By Tokistar (Template:The artist)

The prophet Jonah (at least as his story is told in the book that bears his name) is perhaps the most orthodox if perhaps the most heteropractic¹ prophet in the Bible!

Yet this book perhaps better than any other in the Old Testament encapsulates the essential truths of Scripture.

[For more on the "Perspicuity of Scripture" see The Perspicuity of Scripture or see the podcasts listed here.]

The next podcast on Jonah should return to a detailed look at a small chunk of the book, this one is big-picture stuff, just to keep you interested

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1. The prefix “ortho-” straight or right and “hetero-” different or wrong are used as opposites. The endings “-dox” to do with worship or theology and “-praxis” to do with action. So orthodox is right-thinking and heteropractic is wrong-doing.

God as creator from the Sistine Chapel (photo Wikipedia)

I’ve already a podcast on Jonah 1:7-8 Direct speech in biblical narratives if you want a fill in between the last podcast and this one.

Had you noticed? We were eight verses into the book and Jonah had not said one word. In Jonah 1:1-8 not a peep out of Jonah the prophet, so 1:9 where he finally speaks has to be significant…

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"It was slightly disturbing to find giant 'Thomas the Tank Engine' faces looking up from the ground" by oxyman

In these two verses we get some more clues about how to read the book of Jonah, we’ll notice how everything is big, and how the ship has personality. I’ll suggest that Jonah is in some ways like a children’s story, larger than life and painted in bright primary colours. I’ll even suggest that there are hints the telling is like Thomas the Tank Engine

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Jonah and the Whale. Photographer: Brams. Hvidbjerg Kirke in Hvidbjerg Sogn in Thyholm Kommune, Denmark.

In this short series (of two podcasts) I’ll describe two things I think I know, two stakes in the ground when I come to think about the topic of “universalism” that has been much discussed (and even more an excuse for slanging matches) recently around the Bible-focused blogs.

Let’s start by admitting there are many many things on this topic that we simply do not know. I list a few of the many things that I am firmly agnostic about in a blog post OK, till now I’ve held my peace, and avoided discussing that Bell fella and universalism. But….In this podcast and the next one I’ll offer two things that I do know related to this topic. Today from the book of Jonah (for other podcasts that may give a fuller idea about how I read Jonah go here) and tomorrow from Psalm 69. In both cases the set text is intended to be typical of a major strand of thinking and expression in the Bible.

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These four chapters tell the story of God’s prophet Jonah (who attentive Bible students know from 2 kings 14:25:

He restored the border of Israel from Lebo-hamath as far as the Sea of the Arabah, according to the word of the LORD, the God of Israel, which he spoke by his servant Jonah son of Amittai, the prophet, who was from Gath-hepher.

This true prophet runs away from  God, says a long prayer inside a fish, preaches a five word sermon and converts the capital of an unusually brutal empire, and then tells God off grumpily! The story of Jonah is told in ways that cause us to laugh, or at least smile. This book is funny from beginning to end – which is different from other Bible books even though many of them contain humour see the podcasts here.

What’s going on? and Why’d he do it?

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There are a number of podasts if you want more on Jonah, or I have some study notes on the book of Jonah (not yet quite finished, or a longer lecture on Jonah.

There are many ways in which the story-tellers of the Bible ensure that their tellings are lively and engaging. One is through the way they report speech. There is usually more “direct speech” (where the words of a character are “quoted”) then “indirect speech” (where the teller tells us the gist of what the character said). This direct speech is often skillfully crafted to give a lively and rich portrayal of the person. The podcast begins with cases where a group of people speak (we already heard one of these in the post Humour in the Bible: Part 2: Still Introducing Saul). Another example of this is found in Jonah 1:8 though here different emotions are expressed. The book of Ruth uses skillfully differentiated speech to help portray the characters. In this podcast we’ll look at Boaz’ two speeches to Ruth from chapter 2 (Ruth 2:11-12; 8-9).

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Juxtaposition: putting things together to make something “more than the sum of the parts” is a common artistic skill, it is common (but often unrecognised) in the Bible. As my least favourite book of the Bible helps reveal!

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The puzzle of Jonah’s actions, and other strange goings-on don’t stop in Jonah 1:3, but deepen (pun intended) as we begin to read on… we meet the ship that had plans of its own and hear echoes of Santa Claus in the telling of Jonah’s story…

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Continuing the series on Jonah, we rush ahead into the second verse of the book, only to spot yet again possibly more than one meaning. Jonah’s task however is clear.

By the way I am sorry about the long delays recently, I hope to post more regularly again, but not till after enjoying a two week holiday – starting on Sunday.

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Spotting the exaggerations and humour in the book can help us understand, but it also acts as a warning!

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