To my mind, there are two outstanding curiosities coming from the Book of Jonah: why did the people of Nineveh obey Jonah’s call to repentance and why did Jonah have such hatred for the Ninevites as to hope for their destruction.

If we want to understand the story of Jonah, we should not begin with the book of Jonah, but rather the book of 2 Kings. There are other curious elements to Jonah’s story – like what happens to Jonah at the end of the book of Jonah.

I am sure we have all wondered, why did the people of Nineveh believe the message of Jonah and repent and change their ways? Surely some bedraggled man preaching repentance wouldn’t have changed the hearts of most people, unless they had some reason to believe.

Some people have suggested that it may have been Jonah’s appearance which effected the people. Perhaps the time in the fish’s belly had bleached Jonah’s skin and he may have appeared like some ghost or apparition. But there is no evidence for this and there would seem to be some evidence that this was not the case.

Let’s start by looking at what appears to be an unrelated question.

How far did Jonah have to travel from the beach where he was vomited up by the fish, to reach Nineveh? Looking at a map of the area, if Jonah was dropped at the closest point on the Mediterranean, he would have had to walk about six hundred and eighty kilometres to reach Nineveh. Assuming that he walked about eight hours a day at roughly five kilometres per hour it would take him nearly 20 days to reach Nineveh (including about three non-walking sabbaths). I would assume this would be enough time to clean up the fish smell and get a bit of a tan back. It probably took much longer than 20 days.

It is also possible (probable, I believe) that Jonah was vomited up back on the coasts of Israel, and that the words of Jonah 3 ‘Then the word of the Lord came to Jonah the second time, saying, ² “Arise, go to Nin′eveh, that great city, and proclaim to it the message that I tell you.” ³ So Jonah arose and went to Nin′eveh, according to the word of the Lord’ represents a repeat of God’s command in chapter 1. The adventure starts all over again. After being vomited up by the fish, Jonah went back to his old life and then God fetched him again. I feel that it is most likely that the fish incident was ‘in the past’.

I think there was probably another reason why the people of Nineveh listened to him and repented.

 What was happening in Israel ?

It seems the Jonah lived and prophesied in the first half of the eighth century BC. Approximately 790 – 750 BC. This was during the reign of Jeroboam II.

 He (Jeroboam) restored the border of Israel from Lebo-hamath as far as the Sea of the Arabah, according to the word of the Lord, the God of Israel, which he spoke by his servant Jonah son of Amittai, the prophet who was from Gath-hepher. [2 Kings 14:25]

Jonah prophesying in Israel was probably partly contemporary with Isaiah prophesying in Judah in the days of Uzziah. Although we don’t have Jonah’s prophecy now, it’s clear that he foretold that Israel would take the land from Lebo (northern Syria) to the Dead Sea.

Damascus had been enemies of Israel and had inflicted great losses and cruelty on the people. The prophet Amos (contemporary with Jonah) had predicted God’s judgment on Damascus [Amos 1], and this was achieved through Jeroboam II. Clearly Jonah also gave a similar prophesy, but it is now lost.

Although Jeroboam II was an evil King, God used him as the instrument of punishment on Damascus. He had a very long and militarily successful reign. Not since the Kingdom of David and Solomon had the kingdom grown to this extent. Jeroboam II conquered Damascus and came to the very border of the Assyrian empire.

²³ …. Jeroboam son of Joash became king over Israel. He reigned for forty-one years in Samaria. ²⁴ He did evil in the sight of the Lord; he did not repudiate the sinful ways of Jeroboam son of Nebat who encouraged Israel to sin. ²⁵ He restored the border of Israel from Lebo Hamath (in Syria) in the north to the sea of the rift valley in the south, (Dead Sea) just as in the message from the Lord God of Israel that he had announced through his servant Jonah son of Amittai, the prophet from Gath Hepher. ²⁶ The Lord saw Israel’s intense suffering; everyone was weak and incapacitated and Israel had no deliverer. ²⁷ The Lord had not decreed that he would blot out Israel’s memory from under heaven, so he delivered them through Jeroboam son of Joash. [2 Kings 14]

Why was God kindly disposed to Jeroboam II? He was an evil king so why did God allow him to expand his Kingdom? It is said that Israel had not yet come under judgement, but it may be that Jeroboam II had rejected the worship of Baal that existed in Ahab’s day. It is stated that he followed in all the sins of Jeroboam I.

