It teaches, that if you publicly prophecy, you will be made a fool of, you will feel the heat, will eat your words.
What Jonah story really teaches
by venus 20 Replies latest watchtower beliefs
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Phizzy
Wonderfully erudite Post by Leolaia, she says :
" It should be noted also that the book nowhere claims to have been written by the prophet Jonah and it was written not to present history but to tell a didactic lesson with a moral. It could thus be viewed as a fable in a non-technical sense."
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sparrowdown
Phizzy's right, it's not literal.
I love the Jonah character he's hilarious and very relatable with his bad luck and feeling sorry for himself the story is full of irony that get's played out in the plots of many a book, movie and play.
Ultimately it's all metaphor and I see the Jonah story as lesson in the futility of running away from truth and one's true self.
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waton
sd: so was he running away from "the truth" when he preached an end date for Nineveh or "ahead of the truth"?
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stuckinarut2
We know it is not literal, and is merely a metaphor...but the tragic thing is that JWs and most Christians believe it was a REAL account of a FACTUAL person.
It is mind blowing to think that a "sane" person can think that way.
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sparrowdown
My personal interpretation is running away from the truth of one's self.
The way I see bible stories = allegory = metaphor = not real = non one died =no one got swallowed by a fish = fairy tale.
Sorry if I didn't make that clear.
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sparrowdown
I'll try this again shall I?
Yes, it's terrible that at one time we all took this sooooo seriously we lived by it. Hopefully one day everyone will wake up to organized religion's bullshit.
There ya go was that the "correct" response.
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sparrowdown
@Waton - definitely running ahead. Lol.
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venus
stuckinarut2,
Parables are made to obscure meaning, thus to keep the flock looking to leaders who thus become the beneficiaries. All the parables Jesus purportedly made may not have been made by him because he categorically declared: “For my yoke is easy and my burden is light." (Mathew 11:30) Such a person would not say: ““The kingdom of heaven is like yeast that a woman took and mixed into about sixty pounds[b] of flour until it worked all through the dough” (Mathew 13:33) and leave it without explaining what it means, and nobody knows what he meant (which defeats the very purpose of communication)
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venus
EverApostate,
Such stories are paraphernalia of devotion. We have good Samaritan story. Yet what effect does it have on believers? My colleague used to say in her native country, a poor boy who sought Arch Bishop's help to continue his studies was sent out in a sarcastic tone. Boy left Catholicism and he is now the country's best singer who has recorded more than 100,000 songs in a number of languages. Yet people who may not know about the parable of good Samaritan may help those in need.