Recently, Revelife featured
a post discussing just how literally Christians ought to take all parts of scripture. If Christians take the gospels as literal but the opening verses of Genesis as metaphorical, is that a problem? Will it eventually lead to the undoing of faith? A specific example the author drew on was the story of Jonah, which features the unlikely event of a man being swallowed by a giant fish and living in the fish's digestive tract for three days before being vomited up on land.
(There is actually a well-known complication with this fish. The Hebrew term used when the fish swallowed Jonah was masculine, but the term used for the fish that threw him up is female. Hence, Rabbinic literature is full of the suggestion that Jonah actually went on a much longer journey than is made explicit.)
Some of the commentators on the post observed that if God can create the world and raise the dead, the miracles of Jonah are easy enough to believe. I grant that this is true, but I don't believe Jonah asks to be believed or rejected as literal history. I think the more familiar we become with the Hebrew Bible the more apparent it will become that Jonah presents itself as a satirical morality play, rather than a typical prophetic diatribe or historical narrative.
As Walter Brueggemann observes, the book is a "dryly humorous and larger-than-life" portrayal of Jonah's complaint, "What is going on here?" He also draws attention to one of the central features of the Hebrew text, the repetitive use of the term
gādôl - "Big!"
The best test of an interpretive framework is to read the text through its eyes and see if it accounts for illumines more than it passes over. When Jonah is read as a satire, with intentionally crafted elements of irony, mockery and dry humor. The point of Jonah as a satire is a mockery directly of those Jews of the time who reduced God to being a merely tribal deity and indirectly of all who would try to reject God's acceptance of those who do not deserve it.
When read this way, several elements of the story jump out. Jonah is a racist, of course, but he's a foolish and inconsistent racist. He will not go preach to the Ninevites on the off-chance they would repent and be saved, but on a merchant vessel filled with pagans "each praying to his own deity," he is willing to be killed so the storm will abate and they will not die. "Pick me up and throw me into the sea and it will become calm." Not only do they throw him in the sea, and thus live, but they offer a sacrifice to Yahweh and make vows to him! Jonah bought tickets to Tarsus to avoid preaching to pagans, and in the process made a shipload of converts! He is the best and worst anti-prophet ever. (And how did they manage to make a burnt offering on a ship at sail in the first place?) It is ridiculous and ironic, but that is exactly the point.
Something similar happens when Jonah arrives at Nineveh for his prophetic task. Nineveh is a massive city, the capital of the idolatrous pagan world, akin to Las Vegas. The text tells us that "a visit took required three days." How much longer would a prophetic ministry take? But "on the first day," Jonah delivered an eight-word sermon, which made no reference to God or repentance, and "the Ninevites believed God." They declared a fast and put on sackcloth (a common symbol of repentance). When the king heard, he exchanged his robes for sackcloth and covered himself in dust. He decreed that every man and animal would fast and be covered in sackcloth.
Yes, the cattle were dressed in sackcloth to show their repentance.
The city repented more thoroughly and effectively than the Jewish nation ever did. That is ridiculous and ironic, which is exactly the point. And all this from an eight-word sermon: "Yet forty days and Nineveh will be overturned." That's some anointed preaching. Even so, God's final words in the book (to his ironically unrepentant prophet) make it clear that the Ninevites are not especially insightful: "Nineveh has more than a hundred and twenty thousand people who cannot tell their right hand from their left, and many cattle as well. Should I not be concerned about that great city?"
The reader is left to draw his own conclusions.
To my reading, nothing is lost and much perspective is gained when we view Jonah as an inspired, satirical morality play, written to counteract a particularly tribalistic strain within Israel's tradition.
Is Jonah meant to be taken literally? Is it important that we read Jonah as narrative history? If you read Jonah as history, how do you take the over-the-top images and the heavily loaded irony?
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Comments (22)
That whale looks so happy!
@SirNickDon@xanga - Well, whales don't usually get to eat people so I would be happy too if I person ended up in my mouth if I were a whale.
My feeling on all this is that we were not instructed as to which parts to take literally and which parts not to take literally. But, I pretty much write the entire OT off as background anyway.
As I said on your original post, I'm down for this form of narrative (even if not convinced) because it doesn't force me to say it isn't based on true happenings. Whatever it truly is (historical account or satirical morality play) it is based off oral tradition and there is purpose behind it.
We're going through Jonah right now on Sundays as a part of congregational worship. It's been very good.
