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1–2. The embassy of the prophet Jonah to Nineveh, 3. his attempt to evade this embassy and 4–16. God's punishment for this. Jon.1:1. And the word of the Lord came to Jonah the son of Amathite: “And it was” (vajehij) – this is how many books by V. Zav begin. (Joshua 1.1; Ruth 1.1; Judges 1.1; 1 Samuel 1.1, etc.) and on the basis of this beginning they incorrectly assume that the book of the prophet Jonah is not a complete work, but a fragment. “The Word of the Lord” is the usual designation in the Bible for divine revelation communicated specifically to the prophets (Isa. 2:1, 51:16; Jer. 1:1, 2:1, 7:1, 13:3; Hos. 1.1; Zeph. 1.1; Micah 1.1; Hag 1.3; Zech. 1:9, 7, etc.). As for the form of this revelation, there is no indication of it in this case. By analogy with other places in the Bible in which this expression is used, one can imagine this word as a simple internal attraction, which a person recognizes not as his own, but as coming to him from the outside, from a higher power, namely from God. If, therefore, the revelation to the prophet Jonah was not accompanied by any extraordinary signs, but took place entirely within him, then it will become clear how the prophet decided to disobey the “word of the Lord.” “To Jonah, son of Amitai” (glorified by Amathia). The name of the prophet - “Jonah” (from the verb janah in the passive meaning - to be oppressed) according to the explanation of Blessed Jerome means an oppressed creature, a groaning, and then a groaning dove. He is undoubtedly called the son of Amitai by his father, and not in the common sense - “son of truth” (amitai from the Hebrew meaning truth), as explained by the rabbis (D. Kimhi, I. Abarbanal), in order to confirm the Jewish tradition identifying Jonah with the son of the widow of Sarepta, resurrected by the prophet Elijah (1 Kings 17.17–23). John 1:2. Arise, go to Nineveh, that great city, and preach in it, for its wickedness has come before Me. “Get up, go to Nineveh...”. The embassy of the Jewish prophet with a sermon to pagan Nineveh seems to many to be an unprecedented event in the history of Jewish prophetism, contrary to the very purpose of the prophetic ministry, established to protect true religious life in one Jewish people, and therefore even incredible. It cannot be denied, of course, that the immediate task of the Old Testament prophets was to “be the guards of the house of Israel” (Ezekiel 3.17), but in accordance with the fact that the Jewish people had a global purpose, and the prophetic ministry had to carry out not only national, but also universal tasks. And we can point out quite a few examples that the prophetic word was addressed directly to the pagan peoples and called them to correction and participation in salvation. ( Isa. 13:1–24:1 ; Jer. 46:1–51:1 ; Ezek. 25:1–32:1 ). If so, then there is nothing strange in Jonah’s embassy to Nineveh, when other prophets prophesied about Egypt, Edom, Moab, Syria, Babylon and even about the same Nineveh (Nahum. 1: 1–3: 1; Zeph. 2: 13–15). “Preach in him, for his evil deeds have come before Me.” The Hebrew “ki”, translated in this verse through “for” (Slavic yako, Latin quia), more often does not mean a causal relationship, but a conjunction of an additional clause - “what”. Translating this way in this place, we receive an indication of the content of Jonah’s sermon in Nineveh: preach that evil deeds have come to Me. Thus, Jonah’s preaching in Nineveh should have included not only a prediction of her imminent death, as it might seem based on John 3:4, but also a denunciation of their evil deeds, undoubtedly accompanied by a call to repentance, and therefore salvation. This is how the prophet Jonah himself understood his mission, which is why he fled from it, so as not to be a messenger of salvation to the pagans; Likewise, Jesus Christ points to the repentance and salvation of the Ninevites as the fruit of the word of Jonah (Matthew 12.41). This understanding is confirmed by the Hebrew verb “kara” used here, which does not mean to predict the future, but to preach in the broad sense of the word, to proclaim, to make public what God has commanded. John 1:3. And Jonah arose to flee to Tarshish from the presence of the Lord, and came to Joppa, and found a ship going to Tarshish, paid the fare and entered it to sail with them to Tarshish from the presence of the Lord. “And Jonah arose to flee to Tarshish from the presence of the Lord.” By Tarshish, where Jonah fled, we must