The book of Jonah contains one of the most famous stories in the OT: the account of a cowardous prophet who was swallowed whole by a giant fish. The only other mention of Jonah in the OT however is absolutely silent about this remarkable story (2 Kings 14:25), and there is much evidence that the book is a late tale written after the Babylonian exile. The book is unique among the twelve Minor Prophets for being mostly narrative and it has much in common with post-exilic haggada (such as the first-century Lives of the Prophets, which added considerably to the Jonah legend), the "great city" of Ninevah is little more than a distant, vague memory (as evidenced by such things as the anomalous title "king of Ninevah" and the non-mention of the king's name in Jonah 3:6), legendary touches like the giant fish and the magical growth of the castor-oil plant, and especially the late Aramaisms rife in the book (such as spynch in 1:5, ht'st "to think" in 1:6, stq in 1:12, mnh in 2:1, and so forth). Taken together, a date between 450 and 300 BC is most often suggested by scholars. 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.
The most interesting thing about the book, however, is its heavy dependence on earlier biblical writings. It's a textbook example of how haggada legends were composed on the basis of earlier literary sources (a similar process can be found in the narrative gospels of the NT, as well as in the apocryphal Acts). Jonah shows an acquaintance with Exodus, 1 Kings, the Psalms, Joel, Jeremiah, and Ezekiel -- skillfully interweaving phrases and concepts from these original sources into a brand new story. In this post, I intend to show how this was done.
JONAH -- MODELLED ON STORIES OF JEREMIAH AND ELIJAH
The core of Jonah is the prophet's mission to warn the Ninevites of their impending doom. The story of the Jonah's flight and the giant fish is but temporary digressions from the mission that God gave him in 1:2, and ch. 3-4 relates his work in Ninevah and Jonah's reaction to the Ninevites' repentance. The book of 2 Kings says next to nothing about the prophet Jonah and nothing at all about this mission, so the author had to rely on other material to construct the story. Two prophets in particular were used as models for the literary Jonah: the renowned Elijah and Jeremiah. Like Jonah, the prophet Jeremiah was commissioned by Yahweh to prophesy the destruction of a great city (Jerusalem) and offer the city's inhabitants a chance for repentance. The similarity isn't just general. Jonah shows direct word-for-word familiarity with the more original account in the book of Jeremiah, twice using ch. 26 in different passages:
Jeremiah 26:3, 15: "Perhaps they will listen and turn from his evil behavior (wysbw 'ys mdrkw hr'h); if so, I shall relent (wnchmty 'l-hr'h) and not bring the disaster upon them which I intended ('sr 'nky chsb l'swt lhm) for their misdeeds...But be sure of this, that if you put me to death, you will be bringing innocent blood (ky-dm nqy) on yourselves, on this its citizens, since Yahweh has truly sent me to you to say all these words".Jonah 1:14: "The sailors ... then called on Yahweh and said, 'O Yahweh, do not let us perish for taking this man's life; do not hold us guilty of innocent blood (dm nqy')' ".
Jonah 3:10: "God saw their efforts to turn from their evil behavior (ky-sbw mdrkm hr'h). And God relented (wynchm h'lhym 'l-hr'h), he did not bring upon them the disaster which he had threatened ('sr-dbr l'swt-lhm wl' 'sh)".
The parallel with ch. 26 of Jeremiah is significant because Jeremiah is there given the duty to prophesy Jerusalem's destruction, just as Jonah was given the charge to warn of Ninevah's doom: "I will treat this Temple as I treated Shiloh and make this city a curse for all the nations of the earth...This city will be desolate and uninhabited" (26:6, 9). Jonah similarly warns the Ninevahites: "Only forty days more and Ninevah is going to be destroyed" (Jonah 3:4). Like Jeremiah, he offers them a chance for repentence (Jonah 3:7-9 = Jeremiah 26:3). When the city does repent, "God relented, he did not inflict on them the disaster which he had threatened" (3:10). This is exactly the situation that Jeremiah mentions in the case of Jerusalem in the days of Hezekiah:
"Did Hezekiah king of Judah and all of Judah put him [Micah] to death for this [e.g. prophesying the destruction of Jerusalem]? Did they not rather, fearing Yahweh, entreat his favor, to make him relent and not bring the disaster on them which he had pronounced against them?" (Jeremiah 26:19).
