How to Read Jonah

Like Esther and Ruth, Jonah is a delightful short narrative by a master writer; its spiritual implications are powerful and obvious. You can easily read it at one sitting.

As you read Jonah, notice the changes that the city of Nineveh goes through. Try also to trace the changes that occur in Jonah, and observe how God pushes him to make these changes. Then ask yourself; What did this book say to its original Jewish readers? What does it say to me?

You may also be interested in following Nineveh’s entire history. Though the Ninevites repented in Jonah’s time, they latter returned to old patterns. Later prophets (Nahum and Zaphaniah) predicted Nineveh’s downfall for “endless cruelty” (Nahum 3 :19) and in 612 B.C. that city was destroyed, never to be inhabited again. A Bible dictionary can summarize Nineveh’s long history as a world power; look under “Assyria.”

Is Jonah a “fish story”? Interpreters differ over whether it should be read as a parable (not necessarily factual) or as historical fact. At least one reliable account exists of a man swallowed by a sperm whale and later found, alive, in the whale’s stomach. Jonah’s historical basis cannot be dismissed simply because of the “great fish.”

More of the point, Jesus compared himself to Jonah, and the people of this time to the Ninevites (Matthew 12:39-41; Luke 11:29-32). He predicted that “the men of Nineveh will stand up at the judgment with this generation and condemn it; for they repented at the preaching of Jonah, and now one greater than Jonah is here.” It is hard to see how fictional characters could stand up at an event Jesus evidently believed will be historical.