Of all the prophetic books of the Bible, the book of Jonah - the most difficult to understand and in-depth study.With its small volume of this work confronts researchers an enormous number of problems hindering not only the interpretation of it, but even the classification.Thus, a number of specialists in the Old Testament biblical studies even deprive the book of Jonah status of the prophetic writings, citing the defense of his thesis various reasons.For example, O. Kaiser notes that the book of Jonah - are not a prophetic text, and the story of the prophet in connection with what he considers a work of historical writings Tanakh.
contents of the book of Jonah Book of Jonah
can be structurally divided into three component parts.The first part begins commandment of God Jonah to go to Nineveh to report about the wrath of God.Jonah's mission - to encourage Nineveh to repentance, that God overturned the harsh sentence.Jonah tries to escape from the divine commandments, and flees on a ship.But the Lord overtakes the ship terrible storm which the sailors react cast lots to find out because someone has befallen them is bad weather.The die rightly points to the divine deviationist (the prophet Jonah), he was forced to confess his faults, asked the sailors to throw him overboard.The sailors followed the advice of Jonah, and cast into the sea, where he swallowed some huge creature in Hebrew called a "fish" and a Russian translation of the Bible, referred to by the word "whale".According to the record, in this fish the prophet Jonah spent three days and three nights.The fish then, after the prayer of Jonah, spit it on the very shore of Nineveh, which was originally sent him God.This event is known in Christian tradition as a sign of the prophet Jonah, and usually refers to the death and resurrection of Jesus Christ.
second part of the story tells how the prophet Jonah proclaimed God's judgment Ninevites - more than 40 days and the city will be destroyed if the people did not repent.To the surprise of the inhabitants reacted to Jonah's preaching of the prophet coaching seriously.The king declared national repentance and all the people, even pets have been fasting, dressed in sackcloth - penitential garments.
third part of the book contains a description of the dispute between God and Jonah.The latter, when he saw that God, repenting Nineveh relaxed, overturned his sentence and pardoned city, upset about his tarnished reputation.To enlighten the prophet, God works a miracle: in one night the whole tree grows in one night it dries.The latter serves to illustrate moral Jonah - he felt sorry for the plant, so that he even cursed his life.If the tree is a pity, that it does not pardon a whole city?- God asked Jonah.At this point the narrative of the book ends.
historicity of the Book of Jonah
It is doubtful that the events described in this work, have taken place.Fabulous components that permeate the entire fabric of the narrative, give the fact of non-Jewish literary influence.Boat trips, rescue fish, etc. - All common motifs in ancient tales.Even the name of Jonah - are not Jewish, and most likely the Aegean.Nineveh in the estimated time at all was not what it is represented in the book - a great city with a population of one hundred and twenty thousand people (taking into account that this number, according to the customs of the time, did not include women and children, the number of inhabitants for the city of the era isjust fantastic).Most likely, the plot of the book was composed of a variety of folk tales and fables for educational purposes.
moral book of Jonah
The fact uncharacteristic attention to the Jewish religion of God to the pagan city (Nineveh and had no relation to the cult of the Jewish God Yahweh) says about the circumstances in which the pagans did not play a role.Perhaps this speaks of the local co-existence of different media traditions and the quest to reconcile his religious Jewish world with the pagan environment.In this respect, the book of Jonah is very different from the Pentateuch of Moses, where the Gentiles are subjected to total heremu (curse) and must be destroyed, or, at best, may be tolerated.The Book of Jonah, on the contrary, preaches a God who cares equally for all people, as the Jews and the Gentiles, so that even sends her to the last prophet to preach.Note that in the Torah, God sent prophets to the nations, not to preach repentance, and once with the sword of retribution.Even Sodom and Gomorrah Almighty only looking for the righteous, but does not try to draw sinners to repentance.
Moral lies the Book of Jonah in the last verse, the Lord's question about how to not feel sorry for the great city where one hundred and twenty thousand people dopey and many cattle.
time of writing
Based on an internal analysis of the text, from the presence of the late Jewish Aramaic words and characteristic structures, researchers attribute this monument of literature to the IV-III centuries.BC.e
authorship of the Book of Jonah
Of course, the author could not be the prophet Jonah, the historical prototype of which he lived (if he lived at all) for half a millennium before the writing of this work.Most likely, it wrote a Jew who lived in areas with strong pagan influence - for example, a port city.This explains the moral universalism of the work.Ascertain the identity of the author is not possible.
Prophet Jonah - the interpretation and exegesis
Two interpretations of the Old Testament traditions - Jewish and Christian, have different interpretations of this text.If the Jews primarily see in the book of Jonah assertion of the omnipotence of God Yahweh, who is above all other gods and whose jurisdiction covers all peoples, as well as the whole of creation in general, Christians see a different meaning.Namely, for Christians the central episode becomes swallow Jonah fish.Based on the words attributed to Jesus, the Gospels, the prophet Jonah in the belly of a whale prefigures Christ crucified, descended into hell and rose again on the third day.
