According to the Hebrew Bible (Tanakh/Old Testament) and Qur'an, Jonah (Hebrew: יוֹנָה,
Standard Yona Tiberian jon'ɔh ; Arabic:
يونس, Yunus or يونان, Yunaan ; Latin Ionas ; "Dove")
was a prophet who was swallowed by a great fish.
The Story of Jonah
In the Old Testament of the Bible, Jonah is mentioned twice, first in 2 Kings 14:25 (as a prophet in the time of King Jeroboam II) and
later in the Book of Jonah. He was the son of Amittai
(meaning 'My Faithfulness'), from the Galilean village of Gath-hepher near Nazareth. God orders
Jonah to prophesy to the city of Nineveh. Not wanting to, Jonah tries to avoid God's command by
going to Joppa and sailing to Tarshish. A huge storm arises and
the sailors, realizing this is no ordinary storm, cast lots and learn that Jonah is to blame. Jonah admits this and states that
if he is thrown overboard the storm will cease. The sailors try to get the ship to the shore but in failing feel forced to throw
him overboard, at which point the sea calms. Jonah is miraculously saved by being swallowed by a large fish. In chapter two,
while in the great fish, Jonah prays to God and asks forgiveness. As a result, God commands the fish to vomit Jonah out.
God again orders Jonah to visit Nineveh and prophesy to its inhabitants. This time he goes there and walks through the city
crying, "In forty days Nineveh shall be destroyed." The Ninevites believe his word and appoint a public fast, ranging from the
King (who puts on sackcloth and sits in ashes) to the humblest person. God has compassion and spares the city for the time
being.
Embittered by this, Jonah questions the need for his journey, stating that since God is merciful it was inevitable that God
would yield to the Ninevites' entreaties. He then leaves the city and makes himself a shelter, waiting to see whether or not the
city will be destroyed.
God causes a plant (in Hebrew a kikayon) to grow over Jonah's shelter to give him some shade
from the sun. Later, a worm bites the plant's root and it withers. Jonah, now being exposed to the full force of the sun, becomes
faint and desires that God take him out of the world.
But God says to him, "Are you really so very angry about the little plant?...You were upset about this little plant, something
for which you have not worked nor did you do anything to make it grow. It grew up overnight and died the next day. Should I not
be even more concerned about Nineveh, this enormous city? There are more than one hundred twenty thousand people in it who do not
know right from wrong, as well as many animals!" (Jonah 4:9-11 NET)
Jonah in Christianity
Coptic icon of Jonah the Prophet
Jesus made reference to Jonah when He was asked for a miraculous sign by the Pharisees and
teachers of the Law.
But he [Jesus] answered them, "An evil and adulterous generation asks for a sign, but no sign will be given to it except the
sign of the prophet Jonah. For just as Jonah was in the belly of the huge fish for three days and three nights, so the Son of Man
will be in the heart of the earth for three days and three nights. The people of Nineveh will stand up at the judgement with this
generation and condemn it, because they repented when Jonah preached to them – and now, something greater than Jonah is
here!"
Matthew 12:39-41 NET
Jonah is regarded as a saint by a number of Christian denominations. He is commemorated as a prophet in the Calendar of Saints of the Missouri
Synod of the Lutheran Church on September 22. On the Eastern Orthodox
liturgical calendar his feast day is September 21. He is
commemorated with the other minor prophets in the Calendar of saints of the Armenian Apostolic Church on July 31.
Jonah in Islam
Like many important Biblical characters, Jonah is also important in Islam as a
prophet who is faithful to God (Allah) and delivers His messages. He is known to
Muslims by his Arabic name, Yunus. Sura 10 (equivalent to chapter 10) of the
Qur'an is named "Sura Yunus" after him, although he only receives one reference, in verse 98. The full story of Prophet Jonah
is recounted in Sura 37, verses 139-149:
- 37:139 So also was Jonah among those sent (by Us).
- 37:140 When he ran away (like a slave from captivity) to the ship (fully) laden,
- 37:141 He (agreed to) cast lots, and he was condemned:
- 37:142 Then the big Fish did swallow him, and he had done acts worthy of blame.
- 37:143 Had it not been that he (repented and) glorified God,
- 37:144 He would certainly have remained inside the Fish till the Day of Resurrection.
