The more I read Jonah, the less like a historical account it seemed. The tie-in between ‘Jonah son of Amittai’ of this book and the individual in 2 Kings 14:25 was not necessarily conclusive; the height of Nineveh’s power came a century or so after the events of 2 Kings 14, and the book could easily have used Jonah pseudonymously. Moreover, the events were so melodramatic – the lament from inside the fish, the repentance of an entire capital city overnight (even the animals wore sackcloth!) and the miracle of the rising and dying plant – that they seemed almost theatrical. Maybe the Book of Jonah is, in fact, a play; a sharply satirical parable belonging more to Wisdom literature than Prophetic. Continue reading →

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. Continue reading →