After reading the book of Jonah, we see that there is no way to know who was the author of the book, where the information came from, exactly when it was originally written, and exactly when the events were supposed to have taken place. The king of Nineveh is not named. The book does not claim to be the words of a god. There are no angels or demons. There is no mention of a messiah.* There is no mention of a resurrection, or eternal life. There is no hell, but there is a mention of Sheol in 2:2, translated as "grave."
If the book was written before the destruction of Nineveh in 612BCE, what was the intended message? Perhaps the author was a proponent of tolerance and/or trying to show Yahweh to be equally concerned for all people. Perhaps he was trying to convince the Israelites it wasn't too late to to repent, in a round about way.
If the book was written after the destruction of Nineveh, one can't help but wonder if it was satire. Perhaps it was showing the opposite, that Yahweh didn't actually care if a nation repented, he would destroy them if he wanted to. Or perhaps the author was showing that salvation from God's wrath is not necessarily permanent. Of course this is speculation.
Also, we need to remember that a revelation to one person is not a revelation to all. We didn't hear the voice Jonah heard. No one else in the story did either. There is an argument to be made that people who hear disembodied voices are not likely to be mentally stable. People who believe people who hear disembodied voices are probably gullible.
*In many Christian circles, Jonah is assumed to be a "type" of christ. There is nothing in the book of Jonah itself, when read as a stand alone story, to indicate that Jonah is supposed to prefigure or predict Jesus, or a messiah. To christian minds focussed on the relationship of the New Testament to the Old Testament, Moses, Joshua, and David, have all been types "prefiguring" Jesus. What they don't seem to realize is the more likely occurrance that the story of Jesus was written in such a way as to deliberately refer to these Heroes of the Old Testament.
Another way Jonah is a type of christ.
More typology of Jonah.
Showing posts with label Ninevah. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Ninevah. Show all posts
Thursday, June 8, 2017
Tuesday, June 6, 2017
Jonah chapter 4
After reading chapter 4:
* God has not destroyed the Ninevites as he (actually Jonah) threatened. This made Jonah mad. He complained to Yahweh that he knew this was going to happen. That's why he tried to run away to Tarshish. He knew that Yahweh was a softy and would change his mind. Like he did during the flood, the death of all the first born Egyptians, Sodom and Gommorrah, the Canaanite masacres?
Now, because Yahweh did not destroy the Ninevites, Jonah is says, "Just kill me." Do you get the feeling that Jonah had been looking forward to the annhiliation? Or is it just that he feels like a fool, having predicted the destruction, only to find out it won't happen. After all, the measure of a prophet is whether his predictions come true.
Jonah goes outside the city to wait and watch whatever would happen to the city. He had built a shelter and Yahweh supposedly made a vine grow over it to give him shade. As a gardener, I can tell you, any type of vine is not going to get that big that quickly. We aren't told how long it was, but remember, back in Jonah 3:4 the Ninevites are told the city was to be overturned in forty days. Did Jonah wait for fourty days. (Where did he get food?) That could possibly be long enough for a vine to grow over a shelter, even without divine intervention.
At dawn the next day (the next day from when?) God provided a worm to chew the vine. Oh! So that's where vine borers come from! If I kill the vine borers in my garden, am I obstructing the work of God? Jonah's vine died. Jonah lost his shade and got overheated. He again expressed a desire to have his life terminated. God asked him if he had a right to be angry about the vine. He said he did, angry enough to die. Wow! Jonah didn't have anything else to live for? Poor guy.
Yaweh says Jonah is sorry for a vine that he didn't even plant or tend. It sprang up in one night and died overnight. Wait, this was not a forty day vine, it was a one day vine? That makes it officially a miracle! Also, my study Bible says it may have been a castor oil plant, not a vine at all. Do castor oil plants get tall and shady in one day? Nope. Also, castor oil plants are toxic to many insect pests as well as humans. It is often used as a natural insecticide. It is not likely to be killed by a chewing worm.
Any way, Yaweh tells Jonah that the great city of Nineveh has more than one hundred twenty thousand people, shouldn't he be concerned about them? (Not to mention all the cattle. ) Amazingly enough, the actual number of inhabitants in Nineveh at its peak probably was very close to one hundred twenty thousand. It truly was a great city of antiquity, and there is proof of its existence. Strangely enough, there is not one shred of proof of the nomadic tribe of two million (!) Hebrew people, not to mention their animals, who spent forty years in the desert of the Sinai peninsula. And people have looked.
Burning question: Why didn't Yahweh send prophets to the Canaanites, warning them to turn from their evil ways, before he had them slaughtered. Why wasn't he always a humanitarian?
* God has not destroyed the Ninevites as he (actually Jonah) threatened. This made Jonah mad. He complained to Yahweh that he knew this was going to happen. That's why he tried to run away to Tarshish. He knew that Yahweh was a softy and would change his mind. Like he did during the flood, the death of all the first born Egyptians, Sodom and Gommorrah, the Canaanite masacres?
