Commentary on the book of the prophet Jonah

“Interpretation of the Book of the Prophet Jonah” (4 chapters) was written by Bl. Jerome of Stridon in 396-397. and is one of his best works. A specific method was used to create comments. First the translation is given from the Hebrew and from the LXX (except where the text is exactly the same), followed by an explanation of the literal meaning based on the Hebrew text, and a discussion of the differences between it and the Greek translation from Origen's Hexaplos. One of the topics raised by the lord. Jerome, in his comments, is eschatology. The author denies the possibility of salvation for the devil, demons and wicked pagans and speaks of their eternal destruction. Blzh. Jerome describes a portrait of the prophet Jonah, who primarily cares about the salvation of the Jewish people: “The prophet, through the inspiration of the Holy Spirit, knows that the repentance of the pagans serves as the downfall of the Jews. Therefore, loving his fatherland, he is not so much jealous of the salvation of Nineveh as he does not want the destruction of his people... Jonah, seeing that other prophets are sent to the lost sheep of the house of Israel in order to persuade the people to repentance..., grieves that only he was chosen to be sent to... the enemies of Israel... he was afraid that after they, as a result of his preaching, would turn to repentance, Israel was not completely abandoned." *The title of the work in Latin is Commentarius in Ionam prophetam. About three years have passed since I compiled interpretations of the five prophets: Micah, Nahum, Habakkuk, Zephaniah and Haggai, and, being delayed by other work, I could not finish what I started; because I wrote a book about famous men and two books against Jovinian, also an apology and about the best way of interpreting Pammachius, two books about Nepotianus or about Nepotianus, and other things that would take a long time to list. So, after such a long time and, as if upon returning home, beginning the interpretation with Jonah, I pray that the one who serves as the image of the Savior and, through his stay for three days and nights in the belly of the whale, typified the resurrection of the Lord, will grant us the same zeal and that we will be worthy of the influx of the Holy Spirit upon us. For if “Jonah” means “dove,” and the dove means the Holy Spirit, then we must explain the dove through the dove descending on us. I know that the ancient church writers, both Greek and Latin, spoke a lot about this book and, through so many studies, not so much explained, but obscured the thoughts, so that their very interpretation requires interpretation, and the one who reads them remains in much greater bewilderment than in which he was before reading. I say this not to humiliate great minds and not to turn the censure of others into praise for myself; but because the duty of the interpreter is to briefly and intelligibly explain what is obscure, and not so much to show his eloquence as to clarify the meaning of what he is expounding. So, we ask: where else in the Holy Scriptures is it said about Jonah the prophet, except for his book and the Gospels (or Gospels) 1, that is, the testimony of the Lord about him? If I’m not mistaken, in the book of Kings it is written about him like this: “in the year of five and ten years of Amaziah the son of Joash, king of Judah, the king of Jeroboam the son of Joash, over Israel in Samaria were fourty and one year. And do evil before the Lord: do not turn away from all the sins of Jeroboam the son of Nebat, who led Israel into sin. Turn back the border of Israel from the entrance of Hamath even to the sea of ​​the desert, according to the word of the Lord, the God of Israel, who spoke by the hand of His servant Jonah, the son of Amathi, the prophet of Gath, who is in Ophir” (2 Kings 14:23-25). The Jews say that this Amathiah was the son of the widow of Sarepta, whom the prophet Elijah raised from the dead, after which his mother said to the prophet: “Behold, I understood that you are a man of God, and the word of God in your mouth is true” (or there is truth) (1 Kings 17:23). This is where this youth got his name, because “Amathi” in our language means “truth”: since Elijah spoke the truth, the one whom he resurrected is called the son of truth. Then, Gath, on the second mile from Saforim (or Sapphirim), now called Diovesaria, on the way to Tiberias, there is a small village, where the place of his burial is indicated. However, some claim that he was born and buried near Diospolis, that is, Lydda, not understanding that the word Ophir was added to distinguish this Gath from other cities bearing this name, which are now indicated near Eleutheropolis or Diospolis. Also in the book of Tobias, although it is not in the canon, but is used by church men, something similar is given, precisely in the words of Tobias to his son: “child, behold, I have grown old, and when I departed from life I am; Take thy sons and go to Media, child; I was convinced that when Jonah the prophet said about Nineveh, he would be ruined” (Tov. 14:3-4). And indeed, both in Jewish and Greek history, and especially in Herodotus, we read that Nineveh was destroyed during the reign of Josiah among the Jews and under Astyages, king of the Media. From here we see that at first the Ninevites, having repented as a result of Jonah’s preaching, received pardon, and later, having persisted in their previous crimes, they incurred divine punishment. The Hebrews also report that Hosea, Amos, Isaiah, and Jonah prophesied at the same time. We said this in relation to history. But we are not unaware, venerable Pope Chromatius 2, that it is extremely difficult to explain everything that is said about the prophet in relation to the Savior, that is, that he fled, slept, was thrown into the sea, was swallowed up by a whale, was thrown ashore, preached repentance, saddened by the salvation of a large city, was consoled by the shadow of a pumpkin, was rebuked by God for being more cared for a plant that was green and suddenly withered, than for so many people, and so on, which we will try to explain in the book itself, however, in order to express in a short preface the whole meaning of the prophecy, we will say that no one can be a better interpreter of his image than He Himself, who inspired His prophets and pre-imprinted in His servants the characteristics of the future truth. So, He says to the Jews who do not believe His word and do not recognize Him as Christ, the Son of God: “The men of Nineveh will rise up in judgment with this generation and condemn it, because they repented of the preaching of Jonah: and behold Jonah is here” (Matthew 12:41). The race of the Jews is condemned, while the world believes, and Israel perishes through unbelief, while Nineveh brings repentance. They have books, and we are the Lords of the books, they have the prophets, we have the understanding of the prophets, the letter kills them, the spirit gives life to us (2 Cor. 3); Barabbas the thief is released from them (John 18); Christ, the Son of God, is released to us. See letter 35 in Tvoren. bliss Jerome in Russian translation Part 1 countries 193–195. Sn. also Tolkov. bliss Jerome on the book of the prophet Isaiah ch. II Art. 16 (in the Russian translation, part 7, pp. 46–48). You might be interested in: