Jonah

Identity

Jonah the son of Amittai is an eighth-century-BC prophet from Gath-hepher in Galilee (2 Kings 14:25). Called by God to preach against Nineveh, the great Assyrian capital, he fled instead to Tarshish, was cast into the sea, was swallowed by a great fish, was cast up on dry land after three days, and preached at Nineveh with such power that the whole city repented. His book is only four chapters long. Christ named him as the sign of His own resurrection (Matthew 12:40).

Name and titles

'Jonah' — Yonah in Hebrew — means 'dove.' Called in the Gospels 'Jonas' (the Greek form: Matthew 12:39-41; Luke 11:29-32).

Historical period

• c. 780 BC — Prophesies during the reign of Jeroboam II (2 Kings 14:25) — traditional dating.
• Book of Jonah — Fled to Tarshish; the storm; the great fish; three days; Nineveh; the repentance; the gourd.
• c. AD 30 — Christ names the sign of the prophet Jonas (Matthew 12:38-41).

Scripture appearances

• 2 Kings 14:25 (KJV) '…according to the word of the LORD God of Israel, which he spake by the hand of his servant Jonah, the son of Amittai, the prophet, which was of Gathhepher.'
• Jonah 1:3 (KJV) 'But Jonah rose up to flee unto Tarshish from the presence of the LORD…'
• Jonah 1:17 (KJV) 'Now the LORD had prepared a great fish to swallow up Jonah. And Jonah was in the belly of the fish three days and three nights.'
• Jonah 2 (KJV) Jonah's prayer from the fish's belly.
• Jonah 3:4-5 (KJV) 'Yet forty days, and Nineveh shall be overthrown. So the people of Nineveh believed God…'
• Jonah 4:11 (KJV) '…should not I spare Nineveh, that great city, wherein are more than sixscore thousand persons that cannot discern between their right hand and their left hand; and also much cattle?'
• Matthew 12:39-40 (KJV) '…there shall no sign be given to it, but the sign of the prophet Jonas: For as Jonas was three days and three nights in the whale's belly; so shall the Son of man be three days and three nights in the heart of the earth.'
• Luke 11:32 (KJV) 'The men of Nineveh shall rise up in the judgment with this generation, and shall condemn it: for they repented at the preaching of Jonas; and, behold, a greater than Jonas is here.'

Connected Places

• Gath-hepher — his home town in Galilee.
• Joppa — the port from which he fled.
• Tarshish — his intended escape (probably in the western Mediterranean).
• Nineveh — the great Assyrian capital, near modern Mosul in Iraq.

Connected People

• Christ Jesus — 'a greater than Jonas.'
• The sailors — the first Gentile converts in the book.
• The king of Nineveh — the first great Gentile penitent.

Salvation history role

• The prophet who tried to run from God and could not.
• The type of Christ's three-day burial and resurrection — named as such by Christ Himself.
• The proof that God's mercy extends to Nineveh — an enemy city.

Christian tradition

• Feast: 21 September (Byzantine East).
• Read at the Christian Lent — a prophet who calls a city to repentance.
• Christian art has painted the great fish from the Roman catacombs onward.
• The prophet's prayer from the fish's belly (Jonah 2) is a beloved Christian evening prayer.

Household reflection

Jonah teaches the household that no one can outrun God, and that God's mercy reaches even our enemies. Both truths bruise the pride of the runaway prophet.

For children, the story is a first great biblical adventure. For adults, it is a first great biblical mirror.

Room connections

Where this entry meets the household in the wider house of CrossAIHub.

• Read (Library) — Read the whole book of Jonah (only four chapters) in one sitting.
• Pray (Chapel) — Pray Jonah's fish-belly prayer (Jonah 2) at every household confession.
• Family (Kitchen Table) — Read Jonah aloud in Lent — a Lenten book about repentance and mercy.
• Sing (Choir Room) — Sing 'The Ninety and Nine' (Elizabeth Clephane, 1868) — the shepherd who leaves the fold, echoing Jonah's God.
• Learn (Workshop) — Study Jonah 4 — the honest wrestle of the reluctant missionary.

Further reading

The Book of Jonah in the KJV.

Matthew 12:38-41 and Luke 11:29-32.

Any good children's Bible story of Jonah.

Elsewhere in the Atlas

• Christ Jesus
• Ephesus
• Nineveh (world-city like Babylon)
• Isaiah
• Return to the atrium — the Atlas's main room.