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20 - Jonah and the Whale

The Prophets as Survival Literature

from Part III - A New Narrative

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  13 July 2023

Jacob L. Wright
Jacob L. Wright
Affiliation:
Emory University, Atlanta
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Summary

One day Yhwh commissions a man named Jonah to go to Nineveh, capital of the despised Assyrian Empire. We do not know where he comes from or why he is chosen for the mission; all we know is what he is told: “Arise, go to Nineveh, the great city, and cry out against it, for their wickedness has risen up before me.” Refusing to accept the assignment, Jonah goes to the local port, buys a ticket, and boards a ship headed in the opposite direction.

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Chapter
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Why the Bible Began
An Alternative History of Scripture and its Origins
 , pp. 317 - 333
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
Print publication year: 2023

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References

Further Reading

Boda, Mark J. and Wray Beal, Lissa M. (eds.), Prophets, Prophecy, and Ancient Israelite Historiography, Eisenbrauns, 2013.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Bolin, Thomas H., Freedom beyond Forgiveness: The Book of Jonah Re-Examined, Sheffield Academic Press, 1997.Google Scholar
Claassens, L. Juliana M., Writing and Reading to Survive: Biblical and Contemporary Trauma Narratives in Conversation, Sheffield Phoenix, 2020.Google Scholar
de Jong, Matthijs J., Isaiah among the Ancient Near Eastern Prophets: A Comparative Study of the Earliest Stages of the Isaiah Tradition and the Neo-Assyrian Prophecies, Brill, 2007.Google Scholar
Edelman, Diana V. and Zvi, Ehud Ben (eds.), The Production of Prophecy: Constructing Prophecy and Prophets in Yehud, Equinox, 2009.Google Scholar
Heller, Roy L., The Characters of Elijah and Elisha and the Deuteronomic Evaluation of Prophecy: Miracles and Manipulation, Bloomsbury, 2018.Google Scholar
Jacobs, Mignon R. and Person, Raymond F. Jr. (eds.), Israelite Prophecy and the Deuteronomistic History: Portrait, Reality, and the Formation of a History, Society of Biblical Literature, 2013.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Kratz, Reinhard G., The Prophets of Israel, Eisenbrauns, 2015.Google Scholar
Nissinen, Martii, Ancient Prophecy: Near Eastern, Biblical, and Greek Perspectives, Oxford University Pres, 2017.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Pardes, Ilana, Melville’s Bibles, University of California Press, 2008.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Radine, Jason, The Book of Amos in Emergent Judah, Mohr Siebeck, 2010.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Rom-Shiloni, Dalit, Voices from the Ruins: Theodicy and the Fall of Jerusalem in the Hebrew Bible, Eerdmans, 2021.Google Scholar
Seitz, Christopher R., Prophecy and Hermeneutics: Toward a New Introduction to the Prophets, Baker, 2007.Google Scholar
Sherwood, Yvonne, A Biblical Text and Its Afterlives: The Survival of Jonah in Western Culture, Cambridge University Press, 2000.Google Scholar
Weems, Renita J., Battered Love: Marriage, Sex, and Violence in the Hebrew Prophets, Fortress, 1995.Google Scholar

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  • Jonah and the Whale
  • Jacob L. Wright, Emory University, Atlanta
  • Book: Why the Bible Began
  • Online publication: 13 July 2023
  • Chapter DOI: https://doi.org/10.1017/9781108859240.025
Available formats
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Save book to Dropbox

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  • Jonah and the Whale
  • Jacob L. Wright, Emory University, Atlanta
  • Book: Why the Bible Began
  • Online publication: 13 July 2023
  • Chapter DOI: https://doi.org/10.1017/9781108859240.025
Available formats
×

Save book to Google Drive

To save content items to your account, please confirm that you agree to abide by our usage policies. If this is the first time you use this feature, you will be asked to authorise Cambridge Core to connect with your account. Find out more about saving content to Google Drive.

  • Jonah and the Whale
  • Jacob L. Wright, Emory University, Atlanta
  • Book: Why the Bible Began
  • Online publication: 13 July 2023
  • Chapter DOI: https://doi.org/10.1017/9781108859240.025
Available formats
×