@SirNickDon@xanga - Jonah looks less than happy
Just a few thoughts on the literalness of the story. Was this an allegory or a real life literal story? I believed it really happened. Here are a couple of reasons:
1. The main god of the Assyrians was part man and part fish. This helps explain why they were so willing to accept the message of Jonah when he finally arrived.
2. Jesus believed this really happened, Matthew 12:38-42.
Then some of the scribes and Pharisees answered, saying, "Teacher, we want to see a sign from You.'' But He answered and said to them, "An evil and adulterous generation seeks after a sign, and no sign will be given to it except the sign of the prophet Jonah. "For as Jonah was three days and three nights in the belly of the great fish, so will the Son of Man be three days and three nights in the heart of the earth. "The men of Nineveh will rise in the judgment with this generation and condemn it, because they repented at the preaching of Jonah; and indeed a greater than Jonah is here. "The queen of the South will rise up in the judgment with this generation and condemn it, for she came from the ends of the earth to hear the wisdom of Solomon; and indeed a greater than Solomon is here.
Strong evidence in these verses make the appeal that Jonah was a real living Prophet and the last verse places a real event; Sheba's visit to Solomon which is uncontested as a historical event within Christendom, in the same context as the events of Johna's story.
Just some thoughts...
Grace and peace!
~Michael
@SirNickDon@xanga - He's having a whale of a time. :D
@TheGreatBout@xanga - He is a bit down in the mouth.
@SirNickDon@xanga - I do have a question. I don't take the whole Bible literally, but know that some of it is poetry, other things satire, etc. But what about times in the New Testament when Jesus talks about something from the OT, like Jonah, as MC_Shann said. I kind of draw the line with Jesus, as in, I'll believe in Jesus even if others things aren't true, were misinterpreted, etc. So Jesus is talking about Jonah...but, Jesus did like to talk in parable, so could he have just once again been using that speech form to get those people to understand what he was saying?
I started this reply fearful, all like, OH Nooooo! MC_Shann has laid waste to my heathen Christian beliefs, but through asking I realized that there's room for Jesus to be doing his parable-thang, making a reference to that ancient satire, much like we reference Shakespeare, who satirized his own time, etc (not that Shakespeare and Jesus are on the same page...but I wouldn't be surprised) So Poop. You don't even need to respond. But it'd be cool if you gave your two cents anyway. I collect pennies.
Jesus referred to "the sign of Jonah".
So the question would be: Did *Jesus* take it literally.
@MC_Shann@xanga - very beautiful thoughts.
And using Matthew 12:38-42 as a backdrop. "O ye hypocrites, Ye can discern the face of the sky, but can ye not discern the signs of the times? and he sighed deeply in His spirit, and saith, Why doth this generation seek after a sign?
Key was the message: The people f the great heathen city tremled themselves, the high and the lowly together cried to the God of heaven, and His mercy was granted unto them.
The men of Nineveh shall rise n judgment with this generation. and shall condemn it, because they repented at the preaching of Jonas, and , behold, a greater than Jonas is here. Matt. 12:40,41
I understand that today when the message of truth is presented, there are going to be many, like the Jews, cry, show us a sign, work, work us a miracle. Christ didn't wrought no miracle to the Pharisees, or a miracle in the wilderness in answer to Satan's insinuations.
Jesus"sighed deeply in His spirit,"
@TheModernBunny@xanga - In the Bible when in the days of Jshua Israel went out to battle with the Canaanies at Bethhoron, the sun had stood still at the leader's command until victory was gained. Jesus be took it literal.. However, and some signs was part of Jesus, because of miricle of healing. He heal them all. But these miracles and signs and wonders were not what was important, because sometime no external evidence could benefit us. Are they wouldn't believe it anyway...
I've wondered the same thing about Job, and I do believe it illuminates more than it detracts from the story to read it as a didactic text rather than as a literal narration.
@SpiritedTangent@xanga - I think you're exactly right. I believe Jesus can refer to stories as stories, especially stories that are part
of the cultural inheritance of his listeners, without making any comment on the literalness of the story.
@Pass_the_Aura@xanga - Very nice.
@SirNickDon@xanga - I agree w/ you completely that book is a satirical morality play designed to show how the ancients were to treat their enemies. It's a brilliant piece that characterizes one man's struggle w/ saving the evil in their midst. The Assyrians were the Nazi's of their day and had a very dark history w/ it's surrounding neighbors. So for a Jewish man to be sent to save them would have made very little sense. Both you and @SpiritedTangent@xanga - have it right. Jesus never explicitly said that Jonah was history and if you ask a rabbi today they will tell you that they believed the story to be a fable. Having said all that there is a lot of truth in the story of Jonah. I love the book.
