Jonah

JONAH, the son of Amittai, the fifth of the small Prophets, was a Galilean, a native 2 Kings xiv. 25.of Gath-hepher, which is believed to be the same as Jotapata, celebrated for the siege which Josephus the historian there maintained against the Roman army, a little before the destruction of Jerusalem. Gath-hepher was situated in the land of Zebulon, where was the canton of Opher or Hepher. S. Jerom places it two miles from Sephoris, in the way towards Tiberias. Some Rabbins are of opinion, that Jonah was the widow’s son of Sarepta, restored to life by 1 Kings xvii. 17.Elijah; and this, because the widow receiving her son thus raised to life, said to the Prophet, Now I know that the Lord in thy mouth, is truth. This young man was called the son of Amittai, because Amath in Hebrew signifies truth, and by his resurrection, Jonah was in some sort the son of Elijah: which reason is certainly a very weak one. Nevertheless the opinion of Jonah’s being the widow’s son is very common. It is certain that Jonah lived in the reigns of Joash and Jeroboam¹, kings of Israel. He could not therefore be the widow’s son of Sarepta, since the former of these two princes did not begin to reign till sixty years after the translation of Elijah. Others maintain, that Jonah was son to the Shunammite woman, whose child was raised from the dead by 2 Kings iv. 16, 17. 36, 37.Elisha. But ShunamJer. xxxv. 6, 7. and Gath-hepher are places too remote from one another; and we know certainly from Scripture, that Jonah was of Gath-hepher. Some are of opinion, that Jonah was the Prophet whom Elisha sent to Jehu, to anoint him king of Israel; but 2 Kings ix. 1, 2, 3, &c. Numb. xxxii. 12. Josh. xiv. 6, & 14.this fact is not at all certain.

The Author of the Lives and Deaths of the Prophets, cited under the name of S. Epiphanius, and Dorothæus, and the Paschal Chronicle, say, that Jonah was a native of Cariathaim near Azotus upon the Mediterranean. In the same place this Prophecy is attributed to him, When innumerable people shall be seen coming from the west, then must we expect to see this city utterly destroyed; and that this city shall be destroyed when the stone shall be seen to weep with compassion. The nations coming from the west are the Romans, and the stone which weeps over Jerusalem is Jesus Christ, who is called in Scripture the corner stone, and wept over Jerusalem some few days before his passion. The same Epiphanius relates, that Jonah returning from Niniveh, and ashamed to see that his prediction was not followed with the execution he had foretold, retreated with his mother to the city of Sur or rather Tyre, where he dwelt till his death in the plain of Sear, and was buried in the cave of Cenezæus Judge of Israel. This Judge in all probability is Caleb, or Othniel. Caleb in several places is surnamed the Kenezite; but we do not read that he had been Judge of Israel. Othniel was the son of Kenaz, Josh. xv. 17. Judg. i. 13.

What we know with certainty of Jonah is as follows. God having commanded him Jonah. i. 1, 2, &c.to go to Niniveh, and there proclaim, that the cry of the inhabitants Sins was come up to Heaven, and they were threatned with approaching ruin, instead of obeying these orders, he resolved to fly away, and go to Tarsus in Cilicia. To this purpose he imbarked at Joppa; but the Lord having sent a violent tempest while he was upon the sea, the mariners with great fear cried each of them to his God, and threw what was in the vessel overboard, in order to lighten it. In the mean time Jonah slept in the hold; whereupon the Pilot went and waked him, and they who were in the ship cast lots to know how this tempest was occasioned; for it had surprized them at a time, when there was no appearance of any such thing. Having therefore cast lots, it fell on Jonah. They asked him who he was, and what he² might have done, to bring upon them such a storm. He answered them, that he was an Hebrew, that he worshipped the God of Heaven, that he was one of his Prophets, and fled from his presence to avoid going to Niniveh, whither he was sent. They asked him what was to be done, in order to secure themselves from shipwreck. He replied, Take me and throw me into the sea, and the tempest will cease.

