Jonah: The Survivor Series

1. Jonah: The Survivor Series Presented by Reed Lessing M.Div., S.T.M., Ph.D. lessingr@csl.edu Associate Professor of Exegetical Theology Director of the Graduate School Concordia Seminary, St. Louis, MO

2. Goals • Refuel • Renewal • Resources • Adult Bible Study • Lenten/Holy Week Sermon Series • Lenten/Holy Week Worship Services

3. Outline of Presentation • Introduction to the Book of Jonah • The Main Themes in the Book of Jonah • Satire and Irony • Jonah and Noah • Mission • Lenten and Holy Week Sermon Series

4. Part 1 Introduction

5. Introduction Jonah doesn’t seem to have a lot in common with any book in the Old Testament. Fretheim writes of Jonah: “It has no exact counterpart in the Old Testament or in known literature from the ancient Near East.” The book is as elusive as it is deceptive. Augustine’s response to an inquiry made by a potential Christian convert perhaps gets at this best. “What he asks about the resurrection of the dead could be settled. But if he thinks to solve all such questions as those about Jonah he little knows the limitations of human life or of his own.”

6. Introduction Father Mapple in Herman Melville’s Moby Dick states: “Even though Jonah is one of the smallest strands in the mighty cable of the Scriptures, the book is one of the most puzzling and intriguing of the entire Old Testament.” Though there are only 689 words in the Hebrew text of Jonah, numerous complexities abound. Did the sailors really convert? And speaking of conversion, did the Ninevites really convert? And speaking of the Ninevites did their animals really repent? And speaking of animals, what’s this deal about a fish – could such an animal really swallow Jonah? And speaking about Jonah well, you get the idea! In this puzzling and intriguing book we will journey with Jonah and meet a huge storm on the Mediterranean Sea, a hot east wind over distant lands, take a tour of Sheol, discover the insides of a great fish and watch a plant come and go in a day. Most surprising we will meet a God who has more love and grace and patience than we could ever imagine in his pursuit of reluctant and stubborn people like us.

7. Introduction Although on the surface the book of Jonah appears to be simple and straightforward, underlying it is a complex use of language. Brichto comments on the literary genius of the book: “The Book of Jonah is from beginning to end, in form and content, in diction, phraseology and style a masterpiece of rhetoric. It is the work of a single artist, free from editorial comment or gloss; every word is in place, and every sentence.”

8. Introduction The book of Jonah is a model of literary artistry, marked by symmetry and balance. It is an ornate tapestry of rhetorical beauty. The symmetry of the book produces rhythm, contrast, emphasis and continuity. It is an exquisitely designed story that discloses a profound theology, but it communicates in very subtle ways.

9. Introduction Old Testament narratives are generally reticent to make their points directly, preferring to do so more subtly. To this end, they employ a wide array of more indirect means in developing the narrative’s characterizations and in focusing reader attention on those aspects of the narrative that contain its persuasive power. Mention of physical details, for instance, is seldom if ever random. If we read that Esau is hairy (Gen. 25:25), Ehud left-handed (Jud. 3:15), Eglon fat (Jud. 3:17) and Eli portly and dim-sighted (1 Sam. 3:18), we should anticipate that such details in some way serve the characterization or the action of the narrative.

10. Introduction This involves, then, close attention to the subtle details and one detail that we dare not miss in Jonah is the use of repetitions. Words and word stems (i.e. Leitworte), motifs, similar situations (sometimes called “type-scenes” or “stock situations”), and the like are used by the author of Jonah in a masterful way and “for those who have eyes to see” the book maximizes all of these classical features of Hebrew narrative.

11. Introduction Commenting on Jonah’s popularity in early Christian art Graydon Snyder observes, “There can be no doubt that the primary artistic representation of early Christianity was the Jonah cycle.” Of all known pre-Constantinian Christian frescoes, mosaics, sarcophagi and sarcophagi fragments, Jonah at rest appears 42 times, Jonah cast into the sea 38 times and Jonah vomited from the fish 28 times. By way of contrast, the next most frequent figure is that of Noah, who appears in eight instances. The most frequent New Testament scene is the baptism of Jesus with six occurrences. Jonah is far and away the most popular biblical narrative before and even some years after Constantine. For example, when Jerome changed the Latin translation of Jonah 4:6 from the traditional “gourd plant” (curcurbita) to “ivy plant” (hedera), near riots broke out in North Africa. Jerome complained that he was accused of sacrilege in Rome.

