JONAH & THE WHALE (1)
(Message by Tanny Keng)
1. Jonah and the whale
a) The story of Jonah is the amazing tale of a disobedient prophet who, upon being swallowed by a whale (or a “great fish”) and vomited upon the shore, reluctantly led the reprobate city of Nineveh to repentance. The biblical account is often criticized by skeptics because of its miraculous content.
b) These miracles include:
i) A Mediterranean storm, both summoned and dissipated by God (1:4-16).
ii) A massive fish, appointed by God to swallow the prophet after he was thrown into the sea by his ship’s crew (1:17).
iii) Jonah’s survival in the belly of the fish for three days and three nights, or his resurrection from the dead after being vomited upon the shore, depending on how you interpret the text (1:17).
iv) The fish vomiting Jonah upon shore at God’s command (2:10).
v) A gourd, appointed by God to grow rapidly in order to provide Jonah with shade (4:6).
vi) A worm, appointed by God to attack and whither the shady gourd (4:7).
vii) A scorching wind, summoned by God to discomfort Jonah (4:8).
c) Critics also find Nineveh’s repentance (3:4-9) hard to believe, though it isn’t technically a miracle. In actual fact, Nineveh’s repentance makes perfect sense given Jonah’s extraordinary arrival upon the shores of the Mediterranean and the prominence of Dagon worship in that particular area of the ancient world. Dagon was a fish-god who enjoyed popularity among the pantheons of Mesopotamia and the eastern Mediterranean coast. He is mentioned several times in the Bible in relation to the Philistines (Judges 16:23-24; 1 Samuel 5:1-7; 1 Chronicles 10:8-12). Images of Dagon have been found in palaces and temples in Nineveh and throughout the region. In some cases he was represented as a man wearing a fish. In others he was part man, part fish—a merman, of sorts.
d) As for Jonah’s success in Nineveh, Orientalist Henry Clay Trumbull made a valid point when he wrote, “What better heralding, as a divinely sent messenger to Nineveh, could Jonah have had, than to be thrown up out of the mouth of a great fish, in the presence of witnesses, say on the coast of Phoenicia, where the fish-god was a favorite object of worship? Such an incident would have inevitably aroused the mercurial nature of Oriental observers, so that a multitude would be ready to follow the seemingly new avatar of the fish-god, proclaiming the story of his uprising from the sea, as he went on his mission to the city where the fish-god had its very centre of worship.”
The End ...
1. Jonah and the whale a) The story of Jonah is the amazing tale of a disobedient prophet who, upon being swallowed by a whale (or a “great fish”) and vomited upon the shore, reluctantly led the reprobate city of Nineveh to repentance. The biblical account is often criticized by skeptics because of its miraculous content.
b) These miracles include:
i) A Mediterranean storm, both summoned and dissipated by God (1:4-16).
ii) A massive fish, appointed by God to swallow the prophet after he was thrown into the sea by his ship’s crew (1:17).
iii) Jonah’s survival in the belly of the fish for three days and three nights, or his resurrection from the dead after being vomited upon the shore, depending on how you interpret the text (1:17).
iv) The fish vomiting Jonah upon shore at God’s command (2:10).
v) A gourd, appointed by God to grow rapidly in order to provide Jonah with shade (4:6).
vi) A worm, appointed by God to attack and whither the shady gourd (4:7).
vii) A scorching wind, summoned by God to discomfort Jonah (4:8).
c) Critics also find Nineveh’s repentance (3:4-9) hard to believe, though it isn’t technically a miracle. In actual fact, Nineveh’s repentance makes perfect sense given Jonah’s extraordinary arrival upon the shores of the Mediterranean and the prominence of Dagon worship in that particular area of the ancient world. Dagon was a fish-god who enjoyed popularity among the pantheons of Mesopotamia and the eastern Mediterranean coast. He is mentioned several times in the Bible in relation to the Philistines (Judges 16:23-24; 1 Samuel 5:1-7; 1 Chronicles 10:8-12). Images of Dagon have been found in palaces and temples in Nineveh and throughout the region. In some cases he was represented as a man wearing a fish. In others he was part man, part fish—a merman, of sorts.
d) As for Jonah’s success in Nineveh, Orientalist Henry Clay Trumbull made a valid point when he wrote, “What better heralding, as a divinely sent messenger to Nineveh, could Jonah have had, than to be thrown up out of the mouth of a great fish, in the presence of witnesses, say on the coast of Phoenicia, where the fish-god was a favorite object of worship? Such an incident would have inevitably aroused the mercurial nature of Oriental observers, so that a multitude would be ready to follow the seemingly new avatar of the fish-god, proclaiming the story of his uprising from the sea, as he went on his mission to the city where the fish-god had its very centre of worship.”
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