The sins of Jeroboam I were that the worship of Yahweh was replaced by two golden calves at Dan and Bethel, but Jeroboam I had not deviated to the worship of other gods. The calves were representations of Yahweh, so perhaps we could say that Jeroboam II was not as bad as his Ahab dynasty predecessors (who worshipped Baal). In any case God gave Israel another chance by supporting their king.

The issue for us is that Jonah had prophesied this. That Israel would overtake Syria and come to the borders of Assyria. Of course, the Assyrians would have been aware of this. The catastrophic fall of their neighbour to Israel at the word of the prophet! This would not have been hidden!

So, when Jonah turned up pronouncing that Assyria would be the next nation to fall, the people naturally listened. They accepted the fact that the prophecy had worked for Syria so it may very well work for Assyria. So, they repented.

We can’t really say who was the Assyrian King at this time. Adad-nirari III reigned from 811-783BC, Shalmaneser IV from 783 to 773BC and Ashur-dan III from 773-755BC. So, it could have been any of these. One thing was can say, is that Nineveh was not the capital of Assyria at the time of Jonah. In about 880-860 BC, the capital was changed to Nimrud (a little southeast of Nineveh), and in 705BC the capital was changed to Nineveh. So, in Jonah’s time, Nimrud was the capital. However, it would appear that Nineveh was the dominant city. It is not unusual for the capital to be a smaller city (e.g. Canberra in Australia, or Washington DC in the USA).

So, why was Jonah so set on the destruction of the Assyrians? Why was he so angry that God accepted their repentance? Jonah 4: 1 ‘But it displeased Jonah exceedingly, and he was angry. ² And he prayed to the Lord and said, “I pray thee, Lord, is not this what I said when I was yet in my country? That is why I made haste to flee to Tarshish; for I knew that thou art a gracious God and merciful, slow to anger, and abounding in steadfast love…”’

It may well be the Jonah was hoping that the ‘new’ Israel, under Jeroboam II, would re-establish the borders of Israel under David and Solomon. In that case, Israel would have to defeat Assyria and capture the land right up to the Euphrates River. Then Israel would have all the land promised to Abraham. But God was thwarting his hopes. So, here’s poor old Jonah, hoping that Assyria will be smashed to establish the new greater Kingdom of Israel. And God destroyed his plans by having mercy on the Ninevites.

Another question

What happens at the end of the book?

We are left with a question.  ‘And the Lord said, “You pity the plant, for which you did not labour, nor did you make it grow, which came into being in a night, and perished in a night. ¹¹ And should not I pity Nin′eveh, that great city, in which there are more than a hundred and twenty thousand persons who do not know their right hand from their left, and also much cattle?”’ [Jonah 4:10]

What was Jonah’s response? Did he just continue to sulk?

Or did he say ‘Yep – you’re right, I’m glad the Assyrians were saved.’

We may have a clue from history.

In modern day Nineveh (now Mosul) there has stood a Jonah’s tomb dating back to antiquity. The grave of the Prophet Yunus (in Islam) and Jonah (Judeo/Christian) was discovered during a reconstruction of the site as a mosque in 1365. However, the mosque was also built over a demolished Assyrian Christian church that marked Jonah’s grave. It would appear that the memorial was first a simple tomb, then in the Christian ear, embellished as a church, then as a mosque after the Islamic conquest of Assyria. The tomb was destroyed and ransacked by ISIS in 2014, but the historic shrine was retaken by Iraqi army forces in January 2017.

