Jonah as Allegory

(Part I: God’s Word Goes to the Gentiles)

Summary: The book of Jonah is far more than an unusual sea-story. It’s a story about a God who hurls a wind down to the earth in such a way as to stir up a previously undisturbed sea, so as to lead its sailors to hurl/cast lots and subsequently hurl Jonah overboard, just in time to be swallowed by a fish and spewed out on the dry land three days later, all of which has been convened so as to foreshadow Israel’s long history, ultimately to be lived out by God’s own Son in his (Jonah-like) death, resurrection, and acceptance among the Gentiles. Key words: Jonah, Noah, plant, worm, Noah, dove, Peter, Gentiles. Date: Mar. 2021.

Prophets frequently embody aspects of their message. Hosea marries a prostitute (and remains married to her) in order to depict his people’s unfaithfulness to God. Ezekiel packs his bags and leaves Jerusalem in anticipation of the exile. Jesus rides into Jerusalem on a donkey as a (literal) embodiment of the arrival of God’s kingdom. And Jonah, I submit, enacts his message in a similar way.

So, what is Jonah’s message? Well, the book of Jonah clearly has a lot to do with foreign nations—or, more specifically, with Israel’s relationship to them. And, as we’ll see, Jonah’s life depicts Israel’s existence among the nations in a number of important ways.

Unlike Israel’s other travellers, Jonah travels by sea, which is how the prophets depict the Gentile nations (e.g., Isa. 11.9, 23.11, 43.16, Dan. 7.2, Joel 2.20, Hab. 1.14ff., 2.14, 3.8). Minimally, then, Jonah’s life can be taken to depict Israel’s existence in the midst of the Gentile world.

Far more, however, can be said about Jonah’s depiction of Israel. Jonah is an unusual prophet, who refuses to proclaim YHWH’s word to the nations. His life thus depicts Israel’s wayward state and her failure to bear witness to YHWH’s holiness. Indeed, Jonah’s journey provides us with a remarkable picture of Israel’s decline. Jonah rejects God’s call, hands over his ‘wages/riches’ to foreigners (cp. Ezek. 16),¹ sets out on a downwards trajectory (cp. 1.3–5, where the verb Y-R-D = ‘to descend’ occurs thrice in rapid succession), and is soon overcome by a deep sleep, his eyes firmly shut (like those of YHWH’s prophets: cp. Isa. 29.10). Hence, like Israel, Jonah ends up in a precarious position, buffeted to and fro by the waves/nations like a wayward ‘dove’ (yonah!) (cp. Hos. 7.11).

And, as Jonah continues his journey, the waves around him become more and more tumultuous, just as the nations do when God stirs them up against his people (cp. Isa. 5.30, 10.26, 17.12–13, 51.14–15, Jer. 6.23, Ezek. 26.3, Dan. 7.3) until the only option left for Israel is exile (cp. 2 Chr. 36.16²). Israel is thus picked up (cp. Hos. 5.14) and cast into the Gentile sea, at which point the world—like Jonah’s sea—suddenly goes quiet (שתק) (cp. 1.11–12). The sound of millstones is no longer heard in Israel, nor is the voice of the bride and groom (Jer. 7.34, 16.9, 25.10 w. 5.25–26). Israel lies desolate and motionless while her land enjoys its Sabbath rests (Lev. 26.34–35, 2 Chr. 36.20). Even the nations are silent (Zech. 1.15).

Jonah and exile

That the events of Jonah 1 do in fact depict Israel’s descent into exile is underscored by Jonah’s vocabulary. Ch. 1’s narrative employs certain lexemes which are closely connected with the exile in the book of Jeremiah. And, in answer to Jonah’s threefold ‘descent’ (Y-R-D) (cp. above), each of these lexemes occurs three times.

• Just as Jonah is beset by a ‘storm’ (סער), so Jeremiah thrice likens the arrival of the Babylonians to the onset of a ‘storm’ (סער) (Jer. 23.19, 25.32, 30.23).