God at the same time prepared a great Jonah ii. 1, 2,—7, &c.fish, to swallow up Jonah. This fish was according to some a Whale, or as others say, the lamia, canis carcharias, or Sea-dog. See our Dissertation on the fish which swallowed up Jonah, printed before the twelve small Prophets, and above the article, Fish, which swallowed up Jonah. The Prophet was received into the belly of the fish, and there continued three days and three nights. He cried unto the Lord, and the Lord heard him, and commanded the fish to return him, and cast him upon the shore. It is believed, that he was cast up again at the foot of a mountain, which projects a great way into the sea, between Berytus and Tripoli³. Others think it was upon the coasts of Cilicia, two leagues north from Alexandretta; which is much more probable than what some assert, that Tavernier’s journey to Persia, l. 2. c. 1. Joseph. Antiq. l. 9. c. 1.the Fish carried him as far as to the Euxine sea; others into the Red sea; others again into the Persian Gulf; and others to the shore near Niniveh; wherein there is no appearance at all of truth.

After this the word of the Lord came a Jonah iii. 1, 2, &c.second time to Jonah, and directed him to go to Niniveh. Thither he went, and when he came into the city, which was three days journey in extent, that is to say, as Diodorus of Sicily remarks, about five and twenty Diodor. Sicul. l. 2. Biblioth.leagues in circumference, Jonah walked up and down the city a whole day, crying, in forty days Niniveh shall be destroyed. The Ninivites believed his word, and were converted: they appointed a publick fast to be observed, and from the meanest of the people to the greatest covered themselves with sackcloth. The king of Niniveh himself, who we take to be the father of Sardanapalus, known in profane Authors by the name of Anacyndaraxa or Anabaxarus, and in Scripture by the name of Phul, descended from his throne, and covered himself with sackcloth, and sat down upon ashes. He issued out orders, forbidding his people to take any nourishment, and to give either meat or drink to their cattle: He commanded both men and beasts to be clad in sackcloth, and that the inhabitants of the city should cry with all their might unto the Lord. God suffered himself to be moved with their repentance, and did not execute the sentence, which he had pronounced against them. Jonah was afflicted at this, and complained to God, saying, that he had always questioned, whether as being a God of Jonah iv. 1, 2, 3, &c.clemency and mercy he would not be flexible to their prayers. He desired of the Lord, that he would take him out of the world; and retiring out of the city, he made a little cover for himself shaded with leaves, till he saw what would happen to the city. The Lord caused a plant to grow over his cabbin, called in Hebrew, Kikajon⁴; and which some render gourd, others, a laurel, others, Palma Christi or Ricinus. See hereafter Kikajon. The next morning at break of day, the Lord sent a worm which bit the root of this plant, and made it wither; so that the Sun beginning to shine on Jonah’s head, he found himself so faint, that he desired of God to take him out of the world. Hereupon the Lord said unto him, Doest thou think that thou hast reason to be thus concerned at the death of a plant, which cost thee nothing, which rises one night, and dies the next? And wouldst thou not have me pardon a city such as Niniveh, wherein there are an hundred and twenty thousand persons, who are not able to distinguish their right hand from their left, that is to say, where there are an hundred and twenty thousand children, who have not the use of reason, and besides have not offended God by any actual sins? As children make generally but the fifth part of the persons which cities are filled with we presume that there were in Niniveh above six hundred thousand persons.

