Jonah 1:1

This chapter recounts the divine commission which came to Jonah, instructing him to prophesy against the city of Nineveh because of their great wickedness, the prophet's rebellious disobedience in trying to avoid the assignment by fleeing in the opposite direction, the judgment of God against him in the great storm that threatened the wreck of his ship, the prophet's guilt exposed, his being cast overboard by the mariners, the great calm that ensued immediately, the worship of the true God on the part of the sailors, and the swallowing of the prophet by a great sea monster, in the belly of which Jonah remained for three days and three nights (Jonah 1:1-17).

As noted in the introduction, the denials of the historical and factual nature of this narrative raise far more questions than are answered; and absolutely nothing is gained by the attempts to make Jonah any kind of fictional character. We agree with Banks, then, "To approach the study of this book, believing it as an historical account."[1]

Jonah 1:1

"Now the word of Jehovah came unto Jonah the son of Amittai, saying."

Now ..." Enemies of this book do not hesitate to take the ax to the very first word in it, affirming that, "Jonah is a fragment, the continuation of a larger work";[2] but, of course, such criticisms are apparently founded in ignorance of the truth that, "This is a common formulary linking together revelations and histories, and is continually used in the Old Testament at the beginning of independent works."[3]; Joshua 1:1; Judges 1:1; 1 Samuel 1:1; Esther 1:1; and Ezekiel 1:1 all have this same beginning. "This by no means warrants the assumption that Jonah is the fragment of a larger work."[4]

Barnes pointed out that the sacred writers used this word to join their writings to other portions of the Word of God, thus affirming their reliability and inspiration.[5]

"The word of Jehovah came unto Jonah the son of Amittai ..." There is no sacred record of just how God spoke to Jonah, the great fact revealed being that God indeed spoke to him and that Jonah recognized the validity of God's message. "God having of old time spoken unto the fathers in the prophets by divers portions and in divers manners, etc." (Hebrews 1:1) gives the only clue we have as to how God spoke to the prophets. Nevertheless, "The basis of the prophet's life is the confidence that God is able to communicate with man, making known to him his will. Without a revelation of God there can be no prophet."[6] Strangely enough, this is the primary evidence of the supernatural in the whole book, but it seems to be curiously inoffensive even to some who vehemently reject the miracles of the same book. Granted that the infinite God is the one who spoke to Jonah and dealt with him as revealed in this history, there can actually be no problem whatever with the miraculous element in the record.

This passage unquestionably identifies Jonah with the prophet mentioned in this Old Testament passage:

"Jeroboam the son of Joash (Jeroboam II) restored the border of Israel from the entrance of Hamath unto the sea of the Arabah, according to the word of Jehovah the God of Israel, which he spake by his servant Jonah the son of Amittai, the prophet who was of Gath-hepher (2 Kings 14:25).

Such a prophecy was doubtless made before the beginning of Jeroboam's reign, or at least very early in it; and one sure result of such a favorable prophecy's being remarkably fulfilled would have been the establishment of Jonah as a national hero among the Israelites of the northern kingdom. It cannot be imagined that any Israelite at some later time would have forged or invented a story such as this which portrays the prophet in such an unfavorable light.

The word Jonah means "dove," the same "being a symbol of Israel,"[7] and thus a most appropriate name for one whose life in this record must be seen as a typical prophecy of the future fate of Israel. The word "Amittai" means truth. This word comes from the root of the Hebrew term which gives us "Amen"; thus, "Jonah son of Amittai means `mourning dove, son of truth.'"[8]

All that is definitely known concerning the prophet Jonah is found in the little book that bears his name and in the single reference cited here from 2 Kings 14:25.