13. Part 2 Main Themes in Jonah • Satire and Irony • Jonah and Noah • Mission

14. Satire and Irony Satire focuses attention on abuses and deformities in society of which, blunted by habit, we are no longer aware; it makes us suddenly discover the absurdity of the familiar. The principle means of being satirical is irony. By using irony, which is the most sophisticated linguistic device for imparting double entendre and even paradoxical meaning to ordinary words, the satirist stimulates the audience to share his or her sharp criticism.

15. Satire and Irony It is easy to call a rogue a villain, but it is difficult to make a person appear a fool, a blockhead, or a knave without using any of these negative terms. Though subtle, satire is pointed and powerful. It has the following general characteristics: 1. It has a definite target 2. It is characterized by indirect attack. The charge comes from the flanks rather than head-on 3. It attacks inferior excesses; hypocrisy is one classic and familiar example 4. It is usually external in viewpoint. That is, the actions of the character being satirized are emphasized rather than his or her inner thoughts

16. Satire and Irony Irony is the chief means by which satire is communicated. In the most basic sense, irony is a figure of speech in which (1) the intended meaning is the opposite of that which is stated, e.g., referring to a jalopy as a priceless car, or (2) an event or statement occurs or is used in a way that is just the opposite of what would be expected, e.g. a pastor has nothing to say in a sermon. The basis of irony is a perception of incongruity and it is normally used in literature as a vehicle for criticism.

17. Satire and Irony Most commentators on Jonah either ignore the irony of the book or mention it in a tone of apology, apparently assuming that anything in the Bible must have been meant to be read with earnest solemnity. But this kind of irony is even evident in some of the teachings of Jesus; e.g., when he spoke of covering a lamp after lighting it (Matt. 5:15), or carefully straining a gnat out of one’s beverage and calmly swallowing a whole camel (Matt. 23:24), or of a camel vainly trying to squeeze through the eye of a needle (Matt. 19:24). The book of Jonah is full of exactly this kind of irony. There is a name for this type of literature – satire. Luther comments on the use of satire and irony in Jonah when he reflects on the faith of the Ninevites in comparison the faith of Jonah and writes, “God’s Word bears fruit mainly where this is least expected and, conversely, produces least where most is expected.”

18. Satire and Irony The first group of ironies relates to what one would expect of an Israelite prophet. • Jonah abandons the task Yahweh calls him to do (1:3) • Jonah sleeps during the storm while the unbelievers pray (1:5) • The unbelieving captain has to urge a believing Israelite – Jonah – to pray (1:5) • Jonah appears to remain unrepentant until the end of chapter four; on the other hand, the unbelieving sailors (1:16) and Ninevites repent and believe (3:5) • Jonah’s anger over the conversion of Nineveh (4:1) occurs precisely when Yahweh turns his anger away (3:10) • The sailors and Ninevites perform classic acts of Israelite piety (making vows, sacrificing, clothing themselves with sackcloth – 1:16; 3:6-8), while Jonah does none of this even though he promises to do so (2:10)

19. Satire and Irony Another set of ironic points relates to the incongruities in Jonah’s actions in their relationship to each other, as well as in relationship to the results we would expect from his actions. • Jonah flees from Yahweh, yet confesses him as Lord (1:9) • Jonah recognizes that Yahweh sent the storm due to his disobedient behavior (1:12), yet he does not repent • Jonah’s overwhelming success in such a wicked city and with such meager efforts (3:3-4) • Jonah’s joy over the gift of extra shade (4:6) at the same time he is twice expressing his desire to die (4:3, 8) • Jonah’s joy over his own deliverance (2:10) and his anger over Nineveh’s (4:1) • Jonah’s wish for death (4:3, 8) upon his success. • Jonah’s anger to the point of death over the destruction of such an unimportant plant (4:8) • Jonah, in seeking to avoid the task of a missionary, ends up being Yahweh’s vessel in converting both the sailors and the Ninevites (1:16; 3:5)

