Editing Book of Jonah (section)

== Interpretive history ==
===Early Jewish interpretation===
Fragments of the book were found among the [[Dead Sea Scrolls]], most of which follow the [[Masoretic Text]] closely and with Mur XII reproducing a large portion of the text.<ref>David L. Washburn, ''A Catalog of Biblical Passages in the Dead Sea Scrolls'' (Brill, 2003), 146.</ref> As for the non-canonical writings, the majority of references to biblical texts were made as [[Argument from authority|appeals to authority]]. The Book of Jonah appears to have served less purpose in the Qumran community than other texts, as the writings make no references to it.<ref>James C. Vanderkam, ''The Dead Sea Scrolls Today'' (Grand Rapids, Mich: Eerdmans, 1994), 151</ref>

===Late Jewish interpretation===
The 18th century Lithuanian master scholar and kabbalist, Elijah of Vilna, known as the [[Vilna Gaon]], authored a commentary on the biblical Book of Jonah as an allegory of [[reincarnation]].

===Early Christian interpretation===

====New Testament====
[[File:Biblia.pauperum.jpg|thumb|upright=1.25|Christ rises from the tomb, alongside Jonah spit onto the beach, a [[Typology (theology)|typological]] allegory. From a 15th-century [[Biblia pauperum]].]]
The earliest Christian interpretations of Jonah are found in the [[Gospel of Matthew]]<ref>{{bibleverse|Matthew|12:38–42|9}} and {{bibleverse|Matthew|16:1–4}}</ref> and the [[Gospel of Luke]].<ref>{{bibleverse|Luke|11:29–32}}</ref> Both Matthew and Luke record a tradition of Jesus' interpretation of the Book of Jonah (notably, Matthew includes two very similar traditions in chapters 12 and 16).

As with most Old Testament interpretations found in the New Testament, the interpretation ascribed to Jesus is primarily [[Typology (theology)|typological]]. Jonah becomes a "type" for Jesus. Jonah spent three days in the belly of the fish; Jesus will spend three days in the tomb. Here, Jesus plays on the imagery of [[Sheol]] found in Jonah's prayer. While Jonah metaphorically declared, "Out of the belly of Sheol I cried," Jesus will literally be in the belly of Sheol. Finally, Jesus compares his generation to the people of Nineveh. Jesus fulfills his role as a type of Jonah, however his generation fails to fulfill its role as a type of Nineveh. Nineveh repented, but Jesus' generation, which has seen and heard one even greater than Jonah, fails to repent. Through his typological interpretation of the Book of Jonah, Jesus has weighed his generation and found it wanting.<ref>Anderson, Joel Edmund. "Jonah in Mark and Matthew: Creation, Covenant, Christ, and the Kingdom of God." Biblical theology bulletin 42.4 (2012): 172-186.</ref>{{rp|174–175; 180}}

====Augustine of Hippo====
The debate over the credibility of the miracle of Jonah is not simply a modern one. The credibility of a human being surviving in the belly of a great fish has long been questioned. In {{circa|409&nbsp;AD}}, [[Augustine of Hippo]] wrote to Deogratias concerning the challenge of some to the miracle recorded in the Book of Jonah. He writes:

{{Blockquote|The last question proposed is concerning Jonah, and it is put as if it were not from Porphyry, but as being a standing subject of ridicule among the Pagans; for his words are:

"In the next place, what are we to believe concerning Jonah, who is said to have been three days in a whale's belly? The thing is utterly improbable and incredible, that a man swallowed with his clothes on should have existed in the inside of a fish. If, however, the story is figurative, be pleased to explain it. Again, what is meant by the story that a gourd sprang up above the head of Jonah after he was vomited by the fish? What was the cause of this gourd's growth?" Questions such as these I have seen discussed by Pagans amidst loud laughter, and with great scorn.|(Letter CII, Section 30)}}

Augustine responds that if one is to question one miracle, then one should question all miracles as well (section 31). Nevertheless, despite his apologetic, Augustine views the story of Jonah as a figure for Christ. For example, he writes: "As, therefore, Jonah passed from the ship to the belly of the [[whale]], so Christ passed from the cross to the sepulchre, or into the abyss of death. And as Jonah suffered this for the sake of those who were endangered by the storm, so Christ suffered for the sake of those who are tossed on the waves of this world." Augustine credits his allegorical interpretation to the interpretation of Christ himself (Matthew 12:39–40), and he allows for other interpretations as long as they are in line with Christ's.

