Jonah

The fifth of the Minor Prophets. The name is usually taken to mean
"dove", but in view of the complaining words of the Prophet
(Jonah, iv), it is not unlikely that the name is derived from the
root Yanah = to mourn, with the signification dolens or
"complaining". This interpretation goes back to St. Jerome (Comm.
on Jonah, iv, 1). Apart from the book traditionally ascribed to
him, Jonah is mentioned only once in the Old Testament, IV Kings,
xiv, 25, where it is stated that the restoration by Jeroboam II
(see Jeroboam) of the borders of Israel against the incursions of
foreign invaders was a fulfillment of the "word of the Lord the
God of Israel, which he spoke by his servant Jonah the son of
Amathi, the prophet, who was of Geth, which is in Opher". This
last is but a paraphrastic rendering of the name Gath-Hepher, a
town in the territory of Zabulon (Josephus, "Antiq.", XIX, xiii),
which was probably the birthplace of the Prophet, and where his
grave was still pointed out in the time of St. Jerome. Mention is
made of Jonah in Matt., xii, 39 sqq., and in xvi, 4, and likewise
in the parallel passages of Luke (xi, 29, 30, 32), but these
references add nothing to the information contained in the Old
Testament data. According to an ancient tradition mentioned by St.
Jerome (Comm., in Jonah, Prol., P.L., XXV, 118), and which is
found in Pseudo-Epiphanius (De Vitis Prophetarum, xvi, P.L.,
XLIII, 407), Jonah was the son of the widow of Sarephta whose
resuscitation by the Prophet Elias is narrated in III Kings, xvii,
but this legend seems to have no other foundation than the
phonetic resemblance between the proper name Amathi, father of the
Prophet, and the Hebrew word Emeth, "truth", applied to the word
of God through Elias by the widow of Sarephta (III Kings, xvii,
24).

The chief interest in the Prophet Jonah centres around two
remarkable incidents narrated in the book which bears his name. In
the opening verse it is stated that "the word of the Lord came to
Jonah the son of Amathi, saying: Arise and go to Ninive, the great
city, and preach in it: for the wickedness thereof is come up
before me." But the Prophet, instead of obeying the Divine
command, "rose up to flee into Tharsis from the face of the Lord"
that he might escape the task assigned to him. He boards a ship
bound for that port, but a violent storm overtakes him, and on his
admission that he is the cause of it, he is cast overboard. He is
swallowed by a great fish providentially prepared for the purpose,
and after a three day's sojourn in the belly of the monster,
during which time he composes a hymn of thanksgiving, he is cast
upon dry land. After this episode he again receives the command to
preach in Ninive, and the account of his second journey is
scarcely less marvellous than that of the first. He proceeds to
Ninive and enters "after a day's journey" into it, foretelling its
destruction in forty days. A general repentance is immediately
commanded by the authorities, in view of which God relents and
spares the wicked city. Jonah, angry and disappointed, wishes for
death. He expostulates with the Lord, and declares that it was in
anticipation of this result that on the former occasion he had
wished to flee to Tharsis. He withdraws from Ninive and, under a
booth which he has erected, he awaits the destiny of the city. In
this abode he enjoys for a time the refreshing shade of a gourd
which the Lord prepares for him. Shortly, however, the gourd is
stricken by a worm and the Prophet is exposed to the burning rays
of the sun, whereupon he again murmurs and wishes to die. Then the
Lord rebukes him for his selfish grief over the withering of a
gourd, while still desiring that God should not be touched by the
repentance of a city in which "there are more than a hundred and
twenty thousand persons that know not how to distinguish between
their right hand and their left, and many beasts." Apart from the
hymn ascribed to Jonah (ii, 2-11) the contents of the book are
prose.

HISTORICITY

Catholics have always looked upon the Book of Jonah as a fact-
narrative. In the works of some recent Catholic writers there is a
leaning to regard the book as fiction. Only Simon and Jahn, among
prominent Catholic scholars, have clearly denied the historicity
of Jonah; and the orthodoxy of these two critics may no longer be
defended: "Providentissimus Deus" implicitly condemned the ideas
of both in the matter of inspiration, and the Congregation of the
Index expressly condemned the "Introduction" of the latter.

Reasons for the traditional acceptance of the historicity of
Jonah:

I. Jewish Tradition

According to the Septuagint text of the Book of Tobias (xiv, 4),
the words of Jonah in regard to the destruction of Ninive are
accepted as facts; the same reading is found in the Aramaic text
and one Hebrew manuscript. The apocryphal III Mach., vi, 8, lists
the saving of Jonah in the belly of the fish along with the other
wonders of Old Testament history. Josephus (Ant. Jud., IX, 2)
clearly deems the story of Jonah to be historical.

