Jonah on a stained-glass window. Lawrence Lew OP, CC-BY-NC-ND 2.0, here.
The Book of Jonah is a well-known biblical book in which God sends a prophet named Jonah to prophesy the destruction of Nineveh, the capital of Assyria, because of its many sins. Jonah does not want the people of Nineveh to repent and escape God’s punishment, so he tries to flee by ship to a distant city. However, a storm breaks out on the way, and he confesses to the sailors that the storm was caused by him, so they throw him into the sea and he is swallowed by a large fish (or whale). Three days later, the fish spits him out onto the shore and Jonah comes back to life. He then goes to Nineveh, preaches, and the people repent.
However, contrary to the 2,000-year-old tradition of the Church, many modern Bible commentaries assume that this biblical book is only a fictional story.
The Bible translation by the publisher Szent István Társulat (St. Stephen Society), which is popular in Hungary, which was approved by the Hungarian bishops in the 1970s, states the following:
“However, the book’s style of presentation reveals that the author does not intend to provide a historical account of the prophet’s successful work, but is guided by other intentions.” (1031)
Other intentions?
“The author piles up miraculous events. For example, when Jonah sets sail, a huge storm immediately breaks out, and it ends as soon as he is thrown into the water; the prophet spends three days in the belly of the whale, and the fish throws him straight onto the right shore; or the rapid growth and withering of the castor oil plant. The author describes these as if they were self-evident and part of the everyday life of a believer.”
As we will see in this article, these objections are exactly the same as those used by pagans to mock Christians in relation to the Book of Jonah in the early Church, and to which St. Augustine responds. It obviously does not occur to the unbelieving commentators that the author is describing real events, which is why he writes “as if they were self-evident”.
“Based on what has been said, the genre of the Book of Jonah is a prophetic novella, the purpose of which is to teach in the form of a narrative.”
Really? The Church thought differently for 2000 years.
It is very important to mention that Jesus explicitly referred to Jonah when he prophesied his death and resurrection:
“An evil and adulterous generation seeketh for a sign: and a sign shall not be given it, but the sign of Jonas, the prophet. For as Jonas was in the whale’s belly three days and three nights: so shall the Son of man be in the heart of the earth three days and three nights.” (Mt 12:39-40)
And when he spoke of the Last Judgment:
“The men of Ninive shall rise in judgment with this generation, and shall condemn it: because they did penance at the preaching of Jonas. And behold a greater than Jonas is here.” (Mt 12:41)
The Gospel of Luke also contains a similar passage:
“For as Jonas was a sign to the Ninivites, so shall the Son of man also be to this generation. The queen of the South shall rise in the judgment with the men of this generation, and shall condemn them: because she came from the ends of the earth to hear the wisdom of Solomon; and behold more than Solomon here.” (Lk 11:30-31)
There is no reference to Jonah being a fictional character.
Let’s take a look at an older Bible commentary that was truly Catholic. George Haydock (1774-1849) was a British priest who worked in northern England. He is not to be confused with the Venerable George Haydock, a priest who was martyred in the 16th century. Haydock republished the Douay-Rheims Bible, which had been used by English-speaking Catholics since the 16th century, and wrote a commentary on it. This is what he writes in his introduction to the Book of Jonah:
“Jonas prophesied in the reign of Jeroboam II, as we learn from 4 Kings xiv. 25., to whom also he foretold his success in restoring all the borders of Israel. He was of Geth-Opher, in the tribe of Zabulon, and consequently of Galilee; which confutes that assertion of the Pharisees, (John vii. 52.) that no prophet ever arose out of Galilee. He prophesied and prefigured in his own person the death and resurrection of Christ, and was the only one among the prophets who was sent to preach to the Gentiles. (Challoner) — The most incredible mystery in our religion, and the vocation of the Gentiles, are thus insinuated. (Calmet) — The latter shall be saved if they repent, like Ninive. (Worthington)”
There is no mention that Jonah might be a fictional character. As for the commentaries found after each chapter, they also show that Haydock takes every part of the story seriously.
Regarding the whale, Haydock writes (Chapter 2, verse 1):
“Yet it is not of much importance what species of fish be meant, provided the miracle be admitted. (Calmet) — The pagans ridiculed it. (St. Augustine, ep. 102. q. 6. 30.) — Yet they believed many of a similar nature, alleging the omnipotence of God. (St.. Jerome) — This reason accounts for all the miracles recorded in Scripture. But might not God have chosen some easier expedient? We must not dive into his reasons. The impression which such a fact would make on the Ninivites, and the prefiguring of Christ’s burial, might suffice.”