21. Jonah and Noah Garry Wills’ Pulitzer-Prize winning study on Abraham Lincoln’s most famous speech indicates the power of 272 words to bring about change; it is entitled Lincoln at Gettysburg: The Words That Remade America. Wills’ thesis is that Lincoln reframed how Americans ever since 1863 have construed their nation’s history and that he did this through a brilliant and polished speech that successfully and irrevocably reframed our history. Wills writes: “Both North and South strove to win the battle for interpreting Gettysburg as soon as the physical battle had ended. Lincoln is after even larger game—he means to “win” the whole Civil War in ideological terms as well as military ones. And he will succeed: the Civil War is, to most Americans, what Lincoln wanted it to mean. Words had to complete the work of the guns.”

22. Jonah and Noah Lincoln begins reframing American history at the very start of his speech when he declares, “Four score and seven years ago.” By using this seemingly benign, biblical-sounding way of naming a date for America’s beginnings—instead of more baldly stating, “In 1776...” —Lincoln creates a sense that they are looking backward into America’s hallowed origins. By inviting those present to consider their “hallowed past,” Lincoln makes it possible for them to transcend the actual events that have brought them to this cemetery, to step outside of the tragic moment long enough to consider the conception and birth of the United States of America.

23. Jonah and Noah So what has been reframed? After all, the United States celebrates the Fourth of July as a national holiday, annually marking its country’s birthday. So, other than being an interesting turn-of-phrase, what is the significance of Lincoln’s opening words? The importance of “Four score and seven” is that Lincoln sneaks in a different date for the origin of the American nation than the one in use by the people of his day, which was that of the Ratification of the Constitution. It is not so much that the country had ever been in the habit of celebrating “Constitution-Signing Day”, but that many if not most Americans in the mid-nineteenth century regarded the Constitution as the founding covenant of the United States, and as a result regarded the nation as being bound together by a signed compact between sovereign states.

24. Jonah and Noah The difference between, on the one hand, seeing the origins of the United States as issuing from a contractual agreement among separate parties—an agreement that presumably can be renegotiated and/or dissolved—and, on the other hand, regarding the origin as the creation of “a new nation, conceived in Liberty, and dedicated to the proposition that all men are created equal”—this difference is, so to speak, all the difference in the world. In the latter case, the United States begins its existence as an organic unity—a nation that undergoes a birth—springing from the transcendent state of liberty and christened by the likewise transcendent principle of equality. In this framework, the idea of individual states trying to secede from this one nation becomes akin to the idea of a hand, an ear, or an eye seeking to secede from its body.

25. Jonah and Noah Wills goes on: “But that was just the beginning of this complex transformation. Lincoln has prescinded from messy squabbles over constitutionality, sectionalism, property and states. Slavery is not mentioned, any more than Gettysburg is. The discussion is driven back and back, beyond the historical particulars, to great ideals that are made to grapple naked in an airy battle of the mind. Lincoln derives a new, a transcendental, significance from this bloody episode.”

26. Jonah and Noah It is astounding how this short speech, lasting perhaps three minutes, could so dramatically, so thoroughly reframe how Americans from that point forward have come to think about their history. Truly, as Wills concludes, “Lincoln had revolutionized the Revolution, giving people a new past to live with that would change their future indefinitely.”

27. Jonah and Noah The parallels between Lincoln’s speech and the book of Jonah are worth exploring. Both are short documents, easily covered in a matter of a few minutes. Both utilize their people’s historical traditions in order to paint a picture, not of some new thing being initiated, but of something bigger; of a history that in fact extends further back than they were cognizant of, a story of how things have always been since the beginning. Most importantly, in reframing history, both give people a new past to live with that would change their future indefinitely.