Archaeologists, assessing the damage, found a palace buried underneath, with stone tablets within the palace describing it as belonging to King Esarhaddon. Archaeologists, picking through ancient rubble, found a previously undiscovered palace containing white marble murals of bulls, stone statues of demi-goddesses and seven marble inscriptions. New translations of the cuneiform tablets, thought to date back to the Assyrian empire in 672BC, show the texts describe King Esarhaddon.

.https://www.dailymail.co.uk/sciencetech/article-5407903/Ancient-inscriptions-prophets-tomb-Iraq.html

The Jonah tomb must have been built after 672 BC, to be on top of the palace. Jonah lived one hundred years before this, but it is not uncommon for ‘the bones’ of a prophet to be re-interred many years after death. Reverence for the prophet can grow over years and finally a shrine takes shape.

We don’t know conclusively, but it seems likely that Jonah stayed on in Nineveh to become a ‘light to the gentiles’. What a turnaround! To abandon his own people, family, to serve as a missionary to Assyria.

Jonah in the New Testament

Matt 12:39, 16:4,  ³⁹ But he answered them, “An evil and adulterous generation asks for a sign, but no sign will be given to it except the sign of the prophet Jonah. ⁴⁰ For just as Jonah was three days and three nights in the belly of the sea monster, so for three days and three nights the Son of Man will be in the heart of the earth.

Most likely the Ninevites never knew about the fish.  The sailors who threw Jonah overboard didn’t know. I don’t see where Jonah would have told the Assyrians. The belly of the fish was a sign for a future generation who crucified Jesus.

But now comes a subtle change – perhaps.

Luke 11:29 And when the people were gathered thick together, he began to say, This is an evil generation: they seek a sign; and there shall no sign be given it, but the sign of Jonas the prophet. For as Jonas was a sign unto the Ninevites, so shall also the Son of man be to this generation.

Here, Jonah was a sign to the Ninevites – not the people of Jesus generation. What was the sign of Jonah to the people of Nineveh? Just one of repentance in the face of coming judgement – just as Jesus was the sign of repentance too.

But, Jonah turns up three more times in the NT, all with one common theme.

John 21 ¹⁵ When they had finished breakfast, Jesus said to Simon Peter, “Simon, son of Jonah, do you love me more than these?” He said to him, “Yes, Lord; you know that I love you.” He said to him, “Feed my lambs.” ¹⁶ A second time he said to him, “Simon, son of Jonah, do you love me?” He said to him, “Yes, Lord; you know that I love you.” He said to him, “Tend my sheep.” ¹⁷ He said to him the third time, “Simon, son of Jonah, do you love me?” Peter was grieved because he said to him the third time, “Do you love me?” And he said to him, “Lord, you know everything; you know that I love you.” Jesus said to him, “Feed my sheep

The name Peter occurs over ninety times in the NT, but only four times is he called ‘son of Jonah’. Three times in John 21, and once on Matthew 16:17. Peter’s father may well have been named Jonah, but perhaps there is more to it. Perhaps Peter was the spiritual son of Jonah.

Matthew 16 ¹⁶ Simon Peter replied, “You are the Christ, the Son of the living God.” ¹⁷ And Jesus answered him, “Blessed are you, Simon Bar-Jonah! For flesh and blood has not revealed this to you, but my Father who is in heaven.”

Jonah had a revelation to bring the gentiles into the fold of God’s forgiveness and grace. Peter had exactly the same commission. Peter was to affect the first gentile convert to Christianity. Cornelius. “³⁴ And Peter opened his mouth and said: “Truly I perceive that God shows no partiality, ³⁵ but in every nation any one who fears him and does what is right is acceptable to him.” [Acts 10].

The final commission of Jesus to Peter son of Jonah, was to feed the sheep. This was Jonah’s commission, and it would seem it’s exactly what he did, by staying on and giving his life for the Assyrians.

Watch a youtube version of this article:  Jonah – What I Never Knew (Youtube)