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“For the law of the Spirit of life in Christ
Jesus has made me free from the law of sin and death.”
(Romans
8:2)
Jonah –
Biblical Figure – Britannica
Jonah
biblical figure
Also known as: Jonas
Jennifer Murtoff
Britannica Editors
June 17, 2026 •History
Jonah (flourished 785 BCE) was one of the 12 Minor Prophets
in the Hebrew Bible and Christian Old Testament. His narrative is part of a
larger book, The Twelve, in the Jewish canon, and stands alone as the Book of
Jonah in Christian scripture. The account, which opposes the narrow Jewish
nationalism of the time, was probably written in the 5th or 4th century BCE.
Jonah is also mentioned in 2 Kings 14:25.
Historical context
Jonah was a Jewish prophet and is identified as the son of
Amittai. Given the historical information conveyed in the 2 Kings passage, he
may have lived about 785 BCE. At that time the Assyrian empire was one of the
cruelest and most aggressive in Mesopotamia. The Assyrians had destroyed scores
of cities and villages and forcibly relocated or enslaved other groups of
people, cutting a large swath along the Fertile Crescent. In the 720s BCE, they
attacked and conquered Israel, the prosperous northernmost Jewish kingdom, and
the southern kingdom, Judah, was reduced to paying heavy tribute. Assyria was
thus one of the Jews’ most feared and hated enemies. Despite being set during
the years of Assyrian reign, the story of Jonah was likely written about the
5th or 4th century BCE, after the Babylonian Exile, when memories of the
cruelty of Assyrian tyranny would have lingered in legend and oral history.
Synopsis
According to the biblical account, God orders Jonah to warn
the citizens of Nineveh, a principal Assyrian city, to repent of their
wickedness, but Jonah refuses to believe that these hated people deserve
salvation. Rather than traveling east to the landlocked city of Nineveh, he
instead runs west to the port of Joppa and boards a ship headed for Tarshish
across the Mediterranean Sea. A storm threatens the ship, and the sailors draw
lots to find out which man is the cause of their misfortune. The lot falls to
Jonah, who tells the sailors that the storm is his fault and instructs them to
throw him overboard. Once Jonah is thrown into the sea, the storm subsides, and
the sailors worship the Hebrew God.
Alone in the sea, Jonah is swallowed by a huge fish and
spends three days and nights in its belly, where he prays for deliverance. God
commands the fish to spit the man out on land, and finally Jonah heads to
Nineveh to comply with God’s original instructions to him. Upon hearing the
prophet’s warning, the king and the people of Nineveh repent, and God does not
punish them.
Jonah is angry with God for the mercy shown to the Ninevites
and flees the city to see if God will perhaps still destroy it. Outside of the
city, the prophet builds a crude shelter for himself, and God sends a plant to
shade the prophet from the sun. Jonah is pleased with his shady hovel, but then
God sends a worm to eat the plant, and it dies. Exposed to the heat and the
wind, Jonah is angered by the loss of his plant. God chastises him for being
concerned about a wild plant but not about the many thousands of citizens in
the great city.
Quick Facts
Flourished: 785 BCE
Flourished: c.800 BCE - c.701 BCE
Analysis
The book is unusual in that Jonah, an Israelite prophet,
was called to preach repentance to those who were not Jewish, breaking out of
the contemporary pattern of Hebrew nationalism. Other prophets of the time
spoke specifically to the Israelite people, and it was a fairly radical idea
that God might look with favour on other nations and peoples, especially the
Assyrians. Thus Jonah was reluctant to follow the command to prophesy to the
Ninevites. While Jonah would rather see his own life destroyed than extend
grace to the Assyrians, the book portrays his God as forgiving, showing grace
and mercy to even the vilest and cruelest of people.
Jennifer Murtoff