The Judgement of Jonah: Yahweh, Jerusalem and Nineveh

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Description

This study is designed as a commentary with a difference, where the reading of the prophets travails is explored in the context of two wider themes: (1) the overt and highly sophisticated intertwining of Jonahs story with an impressively wide range of other biblical texts, often deployed in surprising ways; and (2) the clearly contrarian relationship between God and Jonah which has both vexed and intrigued scholars and lay readers alike for millennia. Underpinning this reading is a twofold thesis: firstly, an argument that many of the puzzles inherent in the book of Jonah can be illuminated in the light of the idea that Nineveh was from the beginning a cipher for the Jerusalem of the authors time; and secondly, that this would have been evident to Jonahs first readers: the class of elite literati amongst the ruling cadre of late Persian or early Hellenistic Judaea.

Author Bio

Alastair G. Hunter is Honorary Research Fellow in Hebrew and Old Testament Studies at the University of Glasgow, UK.