Jonah is thus dependent on ch. 26 of Jeremiah. Note how the same passage in this chapter, which pertained to the destruction of a city (clearly relevant to the prophecy against Ninevah), was also used in the very different story about Jonah's fall into the ocean (Jonah 1:14 = Jeremiah 26:15).
The similarity between Jonah and the Elijah cycle lies mostly in the story of the castor-oil plant in ch. 4. According to later tradition, Jonah was a contemporary of Elijah and even knew him personally (cf. Lives of the Prophets 10:1-11, which designates Jonah as the son of the widow of Zarephath that Elijah had raised to life), so it would have been very natural for the author to borrow motifs from the Elijah cycle. 1 Kings 19 is utilized in Jonah almost word for word:
1 Kings 19:4: "He went a day's journey into the wilderness, and came and sat down under a solitary broom tree. He asked that he might die saying (wys'l 't-npsw lmwt wy'mr), 'It is enough; now, O Yahweh, take away my life for ('th yhwh qch npsy ky) I am no better than my ancestors".Jonah 4:3: "And now, O Yahweh, please take my life from me, for ('t-npsy mmny ky w'th yhwh qch-n') it is better for me to die than to live".
Jonah 4:8: Jonah "asked that he die , saying (wys'l 't-npsw lmwt wy'mr), 'It is better for me to die than to live".
Aside from the close verbal correspondence, the situations being described are very similar: both Elijah and Jonah are disappointed prophets who sit underneath a plant giving them shade, pray to God, and ask him to take their lives away. Moreover, Elijah came to the broom tree while fleeing from Jezebel and there he fell asleep; a rather similar thing happens in ch. 1 of Jonah:
1 Kings 19:3, 5: "He was afraid and fled (ylk) for his life....Then he lay down and went to sleep (wyskb wyysd)".Jonah 1:3, 5: "Jonah decided to run away (lbrch) from Yahweh, and to go to Tarshish....Jonah had gone below in the hold and lain down and fallen fast asleep (wyskb wyrdm)".
In both situations, the prophets are fleeing to a foreign land -- the land of Sinai in the case of Elijah and Tarshish in the case of Jonah. Jonah 1:2 also has Yahweh commanding the prophet to "get up" (qwm), and in v. 6 the sailors tell him the same thing, to get up (qwm) from sleeping. Similarly, an angel tells Elijah in 1 Kings 19:7 to "get up" (qwm) from sleeping. Finally, there is a similarity in Elijah's talking a one-day trip in to the wilderness, followed by a 40-day journey to Mt. Horeb (1 Kings 19:4, 8), with Jonah's one-day trip into Ninevah, followed by a 40-day period that the city had to repent (Jonah 3:4).
A few chapters earlier in 1 Kings, we encounter another story with implicit ties to Jonah. In 1 Kings 13:14 we encounter a "man of God" who was "sitting under a terebinth" (cf. Jonah 4:5-6, which states that the prophet "sat under [a shelter]" and later under the castor-oil plant), and who "defied Yahweh's command and not obeyed the orders" that Yahweh had given him (1 Kings 13:21). In quite the same manner, Jonah was given a divine command in Jonah 1:2 but ran away and failed to obey his orders (v. 3). When this man of God "went away, a lion met him on the road and killed him" (v. 23, 24; cf. v. 26), and similarly when Jonah was running away from Yahweh and found himself cast into the ocean, Yahweh "had arranged that a great fish should be there to swallow Jonah" (Jonah 2:1). In both cases, an man-eating animal attacks a prophet who has disobeyed Yahweh in rejecting his orders.