Now, because Yahweh did not destroy the Ninevites, Jonah is says, "Just kill me." Do you get the feeling that Jonah had been looking forward to the annhiliation? Or is it just that he feels like a fool, having predicted the destruction, only to find out it won't happen. After all, the measure of a prophet is whether his predictions come true.
Jonah goes outside the city to wait and watch whatever would happen to the city. He had built a shelter and Yahweh supposedly made a vine grow over it to give him shade. As a gardener, I can tell you, any type of vine is not going to get that big that quickly. We aren't told how long it was, but remember, back in Jonah 3:4 the Ninevites are told the city was to be overturned in forty days. Did Jonah wait for fourty days. (Where did he get food?) That could possibly be long enough for a vine to grow over a shelter, even without divine intervention.
At dawn the next day (the next day from when?) God provided a worm to chew the vine. Oh! So that's where vine borers come from! If I kill the vine borers in my garden, am I obstructing the work of God? Jonah's vine died. Jonah lost his shade and got overheated. He again expressed a desire to have his life terminated. God asked him if he had a right to be angry about the vine. He said he did, angry enough to die. Wow! Jonah didn't have anything else to live for? Poor guy.
Yaweh says Jonah is sorry for a vine that he didn't even plant or tend. It sprang up in one night and died overnight. Wait, this was not a forty day vine, it was a one day vine? That makes it officially a miracle! Also, my study Bible says it may have been a castor oil plant, not a vine at all. Do castor oil plants get tall and shady in one day? Nope. Also, castor oil plants are toxic to many insect pests as well as humans. It is often used as a natural insecticide. It is not likely to be killed by a chewing worm.
Any way, Yaweh tells Jonah that the great city of Nineveh has more than one hundred twenty thousand people, shouldn't he be concerned about them? (Not to mention all the cattle. ) Amazingly enough, the actual number of inhabitants in Nineveh at its peak probably was very close to one hundred twenty thousand. It truly was a great city of antiquity, and there is proof of its existence. Strangely enough, there is not one shred of proof of the nomadic tribe of two million (!) Hebrew people, not to mention their animals, who spent forty years in the desert of the Sinai peninsula. And people have looked.
Burning question: Why didn't Yahweh send prophets to the Canaanites, warning them to turn from their evil ways, before he had them slaughtered. Why wasn't he always a humanitarian?
Thursday, June 1, 2017
Jonah chapter 3
After reading chapter 3:
Yahweh tells Jonah to go to Ninevah, again, and give them his message. Then we are told Ninevah is such an important city that a visit requires three days. (The same number of days Jonah was in the big fish! Coincidence?) on the first day, Jonah goes into the city and starts proclaiming that Ninevah will be overturned in forty days. (Forty days is another very familiar number of days.) Lo and behold, the Ninevites believed Jonah! That was easy. They declared a fast and put on sackcloth.
When word reached the king, he must have believed it too, because he took off his royal robes and also put on sackcloth. Theses people were obviously not sceptics, if they believed a stranger who roamed around saying that a foreign god told him they are doomed. Nevertheless, the king issued a proclamation that every man and beast (poor beasts) was to be covered in sackcloth, give up their evil ways, and call urgently on God, maybe he would relent. Or... Maybe it never was going to happen in the first place.
The last verse of chapter three says that when God saw how they turned from their evil ways, he had compassion and did not bring the destruction on them that he had threatened. So, God promised to destroy Ninevah (said Jonah) but he didn't. He broke his promise? But, if this happened, there was only Jonah's word that God spoke to him. God didn't tell this to anyone else, not even a single Ninevite. A revelation to one man is just that. Why should anyone believe it?
Plus, have you noticed, we aren't even told what the "evil ways" of the Ninevites were.
Yahweh tells Jonah to go to Ninevah, again, and give them his message. Then we are told Ninevah is such an important city that a visit requires three days. (The same number of days Jonah was in the big fish! Coincidence?) on the first day, Jonah goes into the city and starts proclaiming that Ninevah will be overturned in forty days. (Forty days is another very familiar number of days.) Lo and behold, the Ninevites believed Jonah! That was easy. They declared a fast and put on sackcloth.
When word reached the king, he must have believed it too, because he took off his royal robes and also put on sackcloth. Theses people were obviously not sceptics, if they believed a stranger who roamed around saying that a foreign god told him they are doomed. Nevertheless, the king issued a proclamation that every man and beast (poor beasts) was to be covered in sackcloth, give up their evil ways, and call urgently on God, maybe he would relent. Or... Maybe it never was going to happen in the first place.
The last verse of chapter three says that when God saw how they turned from their evil ways, he had compassion and did not bring the destruction on them that he had threatened. So, God promised to destroy Ninevah (said Jonah) but he didn't. He broke his promise? But, if this happened, there was only Jonah's word that God spoke to him. God didn't tell this to anyone else, not even a single Ninevite. A revelation to one man is just that. Why should anyone believe it?
Plus, have you noticed, we aren't even told what the "evil ways" of the Ninevites were.
Wednesday, May 10, 2017
Jonah chapter 1
After reading chapter 1:
*Jonah is called the son of Amittai, exactly as mentioned in 2 Kings. Which came first, the book of Jonah or Kings? Who knows? Nobody that's who. But, as usual, there are plenty of scholars who try to pin these things down to a span of three hundred years, give or take a few years.