understand the country inhabited by the descendants of Tarshish, the son of Jovan (Gen. 10.4). Initially, the descendants of Tarshish settled in Cilicia, where they built the city of Tarsus; however, in this case, one must mean not Tarsus, which is close to Palestine, but rather distant Spain, the main place of sea trade for the Phoenicians (Is 23.1–14; Jer 10.9), on behalf of which the long-distance ships were called Tarsian (Ps 47:8; 1 Kings 10.22). The motivation for Jonah to flee to Tarshish was undoubtedly that he wanted to reject the embassy to Nineveh. The example of an attempt to evade the divine embassy in the history of the Old Testament prophets is not the only one (Exodus 3:11, 4:10–13; Jeremiah 1:6), but it is special in its motives and partly in its form (escape). The Prophet decided not to go to Nineveh because he did not want her salvation, he did not want this salvation to be accomplished through him. “That’s why I ran to Tarshish, for I knew that You are a good and merciful God” (Jon. 4.2) he said in irritation when he saw that Nineveh had not perished. Are such thoughts and feelings worthy of an Old Testament prophet and are they conceivable as character traits of the messenger of God? In order to correctly solve this question for yourself, you need to abandon the preconceived view according to which the biblical sacred persons, in order to preserve an aura of sanctity for them, appear to us in some kind of spiritual immobility. It must be remembered that the biblical saints are “men obsequious to us” (Acts 14:15), therefore they did not reach their moral heights immediately, not without struggle and torment, not without depending on the surrounding influences of time and environment. And the prophet Jonah was a man of his time and his people. The Jews then generally thought that all pagans were enemies of Jehovah and deserved only His wrath and punishment. Such an attitude towards the pagans was fostered in They are partly the law itself in order to turn them away from everything pagan. It is quite natural that the prophet Jonah, before his calling, thought about the pagans the way his compatriots thought. Now, when the voice of God inside him called the prophet to go preaching repentance and salvation to the Ninevites, a deep struggle was taking place in his soul. He had to overcome the narrow religious nationalism instilled in himself from birth, according to which only Jews were considered the people of God, and adopt the opposite view that God has mercy for everyone, that the pagans are also called and capable of receiving God’s salvation. Without the penetration of this conviction, the prophet could not go to preach in Nineveh; his obedience to Jehovah could not be automatic. And so the prophet does not hide from us the human weakness that he reveals in this spiritual struggle: without extraordinary signs of God, he could not re-educate himself and therefore decided to “flee to Tarshish from the face of the Lord.” Jonah probably chose this method of evading the embassy because he believed that outside the promised land as a place of the special presence of God ("the face of God" cf. Gen. 4.14, 16), he would no longer hear the voice calling him to preach to the pagans. The Orthodox Church in its hymn complements the remark made about the motives for the flight of the prophet Jonah by the fact that the prophet fled “so that the prophecy would not lie” (canon of Andrew of Crete). This means that the prophet Jonah did not hope for the sincerity and strength of the repentance of the pagans and thought that, having received salvation for fleeting repentance, and then returning to their sins again, they would laugh at the prophecy that had not been fulfilled over them, mock at the impotence of the Jewish God and insult Him. Thus, the flight of the prophet was not a conscious resistance to the will of God, but the discovery of a special zeal for the glory of Jehovah before the pagans. “He came to Joppa” - the only haven for the Jews since the time of Solomon. (About her, see 2 Chronicles 2.16; 2 Ezra 5:53; 1 Mac 10:76, ​​14:5). John 1:4. But the Lord raised a strong wind on the sea, and a great storm arose on the sea, and the ship was ready to break. “The Lord raised up a strong wind on the sea, and there arose a great storm on the sea.” Storms on the Mediterranean Sea and especially off the coast of Joppa harbor are a common occurrence. According to the testimony of Josephus (“On the Jewish War” IIÏ9, 3) and new travelers (de Solsi, Norova), the