28. Jonah and Noah Prior to reading the book of Jonah, our ancient reader was informed by the view of history as put forward by the Pentateuch, a history framed by genealogies and progressive covenants that led the God who created the heavens and the earth ultimately to concern himself with Israel – and Israel alone. This history can be conceived as a series of filters, by which Yahweh begins with all of creation; then, from among those who survive the Flood, he chooses Abraham and his descendants; from among these, he “becomes the God” of and for those Hebrews who come up from slavery in Egypt to take possession of the land of Canaan. In this history, the most important of these covenants becomes the last, for it is the most definitive, the most restrictive, the most specific. By positing the equivalence of the God of Creation with the God that chooses Israel, the Pentateuchal history affirms that Yahweh is not merely a tribal god among others, but is in fact the one and only God, the God who is supreme over all creation, all events, all places, and all times and has selected Israel as His own.

29. Jonah and Noah The Pentateuch tells us that the God of all creation, the God of Noah becomes the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, the God of Israel at Mt. Sinai. Yet here, in the book of Jonah—for the first time— we are offered this assertion in its reverse form: the God of the Hebrews, the God of Israel—has always been the God of Noah, the God of all creation!

30. Jonah and Noah That is to say, the origin for Israel’s history is found not with the covenant at Sinai, nor even in the covenant with Abraham. The first covenant is the one made with Noah, with all subsequent humanity – plus many animals besides – and animals will play a big part in the book of Jonah. Suddenly, the very God who seems to have winnowed out entire peoples and nations and tribes and families in choosing Israel is presented as the God who has always and all along been the compassionate, merciful God of Israel, yes! but also of the Edomites, Ishmaelites, Canaanites, Amalakites, in short, the God of everything and everyone, including, of course … the Ninevites!

31. Jonah and Noah Entering into the belly of this scant, 48-verse story, we find ourselves spit out with a new history, a story of a people and their God that, like the Ninevites, has been “turned upside-down”! What Lincoln did at Gettysburg, Jonah does for us. In reframing our history he gives us a new past to live with that changes our future indefinitely!

32. Jonah and Noah Nowhere in the text of the book of Jonah is this connection with Noah made explicit; it is simply assumed, much the way that Lincoln assumes on behalf of his audience that of course the roots of the United States began eighty‑seven years prior to his speech that day in Gettysburg.

33. Jonah and Noah What are these rapids that take us on a ride toward the life and times of Noah? One answer is found in the presence throughout the book of Jonah of what is termed a "Noahic milieu." There are numerous and, it would seem, intentional connections between the stories of Noah and the book of Jonah.

34. Jonah and Noah A technique that has garnered a great deal of recent notoriety in the world of popular music is known as "sampling." Sampling involves taking snippets of other artists' songs and weaving them into a new song. The technique is, in fact, nothing new. Consider the lyrics of the well‑known patriotic song, "You're a Grand Old Flag," which "samples" the much‑older song, "Auld Lang Syne": You're a grand old flag. You're a high flying flag And forever in peace may you wave. You're the emblem of the land I love The home of the free and the brave. Ev'ry heart beats true 'neath the Red, White and Blue, Where there's never a boast or brag. Should auld acquaintance be forgot, Keep your eye on the grand old flag.

35. Jonah and Noah Such "samples" act as accents to the song itself as well as bring in the musical and affective associations that the listeners have with those songs being sampled. Sampling is a frequent practice in rap and hip‑hop music; its role is explained by Daddy‑0, of the group Stetsasonic: “We sometimes use the words 'recontextualization' or 'revivification,' but it means the same thing, which is to take something old and make it new again. The strong point of what sampling does for us, as a music form, is to establish some soul groove and some old funk that's lost with today's music.”

36. Jonah and Noah All such samplings represent a kind of "musical intertextuality," and, although a newly created song can be enjoyed on its own merits without listener knowledge of any other tunes, samples provide the aware audience with additional, potentially meaningful dimensions to their musical experience. In the case of "You're a Grand Old Flag," the use of "Should auld acquaintance be forgot" brings to a musical affirmation of patriotism the feeling of community, by evoking a song traditionally sung by close friends and family seeing in the New Year together.