• Just as Jonah descends to the ‘inner part’ (ירכה) of the ship, so Jeremiah thrice associates the end-point of the exile with ‘the far recesses’ (ירכה) of the earth (Jer. 6.22, 25.32, 31.8).

• Just as Jonah’s sailors say they’ll ‘hurl’ (הטיל) him into the sea, so Jeremiah thrice says God will ‘hurl’ (הטיל) Israel into exile (Jer. 16.13, 22.26, 22.28).

• And, just as the sailors do ultimately ‘cast’ (השליך) Jonah into the sea (despite their best attempts to save him), so God ‘casts’ (השליך) Israel into exile (Jer. 7.15, 22.28, 52.3).

In addition, Jonah’s experiences in ch. 2 (in the belly of the fish) allude to Israel’s stay in Babylon. Just as Babylon is ‘appointed’ (mineh) a time to govern the world (cp. Daniel 5’s Mene, Mene,…), so the fish is ‘appointed’ (mineh) a time to keep/govern Jonah. Just as Jeremiah thrice describes how the people of Israel grow ‘faint’ (התעטף) in the aftermath of 587 BC (Lam. 2.11, 12, 19), so Jonah grows ‘faint’ (התעטף) in the ‘heart’ (levav) of the sea (where levav is bavel = ‘Babylon’ spelt backwards). And, after he’s been swallowed up, Jonah explicitly describes himself as ‘expelled/exiled’ (נגרשתי) from God’s presence, at which point (per Daniel 9) he turns towards the Temple and prays.

These associations are underscored by the text of Jeremiah 51, which portrays Israel’s exile in remarkably Jonah-esque terms. It even portrays Nebuchadnezzar as a ‘sea creature’ (תנין) (of which a dag = ‘fish’ is an example: cp. Gen. 1.21 w. 26), who ‘swallows’ (בלע) the people of Israel, strips them of their luxuries (מעדן) (per Lam. 4.5’s account of the exile), and ‘cleanses’ them. And, at the end of Israel’s time in exile, Babylon’s ‘bars’ (בריחיה) are said to be broken in pieces (cp. the בריחיה = ‘bars of the earth’ around Jonah), at which point God is said to lead (להוציא) his people forth from the king of Babylon’s stomach (Jer. 51.30, 34, 44). Figuratively, then, Jonah undergoes what Israel will later undergo in exile, which may explain why Jonah is said to be swallowed by a dag (a masculine noun) (1.17) but is later said to pray from the belly of the dagah (a feminine/collective noun) (2.1). Initially, the fish depicts Babylon’s king (masc.), who comes to Jerusalem and swallows up its people, but, afterwards, it depicts the location in which Israel resettle and pray, i.e., ‘Babylon’ (fem./coll.). In terms of Jonah’s depiction of him, then, Babylon’s king is someone who both judges and preserves. Nebuchadnezzar swallows the people of Israel, which is a grievous experience for them, yet Nebuchadnezzar also preserves them amidst a sea of hostile nations—an environment in which the people of Israel wouldn’t otherwise survive (cp. Dan. 3.29’s decree).

And then, on the third day, a later king of Babylon (Cyrus) spews Israel up onto the dry land; that is to say, he sends her back to her homeland. Hence, while Babylon doesn’t resurface from the deep (Jer. 51.64), Israel does. God hears and answers Jonah’s = Israel’s prayer, and Israel hence arises from the depths of exile to live again. Just as Jonah ends up back in his homeland despite his attempt to reject YHWH’s sovereignty, so too does Israel.

Note: Given ch. 2’s symbolism, what is often seen as an out-of-place feature of Jonah’s prayer—i.e., the fact it’s a prayer of thanks as opposed to supplication—may not be out-of-place after all. Just as we have no record of what the nation of Israel prayed/did in exile (but only memories of it preserved in the Psalms), so we have no record of what Jonah prayed/did in the belly of the fish; all we have is Jonah’s post-deliverance prayer, which consists largely of extracts from Psalms.

That Jonah’s journey in the first panel of the book (chs. 1–2) does indeed depict the history of Israel is confirmed by its parallels with Leviticus 26, where the successive stages of Israel’s departure from her God are laid out.