*Somehow, Jonah heard from Yahweh. There are no details. Was it a vision, a dream, or an angel? No information is available, and noone else heard the message. (Is a revelation to one a revelation to all?)Yahweh is said to have told Jonah to "go to Nineveh and preach against it" because it was wicked. Why Nineveh? Ninevah was the chief city of the Assyrian kingdom at the time the story takes place, which was 770-ish BCE. Frankly, I'm pretty sure it wasn't any more wicked than any other large city in that time period. Who knows what even constituted wickedness to the author of Jonah. There are no details. I have a feeling that biblical authors ascribed most cultural destruction as being a consequence of "wickedness."
*According to Wikipedia, Nineveh was the largest city in the world for about 50 years, until it was sacked in 612 BCE. It is very possible, even probable, that the book of Jonah was written after that. This is the subject of much debate. Isaiah and other prophetic books of the bible predict the fall of Assyria and Nineveh with it. Because I do not believe in prophesies, I am inclined to accept the judgement of historians who also do not believe in prophesies and say that those books were most likely written after the events they supposedly prophesy. Or they were wishful thinking. Assyria's power seems to have been at a lull during the reign of Jereboam II, but it did conquer Israel later and was responsible for the break up of the northern kingdom about 732 BCE.
*Anyway, Jonah "ran away from Yahweh" and headed for Tarshish, by way of a ship from Joppa. The exact location and existence of Tarshish are disputed. It was clearly intended to be in the opposite direction from Nineveh, which was about 600 miles to the east of Jerusalem.
*While Jonah was at sea, there was a violent storm and the ship was in danger of sinking. The crew began to throw things overboard to lighten the ship, meanwhile crying out to their own gods. Jonah was sound asleep below. The captain berated him for not calling on his God to save them. The sailors decided to cast lots to see who was bringing them bad luck. The lot fell on Jonah. Those were smart lots! The ship's crew asked Jonah to explain his presence and the reason the lots chose him. So, Jonah told them he worshipped Yahweh, "the god of heaven who made the sea and land." He then explained that he was runnng away from Yahweh, which is not surprising when you realize most ancient gods were national in nature. But Yahweh apparently had power beyond the boundaries of Israel.
*I'm trying to keep dates, events, and facts straight, but this historical time period and the bible record of supposed events can be confusing. So I may edit when I find out something isn't right.
To be continued.
*Jonah is called the son of Amittai, exactly as mentioned in 2 Kings. Which came first, the book of Jonah or Kings? Who knows? Nobody that's who. But, as usual, there are plenty of scholars who try to pin these things down to a span of three hundred years, give or take a few years.
*Somehow, Jonah heard from Yahweh. There are no details. Was it a vision, a dream, or an angel? No information is available, and noone else heard the message. (Is a revelation to one a revelation to all?)Yahweh is said to have told Jonah to "go to Nineveh and preach against it" because it was wicked. Why Nineveh? Ninevah was the chief city of the Assyrian kingdom at the time the story takes place, which was 770-ish BCE. Frankly, I'm pretty sure it wasn't any more wicked than any other large city in that time period. Who knows what even constituted wickedness to the author of Jonah. There are no details. I have a feeling that biblical authors ascribed most cultural destruction as being a consequence of "wickedness."
*According to Wikipedia, Nineveh was the largest city in the world for about 50 years, until it was sacked in 612 BCE. It is very possible, even probable, that the book of Jonah was written after that. This is the subject of much debate. Isaiah and other prophetic books of the bible predict the fall of Assyria and Nineveh with it. Because I do not believe in prophesies, I am inclined to accept the judgement of historians who also do not believe in prophesies and say that those books were most likely written after the events they supposedly prophesy. Or they were wishful thinking. Assyria's power seems to have been at a lull during the reign of Jereboam II, but it did conquer Israel later and was responsible for the break up of the northern kingdom about 732 BCE.
*Anyway, Jonah "ran away from Yahweh" and headed for Tarshish, by way of a ship from Joppa. The exact location and existence of Tarshish are disputed. It was clearly intended to be in the opposite direction from Nineveh, which was about 600 miles to the east of Jerusalem.
*While Jonah was at sea, there was a violent storm and the ship was in danger of sinking. The crew began to throw things overboard to lighten the ship, meanwhile crying out to their own gods. Jonah was sound asleep below. The captain berated him for not calling on his God to save them. The sailors decided to cast lots to see who was bringing them bad luck. The lot fell on Jonah. Those were smart lots! The ship's crew asked Jonah to explain his presence and the reason the lots chose him. So, Jonah told them he worshipped Yahweh, "the god of heaven who made the sea and land." He then explained that he was runnng away from Yahweh, which is not surprising when you realize most ancient gods were national in nature. But Yahweh apparently had power beyond the boundaries of Israel.
*I'm trying to keep dates, events, and facts straight, but this historical time period and the bible record of supposed events can be confusing. So I may edit when I find out something isn't right.
To be continued.
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