- 37:145 But We cast him forth on the naked shore in a state of sickness,
- 37:146 And We caused to grow, over him, a spreading plant of the gourd kind.
- 37:147 And We sent him (on a mission) to a hundred thousand (men) or more.
- 37:148 And they believed; so We permitted them to enjoy (their life) for a while.
- 37:149 Now ask them their opinion: Is it that thy Lord has (only) daughters, and they have sons?
Note that in verse 139 God is referred to as 'Us' and in verses 145-8 refers to Himself as 'We'. This is not a
reference to the Trinity but an Arabic signifier of respect.
According to the Qur'an, when, 10 years after receiving revelation, Muhammad went to the
city of Ta'if to see if its leaders would allow him to preach his message from there rather than Makkah he was cast from the city
by the urchins and children. He took shelter in the garden of Utbah and Shaybah, two members of the Quraysh tribe. They sent
their servant, Addas, to serve him grapes for, although they were displeased at his Prophethood, their tribal bond - important in
Jahili culture - took precedence. The Prophet asked Addas where he was from and the servant replied Niniwah. "The town of Yunus,
son of Matta," the Prophet replied. Addas was shocked because he knew that the pagan Arabs had no knowledge of Yunus. He then
asked how Muhammad knew of this man. "We are brothers," the Prophet replied. "Yunus was a Prophet of Allah and I, too, am a
Prophet of Allah." Addas immediately accepted Islam and kissed the hands and feet of the Prophet.[citation needed]
Jonah in Judaism
The book of Jonah (Yonah יונה) is one of the 12 minor prophets included in the Jewish Bible. According to tradition Jonah was
the boy brought back to life by Elijah the prophet, and hence shares many of his characteristics
(particularly his desire for 'strict judgment'). The book of Jonah is read every year on Yom
Kippur as the Haftorah at mincha.
See also Jonah in Rabbinic Literature.
Jonah in The Bahá'í Faith
Although the Bahá'í Faith generally views Jonah as a prophet,[1] there is a passage in the
Qur'an which may support his being a Manifestation of
God because the term 'apostle' is generally associated with Manifestations of God.[2]
The Person of Jonah
The greatest detail on his personal history is to be found in the Book of Jonah,
traditionally ascribed to Jonah himself (although this is not stated in Scripture). In the book, Jonah is a reluctant and
non-compassionate prophet. This story contains a twofold characterization of Jonah: first as a reluctant prophet of doom to the
heathen city of Nineveh, and second as a "Son of man" type.
The character of Jonah, who wants Nineveh destroyed, is contrasted with that of God, who is compassionate towards Jews and
Gentiles, humans and animals.
The Fish
Though it is often called a whale today, the Hebrew, as throughout scripture, refers to no species in particular, simply
sufficing with "great fish" or "big fish" (whales are today classified as mammals and not
fish, but no such distinction was made in antiquity). While some Bible scholars suggest the size
and habits of the White Shark correspond better to the representations given of
Jonah's being swallowed, normally an adult human is too large to be swallowed whole.[3]
In Jonah 2:1 (1:17 in English translation), the original Hebrew text reads dag
gadol (דג גדול), which literally means "great fish." The Septuagint translates this
phrase into Greek as ketos megas (κητος μεγας). The term ketos alone means "huge fish," and in Greek mythology the
term was closely associated with sea monsters, including sea serpents. (See the
Theoi Project "Ketea" for more
information regarding Greek mythology and the Ketos.) Jerome later translated this phrase as
piscis granda in his Latin Vulgate. He translated ketos, however, as cetus in Matthew 12:40.
At some point cetus became synonymous with "whale" (the study of whales is now called cetology). In his 1534 translation, William Tyndale translated the
phrase in Jonah 2:1 as "greate fyshe" and he translated the word ketos (Greek) or cetus (Latin) in Matthew 12:40 as
"whale". Tyndale's translation was, of course, later incorporated into the Authorized Version of 1611. Since then, the "great
fish" in Jonah 2 has been most often interpreted as a whale.
