eagles
– Ezekiel 19:2-9 - the lion and her whelps
• These parables are much shorter than book of Jonah
• In addition, they have an unmistakable indication of
being a parable by telling us up front what they are
• They are also directly followed by an explanation
and interpretation of what the allegory means
• None of these characteristics are found in Jonah
Fact or Fiction?
• Tendency to view Jonah as fictional is a relatively
recent development
• Vast majority of early Jewish and Christian
writers adopted the view that the events
recorded in the narrative actually occurred
• Among Jewish writers, Josephus clearly views the
book of Jonah as historical and incorporates the
story into his history of the Jewish people:
“But, since I have promised to
give an exact account of our
history, I have thought it
necessary to recount what I
have found written in the
Liberal vs. Conservative
• For over 2,000 years most Christians and Jews have
viewed the book of Jonah as an historical narrative
…such unanimity of tradition cannot be easily
dismissed
• This debate has made the book of Jonah one of the
most visible outposts along the liberal-conservative
battle line
– Theological conservatives draw the line at this point
– Liberals ridicule “fundamentalist literalism” on the
traditional position of the book of Jonah
– For many biblical scholars Jonah is “just another fish
story”
Jonah as Fiction: Historical Improbability
There are a number of extraordinary events recorded in Jonah
• How was it possible that a true prophet should disobey a direct divine
command?
• Is it likely that God should send a storm simply in order to pursue a
single person and thus cause many others to suffer too?
• Jonah's rescue by the great fish when thrown overboard by the sailors
• It is improbable that Jonah would have prayed a Song of Thanksgiving
for having been delivered while in the belly of the fish
• What language did Jonah speak in Nineveh and how could the people
understand him?
• It is improbable that a city with hundreds of thousands of people hostile
to Israel and Israel's God, would have been instantaneously and
completely (without exception!) converted
• Why is there no record of such a massive conversion in the Assyrian
annals?
• In addition, all of the beasts of Nineveh fasted, cried out mightily to God
and turned from their wicked ways
• Remarkable growth of the plant and its equally swift destruction are
hardly everyday events
Jesus as Witness
• Over the next several months we will address all of the historical issues
presented by the text in Jonah
• But the most definitive testimony to the historical accuracy of Jonah
rests upon the witness of the New Testament and of our Lord for Jesus
says that he is “one greater than Jonah” (Matt. 12:41b)
• Jesus prefaces his connection with Jonah with the words, “the men of
Nineveh will stand up at the judgment with this generation and
condemn it; for they repented at the preaching of Jonah” (Matt. 12:41a)
• There is no indication that Jesus is referring to a parable or quoting from
a legend or that the Pharisees regarded the story of Jonah as an allegory
or myth
• There is no indication that Jesus or his opponents regarded Jonah or the
repenting of the Ninevites as less historical than Solomon or the Queen
of the South
• If Jonah’s sojourn in the belly of the fish was non-historical, then
according to Christ’s own logic his authenticating sign would be based
upon a non-factual event
Author’s Intent
• Because Jonah has received a great variety of genre labels,
there has been tremendous debate concerning the intended
meaning and message of the book
• What was the author's intention and/or purpose?
• Did he intend to write down an historical record of real
occurrences, or to present his readers with a moral in fictitious
form?
• Did the author intend to write history or to compose a parable?
• The key question is: How do we determine the author’s intent?
– On occasions we may discover that the author explicitly
states his intention in writing (cf. Luke 1:1-4)
– Unfortunately, the book of Jonah lacks any such statement,
and so we are forced to look elsewhere for the solution to
our problem
• We need to recognize that each literary form or genre has its
own set of “generic signals” by which the author influences the
way in which the reader is to interpret his work
An Illustration
• Imagine you are in a used bookshop and you come upon a
rather tattered book, without its cover and title page; your
curiosity is aroused and you begin to read the opening
paragraph …
at David
Marplethorpe
The Personal Murder
History of
Marplethorpe
“The clock on the mantelpiece said ten-thirty, but
someone had suggested recently that the clock was
wrong. As the figure of the dead woman lay on the
bed in the front room, a no less silent figure glided
rapidly from the house. The only sounds to be heard
were the ticking of that clock and the loud wailing of
an infant.”
So What?
Look In the Mirror
• The book of Jonah is like a mirror
… “I AM JONAH!”
• During our study of this book you
will see the struggles and
problems of your own inner life
• Jonah was a mature believer who
had given his life to ministry …
… but he battled with the
impulses of his own self-interest
and self-centeredness
• “My heart is desperately wicked”
Look Out the Window
• The book of Jonah is like a
window … it reveals the
heart of God
• Let’s discover what Jonah
did about the grace of God
– His redeeming love
– His extraordinary
patience
– His relentless pursuit of
lost people and
rebellious saints