roadstead of the Joppa harbor and, in general, the southeastern coast of the Mediterranean Sea are exposed to the action of winds, so excitement is often observed here. In view of what has been said, the book of the prophet Jonah is often reproached for being too miraculous. They say that the most natural phenomena, such as the rise of a storm at sea and its cessation (Jon. 1:4, 15), the devouring of a person by a large fish (Jon. 2:1), the midday heat, the burning wind, the worm that undermines plants (Jon. 4:6-8), occurring according to the natural forces and laws of nature, are presented in it as special actions of God, performed at the direct command of God. Thus, for the complete naturalness of the phenomenon, it is considered necessary to eliminate any thought about participation in the life of the nature of God. This is undoubtedly the widespread view of our time, but this is not the religious view of the world. According to him, everything that happens in the world, according to the so-called laws of nature and its forces, appears at the same time as the work of God, who rules the world. The very laws of nature do not constitute something completely separate from the will of God, but are considered as an expression of the will of the Creator about nature. With this understanding, there is nothing strange that man represents natural phenomena as occurring according to the will of God and is silent about the laws of nature, as only mediating causes. In the book of Jonah, as a work with a religious and moral purpose, such a mention is more than appropriate (although it also mentions natural factors of natural phenomena: the wind producing a storm, the worm undermining plants). Based on this, one can only note the religiosity of its author, and not blame him for the excess of miraculousness and seemingly improbability of the story. John 1:5. And the shipmen were afraid, and each cried out to his god, and began to throw the luggage from the ship into the sea in order to lighten it from it; Jonah went down into the interior of the ship, lay down and fell fast asleep. “And the shipmen were afraid and each one cried out to his God.” Shipbuilders are not random passengers on a ship, but people for whom sailing was a trade, from Heb. malahijm - oarsmen, oarsmen. They were undoubtedly pagans and probably came from Phoenician coastal cities. In the religion of all coastal residents in general, the gods of the sea and water occupied a prominent place; naturally, shipbuilders turned to them with a prayer for salvation from the raging waves. Along with this, they did not neglect natural means of salvation: “they began to throw luggage from the ship into the sea in order to lighten it from it.” “Jonah went down into the interior of the ship, lay down and fell fast asleep.” The behavior of the prophet seems strange: while others on the ship, in fear for their lives, are praying for salvation, he goes into the hold and calmly falls asleep. This happened because the author of the text in this place spoke about the subsequent moment earlier than the previous one, using the phrase υστερον προτερον, as in Art. 10. and Ion. 4.5. In fact, the prophet Jonah undoubtedly went to rest before the storm occurred. Tired of the internal struggle taking place in him and, perhaps, of the hasty journey to Joppa, calmed down by the decision he had finally made, Jonah “fell soundly asleep.” The entire further story of the book up to Chapter II. inclusive, some interpreters understand it as a dream that happened to the prophet. However, in the text there is absolutely no basis for this assumption and the historical accuracy of the story of Chapter II. is attested no less than other parts of the book. (See this in the Introduction.) John 1:6. And the captain of the ship came to him and said to him: Why are you sleeping? arise, call upon your God; maybe God will remember us and we will not perish. In this verse, one should not be confused by the fact that the pagan helmsman turns to a non-Jew with a request that he pray to his God, and expresses the hope of receiving salvation from Him. The polytheistic pagan, along with his own gods, recognized the real existence of the gods of other peoples. In particular, the Bible speaks more than once about cases of pagan recognition of Jehovah as the God of the Jews (2 Kings 18:25, 33–35; 1 Ezra 1:2–3), and we have the same thing in this place. John 1:7. And they said to each other: Let's go and cast lots to find out for whom this