JOXAH
991
JOXAH
agination seems to be the opinion, variously modified, of Sender, Michaelis, Herder, Stiiudlin, Eichhorn, Au- gusti, Meyer, Pareau, Hitzig, antl Jlaarcr.
The plain, literal import of the narrative being set aside with misapplied ingenuity, the sujjposed design of it has been very variously interpreted. Michaelis {Uehersetz. d. N. T. part xi, p. 101) and Semler (/l^pff?•«^ ad Lib. Vet. Test. Intei-pret. \i. 271) supposed the narra- tive to be intended to show the injustice of the arrogance and hatred cherished by the Jews towards other nations. So in substance Bleek. Similarly Eichhorn {Einkit. § 577) and Jahn {Introduct. § 127) think the design was to teach the Jews that other people with less privileges excelled them in pious obedience. Kegel {Bibel d. A . und N. Test, vii, 129 sq.) argues that this episode was meant to solace and excite the prophets under the dis- charge of difficidt and dangerous duties ; while Paulus (Meinorabilia, vi, 32 sq.) maintains that the object of the author of Jonah is to impress the fact that God re- mits punishment on repentance and reformation. Sim- ilar is the idea of Kimchi and Pareau {Interpretation of Old Testament, Biblical Cabinet, No. xxv, p. 2()3). Krah- mer thinks that the theme of the writer is the Jewish colony in its relation to the Samaritans {Das B. Jon. Krit. unlersucht, p. 65). ]\Iaurer {Comment, in Prnp/i. Mill.) adheres to the opinion which lies upon the sur- face, that it inculcates tlie sin of not obeying God, even in pronouncing severe threatenings on a heathen peo- ple. Ewald would make the design quite general, namely, to show how the true fear of God and repent- ance bring salvation — first, in the case of the heathen sailors; then in the case of Jonah; finally, in that of the Ninevites, Hitzig (first in a separate treatise, then in his commentary on the minor prophets) supposes the book to have been written by some one in the 4th cen- tury before Christ, " in Egypt, that land of wonders," and chiefly for the purpose of vindicating Jehovah for having failed to verify the prophecy in Obadiah re- specting the heathen Edomites. Similarly, Kcister {Die Propheten des A. und N. Test., Leipz. 1839) favors the malignant insinuation that its chief end was to save the credit of the prophets among the people, though their predictions against foreign nations might not be fulfill- ed, as Nineveh was preserved after being menaced and doomed.
These hypotheses are all vague and baseless, and do not merit a special refutation. Endeavoring to free us from one difliculty, they plunge us into others yet more intricate and perplexing. We notice the principal ex- ternal objections that have been brought against the book.
(1.) Much profane wit has been expended on the mi- racidous means of Jonah's deliverance, very unnecessa- rily and very absurdly; it is simply said, "The Lord had prepared a great fish to swallow up Jonah." Now the species of marine animal is not defined, and the Greek K^jTog is often used to specify, not the genus whale, but any large fish or sea-monster. All objec- tions to its being a whale which lodged Jonah in its stomach, from its straitness of throat or rareness of haunt in the Mediterranean, are thus removed. He- sychius explains kiitoq as GaXacrmog ('x'^'"'C 7r«;Ujit£yf6»;r. Eustathius explains its correspondent adjective /c)/rwf(T- <Tav by ju£y«\r/)' (in the Iliad, ii, 581). Diodorus Sicu- lus speaks of terrestrial monsters as Kr]rwSi) Z^oa, and describes a huge fish as KrJTOQ (ittkttov to fxiysOog. Tiie Scripture thus speaks only of an enormous fish, which under God's direction swallowed the prophet, and does not point out tlie species to which the voracious prowler belonged. There is little ground for the sup- position of bishop Jebb, that the asylum of Jonah was not in the stomach of a whale, but in a cavity of its throat, which, according to naturalists, is a very capa- cious receptacle, sufficiently large, as captain Scoresby asserts, to contain a merchant ship's jolly-boat full of men (bishop Jebb, Sacred Literature, p. 178). Since the days of Bochart it has been a common opinion that
the fish was of the shark species, Lamia canis carcha- 7-ias, or " sea-dog" (Bochart, Op. iii, 72 ; Calmefs Dis- se7-tation sur Jon.). Entire human bodies have been found in some fishes of this kind. The stomach, too, has no influence on any living substance admitted into it. Granting all these facts as ]iroof of v.hat is termed the economy of miracles, still must we say, in reference to the supernatural preservation of Jonah, Is anything too hard for the Lord? Sec Whale.