The Hebrew Bible identified by the acronym TaNaKh includes three distinct sections: the Torah, the Nevi’im and the Ketuvim. The Nevi’im (or Prophets) is subdivided into two groups. The Former Prophets (Heb. Nevi’im Rishonim) consists of the narrative books of Joshua, Judges, Samuel and Kings; while the Latter Prophets (Heb. Nevi’im Akharonim). classified as Major prophets, includes the books of Isaiah, Jeremiah, Ezekiel plus the Twelve Minor Prophets (i.e, Hosea, Joel, Amos, Obadiah, Jonah, Micah, Nahum, Habakkuk, Haggai, Zechariah and Malchi). The Book of Jonah is the fifth of those twelve Hebrew books bearing the composite title of Minor Prophets. In the Hebrew Scriptures or Miqra, unlike in English Bibles, those minor prophets are found in a single scroll known as The Twelve.
The Twelve [Minor Prophets] is the eighth and last “book” in the second section of the Hebrew Bible, the Nevi’im. As its name implies, it is not a unified whole but a collection of 12 independent books by (at least)12 different prophets. The descriptive adjective Minor is not a commentary on their importance but refers to their length: All twelve were considered important enough to enter the canon of the Hebrew Bible, but none was long enough to form an independent book. One of these, Obadiah, is only a single chapter long, and the longest (Hosea and Zechariah) are each 14 chapters in length. Those works range in time from Hosea and Amos, both of whom date to the middle of the eighth century B.C., up to parts of the books of Zechariah and Malachi, which were probably from the beginning of the fourth century B.C.
One theme that unifies the 12 prophets is Israel’s relationship with God. What does God demand of humanity? How do historical events signify God’s word? These are questions that appear throughout Biblical prophecy. However, nowhere in the Bible does a single book present as wide a variety of views on these subjects as does the collection of the Twelve Minor Prophets. Even within a single time period, there is a remarkable diversity of views.
The Book of Jonah
The Book of Jonah is the fifth of those twelve Old Testament books bearing the names of the Minor Prophets. Unlike other Old Testament prophetic books, though, Jonah is not a collection of the prophet’s oracles but primarily a narrative about the man who has that name. As one of the Twelve Prophets, Jonah stands out as unconnected to any historical event. He is the only one of all those minor prophets who dealt solely with universal themes, rather than with Israel’s particular relationship with God.
In chapters 1-2, Jonah attempts to escape from God’s Presence; through his interactions with the sailors in chapter 1, he comes to see God as the source of life and to long for God. In chapters 3-4, Jonah confronts God’s policy of reward and punishment, while being forced to undergo the experience of losing something he needs. Through this lesson, the God of Israel teaches Jonah that His love for humanity is overarching and that God is therefore inclined to be merciful and to prefer repentance to punishment.
Jonah is portrayed as a recalcitrant prophet who flees from God’s summons to prophesy against the wickedness of the city of Nineveh. According to the opening verse, Jonah is the son of Amittai. This lineage identifies him with the Jonah mentioned in II Kings 14:25 who prophesied during the reign of King Jeroboam II, around 785 BC. It is possible that some of the traditional materials taken over by the book were associated with Jonah at an early date, but the book in its present form reflects a much later composition. It was written after the Babylonian Exile (6th century BC), probably in the 5th or 4th century Before Christ and certainly no later than the 3rd century BC, since Jonah is listed among the Minor Prophets in the apocryphal book of Ecclesiasticus, composed about 190 BC.
Like the Book of Ruth, which was written at about the same period, Jonah’s content opposes the narrow Jewish nationalism characteristic of the period following the reforms of Ezra and Nehemiah with its emphasis on Jewish exclusivity. Thus the prophet Jonah, like his co-religionists of that day, abhors even the idea of salvation for the Gentiles. God chastises him for that attitude and the book affirms that God’s mercy extends even to the inhabitants of a hated foreign city.
The incident of the great fish, recalling Leviathan, the monster of the deep used elsewhere in the Old Testament as the embodiment of evil, symbolizes the nation’s exile and return. The threat from sea monsters is also accounted for in the Book of Jonah. The prophet Jonah is called by God to go to Nineveh (a great Assyrian city) and prophesy disaster because of the city’s excessive wickedness. Jonah, in the biblical account, feels about Nineveh as does the author of the Book of Nahum—that the city must inevitably fall because of God’s judgment against it. Thus Jonah does not want to prophesy because Nineveh might repent and thereby be saved. So he rushes down to Joppa and takes passage in a ship that will carry him in the opposite direction, hoping to escape God.
A storm of unprecedented severity strikes the ship, and in spite of all that the master and crew can do, it shows signs of breaking up and floundering. Lots are cast, and Jonah confesses that it is his presence on board that is causing the storm. At his own request, he is thrown overboard and the storm subsides. A “great fish,” appointed by God, swallows Jonah, and he stays within the fish’s maw for three days and nights. He prays for deliverance and is “vomited out” on dry land (ch. 2). Again the command is heard, “Arise, go to Nineveh.” Jonah goes to Nineveh and prophesies against the city, causing the King and all the inhabitants to repent.
Jonah then becomes angry. Hoping for disaster, he sits outside the city to await its destruction. A plant springs up overnight, providing him welcome shelter from the heat, but it is destroyed by a great worm. Jonah is bitter at the destruction of the plant, but God speaks and thrusts home the final point of the book: “You pity the plant, for which you did not labor, nor did you make it grow, which came into being in a night, and perished in a night. And should not I pity Nineveh, that great city, in which there are more than a hundred and twenty thousand persons who do not know their right hand from their left, and also much cattle” (Jon 4:10-11)?
Moby-Dick
In black distress, I called my God,
When I could scarce believe him mine,
He bowed his ear to my complaints—
No more the whale did me confine.
Nature and dignity 