The prophet Jonah is a historical figure mentioned in the Old Testament, known for his defiant attitude when he received God’s order to announce the punishment of Nineveh for its sins.
Jonah’s story is one of the best known in the Bible and is told primarily in the Old Testament book that bears his name.
Many people only know who Jonah was from the story of when he was swallowed by a large fish as he fled from the Lord’s command, but in this article we will study everything the Bible says about the life of the prophet Jonah.
Jonah was a prophet sent by God to preach to the city of Nineveh. Jonah fled from his mission but, after being swallowed by a large fish, he went to Nineveh and by preaching the word of the Lord the townspeople repented of his sins.
Related: Who were the Ninevites? Nineveh in the Bible
What is the meaning of the name Jonas?
Jonah was a Hebrew prophet who lived during the reign of King Jeroboam II of Israel, in the middle of the 8th century BC. He is also the hero of the book that bears his name, the fifth of the twelve Minor Prophets.
Name Jonas means “dove”. Something interesting with the name “Jonah” occurs in the New Testament, when we compare passages from the Gospels of Matthew and John.
In the Gospel of Matthew (16:17), Jesus called Peter Simon Bar Jonas, which in Aramaic would be “son of Jonas.” However, in the Gospel of John (1:42; 21:15,17), Simon Peter’s father is called John, although in some manuscripts he also appears in those passages as “Jonah.”
In view of this, it is not known exactly if the names “Jonás” and “Juan” (Heb. Yonah and Yohanan) are two different names of Pedro’s father (something common at the time), or if they represent two Greek forms of the Same Hebrew name.
Related: Story of the Apostle Peter: Who was Peter?
Who is Jonah and what did God command him?
The prophet Jonah prophesied the restoration of the borders of Israel, which was carried out by Jeroboam II around 782-753 BC, according to the text found in the book of 2 Kings 14:25.
Considering that Jonah prophesied about the reign of Jeroboam around 790 BC, during the village of Jeroboam and his father Joash, it is very likely that Jonah knew the prophet Elisha, who died around 797 BC.
There is also the possibility that the prophet Jonah was one of the “sons of the prophets” taught by Elisha (2 Kings 6:1-7).
Most of what we know about the story of Jonah is what is told in the book that bears his name. According to the book of Jonah, God commanded the prophet to go to the city of Nineveh to shout against it (Jonah 1:1-2).
Disobeying God’s order, the prophet Jonah headed for Joppa and embarked on a ship bound for Tarshish.to the west of Israel, which could have been part of present-day Spain, while Nineveh, the destination to which God had sent him, was in the eastern strait (Jonah 1:3).
In the midst of sailing, God sent a great storm that punished the ship in which the prophet Jonah was traveling (Jonah 1:44).
After each of the sailors cried out to their god and carried out a series of procedures to try to save the ship, the captain of the ship found the prophet Jonah sleeping in the hold of the ship (Jn 1:5-6). The captain then ordered Jonah to call on his God to try to get him to deliver them (Jn 1: 6).
The sailors decided to cast lots, and the lot fell on the prophet Jonah, who was found guilty. Questioned by the ship’s crew, Jonas ordered them to throw him overboard so the storm would calm down.
At first the men still tried to resist the idea of the prophet Jonah, but when they realized there was no way, they threw Jonah into the sea and the storm finally ceased (Jonah 1:13-15).
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Jonah the prophet and the big fish
After being thrown into the sea by the sailors of the boat in which he was traveling, the prophet Jonah was swallowed by a large fish that the Lord provided him. Jonah remained in the belly of the fish for three days and three nights (Jn 1:17) in the same way that Jesus died and rose again on the third day.
Jonah then prayed to God in the form of a song of thanks, and God commanded the fish to vomit the prophet onto dry land, perhaps on a distant beach on the Syrian coast.
Much has been said about this great fish that swallowed the prophet Jonah. Some support the idea that it was a whale, while others disprove this possibility.
In fact, it doesn’t necessarily have to be a whale. It could have been a large shark, like the whale shark itself, which grows to enormous size and does not have the terrible teeth of other shark species.
The original term in Hebrew simply means “big fish” and the term used in Greek in the Septuagint is a generic term for “sea monster,” “marine creature,” or “large fish.”
In any case, it is correct that this episode refers to something supernatural that happened to accomplish God’s purpose.
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The prophet Jonah arrives at Nineveh
After being vomited out by the great fish, Jonah obeyed God’s command and headed for Nineveh (Jonah 3:3). The prophet Jonah preached as God had commanded, and the city at that time repented of its sin and was forgiven by God (Jonah 3:3-10).
The fact that God had spared Nineveh deeply angered the prophet Jonah (Jonah 4:1). Many suggest that Jonah’s irritation was some kind of mixed jealousy and antipathy towards those pagan enemies of his own people.
The discontent was so great that the prophet Jonah asked God to take his life (Jon 4:3).
So, God taught Jonah a lesson again. He made a plant grow and shaded the prophet, making him very happy. The next day, God sent a caterpillar to attack the plant and it was quickly destroyed.
Once again, the prophet Jonah became angry and asked to die. Using this example of the plant, and the mercy shown by Jonah to it, God taught the prophet that it was morally right for Him to show mercy to the people of Nineveh (Jonah 4:6-11).
At this point, the story of the prophet Jonah ends abruptly (Jonah 4:11) and the Old Testament makes no further reference to him.
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The prophet Jonah in the New Testament
The prophet Jonah is quoted in the New Testament by Jesus himselfwhere he refers to the period in which Jonah remained in the belly of the fish and to the repentance of the city of Nineveh through his preaching (Matthew 12:39-41; 16:4; Luke 11:29-32).
This reference to the story of the prophet Jonah in the New Testament is very significant because it reassures us that the stories described in the book of Jonah are literal and historical facts, and not just a fable for nationalistic purposes as some skeptical commentators suggest.
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Some scholars argue that berousa Chaldean priest and historian from Babylon who lived in the third century BC, reportedly wrote about the Jonah episode.
Berossus wrote a work in Greek on the History of Babylon, where in one of his stories he refers to a creature that emerged from the sea to grant divine wisdom to men called Oannes. I’d be a fish man type.
The Babylonians worshiped various deities with curious profiles, including a water god (Enki or Ea). But what is striking in this story is the fact that the name “Oannes” is very similar to the Greek name Ioannes, which, along with the also Greek Ionas, is used to represent the Hebrew Yonah, or “Jonah.”
For this reason, some believe that there is a possibility that the description of Berossus has some relation to the story of Jonah, since the fame of such a miraculous event could have easily spread among many peoples, and even given rise to some legends.
The problem with this suggestion seems to be chronological, since for some the myth about Oannes goes back to the period 4,000 BC, and the story of the prophet Jonah is located in a much more recent period.
If you want to delve into the life of the prophet Jonah and his book in the Old Testament, we recommend the following video.