The Pulpit Commentary — Jonah — Section 3

this design; it gives e. sketch of that picture which was one de.y to be filled up to perfection. By it, on the one hand, the Gentile learned some- thing of the attributes of the true God-his omnipotence, justice, e.nd mercy; e.nd, on the other, the Jew was t.aught tolerance e.nd charity, and the rigid spirit of pride and exclusiveness received e. plain rebuke. Some critics consider the book to have been written with an o.pologetio pnrpose, to show a correct view of the functions of the prophet and the characteristics of prophecy. Many prophecies had remained unfulfilled; ma.ny had received a very pa:rtial and indefinite fulfilment. Jona.h's history emphasizes the truth that all such pre-announcements are conditional, and their issues are liable to be modified and altered by circn.mste.nces, and that such variations detract nothing from the Divine nature of the prediction. It rema.ins to mention another view ·of the mission of Jonah which considers it to have been of a. political rather than e. religions character (see Dr. Smith's 'Student's Old Testament History,' p. 468; and Kalisch, 'Bible Studies,' pt. ii.). According to this supposition, Jonah was sent to Nineveh to warn the king age.inst attacking or interfering with Israel. The ~ a n s at this time bad made frequent inroads upon Syria, and it was proba.\1le tha.t they wonld ere long turn their arms against Se.maria. God's forbeamnce with his rebellions people had been markedly exhibited; la.t.ely he had given a.ssnra.nce that "he would not blot out their no.me from under heaven" (2 Kings xiii 23), and now he sends a prophet to urge .Assyria t.o desist from its meditat.ed. enterprise against Israel. In enpport of this notion it is argued that the crime of which Nineveh repented could not have been idolatry; for this certa.in.ly was not abandoned on a.ccount of the preaching of Iona.h; and there is no evidence what.ever of any religious refarmation at this period. The only effect that is admissible is the relinquishment of a design which the king had learned was displeasing to a Divinity whom .he saw reason t,o reverence. But all this is pure assumption. There is not a trace of any political bearing in the whole transaction. Jonah is bidden ( eh. i. 2) to "go and cry against Nineveh; for their wickedness is come up" unto the Lord. And when at length he e:z::eentes his mission, his only word is, " Yet forty days, and Nineveh shall be overthrown.'' (eh. iii. 4). What need was there of fasting and sackcloth, if the only change desired was the abandonment of a certain military expedition ? How could this people be held up e.s an example of repentance, if they only altered the direction of their arms at the prophet's reqnest? No donbt the Inst of conquest, and the cruelty, spolia- tion, and injn.etice to which it gave occasion were some of the sins which called for vengeance; but we have no ground for narrowing Jone.h's mission to a prohibition of a threatened attack on Israel. The vices of a great and luxurious city, drunk with conquest and exulting in its ma.terial strength, were flagrant enongh to draw down the vengeance of Heaven; and the providence of God is grandly displayed in offering e. hope  THE BOOK OF JON AH. ., of repent.a.nee to this great people by the word of e. prophet from hia own chosen nation. § II. AUTHOR. There ie no good reason to doubt that the hero, if not the author, of this book wae that Jonah, eon of Amittai, the prophet whose comforting prophecy was reconnted in the days of Jeroboam the Second (2 Kings xiv. 25). The names of Jonah and Amittai occnr nowhere else in the Old Testament, and it is incredible that there should ha.ve been two distinct persons named Jonah, both prophets, both sons of Amittai Jonah means " a Dove; " Amitta.i, "True." Jerome, in his commentary, interprets Jonah to mean " Grieving; " but the former explanation is correct. From the significa- tion of Amittai arose the very improbable opinion that our prophet was the son of the widow of Sarepta., whom Elijah ra.ieed to life, beca.uee ehe said, on receiving him restored at the prophet's hands, "Now I know that thou art a man of God, and that the word of the Lord in thy month ie truth ( emeth) " (1 Kings xvii. 24). Other enggeetions, eqna.lly nnfonnded, are that he wae the boy who attended Elijah to the wilderness, or the young man who was sent to anoint Jahn, or the hneband of the Shunammite woman who extended hospitality to Elieha. Of the facts of J ona.h's life nothing is known but what his own book supplies. The notice in Kings adds the only other piece of information about him which we poeeees, viz. that he was born at Gath.:hepher, a place in Zebulnn (Josh. x:ix. 13), about three miles north-east of Nazareth, separated by a wa.dy from the traditional Cana of Galilee. It is identified with the modern village of Meshed, and the monument of Neby Yunas, the Prophet Jonah, ie still shown there. Another tradition places his tomb at Nineveh, bnt there ie no gronnd for enpposing that, after his mission was accompliehed, he stayed on and died there. As to the actual writer of the book, e. grave controversy exis·ts. Most modern critics of the advanced school unhesitatingly deny the traditional view, which regards the prophet as the author, though their arguments are not thoroughly convincing. For instance, doubts have been thrown on the genuineness of the book because it ie written throughout in the third person. Bntthere is nothing nnuenal in this. Classical scholars will recall the 'Anaba.sie' of Xenophon and the ' Commentaries' o.f Cmsar, concerning whose genuineness no question has ever been raised, though they a.re written in the third person. The same may be said of Thucydides, and Josephus, and Frederick the Great, as Hengstenberg has pointed ont (' Anth. de Pent.,' ii. 107, etc.). We have many instances of the kind close at hand. Amoe, in the midst of hie prophecy, inserts the historical interlude concerning his persecution at the hands of Amaziah, in the third person (vii. 12, etc.). There are many passages in other prophets where the same use may be noticed; e.g. Isa. vii. a; xx. 2, 3; Jer. xx. 1, 3; xxvi. 7, oto.; Dan. i.-vii.; Hag. i. 1, 8, 12; ii. 1, 10, 20. Besides this, JONAII. b3 ,.1 INTRODUCTION TO