Page 12 - NewsandViews Summer 2024

Puzzling with the Riddle of Jonah Kit Pearce

The ending of the Book of Jonah has been a riddle to me all my life – and to many down the centuries.
Jonah (albeit reluctantly) fulfils a great mission and yet is still capable of falling short. It’s a tall-tale, a
revelatory lesson and a cautionary tale, all rolled into one. He is unable (or unwilling) to consistently
listen to, or properly understand, his mission. And yet god-directed events equip him to succeed in a
radical mission, foreshadowing ‘One to come’.

In this article I puzzle with its ending, taking some liberties as I recount the story as myth, but finding
value and depth within it. As you read, assuming you continue, you may be surprised at times that my
position is that of a non-theist, albeit one with great respect for the Bible.

Act one: Jehovah commands Jonah, go preach to the Ninevites, tell them they have forty days to mend
their ways, or judgement is coming. But Jonah opts out of his prophetic calling, takes ship in the
opposite direction, already suspecting (we learn later) that Jehovah won’t make good his threat against
Israel’s enemies. Jehovah whips up a terrible storm. The ship’s crew cast lots to identify who is to
blame for their impending doom, which falls upon Jonah, who is discovered asleep during the raging
storm, confirming their worst fears. He tells them, Sacrifice me! I deserve it, but you don’t. Reluctantly,
they throw him overboard. The storm abates instantly. We read that Jehovah has prepared a ‘great
fish’, which swallows Jonah whole. Literally from within the belly of the beast, taught by avoidable
suffering, Jonah repents.

Act two: three days and nights after falling into the maw of leviathan, the sea monster vomits him up
onto a beach. Now a revenant (having escaped certain death) he belatedly fulfils his mission,
prophesising Nineveh’s demise, unless... The Ninevites repent. Jehovah shows compassion, and
forgives them. The reader is nudged to suppose that Jonah’s incredible revenant credentials underlined
his prophetic message. A perfect story arc. Job done? Not quite.

It is a universal storytelling convention that the beginning and ending (singular) are especially
important, the middle carrying ‘the journey’. The best stories have strong beginnings, followed by the
s/hero’s challenge, which is declined or embraced (in this case, both), leading to climactic events and a
resolution. When an author breaks with convention, the reader will notice and be invited to pay
especial attention. In sacred texts, a moral will be embedded in the ending. And if there are two
endings? Two morals, in which ‘the last shall be first’.

Here, it's noteworthy that Jehovah’s spectacular interventions are book-ended by the ‘still small voice’
of Jonah’s prophetic calling (repeated because he’s not a good listener) and another ‘still small voice’, in
the form of the rhetorical Q&A.

Act three: Jonah’s name means ‘dove’, but he’s not feeling peaceable, but hawkish, livid even. He
stomps up an overlooking hill above Nineveh, perhaps hoping to witness another Sodom and Gomorrah,
conforming to familiar revelations of Israel’s tribal god, who regularly smote the enemies of his chosen
people in the Old Testament. Ninevah was one of the greatest cities of the dominant Assyrian empire,
making Ninevites by definition enemies of Israel, ripe for smiting, Jonah feels. Although he had
anticipated Jehovah would forgive Israel’s enemies, he is not ready for the seminal revelation of the
story, ironic since his role is at the core of the narrative.

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