Themes and Purpose of Jonah

Most commentators identify the following central themes in the book of Jonah:

• divine characteristics

• apologetics explaining the defeats by Assyria, Babylon, and Persia

• a call away from arrogance and prejudice

Scholarly views regarding the themes in Jonah include:

• Nogalski notes that unlike the other prophetic books, Jonah contains no mention of eschatology, the Day of the Lord, fertility of the land, or judgment on Israel or Judah (Nogalski, Hosea—Jonah, 408). Instead, Jonah points to the repentance of the foreign nation and God’s decision not to punish that nation, which angers Jonah. The book thus teaches God’s control over nature, nations, and human nature. Yet God is free and unbound by human traditions. God cannot be reduced to a mechanistic portrait. He responds freely to human actions and choices even when those are designed to oppose God. God’s responses may be inscrutable and beyond human comprehension. However, the final conclusion features God’s compassion and mercy even as He expects human obedience.

• Crenshaw states, “Jonah’s legitimate objection therefore pales before the astonishing illustration of Yahweh’s concern for the well being of all creatures. Dogma, however revered, means less to the author of this book than divine compassion” (Crenshaw, Expression, 189). Crenshaw notes the eventual destruction of Nineveh and explains that “in the end theoretical treatments of theodicy do not suffice, for concepts of God that do not accord with reality, however inspiring, amount to little more than proverbial whistling in the dark.”

• House, with Sweeny, emphasizes how God responds to repentance even when this means relenting of an earlier decision to punish. This offer of forgiveness extends to Gentiles. The canonical placement indicates that God’s mercy and justice work cooperatively. In the same manner, sin must cease or be repented of for mercy to continue (House 327–28; Sweeny 303).

• Redditt lists the basic emphases in Jonah as God’s rule over land and sea, God’s mercy for penitent sinners (even Gentiles), and the conditional nature of prophetic predictions (262–65).

• Bullock points to the story of Jonah as the major theme of the book, as the character of Jonah is the macrocosm of the prophetic career (Bullock, Introduction, 42). The book of Jonah introduces repentance as a way to avoid punishment. Bullock notes that the most obvious theme centers on “Yahweh’s sovereign will effected through His prophet” (Bullock, Introduction, 51).

• Allen describes the audience as “a community embittered by its legacy of national suffering and foreign opposition. The postexilic Jews are challenged to rise above their antipathy and see the world through the eyes of their Creator God, whose care and compassion are as great as His power” (Allen, Books, 191). Stuart suggests that “the audience of the book is … invited implicitly to revise their understanding of what God is like, if they have indeed shared Jonah’s selfish views (Hosea—Jonah, 434).

• Baldwin praises the narrator’s skill in using satire and irony to show the absurdity of the human scene, especially the religious side of it, from a divine viewpoint (Baldwin, “Jonah,” 547–48).

• Walton argues that the book of Jonah shows that “even though doom had been pronounced, repentance could bring mercy, and judgment could be postponed” (Walton, “Jonah,” 457).