INTRODUCTION
G-d speaks to
Jonah, “Arise, go to Nineveh, that great
city, and proclaim against it; for their wickedness is come before Me.” [1]
And so begins, arguably one of the most recognizable books of the bible, however,
its true meaning, it is argued here, has been misunderstood.
The Story of Jonah
has been, in part, taken over and rendered canonized by reformed rabbinical rationalizations that consolidate the story’s meaning by
making it appear a conceptual fact. [2]
This liberal / progressive approach to understanding Jonah, amounts to a
narrative of events written in an ideological mode. Hence, G-d is merciful and
has “love” for all mankind. Yet, I would posit, one should not understand G-d’s primary meaning that
way.
In other words,
any interpretation of the Book of Jonah must remove tendentious thought, and
advance from the physical to the metaphysical. When the veil of ideology hides
or distorts meaning, understanding is at best impaired, and at worst
impossible.
THE BOOK of JONAH
G-d tells Jonah, a
Hebrew prophet of the 8th century B.C., to go in harms way, when He
commands him to go to Nineveh, and “proclaim” to its inhabitants to repent
their wickedness. Nineveh is the Assyrian capital, and a great and powerful
city of its time. It was perhaps the most important city of the known world. One
further point should be noted, which is that Nineveh was the Kingdoms of Israel
and Judah historic enemy, its fiercest rival, and in the parlance of our time,
an “existential threat” to the Kingdoms’ national security.
Jonah knowing the
threat Nineveh poses to his King and Kingdom cannot abide. Instead he “flees,” with
the intention of going to Tarshish. Tarshish was a port village on the southern
tip of the Iberian Peninsula. In other words, to the end of the world!
Found in the Book
of Jonah, are multiple and profound lessons. Here is the first. Do you obey the
word of G-d? Your G-d, who is unlike any other, “the Lord is our G-d; the Lord
is one;” do you dare defy Him and flee? We know that Abraham was willing to
make the ultimate sacrifice, and hence obey G-d’s command to demonstrate his
faith in the All Mighty. Certainly, Jonah knew this. Yet, he did not obey. He
fled.
Jonah is, in the parlance
of our time, a runner! [3]
Not necessarily a coward, but runner nevertheless. He flees to the Israel port
city of Joppa (Jaffa). He flees from Joppa on a ship destined for Tarshish, to
escape his duty to G-d. Once on the ship and on the sea, “G-d hurled a great wind into the sea, and there was a mighty tempest
in the sea, so that the ship was like to be broken.” [4]
But, Jonah flees to the lower cabin on the ship while his fellow shipmates are
left to fight the tempest without his help.
Lots are cast, “that we may know for whose cause this evil
is upon us.” [5] Then Jonah
said to them, “Take me up, and cast me
forth into the sea: so shall the sea be clam unto you; for I know that for my sake this great tempest is upon
you.” [6]
Jonah is then “cast forth into the sea: and the sea ceased from its raging.” [7]
It is proffer that although Jonah’s request to be thrown from the ship is
indeed a noble act; it also can be interpreted as another example of Jonah
“fleeing” a situation.
“And the Lord prepared a great fish to swallow up Jonah;
and Jonah was in the belly of the fish three days and three nights”
[8]
Here it should be noted that the “great
fish” that swallows Jonah and takes him to the depth of the sea, and after
three days and nights vomits him upon dry land,[9]
is involuntary, and not Jonah once again escaping his duty to G-d.
G-d again (second
time) commands Jonah, “Arise, go unto
Nineveh, that great city, and make unto it the proclamation that I bid thee.”
[10]
This time, Jonah obeys G-d, and
sets out for Nineveh, a day’s journey. Jonah proclaims G-d message, “And the people of Nineveh believed G-d.” [11]
Even the King rose from his throne and accepted the will of G-d, and decreed
that all Nineveh’s inhabitants comply with G-d’s exhortation, and “turn every one from his evil way, and
from the violence that is in their hands.” [12]
G-d accepted Nineveh’s repentance. [13]
However, Jonah
would have none of it, and again “flees” in anger out of the city, and asks G-d
to take his life for he has saved the greatest enemy of his people, who wish to
destroy Israel and Judah. G-d said no.
Then we are told
that Jonah “flees” to a hill on the east side of the city to watch what will
become of Nineveh. “And the Lord prepared
a gourd, and made it come up over Jonah, that it might be a shadow over his head, to deliver him from evil.” [14]
This made Jonah happy.
Yet, in another
twist of fate, G-d sends a “worm” that kills the gourd, that gave Jonah
protection from the blazing sun. Without the gourd’s shade, Jonah faints from
the sun’s heat, and again asks G-d to let him die. It can be argued that Jonah’s
wishes to die are his ultimate attempts to “flee,” and his pathological need to
flee from any adverse situation.