37. Jonah and Noah Just so, the book of Jonah can be said to "sample" the account of Noah found in the book of Genesis. And, although the book of Jonah can be appreciated without any awareness of these "samples," recognition of the Noahic connections that sprinkle throughout the story takes us to all the nations. What follows is a list of phrases, characters, and images found in the stories of Noah drawn from Genesis 5:28‑10:32 that find resonance within the book of Jonah.

38. Jonah and Noah 1. One hundred twenty years (Gen 6:3) – this is the length of time allotted to mortal life by Yahweh; it is also how many thousands of people are in Nineveh at the story's end. 2. Yahweh was sorry (Gen 6:6) – literally Yahweh repented (that he had made humankind); relenting/repenting is what the Ninevites bank on and what Jonah is upset with Yahweh for doing in Jonah 3 and 4. 3. “... people together with animals” (Gen 6:7). This phrase occurs throughout the Noah stories; the book of Jonah is remarkable for its very deliberate inclusion of animals along with people, both in how the Ninevites repent and in how God presents his final question to Jonah.

39. Jonah and Noah 4. Violence (Gen 6:11) – this is the reason given for God's decision to destroy the earth and its inhabitants by means of the Flood; it is also the sin that the Ninevites recognize as their own, and repent of. 5. Evil (Gen. 6:5) is used throughout the book of Jonah and is one of its framing words. 6. The ark (Gen 6:14) is the means that God provides Noah for the protection of him, his family, and the animals from the impending flood; there is a connection between the ark and the ship that Jonah boards, and even more so with the great fish‑which turns out to be the "vessel" that God provides Jonah to protect him from the overwhelming flood waters.

40. Jonah and Noah 7. Forty days (and forty nights) (Gen 7:4) – this is the period of time that the rains last, destroying all human and animal life that is not with Noah in the ark; similarly, this is the amount of time from the moment of Jonah's prophecy until Nineveh is to be "turned upside‑down." The association of "forty days" as a period for destruction is a link to these two stories. 8. Flood of waters ... the great deep (Gen 7:6, 11) ... These are two equivalent phrases for the watery torrent that drowns creation in the Genesis story; in the psalmic prayer that Jonah utters (Jonah 2), these same terms are used. 9. The adjective, "great," occurs frequently throughout both texts.

41. Jonah and Noah 10. The waters ... dry land. (Gen 7:20‑22) ... While it is almost a commonplace in the Old Testament to pair “waters” and “dry land” in the story of Noah, the distinction between the two is utterly crucial (life and death); likewise, in the book of Jonah, the prophet identifies Yahweh as the one who made "the sea and dry land" and, indeed, the distinction between the waters and the dry land onto which the great fish vomits Jonah is critical. 11. And God made a wind blow (Gen 8:1). God is portrayed as actively controlling individual winds for specific purposes (this time, for the purpose of causing the flood waters to subside); in the book of Jonah, God hurls a wind into the sea to create a storm and, later, sends a searing wind from the east that adds to Jonah's misery.

42. Jonah and Noah 12. Then he sent out the dove ... the dove found no place to set its foot ... it returned to him ... again he sent out the dove from the ark (Gen 8:8‑ 10). Noah uses a dove in the story “to see if the waters had subsided from the face of the ground”"; the name “Jonah” is Hebrew for “dove.” Moreover, the structure of the book of Jonah involves God sending Jonah out; the prophet does not alight on dry ground (specifically ending up in the waters) in his first journey; and, of course, he is then sent out again. 13. “Offered burnt offerings on the altar” (Gen 8:20). Noah, once on dry land, offers up burnt offerings to God; the mariners, once they are delivered from the great storm, “offer offerings” to Yahweh – as Jonah pledges to do, once he recognizes that Yahweh has delivered him “from the Pit.” In all cases, Noah as well as the mariners and Jonah, their offerings to Yahweh are a thanksgiving for their deliverance from death‑by‑drowning.

43. Jonah and Noah 14. “I will require a reckoning for human life. Whoever sheds the blood of a human, by a human shall that person's blood be shed" (Gen 9:5‑6). This is a statute that God puts down for all humanity and the sailors demonstrate an awareness of it when they plead with Yahweh not to kill them as a punishment for throwing Jonah overboard, into the sea.