misfortune befalls us. And they cast lots, and the lot fell on Jonah. And they said to each other: “Let's go, let's cast lots to find out for whom this misfortune befalls us.” In ancient times, it was a common belief that special extreme disasters befall people for some great sins (Job 4:8–11, 18:5–21). Sharing this view, the shipmen decided that the great storm had befallen them because of some extraordinary sin of one of those present on the ship. They began to find out the culprit of the disaster by drawing lots. This custom existed among many peoples of antiquity, both pagan and Jewish, while both believed that it is not blind chance that decides the matter, but God (or gods) owns the lot (Joshua 7.14; 1 Sam. 10.20–23; Acts 1.26; Ciceron. De natura deorum, 3:36). “And they cast lots, and the lot fell on Jonah.” Thus, the book of the prophet Jonah makes it clear that not only those who cast believed that God was directing the lot, but in reality it was so. John 1:8. Then they said to him: tell us, for whom has this misfortune befallen us? What is your occupation and where are you coming from? Where is your country and what people are you from? Contains a number of questions with which the shipbuilders turned to Jonah after the lot identified him as the culprit of the disaster. These questions were probably asked from different sides and by excited people, so there is no strict consistency in them. The first question: “for whom is this trouble?” in some codices it is not (Cod. 115), but in others (384) it stands on the field; it should be understood not as a question to Jonah about any third person, but in relation to himself: who are you, tell me? The following questions concern the origin of the prophet Jonah, his occupation and immediate intentions (the latter is clear from the addition of the glorious text: “Where are you going?”) In all this, the shipbuilders thought to find something that dishonored Jonah and would explain to them why the lot fell on him. John 1:9. And he said to them: I am a Jew, I honor the Lord God of heaven, who created the sea and the dry land. “I am a Jew, I honor the Lord God of heaven, who created the sea and the dry land.” One must think that the above words constitute only the beginning of the prophet’s speech on the ship, then Jonah frankly spoke about his embassy to Nineveh and about his flight from the face of Jehovah, as can be seen from the 2nd half of the 10th art. The storm that happened and the lot that fell on him should have struck the prophet more than the others on the ship, in them he saw signs of the infinite greatness of God and his own wrong; He sincerely confesses both to the pagans, for these latter he first of all clarifies that the God of the Jews is the God of the universe (heaven, sea and land), only having mastered this idea, the pagans could understand everything else in his speech: what connection does Jehovah have with Nineveh and why it is scary to disobey such a God. John 1:10. And the people were afraid with great fear and said to him: Why did you do this? For these people knew that he was fleeing from the presence of the Lord, as he himself had declared to them. The shipmen's impression of the prophet's speech is conveyed. They “were afraid with great fear... for they knew that he was fleeing from the face of the Lord,” which means their fear was religious, before Jehovah, they were afraid of His greatness and power. Undoubtedly, the shipbuilders also felt that standing before them was not an ordinary person, but one chosen by God to receive revelation from Him, although gravely guilty before Him; this is evident from their entire subsequent attitude towards the prophet Jonah (vv. 12–14). John 1:11. And they said to him: What should we do with you so that the sea will calm down for us? For the sea did not cease to worry. “And they told him what you and I should do so that the sea would calm down for us?” In an ordinary case, the shipbuilders, of course, knew how to deal with a person who had provoked the wrath of the gods and brought about a great disaster, but here the case was special. Before them stood not a great sinner, but a chosen one of God, who, it is true, brought upon himself grave guilt before God, but they hardly understood it clearly (see v. 14); The God Jehovah who punished them was so different from their pagan gods that they did not dare to propitiate Him in the usual pagan ways. Therefore, they turned to the prophet so that he himself would pronounce judgment on himself