Some Thoughts on the Book of Jonah (Part 1)

Foreword: I'm looking at going to seminary next year. As a result of this I'm trying to practice writing about scripture. This is a first attempt.

"Jonah died"

My coworker said this to me yesterday over lunch. A church group was in retreating and had left their instructional material on the table. They had been studying Jonah and the printout was sitting on the table. Even if you haven't had much bible teaching, you've probably heard of the story of Jonah. It is a popular story for Sunday school classes everywhere.

Jonah is told to go warn the people of Nineveh (the Assyrian capital) that they need to repent or they're going to die. Jonah gets up and sails in the opposite direction. Storm comes up and his ship-mates throw him overboard because he's responsible for the storm. Jonah is eaten by a fish, then spat up on a piece of land where he gets up and finally goes to Nineveh and warns them about the coming judgement. To Jonah's surprise, they repent. This makes him very bitter and angry and him and God have an interesting confrontation at the end of the book that ends with God saying "who are you to tell me how to act?".

The commonly held view among most people I know is that Jonah was swallowed by the fish, he prayed in the belly of the fish for three days, and then he goes on his merry way. That's not what it says in the book though. It says...

The waters closed in over me to take my life; the deep surrounded me; weeds were wrapped about my head at the roots of the mountains. I went down to the land whose bars closed upon me forever; yet you brought up my life from the pit, O Lord my God. (Jonah 2:5-6 ESV)

There's two times where Jonah talks about going down to the deep or the pit. You can interpret it figuratively if you want, but if you look at the Hebrew, both words are used to describe hell or death. So when my co-worker said

"Jonah died"

...he was being quite serious.



More thoughts to come.