After this Jonah returned in all probability from Niniveh into Judea. We have seen before what S. Epiphanius has said of his retreat to Tyre, and of his death in the plain of Saraa. The eastern people, who shew his tomb at Mosul⁵, which they believe to be the same as Niniveh, are persuaded, that he died and was buried there. In S. Jerom’s time his tomb was seen at Gath in Palestine; and the Turks still at this day shew his Mausolæum Hieronym. Prolog. in Jonam.at Gath-hepher, in a subterraneus Chapel, enclosed within a mosque. They believe Adrichom. Quarum. Eugen. Roger. &c.at Venice, that they have the body of Jonah in the Church of S. Apollinarius. His relicks likewise are to be seen at Nocera in the Kingdom of Naples, and in the Abby of Mount Cassin, where one of his ribs is shewn. The Greeks have for a long time expressed their veneration for the person of Jonah. There was a Church and Monastery dedicated to this Prophet in the sixth Age. The Greeks keep his festival upon the 21st of September, and the Russians on the 22d. His name is not in the old Martyrologies of the Latins. About the fourteenth Age it was inserted on the 27th of January: but Baronius places it again upon the 21st of September. See Bollandus and Baillet.

We do not know when it was that 2 Kings xiv. 25. Hist. Relig. c. 4. p. 456. καὶ μὴ βουλόμενον δεσμώτην παρέπεμψε.Jonah foretold how Jeroboam II. King of Israel should restore the Kingdom of Samaria to its former extent, from the entrance of Hamath as far as the Dead Sea. Whether this was before, or after his journey to Niniveh, we cannot tell. Our Saviour makes frequent mention of Jonah in the Gospel. He says, that the Ninivites Matth. xii. 41. Luke xi, 32.shall one day rise in Judgment against the Jews, and condemn them; because they repented at the first preaching of Jonah, and the Jews would not hearken to him, who was greater than Jonah. And when the Pharisees required a Sign of him to Matth. xii. 39. 40. xvi. 4. Luke xi. 29, 30, 31.prove his mission; his answer to them was, that he would give them no other, than that of the Prophet Jonah, that is to say, that of his resurrection, which would complete all his miracles, and render the Jews inexcusable in their hardness.

Jonah i. 3.The Scripture says that Jonah fled out of Judea from the presence of the Lord, and imbarked at Joppa in order to secure himself at Tarshish. Ut fugeret in Tharsis à facie Domini. He himself wrote these words, which seems to intimate his belief, that if he could get to Tarshish he should be out of the reach of God’s power, and that God would not or could not send him from thence to Niniveh. If the Prophet thought so, his thoughts certainly were not according to knowledge. But we had better construe these words, Ut fugeret à facie Domini, as if their meaning was, that if the Prophet could get at a distance from Judea, he imagined God would think no more of sending him to Niniveh, but would appoint some other to go thither; because it is not usual with God, to pour forth the spirit of Prophecy out of the holy land; but in what manner soever it is interpreted, it is true that it implies some incongruity, and is not at all exact.

The Mahometans are acquainted with the history of Jonah, but their knowledge of it is imperfect. They say he was sent by God to the city of Mosul or Mossul upon Bibl. Orient. p. 495. Jonæ Ben. Mathæi.the Tigais. Mosul is built, they say, on the very place, or near it, where old Niniveh stood. The Prophet told them, that unless they were converted, their city would infallibly perish on a particular day mentioned by him. The day came, the city was not destroyed, and nothing was seen to happen which the Prophet had threatned them with, because the inhabitants had diverted the effects of God’s power by their Repentance. Jonah to avoid the reproaches of the Nivivites resolved to fly. He embarked, and the vessel wherein he was, being under full sail, stop’d on a sudden, without any one’s being able to move it forwards or backwards.

The mariners in this extremity resolv’d to throw one of the men belonging to the Ship overboard, imagining by this means to appease God, and so make the cause to cease which stop’d them; they drew lots, and the lot fell three times upon Jonah. He was cast into the Sea, and immediately a fish swallowed him up, and carryed him to the very bottom of the deep. Hereupon he repeated the prayer mention’d in the Alcoran, which the Mahometans think to be the most decent and efficacious one that is. O Lord there is no other God besides thee. Be praised for ever, I am a sinner but thou art merciful beyond all that I am able to say. The Mahometans called this Prophet the fishes companion, because he continued forty days in the belly of that which swallowed him up. As the true history reports it, he was only three days there. Theodoret says that Jonah having no inclination to go to Niniveh God sent him thither in chains.

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