Jonah

Jonah was a prophet from the Northern Kingdom of Israel around the 8th century BCE. His story is told in the Book of Jonah, one of the minor prophets.

God asked Jonah to go to the city of Nineveh and warn the people there, but Jonah did not want to.

Jonah tried to run away, but a big storm happened at sea. The sailors threw him into the water, and a large fish swallowed him. After three days inside the fish, Jonah asked God for help. The fish spit Jonah out, and he went to Nineveh as God asked.

The people of Nineveh listened to Jonah and changed their ways. This story is important in Judaism, Christianity, and Islam. In the New Testament, Jesus used Jonah’s story. In the Quran, Jonah is also a prophet.

Book of Jonah

Main article: Book of Jonah

Jonah Cast Forth by the Whale (1874) by Gustave Doré

Jonah is a person in an old story. God asked Jonah to go to a big city named Nineveh and tell the people to stop doing bad things. But Jonah did not want to go, so he tried to run away on a boat to a place called Tarshish.

A big storm came, and the people on the boat learned Jonah was the reason. They put him into the water, and a huge fish swallowed him.

Inside the fish, Jonah prayed to God. After three days, God told the fish to let Jonah out. God then asked Jonah again to go to Nineveh. This time Jonah went and told the people that in forty days the city would be destroyed. The people believed him and began to fast and pray, even the king! God saw they were sorry and decided not to destroy the city.

Jonah was upset about this and made a small shelter to wait and see what would happen. God made a plant grow to give Jonah shade, but later let the plant die. Jonah felt very hot and angry, but God reminded him to think about all the people and animals in the city.

Religious views

In Judaism

The Book of Jonah is one of the twelve minor prophets in the Hebrew Bible. Jonah is thought to have been brought back to life by Elijah, or to be the son of the woman of Shunem, saved by Elisha. The Book of Jonah is read every year on Yom Kippur, the Day of Atonement, during the afternoon prayer service.

Illustration of Jonah being swallowed by the fish from the Kennicott Bible, folio 305r (1476), in the Bodleian Library, Oxford

Jewish teachings say that while Jonah was inside a large fish, the fish told him it was in danger of being eaten by a Leviathan. Jonah promised to save them both. They followed Jonah’s directions and escaped the danger.

In Christianity

Jonah is mentioned in the New Testament. In the Gospel of Matthew, Jesus refers to Jonah’s time inside the fish to compare it to his own future resurrection. In the Gospel of Luke, Jesus also uses Jonah’s story as a sign for the people of his time.

In his fresco The Last Judgment, Michelangelo depicted Christ below Jonah (IONAS) to qualify the prophet as his precursor.

Jonah is honored as a saint in several Christian traditions, with feast days celebrated in September. Some Christian thinkers see Jonah’s story as a symbol of Jesus’s journey. Others focus on Jonah’s reluctance and the lessons it teaches.

In Islam

In Islam, Jonah is an important prophet mentioned in the Quran. The Quran tells the story of Jonah being swallowed by a fish and later saved. Jonah is known in Arabic as Yūnus and is respected for his faithfulness to God. Islamic tradition adds details about Jonah’s life and family. There are several places around the world believed to be his tomb.

Scholarly interpretations

The story of a man surviving after being swallowed by a large sea creature is known as a type of folktale.

Jonah and the sea monster, from Christian artwork in Roman catacombs at the end of 2nd century CE. From right to left: Johah jumps off the ship, where a sea monster waits; he is eaten (or spit out) by that sea monster; Johah rests on the beach after release from the monster's belly. The sea monster drawn by the Roman Christians resembles a hippocampus.

Many Biblical scholars believe the Book of Jonah was not about real events. Though the prophet Jonah may have lived long ago, the book was written much later, during the time of the Achaemenid Empire. The language and customs in the book match that time period. Some scholars think the book was meant to be funny or make a point.

Jonah might have been a real prophet, as he is mentioned in the Second Book of Kings. The book uses unusual details, like a very large city, to make its points in a fun way. The idea of someone being swallowed by a big fish became a common theme in later funny stories.

The fish

The story of Jonah tells about a time when he is swallowed by a big sea creature. The Bible calls it a "great fish" or "big fish," but it doesn’t name a specific kind of animal. Some people have thought it might be a whale, but the ancient story doesn’t say this. The story of Jonah is more about a journey and a lesson than about the animal.

Depiction of Jonah and the "great fish" on the south doorway of the Gothic-era Dom St. Peter, in Worms, Germany

Cultural influence

Depiction of Jonah in a champlevé enamel (1181) by Nicholas of Verdun in the Verduner altar at Klosterneuburg abbey, Austria

In Turkish, "Jonah's fish" (yunus balığı) is the name for dolphins. Sailors say that a "Jonah" is someone who brings bad luck and danger to a ship. This idea grew to mean anyone who might bring bad luck to any plan.

The story of Jonah has been used in many books and popular culture. In Herman Melville's Moby-Dick (1851), a character named Father Mapple talks about Jonah’s story. In Carlo Collodi's The Adventures of Pinocchio (1883), Pinocchio and his father Geppetto are swallowed by a big fish, which refers to Jonah’s story. Walt Disney’s 1940 movie of the book keeps this idea. The tale of Jonah was also made into an animated film called Jonah: A VeggieTales Movie (2002) by Phil Vischer and Mike Nawrocki. In the film, Jonah (played by Archibald Asparagus) is swallowed by a very large whale.

Suggested connections to legends

Epic of Gilgamesh

Joseph Campbell says the story of Jonah is like a scene from the Epic of Gilgamesh. In the Book of Jonah, a worm bites the root of a plant that gives shade, and the plant dries up. In the Epic of Gilgamesh, Gilgamesh ties stones to his feet and pulls a plant from the sea floor. When he returns to shore, a serpent eats the plant.

Jason (Greek mythology)

Campbell also saw similarities between Jonah’s story and the tale of Jason from Greek mythology. The Greek name for Jonah is Jonas, which sounds almost like Jason. Gildas Hamel studied the Book of Jonah with old Greek stories and art. He found many shared ideas, such as the heroes’ names, a dove appearing, storms, the sailors’ reactions, a big sea creature, and a special plant called a kikayon. Hamel thinks the Hebrew writer used these older stories but changed them to share his own message.