and indicate the way to propitiate Jehovah. John 1:12. Then he said to them: Take me and throw me into the sea, and the sea will be calm for you, for I know that for my sake this great storm has befallen you. “Take me and throw me into the sea... for I know that for my sake this great storm has befallen you.” In this response of Jonah, first of all, one can see his deep awareness of his guilt before God. Due to the consciousness of his extreme guilt, he wants to be punished in an extreme way, as indicated by the storm and the lot: “throw me into the sea.” There is not the slightest flaunting of one’s life, nor extreme pride and self-love, for which the prophet allegedly wants to die rather than go against his conviction to preach to the pagans, and thus continues to argue with Jehovah “even to death.” Death in the waves of the sea seems to the prophet Jonah the only way out to save the innocent companions on the ship, for whom he undoubtedly suffered: “throw me into the sea and the sea will calm down for you.” In this case, the prophet accomplished a feat of supreme love for people (John 15.13) and his personality appeared before us in all its immeasurable heights. John 1:13. But these people began to row hard to get to the ground, but they could not, because the sea continued to rage against them. John 1:14. Then they cried out to the Lord and said: We pray to You, Lord, that we may not perish for the soul of this man, and that You may not count innocent blood against us; for You, Lord, have done whatever pleased You! John 1:15. And they took Jonah and threw him into the sea, and the sea subsided from its fury. The shipbuilders did not immediately carry out Jonah's sentence on themselves. At first they tried to use every means to save the prophet by landing him on shore. When this failed, before throwing him into the sea, they turned with fervent prayer to Jehovah so that He would not charge them with “innocent blood.” Here the sympathy of those on the ship for Jonah and their deep religiosity attracts attention. They say that in this place, as further in the speech about the Ninevites (Jon. 3: 5–9), the pagans in the book of Jonah are idealized. What is told about them is incredible in itself, and it is incredible that Jonah or someone close to him in time wrote this, for their negative attitude towards the pagans is well known. Thus, on a small foundation, a large conclusion is built about the inauthenticity of the book, its later origin and not the historical, but the legendary nature of its content. It is true that what is incredible is that the pagans on the ship turned out to be not bad people, capable of expressing sympathy for the person who decided to suffer alone to save them. Is it incredible that sailing the sea amidst danger taught them to pray? But they point out that they prayed not only to their gods, but also to Jehovah, the God of the Jews (v. 14). Indeed, in the use of the names of God, the writer of the book of Jonah is very precise: when talking about God in general, as the Almighty Creator and Ruler of everything, he uses the name of God Elohim (Jon. 1:5–6, 3:5, 8, 10, 4:7–9), and when talking about God in His relation to the prophet Jonah, as the God of the Jewish people, He is called Jehovah (Jon. 1:1, 3–4, 9, 2:1, 3, 3:1, 3, 4:4, 6, 10). Therefore, in v. 14, where Jehovah stands, one must understand that the ship’s people prayed to the Jewish God, the God of Jonah, because they asked that the death of Jonah, Jehovah’s prophet, not be imputed to them, and it would be strange if they asked their gods for this. If in the passage in question there is no incredible idealization, but only the truth about the pagans, then Jonah could well have written such a truth, for he was not afraid to speak it even in view of death (v. 12) John 1:16. And these people feared the Lord with great fear, and made a sacrifice to the Lord, and made vows. “And they offered sacrifice to the Lord and made vows.” Jewish tradition says that those on the ship later became proselytes of Judaism. There is nothing incredible about this. They saw the power of Jehovah with their own eyes and confessed it in their prayer: “You, O Lord, have done what was pleasing to You” (v. 14); saved by Him (and not by their gods) from obvious death, they felt obliged to Him, and therefore “made vows.” However, the text only says that those on the ship were overcome by religious inspiration; this, after everything that has happened, cannot be doubted. You might be interested in: