The book of Jonah

The book of Jonah in the New American Bible.

A classical misreading of the book

Fr. Robert Barron discuss the book of Jonah in, "Following the Call of Christ: Biblical Stories of Conversion."

In his first talk on Bartimaeus, Barron quotes Origen as saying, "We should reverence every word of the Scripture the same way we reverence every particle of the Sacred Host." As he begins to tell the story of how Jesus healed Bartimaeus, Barron says, "Every detail matters."

Barron forgets his own precepts in his third talk on "Jonah and the Great Fish."

Instead of attending to the words and details that are actually in the book, he distorts the narrative. The things he says are beautiful and true, worthy of prayer and meditation, but they are not in the book of Jonah itself.

Great and Beautiful Truths

"It is an archetype of the spiritual life. We also find in this story the basic steps of spiritual conversion."

"The basic truth of the Bible: we are a called people."

"The biblical heroes are placed in the passive voice--all of them. ... We are a summoned people."

"All of us are called. All of us have a mission."

John Henry Newman: "We've all been made for a definite purpose."

"The central drama of the spiritual life: What do we do with the call? The saint is the one who responds so fully to that call that she makes it the central organizing principle of her life. ... We sinners, to varying degrees, we're the ones who hop on boats to Tarshish. We know what God wants, and we move in the opposite direction."

Baron gets that part of the story straight. God commands Jonah to preach against Nineveh, but Jonah gets on a boat headed to Tarshish, which, in Biblical times, was as far away as Jonah could get from where God wanted him to be.

"The Jonah Temptation: to hop a boat to Timbuktu when God calls."

When we resist our call, storms kick up. Trouble ensues. We've been made for a definite purpose. When we resist it--trouble, storms, difficulty.

Not just for Jonah, but for all whose lives are intertwined with his.

It is at this point that Barron departs from the Biblical narrative, substituting a story of his own invention. See the next section for a diagram of how his story departs from the text.

What does that great symbol mean? Our wills, when they are resistant to God, need to be swallowed up by the divine will.

Jonah is caught, swallowed, enveloped by the divine will, and that is all to the good.

Dante: "In Your will is my peace."

Jonah's story resembles those of Joseph and Moses.

How do we read the times when we feel swallowed up by the whale? The times of darkness, of dryness, of despair. Times we feel we've lost our way, times we feel we're not getting what we want. Our plans are not being fulfilled. "My life's not going where I want it to go!"

We can read them as simply dumb suffering, or we can read them as the discipline of God, as the swallowing up of our wills so as to try us and test us and conform us unto the divine will.

A beautiful detail in this book is that Jonah prays from the belly of the whale. Good. God's everywhere.

There are excellent reasons to think that the Psalm of Thanksgiving does not belong in the book of Jonah. I agree with the moral Barron draws from the story, but I don't think his version of the story is accurate.

God can hear.

So it is sometimes that the darkest periods in our lives, the driest, most difficult periods, might be precisely the vehicle through which God is bringing us back to precisely where He wants us to be.

One of the funniest part of the story: Jonah preaches, and everybody repents. Every single person, from the king to the cattle--the cattle put on sackcloth and ashes. They repent, too!

This is indeed funny, but Barron overstates the case. The King orders that the cattle fast with the people. Extending the fast to animals is ridiculous, but not as ridiculous as the thought that the cattle needed to repent.

"By decree of the king and his nobles, no man or beast, no cattle or sheep, shall taste anything; they shall not eat, nor shall they drink water" (3:7).

When we start cooperating with God's will, miraculous things happen. That's when the grace of God flows through us, when we begin cooperating with His will. But Jonah needed the disicpline of the fish to bring him precisely there.

There is no evidence in the rest of the book that Jonah had become a faithful servant of God. I argue that the meaning of the book depends on Jonah's character remaining basically unchanged throughout. See below where I talk about the moral of the story.

Hans Urs von Balthasar: "In the biblical vision, mission and person are tightly linked." That means you know who you are when you find your mission and you do it.

You become a new person when you take on this mission from God.

When the call comes, listen to it. Don't run to Tarshish. And then you find out who you are.