Regarding Jonah’s three days of preaching in Nineveh, he writes (Chapter 3, verse 3):
“By the computation of some ancient historians, Ninive was about fifty miles round: so that to go through all the chief streets and public places, was three days’ journey. (Challoner) — Diodorus (iii. 1.) says Ninive was 150 stadia or furlongs in length. It must have been therefore 480 round; and as each furlong contains 125 paces of 5 ft. Each, the compass would be ‘60 Italian miles, (about 50 English)’ which would employ a person three days to go through the principal streets. (Worthington) — Ninive ‘was much larger that Babylon.’ (Strabo xvi.) — Hebrew, ‘a great city of God,’ &c., denoting its stupendous size.”
St. Jerome was a 4th-century bishop, church teacher, and church father who translated the Bible into Latin. His “Vulgate” translation of the Bible is the official Latin Bible of the Catholic Church. One of his works was a commentary on the Book of Jonah.
He begins the introduction by asking for Jonah’s intercession:
“I am first taking up the interpretation of Jonah: I pray that he who is a type of the Saviour, and prefigured the resurrection of the Lord in spending three days and nights in the belly of the whale (Mt. 12:40), might bestow on us also our pristine fervour so that we might be worthy of the coming of the Holy Spirit to us.”
He continues:
“I am not unaware that there are certain people to whom it seems incredible that a man could be kept unharmed for three days and nights in the belly of a whale, in which are digested shipwrecks. These will certainly be both believers and unbelievers. If they are believers they shall be compelled to believe to a much higher degree.” (30)
He then lists other biblical miracles: the three men in the furnace in the Book of Daniel, or Moses parting the Red Sea.
If 20th- and 21st-century “experts” undermine one of the biblical miracles, they undermine belief in the others as well.
St. Augustine, another Church Father, Church Doctor, and bishop, responded in one of his letters (Letter 102) to a priest who had been asked about Jonah by a pagan interested in Christianity. Here are some quotes from it:
“To this I reply, that either all the miracles wrought by divine power may be treated as incredible, or there is no reason why the story of this miracle should not be believed. The resurrection of Christ Himself upon the third day would not be believed by us, if the Christian faith was afraid to encounter Pagan ridicule. Since, however, our friend did not on this ground ask whether it is to be believed that Lazarus was raised on the fourth day, or that Christ rose on the third day, I am much surprised that he reckoned what was done with Jonah to be incredible; unless, perchance, he thinks it easier for a dead man to be raised in life from his sepulchre, than for a living man to be kept in life in the spacious belly of a sea monster.”
“But perhaps our objectors find it impossible to believe in regard to this divine miracle that the heated moist air of the belly, whereby food is dissolved, could be so moderated in temperature as to preserve the life of a man. If so, with how much greater force might they pronounce it incredible that the three young men cast into the furnace by the impious king walked unharmed in the midst of the flames! If, therefore, these objectors refuse to believe any narrative of a divine miracle, they must be refuted by another line of argument. For it is incumbent on them in that case not to single out some one to be objected to, and called in question as incredible, but to denounce as incredible all narratives in which miracles of the same kind or more remarkable are recorded.”
“As to the question, What was prefigured by the sea monster restoring alive on the third day the prophet whom it swallowed? Why is this asked of us, when Christ Himself has given the answer, saying, An evil and adulterous generation seeks after a sign, and there shall no sign be given it but the sign of the prophet Jonas: for as Jonas was three days and three nights in the whale’s belly, so must the Son of man be three days and three nights in the heart of the earth Matthew 12:39-40? […] 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. And as the command was given at first that the word of God should be preached to the Ninevites by Jonah, but the preaching of Jonah did not come to them until after the whale had vomited him forth, so prophetic teaching was addressed early to the Gentiles, but did not actually come to the Gentiles until after the resurrection of Christ from the grave.”
“Any one is at liberty to open up with a different interpretation, if only it be in harmony with the rule of faith, all the other particulars which are hidden in the symbolic history of the prophet Jonah; but it is obvious that it is not lawful to interpret the three days which he passed in the belly of the whale otherwise than as it has been revealed by the heavenly Master Himself in the gospel, as quoted above.”
This raises the question: Who should we believe? Two holy Church Fathers or some 21st-century Bible experts?