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@SpiritedTangent@xanga - Hello, I would only add that in 2 Kings 14: 25 Jonah is spoken of as a real living Prophet. There is no mistaking that he was a Prophet of Israel and that he lived. That truth coupled with the fact that no other Prophet in the bible is taken as allegory point to it being an actual event. There is an overwhelming amount of evidence that the story is depicting a real life event. Now I think it's important for you to know that I do realize that the bible does contain poetry and parables etc, but i do not believe this is one. The book of Jonah is placed together with the writings of the other Prophets and what is to stop us from making them all in to "only" nice stories that are meant to illustrate a point. I find it interesting that the scriptures would mention Jonah and then only give us a "story" about him and no actual prophecies.
Also, I think that what Jesus states in the verses I quoted above should be looked at very closely. Try to look on line and see how it's presented in the Greek. Im convinced that the context leads a person to believe that it actually happened.
In the end you can still choose to disagree. Im just making a case for it's literalness.
Grace and peace!
~Michael
The question should be asked this way: what's not to believe?
The major reason people do not take the book of Jonah literally is that it's not something you hear from the news everyday!
Does our unbelief a solid evidence for its historical unsoundness? How about a rabbi or some other religious teacher's unbelief? No, no one's unbelief can change what actually happened or did not happen.
Someone suggested that Jesus often spoke in parables, well... the question is, how do you know that those events in parables never happened? How can you be sure?
Do you think that, when Jesus speaks in the past tense, He doesn't mean what he says?
I don't know Greek, but at least from what I see in my English Bible, Jesus clearly speaks in past tense and I don't see how one can see that He isn't speaking of something that did happen in the past (unless you believe that Jesus can possibly mislead us, or that he was not careful in His choice of wording... well, that's your choice).
I do not mean to sound harsh , but I believe that it's not only a matter of disagreement but a matter of faith. I disagree that the "lesson" of Jonah is the same rather the event really took place or simply fictional. Many non-believers enjoy reading the Bible, but they only see it as a piece of literature because of their unbelief; are we going to do the same to the book of Jonah despite Jesus' clear reference to it as an event? Do we believe God who is good misleads us in His wording? Do we believe that the Almighty God who created the universe needs to make up a fake event to illustrate His point?
"Trust in the LORD with all your heart and lean not on your own understanding." I guess that's God's point that I want to refer to with my comments above. God bless.
Thank you for the post, that was very interesting food for thought.
We can believe in evolution, in a man-made global warming catastrophe, and that God is pleased with monogamous same-sex marriage. Because of our brilliant intellect, we can figure out what is truth and what is merely relative. We are like Gods, knowing good and evil; can we even tell the difference? Get out your superlative and unsurpassable higher criticism, my fellows, and let us show each other that we are above the superstitions of dogmatism and simple-minded faith. Only man can figure out God, if he actually does exist. And if he does, he has become our imagination and crutch. Surely if there is a God, he is impressed with our great mental capacity. Perhaps he is even frightened of us. Satire can be a little scary at times. It's a good thing that we can tell God what to believe.
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OK, both sides of this question have problems-- If you think it is a satirical allegory there's the reference Jesus made to the story. If you believe it literally happened please explain the very long trek Jonah had to make from the shore of the Mediterannean Sea to Nineveh. Any one out there look at a map on this trip ? It is anywhere from 300 to 700 miles to Nineveh from Jonah's vomiting out point ? The story completely ignores how this miracle occured.I prefer to believe it is a very well crafted satirical story in the genre common in Midrash Jewish stories-- Nathan's story to David about Bathseba , and Jesus stories that zinged the Pharisees. This is a Zinger par excellence for believers to get the real love going and forsake the exclusivity we all as humans like to use to make our lives so small and cozy. The Gospel has not reached out as it can because we are all in a hateful funk over someone or another. Conservative political types can't stand lefties , Red Sox fans hate Yankee fans, Blacks versus whites , etc . Holy Spirit has a hard time filling these types and sadly that's most of us --Even lovely sweet women have this prejudice now that all men are no good. Face it Jonah is about as anti-Christ as one can get and we must be alert not to be like him.
I don't have a problem taking it literal- which is how I take it.