THE FISH STORY: INFLUENCE FROM EZEKIEL
It is the story of the tempest and Jonah's encounter with the great fish that most people are familiar with. There is no similar story of someone being swallowed by a fish in the OT, but Psalm 104:26 does place the sea monster Leviathan in proximity with sailing ships: "There the ships go to and fro, and Leviathan which you formed to frolic there". Gildas Hamel has pointed out parallels between Jonah and Greek tales about Jason and the Argonauts (which in some versions include Jason emerging from the mouth of a sea monster) and Herakles (who stayed for three days in a sea cave), and the late dating of Jonah would certainly enable this possibility. The story of Jonah's passage aboard ship to Tarshish and the tempest at sea however significantly utilizes the oracles against Tyre in Ezekiel 26-27. The extensive verbal parallels are presented below:
Ezekiel 26:16-17: "The rulers of the sea (nsy'y hym) will all come down from their thrones (yrdw m'l ks'wtm), lay aside their robes (hsyrw 't-m'ylyhm) and take off (ypstw) their embroidered robes (w't-bgdy). Dressed in terror (chrdw) they will sit on the ground ('l-h'rts ysbw) unable to stop trembling, terrified (smmw) at your fate. They will raise a dirge and say to you, 'You are destroyed ('bdt) then, that which is inhabited by seafaring men ('bdt nwsbt), the renowned city that was in the sea (mymym h'yr hhllh).' "
Ezekiel 27:12-13, 25-31, 33-34: "Tarshish (trsys) was your client, profiting from your abundant wealth. People traded (ntnw) silver and iron, tin, and lead for your merchandise. Javan, Tubal, and Meshech traded (ntnw) with you; for your merchandise (m'rbk) they traded men and bronze wares ('dm wkly nchst ntnw).... The ships of Tarshish ('nywt trsys) were your caravans for your merchandise (m'rbk), and you were replenished, and were made very glorious in the heart of the seas. Your rowers brought you into great waters; the east wind has broken you in the heart of the seas (rwch hqdym sbrk blb ymym). Your riches, and your wares (w'zbwnyk), your merchandise (m'rbk), your mariners (mlchyk), and your pilots (chblyk), your caulkers, and the dealers in your merchandise, and all your soldiers that are in you, with all your company that is on board shall fall into the heart of the seas (yplw blb ymym) in the day of your ruin. At the cry of your pilots (chblyk) the coasts shall shake. And all the oarsmen, the mariners (mlchym), and all the pilots of the sea (chbly hym) shall come down from their ships (wyrdw m'nywtyhm) and shall stand upon the land ('l-h'rts y'mdw), and shall cause their voice to be heard over you, and shall cry (wyz'qw) bitterly, and shall cast up dust upon their heads. They shall wallow themselves in the ashes (b'pr ytplsw); they shall shave their heads for you and put sackcloth (wchgrw sqym) around their waists... When your wares went forth into the seas (bts't 'zbwnyk mymym), you satisfied many people, you made the kings (mlky) of the earth rich with your excess of wealth and merchandise (wm'rbyk). Now you are broken (nsbrt) by the seas (mymym), your cargo and crew shall fall into the depths of the waters (bm'mqy-mym m'rbk wkl-qhlk btwkk nplw)".
Jonah 1:3: "He went down to Joppa (yrd ypw) and found a ship going to Tarshish ('nyh b'h trsys); he paid his fare (wytn skrh) and went aboard and went with them to Tarshish, to get away from Yahweh".
Jonah 1:4-5: "But Yahweh sent out a great wind (rwch-gdwlh) into the sea, and there was a mighty tempest in the sea (s'r-gdwl bym), so that the ship was about to be broken (wh'nyh chsbh lhsbr). Then the mariners (mlchym) were afraid (wyyr'w), and cried (wyz'qw) every man to his god, and cast out the wares that were in the ship into the sea ('t-hklym 'sr b'nyh 'l-hym), to lighten it."
