Two Perspectives Of The 'The Book Of Jonah'

In Chapter 2 of Encountering the New Testament the author talks about a few of the different practices that unified the Jews as well the different religious groups that had different beliefs. Judaism was unified in the beliefs that they had been chosen by God, they were waiting for the messiah to come, they respect the synagogues, they shared the same laws and traditions of elder. Although these beliefs were unifying there were seperate religious groups and leaders that held different beliefs. Probably the most well known group of religious leaders were the Pharisees. The Pharisees were a small group of religious leaders that believed in God, and the coming messiah. Although many of the Pharisees did live good lives many of them were

Adam and Eve's disobedience and resistance forced a punishment of physical and moral disorder that still exists today (47). They were kicked out of the Garden of Eden (54). Instead of living infinitely, they were forced to live a short and sorrowful life relieved only by death (47). Jonah's punishment for disobeying God was less brutal. He was swallowed by a fish and lived in his belly for three days and nights (96). Though God punishes sinners, He has infinite justice (47).

In all reality, it most likely written by a third party. Much like the parables that Jesus taught, Jonah was left “incomplete,” if you will. Meaning that we simply do not know how Jonah responds; the Bible left that part out. As if God leaves that part to us to reflect on our own lives and decide how we would act in Jonah’s place. It is written as a prophetic narrative, but the “hero” is portrayed in a negative light. Furthermore, the book of Jonah is sensational literature, meaning it is designed to arouse the imagery in the audience’s mind and use that imagery to produce emotion. The time period is also not very clear. “The actual composition of the book is not datable except within the broadest boundaries (ca. 750b.c.-250b.c.) simply because there are no certain indicators in it of date (Stuart 432). However, it was obviously between the time when Nineveh was a strong power in the known world; and most likely between the time when Assyria had taken Israel into exile. However, it is most plausible that Jonah took place closer to the 750

In the book of Jonah we see the vast amount of tension between both God and Jonah. He is one of the prophets who also believes in tolerance of non-Jews opposite to Ezra’s and Nehemiah’s stress of an unadulterated blood race of Jews under a restrictive Jewish God. Jonah is one of a vast line of important people in the bible who argues with God. As you see in past books of the bible everyone has stood their own against the Lord. Jonah though decides to try and run from God. The Lord called to Jonah and said “Arise, go to Ninevah, that great city, and cry against it,” but Jonah flees to Joppa, setting sail on a ship duty-bound for Tarshish, assuming he can evade the Lord. Jonah views the Lord as sort of a indigenous God of restrained power that his hand would not reach as

Reflecting back to the Bible during the time of captivity, the spiritual condition of the people had mixed results. Many of them rebuked God and idolized other gods to help them restore their lives. The Israelites also fell into spiritual slothfulness and disobeyed the laws of marriage and their loyalty to God. However, some rejoiced, “The sons of Israel who returned from exile and all those who had separated themselves from the impurity of the nations of the land to join them, to seek the Lord God of Israel, ate the Passover. And they observed the Feast of Unleavened Bread seven days with joy, for the Lord had caused them to rejoice, and had turned the heart of the king of Assyria toward them to encourage them in the work of the house of God, the God of Israel” (Ezra 6:21-22). Then many fell from God’s realm and didn’t trust what was in store for them so they did not want to leave the place they were once captive, so they became part of the community.

Jonah was given the task of delivering God’s message of impending judgment to a society that Jonah despised.

Studying the narratives of the Torah in depth is important to the Christian faith and to present times.

He was a prophet during the time of Jeroboam II. Jonah’s defining event was being swallowed by a whale for disobeying God by not going to Nineveh to warn them. Jonah is credited with writing the book of his namesake where the account of the whale is told.

“Jonah, by contrast preaches a short, reluctant sermon in Nineveh (of all places!) and the entire city repents, from the greatest to the least.” (Hays,2010, P.171). “When God saw their deeds, that they turned from their wicked way, then God relented concerning the calamity which He had declared He would bring upon them. And He did not do it.” (Bible.org, N.D). repentance to me is the social justice part, If God’s people repents He will heal the land. The bible says, “if my people, who are called by my name, will humble themselves and pray and seek my face and turn from their wicked ways, then I will hear from heaven, and I will forgive their sin and will heal their land.” (2nd chronicles 7:14).

This essay is going to be about Jonah having the qualities of a hero. Recently i had read 1

Bolin, Thomas M. “Should i Not Also Pity Nineveh? Divine Freedom in the Book of Jonah.” Journal for the Study of the Old Testament no. 67 (1995): 109-20.

The iconic image of Jonah in the whale for three days relates to Christ’s death

The Old Testament consisted of a set of documentations of religious scriptures, which were written by different people at various times for a different audience. Most of the Old Testament contains short stories of traditional stories and those stories of distinguished ways God established mankind. These stories are often told to the people in narrative form, which are guidelines often referred to as laws, songs, genealogies, and a list from these authors that composed the Old Testaments. The pressing of set documentation is essential because it is the framework for the lives of God 's followers. The term “Old Testament” originated as a means to express spoken traditions and God 's creation of that particular era. It is an method of philosophical investigation was designed to answer the why questions within these spiritual text documentations. These religious documentations consisted of four parts. These four sections retrieved from the Old Testaments are the laws, history, wisdom and prophecy. The laws are a rule of behavior enforced within the community. The rules are sometimes called “Torah.” When analyzing this Torah, these rules viewed within the first five spiritual books of the Bible. For example, in the first Torah in Genesis, it explains the creation, Noah’s Flood, Abraham and Isaac, and Joseph’s coats of many colors. However, the laws in Exodus were in regards to the going out. The going out took about 40 plus years, until the people led to

We often read stories in the Bible without taking the historical context into consideration. As a result, we become unaware of the story’s historical validity. In some cases, stories are used to share a moral concept, or used as a tool to teach a lesson. The Book of Jonah is an example that will be used to determine if this particular story describes an accurate recount of history, or if it teaches the readers a lesson. In the Book of Jonah, Jonah (the prophet) is instructed to go to a pagan city (Nineveh) to preach to the Ninevites, hoping that they will repent for their sins. However, he challenges God and travels to Tarshish instead. Jonah receives consequences for his actions and Nineveh is eventually forgiven by God. Although the

To speak of the Hebrew Scripture is to speak of story, a story stretching from the very beginning of time to only a few centuries before the beginning of the Common Era. It is to speak of richness of content, of purpose and of reality and to engross oneself in an overarching narrative that, depending on your personal convictions, continues to the present day. Within this richness is found a wide variety of different events and experience, told through a series of genre ranging from foundational myth to apocalypse, law giving to poetry, genealogy to wisdom and many more. Within this diversity however, three broad sections can be discerned that speak to a shared purpose and content, these are the sections of Law, Prophecy and Writings. It