Garbled Details

Barron's Version of the Story

1. Jonah goes to the bottom of the boat and falls asleep. Always a bad sign in the Bible.
2. A great storm kicks up.
3. What's caused it? Jonah's resistance. They determine Jonah is the problem.
4. The sailors say, "Let's throw him overboard."
5. And so, all the people, they wake up Jonah.
6. And Jonah--I love how acquiescent he is--he says, "OK, you're right, I know that I'm the one."
7. And so they pick him up and throw him overboard. And immediately the storm calms down; the sea is OK.
8. Jonah prays.
9. The whale has taken him all the way back to shore and spews him up right near Nineveh.
10. One of the funniest part of the story: Jonah preaches, and everybody repents. Every single person, from the king to the cattle--the cattle put on sackcloth and ashes. They repent, too!

The text itself

Chapter 1

Here is the story of the great storm from Jonah 1:4-14:

⁴ The LORD, however, hurled a great wind upon the sea, and the storm was so great that the ship was about to break up

⁵ Then the sailors were afraid and each one cried to his god. To lighten the ship for themselves, they threw its cargo into the sea. Meanwhile, Jonah had gone down into the hold of the ship, and lay there fast asleep.

⁶ The captain approached him and said, “What are you doing asleep? Get up, call on your god! Perhaps this god will be mindful of us so that we will not perish.”

⁷ Then they said to one another, “Come, let us cast lots to discover on whose account this evil has come to us.” So they cast lots, and the lot fell on Jonah.

⁸ They said to him, “Tell us why this evil has come to us! What is your business? Where do you come from? What is your country, and to what people do you belong?”

⁹ “I am a Hebrew,” he replied; “I fear the LORD, the God of heaven, who made the sea and the dry land.”

¹⁰ Now the men were seized with great fear and said to him, “How could you do such a thing!”—They knew that he was fleeing from the LORD, because he had told them.

¹¹ They asked, “What shall we do with you, that the sea may calm down for us?” For the sea was growing more and more stormy.

¹² Jonah responded, “Pick me up and hurl me into the sea and then the sea will calm down for you. For I know that this great storm has come upon you because of me.”

¹³ Still the men rowed hard to return to dry land, but they could not, for the sea grew more and more stormy.

¹⁴ Then they cried to the LORD: “Please, O LORD, do not let us perish for taking this man’s life; do not charge us with shedding innocent blood, for you, LORD, have accomplished what you desired.”* 15Then they picked up Jonah and hurled him into the sea, and the sea stopped raging. 16Seized with great fear of the LORD, the men offered sacrifice to the LORD and made vows.

A proper plot summary for Chapter 1.

1. A great storm arises.
2. The pagan sailors pray, "and each one cried to his god."
3. They threw their cargo overboard.
4. Jonah had gone down into the hold and fallen asleep.
5. The captain wakes Jonah.
6. The captain asks Jonah to pray to his God.
7. The sailors cast lots to find out who is at fault.
8. The lots reveal that the storm is Jonah's fault.
9. Jonah identifies himself as a Hebrew, and claims to fear "the LORD, the God of heaven, who made the sea and the dry land." His actions, of course, betray his words.
10. The sailors were seized with fear. They fear Jonah's God more than Jonah does--they understand Jonah's religion better than he does!
11. Jonah recommends that he be thrown into the sea.
12. The sailors try to save Jonah's life and theirs by rowing to shore.
13. The sailors pray to Jonah's God for mercy, just in case they are taking the life of an innocent man.
14. Then, and only then, do they throw him overboard.
15. The sea became calm.
16. The sailors were seized with fear.
17. The sailors offered sacrifice to Jonah's God.

Grading Fr. Barron's narrative of Chapter 1.

1. Jonah goes to the bottom of the boat and falls asleep. Always a bad sign in the Bible.

The text suggests that the storm comes first, then Jonah goes below.

2. A great storm kicks up.

3. What's caused it? Jonah's resistance. They determine Jonah is the problem.

True, but Barron skims over some very telling details which show how good the pagan sailors are. They immediately pray for help. When they wake up Jonah, they ask him to pray.

4. The sailors say, "Let's throw him overboard."

False. It was Jonah, not the sailors, who suggested that killing him would solve their problem. This is the first of three times that Jonah asks for death in the story.

5. And so, all the people, they wake up Jonah.

False. Jonah was awake when they cast lots.

6. And Jonah--I love how acquiescent he is--he says, "OK, you're right, I know that I'm the one."

Barron finds Jonah's acceptance of death praiseworthy. I do not. I think it is one of his character defects to react to difficulties by wishing for death.

