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The Prophetic Book of Jonah REL 3113-02 2 semester hours This course comes to us from Associate Professor Howard Davis of Tampa, Florida. Mr. Davis is the newly appointed congregational leader of Beth Adonai INT of Zephyrhills, FL and is the son of a Beth Adonai INTL congregational leader. This is the first course he has taught to college students, and it is an interesting one. Professor Davis looks at several different points of view in the Judeo-Christian genre to explore this most well known Biblical story. The Story of Jonah is universal in its scope and content, and can be viewed through one’s theological world view with ease and blessing. Mr. Davis is a recent graduate of the Rio Verde University School of Theology and has completed Master’s level work in Comparative Religions. He is currently preparing to finish his doctorate in Pastoral Counseling at RVU. Mr. Davis looks at Jonah from the perspective of Catholic Theology, Jewish practice, and Protestant (Evangelical) exegesis. This first semester junior course is one of the favorites of the School of Theology. The tale of the man and the great fish touches the heart-chords of all facets of humanity in his reach to understand the Divine plan for his life. This course is considered a pre-requisite course for all students who desire to complete their Biblical Studies programs at RVU-School of Theology. It serves as a baseline for a minimal working knowledge of the OT. The course is taken directly from the Old Testament using the New International Version NIV. During the course, if you have questions regarding the class or related comments, you can e-mail Mr. HDavis at information@rioverdeunivesity.org. (The cost of this course may be tax deductible under either the HOPE or LIFETIME LEARNING programs approved by Congress and incorporated into IRS forms). If you are a minister, evangelist, rabbi, imam, a BACI* or other spiritual leader this course may be taken as a CEU program and provides 7.5 hour credits. Contact our admissions office for further instructions for CEU credit. [*BACI-Beth Adonai Congregations INTL is a primary supporter of RVU-School of Theology]. The textbook for the course will be the NIV Bible. Other translations may be used as a substitute. Most Biblical quotes are from the NIV unless otherwise noted. There are several quotes from the American Bible Society translation, as well. These are noted. Note-Many of the theological views expressed in this course are the personally held beliefs of our guest professor’s and as such must be respected. Those from other denominational or religious belief systems should use these views as focal points for discussion and understanding though different than their own. Some of these views differ from Beth Adonai INTL’s theological stance.  New International Version Translation (text) When you receive your packet (i.e. study guide and text materials) you will find the directions regarding usage of the program materials, on the first page of the study guide. You can purchase a NIV Holy Bible at most book stores or the book can be acquired from the RVU-U bookstore (go to the bookstore on the website, check the book, go to checkout). INSTRUCTIONS: This course is designed to take the student approximately 25-30 hours to finish on average. It should take you about 2.5 hours to complete the final exam. There are sets of questions in each section. On the answer sheet enclosed, answer all these questions, and submit with the appropriate cover sheet. There is one term paper required for completion of the class. The term paper accounts for 25%, and the final exam for 75%. Your topic assignment for your term paper is “What do you think God was trying to teach Jonah?” You will submit a term paper of approximately 2,000 typed double-spaced at the time you submit your exam to complete the course. A grade of 70% is required for successful completion. Begin by opening the text materials. You may already have a Bible at home. (It is possible to use other translations for your testing. If you use another translation please note it on your cover sheet. Unless otherwise notified it will be assumed you used the NIV translation. To be more accurate dates are designated as A.C.E. and B.C.E. (After the Christian Era, and Before the Christian Era) instead of A.D. and B.C. In addition, Biblical Chapters/Verses are highlighted in bold type. Verse quotes are italicized. Read the introduction to the coursework. You may begin taking the final exam the day you receive your study materials. You may use your Bible as this is an open book test. When you have completed the mid-term exam place the cover form along with your answer sheet in the enclosed pre-labeled envelope. Mail your test to: RVU-U c/o Dr. Hertz 3214 N University Ave. Unit #435, Provo, UT 84604. Upon receipt of your test papers it will be graded by staff, recorded in your student file, and returned. (Reminder: A grade of 70% is required for successful completion of each course.) Good luck, and may G-d Bless your studies. Baruch HaShem. Dr. Rivkah Cordoba-admissions |