===Medieval commentary tradition===
[[File:Hymnal, Jonah outside the city of Nineveh, Walters Manuscript W.547, fol. 47r.jpg|thumb|"Jonah outside the city of Nineveh" (1678), from an Armenian hymnal]]
The ''Ordinary Gloss'', or {{lang|la|[[Glossa Ordinaria]]}}, was the most important Christian commentary on the Bible in the later Middle Ages. Ryan McDermott comments that "The Gloss on Jonah relies almost exclusively on Jerome's commentary on Jonah ({{circa|396}}), so its Latin often has a tone of urbane classicism. But the Gloss also chops up, compresses, and rearranges Jerome with a carnivalesque glee and scholastic directness that renders the Latin authentically medieval."<ref>Ryan McDermott, trans., "The Ordinary Gloss on Jonah," PMLA 128.2 (2013): 424–38.</ref> "The Ordinary Gloss on Jonah" has been translated into English and printed in a format that emulates the first printing of the Gloss.<ref>{{cite journal|url=http://d-scholarship.pitt.edu/18871/|title=The Ordinary Gloss on Jonah|journal=PMLA |date=March 2013 |volume=128 |issue=2 |pages=424–438 |last1=McDermott |first1=R. }}</ref>

The relationship between Jonah and his fellow Jews is ambivalent, and complicated by the Gloss's tendency to read Jonah as an allegorical prefiguration of Jesus Christ. While some glosses in isolation seem crudely supersessionist ("The foreskin believes while the circumcision remains unfaithful"), the prevailing allegorical tendency is to attribute Jonah's recalcitrance to his abiding love for his own people and his insistence that God's promises to Israel not be overridden by a lenient policy toward the Ninevites. For the glossator, Jonah's pro-Israel motivations correspond to Christ's demurral in the Garden of Gethsemane ("My Father, if it be possible, let this chalice pass from me")<ref>{{bibleverse|Matthew|26:39}}</ref> and the Gospel of Matthew's and Paul's insistence that "salvation is from the Jews" (John 4:22). While in the Gloss the plot of Jonah prefigures how God will extend salvation to the nations, it also makes abundantly clear—as some medieval commentaries on the Gospel of John do not—that Jonah and Jesus are Jews, and that they make decisions of salvation-historical consequence as Jews.{{opinion|date=February 2022}}

===Modern===
In [[Jungian analysis]], the belly of the whale can be seen as a symbolic death and rebirth,<ref>{{cite news |last=Betts |first=John |title=The Belly of the Whale {{!}} Jungian Analysis |url=http://jungian.ca/articles/the-belly-of-the-whale/ |website=Jungian Psychoanalysis |access-date=25 October 2019 |date=19 January 2013}}</ref> which is also [[Hero's journey#Belly of the Whale|an important stage]] in comparative mythologist [[Joseph Campbell]]'s "[[hero's journey]]".<ref>{{cite book |last=Campbell |first=Joseph |title=The Hero with a Thousand Faces |date=2008 |orig-year=1949|publisher=New World Library |isbn=9781577315933 |page=[https://archive.org/details/herowiththousand0000camp_x3m0/page/74 74] |url=https://archive.org/details/herowiththousand0000camp_x3m0|url-access=registration }}</ref>

[[NCSY]] Director of Education [[David Bashevkin]] sees Jonah as a thoughtful prophet who comes to religion out of a search for theological truth and is constantly disappointed by those who come to religion to provide mere comfort in the face of adversity inherent to the human condition. "If religion is only a blanket to provide warmth from the cold, harsh realities of life," Bashevkin imagines Jonah asking, "did concerns of theological truth and creed even matter?"<ref>Bashevkin, Dovid. [http://www.thelehrhaus.com/timely-thoughts/2016/9/29/jonah-and-the-varieties-of-religious-motivation-a-religious-educators-perspective-on-why-people-become-religious "Jonah and the Varieties of Religious Motivation."] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20161012155807/http://www.thelehrhaus.com/timely-thoughts/2016/9/29/jonah-and-the-varieties-of-religious-motivation-a-religious-educators-perspective-on-why-people-become-religious |date=2016-10-12 }} ''Lehrhaus''. 9 October 2016. 2 October 2017.</ref> The lesson taught by the episode of the tree at the end of the book is that comfort is a deep human need that religion provides, but that this need not obscure the role of God.