7. And so they pick him up and throw him overboard.

False. Before they throw Jonah overboard, they try one last time to row to shore. When that fails, they pray to Jonah's God. Then and only then do they throw him overboard.

Barron leaves out the sacrifices that the pagans offer to the Lord after the seas calm down. Jonah never offers a sacrifice of thanksgiving for his deliverance--but the pagans do.

The case against Jonah 2:2-10

1. If the psalm of thanksgiving (2:2-10) is left out, we have a perfectly coherent story: "But the Lord sent a great fish to swallow Jonah, and he remained in the belly of the fish three days and three nights. ... Then the Lord commanded the fish to vomit Jonah upon dry land."

2. The psalmist (poet, author, narrator of the psalm) is not being digested in the belly of a fish. He has been saved from drowning and is on his way to the Temple ("church") to make sacrifices to the Lord.

3	Out of my distress I called to the Lord, and he answered me; From the womb of Sheol I cried for help, and you heard my voice.	The event is over. The psalmist is not in distress.
4-7a	You cast me into the deep, into the heart of the sea, and the flood enveloped me; All your breakers and your billows passed over me. Then I said, “I am banished from your sight! How will I again look upon your holy temple?” The waters surged around me up to my neck; the deep enveloped me; seaweed wrapped around my head. I went down to the roots of the mountains; to the land whose bars closed behind me forever,	The psalmist was drowning. He was swallowed by the ocean, not by a big fish. He went all the way down to the bottom of the ocean and became entangled in seaweed. He was about to die.
7b	But you brought my life up from the pit, O Lord, my God.	Now he is safe--God has rescued him.
8	When I became faint, I remembered the Lord; My prayer came to you in your holy temple.	When he was drowning, he prayed to be rescued.
9	Those who worship worthless idols abandon their hope for mercy.	Pagans (polytheists) are bad. God does not show them mercy.
10	But I, with thankful voice, will sacrifice to you; What I have vowed I will pay: deliverance is from the Lord.	The psalmist plans to kill and burn some animals to show gratitude for being rescued.

The problem with attributing this psalm of thanksgiving to Jonah is that it interferes with the moral of the story. It creates the false impression that Jonah is a pious person--someone who prays to God routinely and who loves religious rituals. This is contrary to everything else we know about Jonah from his words and deeds in the rest of the story.

There is no acknowledgement of sin in the psalm of thanksgiving.

There is nothing specific to the book of Jonah in this psalm. It does not describe being in the belly of a great fish. It does not express contrition for sin. In the context of the story, Jonah is in pitch-black darkness and is being eaten alive by the digestive juices in the stomach of the fish. He does not know that God will cause the fish to bring him back to dry land. There is no reason for him to thank God for being saved from drowning by being turned into fish food.

The criticism of the pagans is inconsistent with the heroic excellence of the pagan sailors in chapter 1 and the full-scale repentance of the Ninevites in chapter 3. The only bad person in the book is Jonah. Recognizing this fact is essential to hearing the original moral of the story: Don't be like Jonah!

Father Mapple in Moby Dick

Fr. Barron says, "One of the best commentaries on Jonah can be found in Moby Dick. Read that to get a good commentary." As with Fr. Barron's presentation, the sermon treats only half the book and neglects the rest.

Moby Dick, Chapter 9, "The Sermon."

As sinful men, it is a lesson to us all, because it is a story of the sin, hard-heartedness, suddenly awakened fears, the swift punishment, repentance, prayers, and finally the deliverance and joy of Jonah. As with all sinners among men, the sin of this son of Amittai was in his wilful disobedience of the command of God--never mind now what that command was, or how conveyed--which he found a hard command. But all the things that God would have us do are hard for us to do--remember that--and hence, he oftener commands us than endeavors to persuade. And if we obey God, we must disobey ourselves; and it is in this disobeying ourselves, wherein the hardness of obeying God consists.

God heard the engulphed, repenting prophet when he cried. Then God spake unto the fish; and from the shuddering cold and blackness of the sea, the whale came breeching up towards the warm and pleasant sun, and all the delights of air and earth; and 'vomited out Jonah upon the dry land;' when the word of the Lord came a second time; and Jonah, bruised and beaten--his ears, like two sea-shells, still multitudinously murmuring of the ocean--Jonah did the Almighty's bidding.