Exploring the Spiritual Struggles of God’s Servant in the Book of Jonah
Abstract
This article focuses on the spiritual struggles of Jonah, as narrated in the book bearing his name. While negative evaluations of Jonah's character have dominated recent scholarly work (for example, as a disobedient, stubborn, nationalistic prophet or anti-hero), this article argues that such categorizations are too simplistic and flat. Jonah is, instead, a complex, round character who dares to disobey and argue with God in the course of his struggle to understand and respond to God's attributes and purposes. Throughout Jonah's book, we see God's patience and mercy at work as he commissioned, disciplined, rescued, recommissioned, and educated Jonah. The article includes an inductive summary of the words and actions of Jonah, a literature review, a re-reading of the text in dialogue with scholarly voices focused on the spiritual struggle of the prophet, and a discussion of key pastoral implications for the calling, discernment and character formation of those in Christian ministry.
Keywords
Full Text:
PDFReferences
Anderson, Joel Edmund. “YHWH’s Surprising Covenant Hesed in Jonah.” Biblical Theology Bulletin 42, no. 1 (2012): 3–11. https://doi.org/10.1177/0146107911431222
Anggu, Peter. “Integritas Diri Sebagai Karakter Pelayan Tuhan.” Jurnal Jaffray 3, no. 1 (2005): 55–60. http://doi.org/10.25278/jj71.v3i1.139
Bolin, Thomas M. Freedom Beyond Forgiveness. The Book of Jonah Re-Examined. Sheffield: Sheffield Academic Press, 1997.
Bolin, Thomas M. “`Should I Not Also Pity Nineveh?’ Divine Freedom in the Book of Jonah.” Journal for the Study of the Old Testament 67 (1995): 109–121. https://doi.org/10.1177/030908929502006706
Claassens, L. Juliana. “Surfing with Jonah: Reading Jonah as a Postcolonial Trauma Narrative.” Journal for the Study of the Old Testament 45, no. 4 (2021): 576–587. https://doi.org/10.1177/03090892211001396
Craig Jr., Kenneth M. A Poetics of Jonah. Art in the Service of Ideology. Columbia: University of South Carolina Press, 1993.
Flaumenhaft, Mera J. “The Story of Jonah.” The Review of Politics 76, no. 1 (2014): 1–19. https://doi.org/10.1017/S0034670513000867
French II, Robert P. “Judgment, Anger, Benevolence, and Jonah: Exploring Human Responses to Divine Benevolence via the Framework of the Judeo-Christian Worldview.” Evangelical Journal 33, no. 2 (2015): 82–88. https://evangelical.edu/wp-content/uploads/2017/03/f2015.5.french.pdf
Frolov, Serge. “Returning the Ticket: God and His Prophet in the Book of Jonah.” Journal for the Study of the Old Testament 86 (1999): 85–105. http://doi.org/10.1177/030908929902408605
Heerden, Willie van. “Psychological Interpretations of the Book of Jonah.” Old Testament Essays 16, no. 3 (2003): 717–729. https://journals.co.za/doi/pdf/10.10520/EJC85586
Holbert, John C. “‘Deliverance Belongs to Yahweh!’: Satire in the Book of Jonah.” Journal for the Study of the Old Testament 6, no. 21 (October 2, 1981): 59–81. http://doi.org/10.1177/030908928100602103
Jenson, Philip Peter. Obadiah, Jonah, Micah. Library of Hebrew Bible. Vol. 496. New York: T & T Clark, 2008.
Kaplan, Jonathan. “Jonah and Moral Agency.” Journal for the Study of the Old Testament 43, no. 2 (2019): 146–162. https://doi.org/10.1177/0309089217725258
Kimelman, Reuven. “Prophecy as Arguing with God and the Ideal of Justice.” Intepretation: A Journal of Bible and Theology 68, no. 1 (2014): 17–27. https://doi.org/10.1177/0020964313510860
Klooster, Mark K. “The Literary Genre of the Book of Jonah.” Thesis, Vrije Universiteit, 2019. https://www.researchgate.net/publication/333719627_The_Literary_Genre_of_the_Book_of_Jonah.
Lasine, Stuart. “Jonah’s Complexes and Our Own: Psychology and the Interpretation of the Book of Jonah.” Journal for the Study of the Old Testament 41, no. 2 (2016): 237–260. https://doi.org/10.1177/0309089215641397
Maiaweng, Peniel C.D. “‘Utuslah Aku’: Eksposisi Yunus Pasal 3-4 Tentang Pengutusan Nabi Yunus Berdasarkan Perspektif Allah Menyesal.” Jurnal Jaffray 10, no. 2 (2012): 16–36. http://doi.org/10.25278/jj71.v10i2.51
Mann, Steven T. “Performative Prayers of a Prophet: Investigating the Prayers of Jonah as Speech Acts.” The Catholic Biblical Quarterly 79 (2017): 20–40. https://doi.org/10.1353/cbq.2017.0001
Muldoon, Catherine Lane. “’Îr Hayyônâ: Jonah, Nineveh, and the Problem of Divine Justice.” Dissertation, Boston College, 2009. https://dlib.bc.edu/islandora/object/bc-ir%3A101398/datastream/PDF/view.
New International Version. Grand Rapids: Zondervan, 2011.
Roop, Eugene F. Believers Church Bible Commentary: Ruth, Jonah, Esther. Edited by Elmers A. Martens; and Willard M. Swartley. Scottdale, PA: Herald Press, 2002.
Ryu, Chesung Justin. “Silence as Resistance: A Postcolonial Reading of the Silence of Jonah in Jonah 4.1-11.” Journal for the Study of the Old Testament 34, no. 2 (December 11, 2009): 195–218. http://doi.org/10.1177/0309089209356410
Schader, Jo-Mari. A Literary-Exegetical-and Social Scientific Analysis of the Book of Jonah: An Exposition of Its Ancient Sosial Values. Pretoria: University of Pretoria, 2017.
Schellenberg, Annette. “An Anti-Prophet among the Prophets? On the Relationship of Jonah to Prophecy.” Journal for the Study of the Old Testament 39, no. 3 (2015): 353–371. https://doi.org/10.1177/0309089215577593
Scolnic, Benjamin Edidin. “The Prophet of Second Chances: Jonah, Israel and Assyria and Their Missed Opportunities for Redemption.” Biblical Interpretation 29, no. 3 (October 12, 2020): 1–16. https://doi.org/10.1163/15685152-00284P25
Shao, Rosa Ching. Jonah. A Pastoral and Contextual Commentary. Edited by Federico G. Villanueva. Cumbria: Langham Global Library, 2019.
Sharp, Carolyn J. “Wrestling the Word: Submission and Resistance as Holy Hermeneutical Acts.” Anglican Theological Review 97, no. 1 (2015): 5–19. https://doi.org/10.1177/000332861509700102
Stuart, Douglas. Hosea-Jonah. Word Biblical Commentary. Vol. 31. Dallas: Word Books, 1987.
Youngblood, Kevin J. Jonah: God’s Scandalous Mercy. 2nd ed. Grand Rapids: Zondervan, 2019.
Zvi, Ehud Ben. Signs of Jonah. Reading and Rereading in Ancient Yehud. New York: Sheffield Academic Press, 2002.
DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.25278/jj.v20i2.684
viewed = 0 times