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 Marble sarcophagus carved with scenes from the story of Jonah and the whale (Late Roman, about A.C.E. 260-300) Jonah-Catholic Encyclopedia 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 4), 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, 2 Kings 14:25, 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 Matthew 12:39 sqq., and in 16:4, 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 Jonas, 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 1 Kings 17, 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 Emeth, "truth", applied to the word of God through Elias by the widow of Sarephta (1 Kings 17:24). 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 Niniveh, and the account of his second journey is scarcely less marvelous than that of the first. He proceeds to Niniveh 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 Niniveh 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.  unknown
artistReasons 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 didpenance at the preaching of Jonah. And behold a greater than Jonah here" ( Matthew 12:40-1; 16:4; Luke 11:29-32). The Jews asked for a real miracle; Jesus 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 Jesus’ 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. Jesus 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, Jesus makes no distinction between the story of the Queen of Sheba and that of Jonah (see Matthew 12:42). 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 Messiahs, just such a one as Jesus 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 Nessiah. Cyril admits that in all this Jonah failed and is not a type Messiah, 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 Jesus Himself. They admit that Jesus took the story of Jonah as a fact-narrative, and make answer that Jesus 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 Jesus and deny the historicity of Jonah are not conclusive. |
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| 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.E.). A pest had ravaged the land
from 765 till 759 B.C.E. 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.E.), and most modern scholars, for various reasons, assign the date of the composition to a much later epoch, probably the fifth century B.C.E. As in the case of other Old Testament personages, many legends, mostly fantastic and devoid of critical value, grew up around the name Jonah. 
Artist unknownAuthor: Jonah 1:1 specifically identifies the Prophet Jonah as the author of the Book of Jonah. Date of Writing: The Book of Jonah was likely written between 793 and 758 B.C.E. Purpose of Writing: Fish and revival are the key words in this book. Jonah is not merely swallowed by a great fish, this event represents God extending His helping hand to save the prophet. It gives Jonah a unique opportunity to seek a unique deliverance, as he repents during this equally unique retreat. Many classify the revival which Jonah brings to Nineveh as one of the greatest evangelistic efforts of all time. Key Verses: Jonah 1:3, "But Jonah ran away from the LORD and headed for Tarshish..." Jonah 1:17, "But the LORD provided a great fish to swallow Jonah, and Jonah was inside the fish three days and three nights." Jonah 2:2, "In my distress I called to the LORD, and He answered me. From the depths of the grave I called for help, and you listened to my cry." Jonah 3:10, "When God saw what they did and how they turned from their evil ways, He had compassion and did not bring upon them the destruction he had threatened." Brief Summary: Jonah's fear and pride cause him to run from God. He does not wish to go to Nineveh to preach repentance to the people, as God has commanded, because he feels they are his enemy and he is convinced that God will not carry out his threat to destroy the city. Instead he boards a ship for Tarshish, which is in the opposite direction. Soon a raging storm causes the crew to cast lots to determine that Jonah is the problem. They throw him overboard, and he is swallowed by a great fish. In its belly for 3 days and 3 nights, Jonah repents of his sin to God, and the fish vomits him up on dry land (we wonder what took him so long to repent). Jonah then makes the 500 mile trip to Nineveh and leads the city in a great revival. But the prophet is displeased (actually pouts) instead of thankful when Nineveh repents. Jonah learns his lesson, however, when God uses a wind, a gourd and a worm to teach him that God is merciful. Practical Application: We cannot hide from God. Regardless of our patriotism, we must never put our country ahead of God. Regardless of our reputation, nationality or race God loves us. Rejoicing in the salvation of others is an experience God wants us to share with Him (not be resentful, jealous or thinking it is not "real"). |
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