Jonah
Jonah prophesied during the second half of the ministry of Hosea and Amos from about 770-755 BCE. This is the best-known book of the twelve minor prophets.
To get an interpretation of it, the likes of which you have probably never heard or read, I will use Rashi's Jewish Bible commentary. (Printed on yellow background). All the Bible quotations in this post are taken from the Bible Rashi uses. It is very different than the Protestant Bible.
Stick with me and I will tell you a "whale of a tale".
And the word of the Lord came to Jonah son of Amittai, saying: Arise, go to Nineveh, the great city, and proclaim against it, But Jonah rose up to flee to Tarshish from the presence of Jehovah. 1:1-3 To escape his commission Jonah went to Joppa, modern-day Jaffa, on the shore of the Meditteranean Sea; from there he meant to sail to Tarshish, in Spain, as far West as any ship would take him.
He wanted to escape from Jehovah's presence; he believed that Jehovah was limited to the promised land. He said I will flee to the sea, for the Shechinah (God's glory) does not rest outside the Holy Land.
He wanted to escape from Jehovah's presence; he believed that Jehovah was limited to the promised land. He said I will flee to the sea, for the Shechinah (God's glory) does not rest outside the Holy Land.
to a sea named Tarshish, according to Bible dictionaries, there is no sea named Tarshish.
Come, let's cast lots, so that we will know because of whom this evil has befallen us. 1:7. Casting lots, to determine God's will, was common among the Jews, even in religious matters; Non-Jews also used that system to decide on important matters.
They saw that the other ships were sailing in the sea calmly, and theirs was breaking. In his Bible, as well as in ours, there is no record of any other ships in the area at that time.
And the Lord appointed a huge fish to swallow up Jonah, and Jonah was in the belly of the fish for three days and three nights. 2:11:17. Those sixteen days that Israel was missing the manna, since they did not eat it for a complete forty years - God took this manna and sustained the fish so that Jonah would not be digested in its intestines, and Jonah, too, ate within it from this manna.
Rashi has Jonah inside the whale for sixteen days! It is interesting that the Israelites, during their wilderness wanderings, had to go without manna for 16 days so that God would have enough manna to feed the fish for that length of time to protect Jonah from being digested by the whale.
Jonah, while inside the whale, ate the same manna in the whale's stomach as the whale did. Oh, yummy! Note this observation. The six million (this is a Biblical commentary's calculated estimate) Jews in the wilderness ate as much manna in one day as the whale ate in one day. I think that that whale had a healthy appetite.
Jonah, while inside the whale, ate the same manna in the whale's stomach as the whale did. Oh, yummy! Note this observation. The six million (this is a Biblical commentary's calculated estimate) Jews in the wilderness ate as much manna in one day as the whale ate in one day. I think that that whale had a healthy appetite.
And Jonah prayed to the Lord his God, from the belly of the fish. 2:2. It was a male, and he stood there with room, so that he did not think to pray. The Holy One, ... hinted to the fish, and it spewed him out into the mouth of a female, which was full of embryos, and it was crowded there, and he prayed there.
The whale was a male and it was big enough for Jonah to stand up inside with room to spare and that is why he did not think to pray. Why go with the stated facts when you can embellish?
In this story, the whale did not spew Jonah onto the shore as our Bible says, And the Lord said to the fish, and it spewed Jonah onto the dry land. 2:11, but it spewed Jonah into the mouth of a female whale, among the embryos, embryos in the mouth of the whale. Go figure. There, Jonah was so crowded that he thought to pray.
Water has surrounded me even to the soul, the deep encompassed me; the Red Sea hangs over my head. The Red Sea hangs over my head. For the Holy One, ... showed him the Red ... Sea and how Israel crossed in its midst, for the fish’s two eyes were like two windows, and he would look and see everything in the sea.
If Jonah was on a ship going to Tarshish he would not have been in the Red Sea but in the Meditteranean Sea. Of course, as Rashi tells the story, Jonah was in the whale for sixteen days so maybe the whale swam from the Mediterranean Sea, through the Strait of Gibraltar, around the African continent and back North into the Red Sea.
Not only was Jonah in the wrong sea but he could look out at the sea through the whale's eyes which acted as windows for Jonah. How convenient!
Not only was Jonah in the wrong sea but he could look out at the sea through the whale's eyes which acted as windows for Jonah. How convenient!
Once Rashi gets Jonah planted safely on the shore of the Mediterranean Sea his commentary begins to make some sense.
He complained to the Lord and said, I knew that if they repented you would spare them and now they will continue to be a threat to Israel's security just like they were before. (In 723 BCE Israel was taken captive by Assyria and about 110 years later the Assyrian nation fell to the Babylonian empire in 612 BCE.) Not only that, people will think I am a false prophet because the destruction I promised did not happen.
To close the Book of Jonah I will end with the same words I used in the story about Balam and his talking donkey. "Talking animals and illogical contradictions such as are found in this Bible story remind one again of this very pertinent quotation: The recording of history with literal exactness of detail is a fairly modern development. At the time, (the Bible was written), precise fact was far less important than the spiritual message of the stories shared. Jesus and His Times, Readers Digest.
The writer of this story was making the point that Jehovah will forgive if people will repent. The method the writer uses to make his point is not the issue.
Reasonable
Jonah preached in the capital of Assyria, to the Ninevites, and the people repented of their sins and Jehovah changed His mind about punishing them. Jonah was not pleased; Now it displeased Jonah exceedingly, and he was grieved. 4:1.
He complained to the Lord and said, I knew that if they repented you would spare them and now they will continue to be a threat to Israel's security just like they were before. (In 723 BCE Israel was taken captive by Assyria and about 110 years later the Assyrian nation fell to the Babylonian empire in 612 BCE.) Not only that, people will think I am a false prophet because the destruction I promised did not happen.
To close the Book of Jonah I will end with the same words I used in the story about Balam and his talking donkey. "Talking animals and illogical contradictions such as are found in this Bible story remind one again of this very pertinent quotation: The recording of history with literal exactness of detail is a fairly modern development. At the time, (the Bible was written), precise fact was far less important than the spiritual message of the stories shared. Jesus and His Times, Readers Digest.
The writer of this story was making the point that Jehovah will forgive if people will repent. The method the writer uses to make his point is not the issue.
No comments:
Post a Comment