II. The Authority of Our Lord

This reason is deemed by Catholics to remove all doubt as to the
fact of the story of Jonah. The Jews asked a "sign" -- a miracle
to prove the Messiahship of Jesus. He made answer that no "sign"
would be given them other than the "sign of Jonah the Prophet. For
as the Jonah was in the whale's belly three days and three nights:
so shall the Son of man be in the heart of the earth three days
and three nights. The men of Ninive shall rise in judgment with
this generation and shall condemn it: because they did penance at
the preaching of Jonah. And behold a greater than Jonah here"
(Matt., xii, 40-1; xvi, 4; Luke, xi, 29-32). The Jews asked for a
real miracle; Christ would have deceived them had He presented a
mere fancy. He argues clearly that just as Jonah was in the
whale's belly three days and three nights even so He will be in
the heart of the earth three days and three nights. If, then, the
stay of Jonah in the belly of the fish be only a fiction, the stay
of Christ's body in the heart of the earth is only a fiction. If
the men of Ninive will really not rise in judgment, neither will
the Jews really rise. Christ contrasts fact with fact, not fancy
with fancy, nor fancy with fact. It would be very strange, indeed,
were He to say that He was greater than a fancy-formed man. It
would be little less strange were he to berate the Jews for their
real lack of penance by rating this lack in contrast with the
penance of Ninive which never existed at all. The whole force of
these striking contrasts is lost, if we admit that the story of
Jonah is not fact-narrative. Finally, Christ makes no distinction
between the story of the Queen of Sheba and that of Jonah (see
Matt., xii, 42). He sets the very same historical value upon the
Book of Jonah as upon the Third Book of Kings. Such is the very
strongest argument that Catholics offer for the firm stand they
take upon the ground of the fact-narrative of the story of Jonah.

III. The Authority of the Fathers

Not a single Father has ever been cited in favor of the opinion
that Jonah is a fancy-tale and no fact-narrative at all. To the
Fathers Jonah was a fact and a type of the Messias, just such a
one as Christ presented to the Jews. Saints Jerome, Cyril, and
Theophilus explain in detail the type-meaning of the facts of the
Book of Jonah. St. Cyril even forestalls the objections of the
Rationalists of today: Jonah flees his ministry, bewails God's
mercy to the Ninivites, and in other ways shows a spirit that ill
becomes a Prophet and an historical type of Christ. Cyril admits
that in all this Jonah failed and is not a type of Christ, but
does not admit that these failures of Jonah prove the story of his
doings to have been a mere fiction.

To the Rationalist and to the advanced Protestant Biblical scholar
these arguments are of no worth whatsoever. They find error not
only in Jewish and Christian tradition but in Christ Himself. They
admit that Christ took the story of Jonah as a fact-narrative, and
make answer that Christ erred; He was a child of His time and
represents to us the ideas and errors of His time. The arguments
of those who accept the inerrancy of Christ and deny the
historicity of Jonah are not conclusive.

�  Christ spoke according to the ideas of the people, and had no
purpose in telling them that Jonah was really not swallowed by the
fish. We ask: Did Christ speak of the Queen of Sheba as a fact? If
so, then He spoke of Jonah as a fact -- unless there be some proof
to the contrary.

�  Were the book historical in its narrative, certain details
would not be omitted, for instance, the place where the Prophet
was vomited forth by the sea-monster, the particular sins of which
the Ninivites were guilty, the particular kind of calamity by
which the city was to be destroyed, the name of the Assyrian king
under whom these events took place and who turned to the true God
with such marvellous humility and repentance.

We answer, these objections prove that the book is not an
historical account done according to later canons of historical
criticism; they do not prove that the book is no history at all.
The facts narrated are such as suited the purpose of the sacred
writer. He told a story of glory unto the God of Israel and of
downfall to the gods of Ninive. It is likely that the incidents
took place during the period of Assyrian decadence, i.e., the
reign of either Asurdanil or Asurnirar (770-745 B.C.). A pest had
ravaged the land from 765 till 759 B.C. Internal strife added to
the dismay caused by the deadly disease. The king's power was set
at naught. Such a king might seem too little known to be
mentioned. The Pharaoh of Mosaic times is not deemed to have been
a fiction merely because his name is not given.

Jewish tradition assumed that the Prophet Jonah was the author of
the book bearing his name, and the same has been generally
maintained by the Christian writers who defend the historical
character of the narrative. But it may be remarked that nowhere
does the book itself claim to have been written by the Prophet
(who is supposed to have lived in the eighth century B.C.), and
most modern scholars, for various reasons, assign the date of the
composition to a much later epoch, probably the fifth century B.C.
As in the case of other Old Testament personages, many legends,
mostly fantastic and devoid of critical value, grew up around the
name Jonah. They may be found in the "Jewish Encyclopedia".

JAMES F. DRISCOLL
Transcribed by Anthony A. Killeen

Aeterna non caduca


From the Catholic Encyclopedia, copyright � 1913 by the
Encyclopedia Press, Inc. Electronic version copyright � 1996 by
New Advent, Inc.

Taken from the New Advent Web Page (www.knight.org/advent).

This article is part of the Catholic Encyclopedia Project, an
effort aimed at placing the  entire Catholic Encyclopedia 1913
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editor of the New Advent Catholic Website. If you would like to
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