In sum, then, Jonah’s descent into, and subsequent re-emergence from, the depths of the sea in chs. 1–2 is a remarkably precise enactment/foreshadow of Israel’s descent into, and re-emergence from, exile. Which is highly significant. Israel won’t function as a light unto the Gentiles on Jonah’s side of the exile; she will only do so once she has undergone a death and resurrection (Isa. 53–56, Ezek. 37), and she will only do that by her participation in the death and resurrection of a greater than Jonah.

Jonah: The Sequel

We thus come to the second panel of the book of Jonah (chs. 3–4), where God gives Jonah a second chance. As before, God commissions Jonah to take his word to the Ninevites. And, second time round, Jonah obeys. He arises, goes to Nineveh, and proclaims the word of God. And the Ninevites respond in faith and repentance (3.5–10).

So, what are we to make of Jonah’s second journey as far as its symbolism is concerned? Or, to put the question another way, if the book of Jonah’s first panel (chs. 1–2) depicts Israel’s exile to and return from Babylon, then what does its second panel depict? The answer, I suggest, is simple: it depicts Israel’s second exile from Jerusalem; to be more precise, it depicts the days when, in the aftermath of Jesus’ Jonah-esque death and resurrection, the early church (an Israelite entity) is ‘scattered’ abroad and Peter (bar Jonah!) proclaims God’s word to a Gentile audience in Caesarea (a maritime city), which marks an epochal moment in salvation history (Acts 8–10). In light of these considerations, we can profitably view the two panels of Jonah’s story against the backdrop of Scripture’s other sea-story, namely the flood story.

To spell out these parallels more fully: as the floodwaters begin to subside, Noah sends out a dove (a yonah). The first time it’s sent out, the dove encounters a world engulfed in water (as do the exiled Israelites). Just as the dove finds no place of rest for her foot (לא מצאה היונה מנוח לכף רגלה), so Israel finds no place of rest for her foot among the nations (לא יהיה מנוח לכף רגל) (cp. Deut. 28.65), and the dove (Jonah/Israel) hence returns to square one.

Seven days later, however, the dove is sent out for a second time. The dove’s seven days correspond to Jonah’s references to a three day stay in the belly of the fish, a three-day journey to get to Nineveh (or to walk around it), and a one-day journey into Nineveh (1.17, 3.4). And, happily, the second time the dove is sent out, it’s not simply confronted by a world under judgment; it returns with signs of new life in its mouth, just as Jonah/Peter returns with a story about new life in his mouth (which he reports to the Jerusalem council).

All well and good, one might say. But do we have any reason to think Luke wants us to see Peter’s journey to Caesarea as an event which ‘fills up’ the story of Jonah? We do. For one thing, Peter and Jonah’s story are set against similar backdrops. In 9.30, Paul is forced to flee to Tarsus (cp. Tarshish!). Afterwards, we find Peter in Joppa, where he’s said to be ‘by the sea’. And, just as Jonah’s story involves three occurrences of the verb ‘descend’, so too does Peter’s (cp. katabaino in Acts 10.11, 20, 21).³

Peter and Jonah’s stories are also, however, connected in more specific and instructive ways. Peter’s story contains three points of contrast with Jonah’s first journey (i.e., his failure) and three points of resonance with Jonah’s successful journey. The text of Acts 8–10 thus portrays Peter’s mission to the Gentiles as an event which redeems Israel’s past failures…

…and fills up Jonah’s successes (ch. 3):

In the lives of Jesus and the apostles, Israel becomes a light to the Gentiles.

For Part II (‘The Parable of the Plant’), cp. https://jamesbejon.substack.com/p/jonah-as-allegory-c35.

1. ‘You took…my gold and silver, which I had given you, and…with them you played the whore. …Men give gifts to prostitutes, but you gave your gifts to your lovers. …No one solicited you to play the whore, and yet you gave payment!’ (Ezek. 16.14, 31, 34).

2. ‘But they kept mocking the messengers of God, despising his words and scoffing at his prophets, until the wrath of YHWH arose against his people and there was no remedy.’

3. Thanks to David Lindstrom for the observation.