As I thought about the issue of genre, and felt more free to read the Bible in critical new ways, familiar events and stories began to emerge in unexpectedly fascinating form. One of the most striking was the children’s classic story of Jonah – the recalcitrant prophet and the huge whale.

Whenever anyone I knew had talked about this story (at least, since Sunday School), they’d emphasised one of two things. First, if God tells you to do something, do it – don’t run away. If you run, he’ll get you in the end. The focus was on the two decisions by Jonah: one to flee, the other to obey.

Secondly, I knew people who were unusually keen to find evidence that the ‘Jonah in the whale’ story was scientifically credible. ‘It wasn’t a whale at all.’ they would intone, ‘more likely a large shark. And it so happened that in 1876 a sailor was swallowed by a Mediterranean shark and, two weeks later when it was caught, he’d not only survived but fashioned a small apartment inside complete with bunk beds’. I may have got some of those details wrong. ‘The point is,’ they’d conclude, ‘people can live in great fish for some time and survive’. This proves the Bible is true. And what’s more, Jonah would have been bleached by the intestinal acid of the fish and would have looked so odd, that no wonder Nineveh repented! Yet more proof that the Bible is trustworthy.’

Is this, then, the moral of the Book of Jonah? First, do as you’re told. Secondly, even an astonishing event such as Jonah’s sojourn in the fish is both testament to God’s great power and is borne out by modern evidence. It seemed a poor excuse for a tale to me. But was there a better way to read the book, one which sidestepped such simple moralising and proof-texting? I began to think there was. I’ll set out my findings in the next post.