Jonah 1:6: "So the pilot (hchbl) came to him..."
Jonah 1:15-16: "So they lifted up Jonah and cast him forth into the sea (wytlhw 'l-hym), and the sea stopped raging forth. Then the men were astonished at Yahweh (wyyr'w h'nsym yr'h gdwlh 't-yhwh)".
Jonah 3:4, 6: "And Jonah began to enter into the city ('yr), making a day's journey. He preached in these words, 'Only forty days more, and Ninevah will be destroyed (nhpkt)'...The news reached the king (mlk) of Ninevah, who rose from his throne (wyqm mks'w), took off his robe (wy'br 'drtw), put on sackcloth (m'lyw wyks sq) and sat down in the ashes (wysb 'l-h'pr)".
Note that Ezekiel's Tyre oracle is a prophecy of destruction against a city like that against Ninevah in Jonah. A great many motifs are common between Ezekiel 26-27 and Jonah. These include the ship ('nyh) bound for Tarshish (trsys), Jonah paying his fare (ntn "pay" is the same word as "trade" in Ezekiel), the mariners (mlchym) and pilots (chbly) in the crew, the merchandise and wares (kly) aboard the ship, the wind (rwch) at sea creating the tempest, the ship breaking (sbr), the wares falling into the sea, people falling into the sea, people being terrified and crying out (wyz'qw), a city ('yr) that is prophesied as becoming destroyed in the future, a king or ruler coming down (yrd) from his throne (ks'w) and taking off his robes ('drt or bgd), and donning sackcloth and sitting (ysb) or wallowing in the ashes ('pr), and so forth. Interestingly, although the Tyre oracle supplied much of the maritime imagery and content in ch. 1, we find parallels in ch. 3 as well (3:6 = Ezekiel 26:16-17). Thus we find that another major section of the book of Jonah can be attributed in some form to earlier OT models.
However verbal parallels with the prophetic literature are not limited to just Jeremiah and Ezekiel; two separate passages in Jonah are linked to Joel 2:13-14:
Joel 2:13-14: "Now return to Yahweh your God, for he is gracious and compassionate, slow to anger, abounding in grace, and relenting of calamity (ky-chnwn wrchwm hw' 'rk 'pym wrb-chsd wnchm 'l-hr'h). Who knows whether he will not turn and relent (my ywd' yswb wnchm) and leave a blessing behind him".
Jonah 3:9: "Who knows whether God may turn and relent (my ywd' yswb wnchm h'lhym) and withdraw his burning anger so that we will not perish".
Jonah 4:2: "In order to forstall this, I fled to Tarshish, for I knew that you are a gracious and compassionate God, slow to anger and abundant in grace, and one who relents concerning calamity (ky 'th 'l-chnwn wrchwm 'rk 'pym wrb-chsd wnchm 'l-hr'h)".
Note that the same passage is utilized in two different places in Jonah, indicating secondary use. The passage in Jonah 3:9-10 however also combines verbal content from Joel and Jeremiah with Exodus:
Exodus 32:12, 14: "Withdraw your burning anger (swb mchrwn 'pk) and relent of this calamity against his people.... So Yahweh relented of the calamity that he declared he would do to his people (wynchm yhwh 'l-hr'h 'sr dbr l'swt l'mw)".
Jonah 3:9-10: "Who knows whether God may turn and relent and withdraw his burning anger (wsb mchrwn 'pw) so that we will not perish. When God saw their deeds, that they turned from their evil ways, then God relented of the calamity which he had declared he would bring upon them (wynchm h'lhym 'l-hr'h 'sr dbr l'swt-lhm), and he did not do it".
Thus, we find over and over again that Jonah recycles phrases and motifs found in earlier biblical texts.