With no place to
go, G-d asks Jonah, why he weeps and has pity for the gourd, “for which thou has not labored, neither
madest it grow, which came up in a night, and perished in a night.” [15]
It is essentially
a rhetorical question, because now G-d imparts his unparalleled wisdom to Jonah
(and the world). G-d says, “and should I
not have pity on Nineveh, that great city, wherein are more than six score
thousand persons that cannot discern between their right hand and their left
hand, and so much cattle?” [16]
The phrase, “cannot
discern between their right hand and their left hand,” is G-d’s teaching
through the prophet Jonah.
It is argued here
that G-d does not spare Nineveh because He is merciful. G-d’s purpose is not
simply about life and death, for that is a fact of nature and always with
mankind. No, He spares Nineveh to instruct mankind for all future generations.
Jonah as wise as he may be is yet to understand.
The last words in
the Book of Jonah are, “… cannot discern between their right hand and their
left hand …” G-d does not intend this to mean that mankind must accept
ignorance. On the contrary, ignorance then and now is abhorrent and sinful. The
One and Only G-d does not show mercy for those that indulge in loathsome and
wicked behavior, such as His judgments in Sodom and Gomorrah and the great
Flood. The indulgence of ‘they know not what they do,’ is not an acceptable
excuse.
G-d did not, as
most biblical scholars would argue, choose to view Nineveh evil ways as
redeemable. However, He would of course have had His reason to spare Nineveh,
but it is argued here that that was not it. Rather, it has been a misjudgment
of G-d’s wisdom through the ages.
Is it possible to
know goodness without also knowing wickedness? Someone or something is not good
because they say they are – someone or something is good because he or it
exhibits qualities that are recognized to be good. Which begs the question, how
would one know what is good and its qualities, unless one also knows what is
wicked?
And there is the
teaching of Jonah, Quod Erat
Demonstrandum (Q.E.D.). Mankind needed Nineveh to know right from wrong, or
more eloquently, ‘discern between our right hand and our left hand.’
CONCLUSION
How then does one
interpret the Book of Jonah? The fact is that scholarship is never sufficient
in itself to modify the conceptualization of a divine purpose. Today, ideology,
mental laziness, pious rehashing, political correctness, and the
bankrupt and fraudulent theory of social justice, hamper the theological
historiography of the Hebrew Bible even more.
To understand the
Book of Jonah, one must remember Genesis, and how understanding begun. In the
Garden, G-d created goodness and the perfect world, however, perfection can
only be understood if there is imperfection.
Hence, we are led
to the serpent, deception, and the resulting worldly consequences. That has
been mankind ever since, the search for wisdom and spiritual fulfillment. It
has always been so, that to know something is to know its opposite. How could
one understand beauty without ugliness; right from wrong; and faith in G-d from
secular atheism?
The lesson of the
Book of Jonah, is G-d allowed all living things in Nineveh to survive His
wrath, because He needed the world to understand the evil that exists in it,
and what it looks like. It is through G-d’s blessings that the civilized world
know their “right hand and their left hand.”
The story of Jonah
is immortal not because it is recited each year on the most holy day in Jewish
life, but because in Jonah we receive G-d’s teachings in a most profound story
like manner.
Still, G-d’s
teachings will not always be revealed in an obvious manner, that is, so
clumsily that one will realize its meaning immediately, so easily that one will
need no thorough understanding of the matter, and so inconsequential that one
will be able to dismiss or ignore it without consequences. The dialectic
between the story and its interpretation has probably existed since it was
first told or read.
In fairness, there
will be differences in interpretation. Not everything can be explained. By that
I mean, man cannot know G-d, and the meaning of all he does. It is the nature
of our ability and limits to understand that ipso facto G-d creates shadows.
[1]
Hebrew Bible, aka Old
Testament, Jonah, Chapter 1, verse 2.
[2]
I would proffer that this interpretation
is even more evident in Christian writings.
[3]
In this sense, is a person who
leaves a place hastily to avoid a difficult or unpleasant situation.
[4] Hebrew Bible, aka Old Testament,
Jonah, Chapter 1, verse 4.
[5] Hebrew Bible, aka Old Testament,
Jonah, Chapter 1, verse 7.
[6] Hebrew Bible, aka Old Testament,
Jonah, Chapter 1, verse 12.
[7] Hebrew Bible, aka Old Testament,
Jonah, Chapter 1, verse 15.
[8] Hebrew Bible, aka Old Testament,
Jonah, Chapter 2, verse 1.
[9] Hebrew Bible, aka Old Testament,
Jonah, Chapter 2, verse 11.
[10] Hebrew Bible, aka Old Testament,
Jonah, Chapter 3, verse 2.
[11] Hebrew Bible, aka Old Testament,
Jonah, Chapter 3, verse 5.
[12] Hebrew Bible, aka Old Testament,
Jonah, Chapter 3, verse 8.
[13] Hebrew Bible, aka Old Testament,
Jonah, Chapter 3, verse 10.
[14] Hebrew Bible, aka Old Testament,
Jonah, Chapter 4, verse 6.
[15] Hebrew Bible, aka Old Testament,
Jonah, Chapter 4, verse 10.
[16] Hebrew Bible, aka Old Testament,
Jonah, Chapter 4, verse 11.