44. Jonah and Noah 15. “I am establishing my covenant with you and your descendants after you, and with every living creature ... my covenant that is between me and you and every living creature of all flesh" (Gen 9:8‑17). In this covenant God specifically includes not only humankind but also animals, domestic and wild; this means that the umbrella of this covenant is extended to non‑Israelite humans (the Ninevites) as well as their animals, whose donning of sackcloth and bleating perhaps serve to remind God of this eternal promise. 16. Shem, Ham, and Japheth are the sons of Noah; and from these the whole earth was peopled. The descendants of Ham include Nimrod who he went into Assyria, and built Nineveh, the great city (Gen 9:18‑19, 10:6‑12). Here it is made explicit that any covenant extending to Noah and to his descendants extends to Assyria, to Nineveh, and to its residents. The book of Jonah takes it as a given that this covenant is operative, and that the Ninevites (and Assyrians), even given their violence, are included in it.

45. Jonah and Noah The question is posed by this sampling is exactly the one posed by St. Paul, “Is he only the God of the Jews? Is he not also the God of the Gentiles?” (Rom. 3:29). The Greek of the text demands an emphatic “yes!” And that means our destination is not just Israel, not just the church – no. Our destination is all the world and this means and includes especially Nineveh!

46. Jonah and Noah The Chicago Times article entitled “The President at Gettysburg,” printed on November 23, 1863—less than a week after his speech—this presumed journalistic ally to Lincoln and to the Union bristled: “It was to uphold this constitution, and the Union created by it, that our officers and soldiers gave their lives at Gettysburg. How dare he, then, standing on their graves, misstate the cause for which they died, and libel the statesmen who founded the government? They were men possessing too much self-respect to declare that negroes were their equals, or were entitled to equal privileges.”

47. Mission The barrenness (hr'_q'[]) of Israel’s three matriarchs Sarah (Gen. 11:30), Rebekah (Gen. 25:31) and Rachel (Gen. 29:31) highlight the fact that Yahweh “chooses the foolish things of the world to shame the wise; he chooses the weak things of the world to shame the strong. He chooses the lowly things of this world and the despised things – and the things that are not” (1 Cor. 1:27-28).

48. Mission ~r'êb.a;-la, ‘hw"hy> rm,aYOÝw: (Genesis 12:1-3) &'a<)r>a; rv<ïa] #r,a'Þh'-la, ^ybi_a' tyBeämiW ^ßT.d>l;AM)miW ^ïc.r>a;me ^±l.-%l, `~r'êb.a;-la, ‘hw"hy> rm,aYOÝw: `hk'(r'B. hyEßh.w< ^m<+v. hl'ÞD>g:a]w: ^êk.r,b'äa]w: lAdêG" yAgæl. ‘^f.[,a,(w> 2 `hm'(d'a]h' txoïP.v.mi lKoß ^êb. Wkår>b.nIw> rao=a' ^ßl.L,q;m.W ^yk,êr>b"åm. ‘hk'r]b")a]w: 3

49. Mission • Beginning in Gen. 12, Israel is to live between the extremes of syncretism and isolationism. • She is not to become like the nations, nor is she to withdraw from being an active witness to the nations. • 1 Sam. 8:20 Israel seeks a king so that they might “be like all the other nations.” Notorious kings like Solomon, Jeroboam son of Nebat, Ahab, and Ahaz lead Israel into a syncretistic lifestyle. • In Jonah this kind of syncretism does not quench the evangelistic flame, rather it is isolationism. Jonah – from beginning to end – places himself separate from every one else, even Yahweh!

50. Mission Exodus 9:14-16 – “[This] time I will send the full force of my plagues against you and against your officials and your people, so you may know that there is no one like me in all the earth. For by now I could have stretched out my hand and struck you and your people with a plague that would have wiped you off the earth. But I have raised you up for this very purpose, that I might show you my power and that my name might be proclaimed in all the earth.”