JONAH'S PRAYER: A PASTICHE FROM THE PSALMS
The only portion of the book not yet accounted for is the lengthy prayer that occupies ch. 2. But this poetic text was composed largely from material drawn from the Psalms:
Psalm 120:1, 130:1: "In my distress (btsrth ly) I called out (qr'ty) to Yahweh ('l-yhwh) and he answered me (wy'nny).... Out of the depths (mm'mqym) I have cried to you (qr'tyk), O Yahweh".
Psalm 116:3: "The cords of death encompassed me, and the terrors of Sheol (s'wl) came upon me; I found distress (tsrh) and sorrow".
Jonah 2:2: "I called out (qr'ty) of my distress (mtsrh ly) to Yahweh ('l-yhwh) and he answered me (wy'nny). I cried for help (sw'ty) in the depth of Sheol (mbtn s'wl), you heard my voice".
Psalm 116:3, 42:7, 31:22: "The cords of death encompassed me ('ppwny) ... Deep calls to deep (thwm-'l-thwm) at the sound of your waterfalls; all your breakers and waves rolled over me (kl-msbryk wglyk 'ly 'brw)... I said (w'ny 'mrty) in my alarm, 'I am expelled from your sight (ngrzty mngd 'ynyk). Nevertheless ('kn) you heard the voice of my supplications' .
Psalm 5:7, 46:2: "But as for me, by your abundant loving kindness I will enter your house, at your holy temple ('l-hykl qdsk) I will bow in reverence for you...The mountains slip into the heart of the seas (blb ymym)".
Jonah 2:3-4: "For you had cast me into the deep (mtswlh), into the heart of the seas (blbb ymym), and the current encompassed me (ysbbny). All your breakers and waves rolled over me (kl-msbryk wglyk 'ly 'brw). So I said (w'ny 'mrty), 'I have been expelled from your sight (ngrsty mngd 'ynyk). Nevertheless ('k) I will look again toward your holy temple ('l-hykl qdsk)' ".
Psalm 69:1-2: "The cords of death (chbly-mwt) encompassed me ('ppwny)... the cords of Sheol (chbly-s'wl) surrounded me (sbbwny)...Save me, O God, for the waters (mym) have threatened my life ('d-nps). I have sunk (tb') in deep mire, and there is no foothold; I have come into deep waters, and a flood overflows me".
Psalm 16:10, 30:3: "You will not abandon my soul to Sheol (npsy l-s'wl)...O Yahweh, you have brought up my soul from Sheol (h'lyt mn-s'wl npsy)".
Jonah 2:5-6: "Water encompassed me ('ppwny mym) threatening my life ('d-nps). The great deep surrounded me (thwm ysbbny), weeds (swp) were wrapped around my head ... but you have brought up my life from the pit (wt'l mscht chyy), O Yahweh my God".
Psalm 22:25, 116:18: "My praise (thlty) shall be for you in the great assembly, I will fulfill my vows (ndry 'slm) in the presence of those who fear him...I will offer you a sacrifice of thanksgiving ('zbch zbcht wdh) and will call upon the name of Yahweh. I will fulfill what I vowed to Yahweh (ndry l-yhwh 'slm)".
Psalm 3:8: "From Yahweh comes salvation (l-yhwh hysw'h). May your blessing be on your people".
Jonah 2:3: "But I (w'ny), with a song of thanksgiving (bqwl twdh), will sacrifice to you ('zbchh-lk). The vow I have made I will fulfill ('sr ndrty 'slmh). Salvation comes from Yahweh (ysw'th l-yhwh)".
Here the author of Jonah was heavily influenced by the Psalter -- especially the psalms that expressed metaphors of drowning which became literalized as actual references to the prophet's watery fate in the prayer of ch. 2.
So in short, while Jonah itself may have been inspired by the short note in 2 Kings, the story itself was composed with material from 1 Kings, Jeremiah 26, Ezekiel 26-27, Joel, and Exodus, while Jonah's prayer in ch. 2 was inspired by various Psalms. However the author did not slavishly create a collage of recycled material but creatively and skillfully composed a new story that, while highly allusive, seamlessly worked as a cohesive whole.