There is anecdotal evidence that the throats of many large whales, as well as possibly the
whale shark, could accommodate passage of an adult human.[3] The story of Jonah mentions weeds wrapped around Jonah's head, perhaps to shield his face with
seaweed against the acid.[3]
However, doubts have been cast that any existing whale or fish would be able to repeat the feat described, either due to size
of mouth, narrowness of throat, or because it diverges so wildly from these animals' normal eating habits. The largest whales -
baleen whales, a group which includes the blue whale -
eat plankton and "it is commonly said that this species would be choked if it attempted to
swallow a herring."[4] The sperm whale, on the other hand, has "a small mouth... Its food is torn to pieces before being swallowed,"
according to Dr. C. H. Townsend, a former Acting Director of the American
Museum of Natural History and the New York Aquarium. He further states that
"there is no evidence that such a feat would be possible." As for the whale shark, Dr. E. W.
Gudger, an Honorary Associate in Ichthyology at the American Museum of Natural History,
noted that "while the mouth is cavernous, the throat itself is only four inches wide and has a sharp elbow or bend behind the
opening. This gullet would not permit the passage of a man's arm." In another publication he also noted that "the whale shark is
not the fish that swallowed Jonah."[5][6]
One may argue[attribution needed] that applying contemporary
taxonomy from a literalist perspective does little to further our understanding of this
legend, written in a time when such knowledge did not yet exist (and as such was less relevant than in our time) and all large
sea creatures had the same symbolism so that a generic term could easily suffice.
Jonah, Jason and Gilgamesh
The story of the hero Jason in Greek mythology shares several similarities with the
story of Jonah which have been noted by Joseph Campbell and more recent authors such as
Gildas Hamel.[7] Drawing on the Book of Jonah and
Greco-Roman sources — including Greek vases and the accounts of Apollonius of
Rhodes, Valerius Flaccus and Orphic
Argonautica — Hamel identifies a number of shared motifs, including the names of the heroes, the presence of a dove, the
idea of "fleeing" like the wind and causing a storm, the attitude of the sailors, the presence of a sea-monster or dragon
threatening the hero or swallowing him, and the form and the word used for the "gourd" (kikayon). The Greek rendering of the name Jonah was Jonas, which differs from Jason only in the
order of sounds. This may suggest that the Greeks confused accounts of Jonah with those of their own hero, but Hamel argues that
the Hebrew author was reacting to and adapting this mythological material to communicate his own, quite different message.
Campbell also attempted to draw parallels with the epic of Gilgamesh, in which
Gilgamesh obtains a plant from the bottom of the sea.[8] Similarities of the accounts, however, are minor.[citation needed] In the Book of Jonah a
worm (in Hebrew tola'ath, "maggot") bites the
plant's root causing it to wither, while in the epic of Gilgamesh the plant is eaten by a serpent.
Jonah as a short story
Professor Charles H. Patterson of the University of Nebraska writes that the Book of Jonah is a short story. It was written for
the purpose of exposing to criticism and rebuke the narrow spirit of nationalism which the author had observed among so many of
the Jewish people. Jonah in the story acted in a manner which was similar to the way the Jewish people had behaved in their
attitude toward foreign nations. Anyone reading the story could not help but see how foolish it was for Jonah to act that way. It
was the author's hope that the Jewish nationalists would see themselves in the role which Jonah played. Jonah being swallowed by
a whale was to symbolize Israel having been swallowed up by Babylon. As Israel survived, so did Jonah. Jonah is being told by God
to treat Ninevah with respect, as Israel must now treat its neighbors with respect.
References
- ^ H.M. Balyuzi, Baha'u'llah - The King of Glory, p. 182
- ^ The Qur'an (Rodwell tr), Sura 37 - The Ranks
- ^ a b c [1]
- ^ Lydekker's New Natural History, Vol, III, p. 6
- ^ The Scientific Monthly, March, 1940, p. 227
- ^ "Essays of an Atheist," Woolsey Teller. Copyright 1945, The Truth Seeker
Company, Inc., found online here.
- ^ "Taking the Argo to Nineveh: Jonah and Jason in a Mediterranean context,"
Judaism Summer, 1995; reproduced online here.
- ^ Campbell, Joseph. The Hero With A Thousand Faces. Princeton University Press, pp 90-95. ISBN
0-586-08571-8.
External links
This entry incorporates text from the public domain Easton's Bible
Dictionary, originally published in 1897.
This article incorporates text from the 1901–1906 Jewish
Encyclopedia article "Jonah" by Emil G. Hirsch, Karl Budde, and Solomon Schechter, a publication now in the
public domain.
This entry is from Wikipedia, the leading user-contributed encyclopedia. It may not have been reviewed by professional editors (see full disclaimer)
