We only hear from this book once in the three year lectionary cycle, but the story is quoted and alluded too a number of times in the New Testament.
Genre
Some want to see this book as historical and factual. It’s not. The closest genre we can get is something along the lines of parody or satire or parable. It is a didactic book, written to teach a lesson. It exaggerates certain parts of reality to make a point and teach.
Like parody or satire often does, the book uses humor. Think of the image of someone being swallowed by a fish?! Or Animals wearing sackcloth and ashes?! Let yourself be amused by the images and then pay attention to what the amusement might have to say about life.
The book is classified among the prophetic literature, and is included among the twelve minor prophets but it is very unique. It’s the only narrative in the prophetic literature. And the story it tells portrays the only prophet who so fully rebels and tries to preempt the fulfillment of God’s judgment. Even so, it could be said that Jonah is the most successful prophet in the Bible, maybe short only of John the Baptist.
This is a book that studies the role and life of what it means to be a prophet. You might imagine an elder prophet writing this tale for his junior charges, to teach them about the prophetic life.
Date
Jonah is mentioned in 2 Kings 14:25 which would place him as an historical person between 790 and 760 BC.
It is hard to date the writing of the books. Scholars put it anywhere between the 6th century (500s BC) with an absolute latest in the 200s when it begins showing up in external historical references. Most likely it was written either during the Babylonian exile or shortly after the return.
Jewish use of the book
This book is read in the afternoon service of Yom Kippur, the Day of Atonement, and Jews are supposed to identify with the Ninevites and their situation. This is fascinating because Ninevah was the capital of ancient Assyria, a bitter enemy of the Jewish people. So, in recalling their sins and asking forgiveness, they meditate on the repentance of their enemies.
Themes
The book cannot be reduced to a single theme; it is polyvalent with multiple meanings. That said, there are themes that can be highlighted:
- The power of repentance.
- The mercy of God that is given freely, without being asked for. It’s as radical as it is general.
- The book contrasts a doctrine of retributive justice against one of divine grace (hint: grace always wins!).
- The conflict between God’s universalist approach and Jonah’s nationalistic tendencies.
- The contrast between an understanding of God as constrained by particular rules known to humanity against an understanding that stresses the radical independence of God and God’s actions. We can’t know the mind of God and we can’t force him into a box of our rules.
- The book sits with the question: Can God change?
- The success of the prophet is not dependent on his message but on the power of God. Nevertheless, God needed the messenger.
At the root of all these themes is the broader question of who is God and how God acts in the world.
Characteristics of Jonah the prophet
The writer of Jonah knows scripture well and quotes it throughout. But the figure of Jonah seems to have a fundamental misunderstanding of who God is. Jonah gives us a very human picture of someone struggling with the call of God. And also someone struggling to reconcile his notion of who God is and how God is supposed to behave with the reality of how God is actually behaving.
Setting of the story
Nineveh was the capital of Assyria, a traditional enemy of Israel. Assyria had a reputation of being the most brutal empire to ever exist. And that’s saying a lot in the context of the brutality of ancient empires. Nineveh, in the story, becomes a mythical city that represents all that is hateful, repugnant, cruel, and oppressive.
At the start of the story, God tells Jonah to go to Ninevah; he says go East by land. So Jonah immediately heads West by water. We’re most familiar with the part of the story where Jonah is thrown overboard, gets eaten by a whale and has plenty of time to contemplate his situation before being spit up on the shore.
Also part of the story is Jonah’s eventual acceptance of his mission and preaching to his enemies. And at the end, Jonah grapples with the fact that his enemies respond to the message and are blessed by God. This causes an anger so intense that Jonah wishes he were dead rather than have to see his enemies in such a blessed state.