From: Jonah 3:1-10
Jonah preaches repentance in Nineveh
The people of Nineveh do penance
[6] Then tidings reached the king of Nineveh, and he arose from his throne, re-
moved his robe, and covered himself with sackcloth, and sat in ashes. [7] And
he made proclamation and published through Nineveh, “By the decree of the king
and his nobles: Let neither man nor beast, herd nor flock, taste anything; let them
not feed, or drink water, [8] but let man and beast be covered with sackcloth, and
let them cry mightily to God; yea, let every one turn from his evil way and from the
violence which is in his hands. [9] Who knows, God may yet repent and turn from
his fierce anger, so that we perish not?”
[10] When God saw what they did, how they turned from their evil way, God re-
pented of the evil which he had said he would do to them; and he did not do it.
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Commentary:
3:1-4:11. The second part of the book has a similar structure to the first — God
and Jonah (3:1-3; cf. 1:1-3); Jonah and Gentiles (3:4-10; cf. 1:4-16); Jonah and
God (4:1-11; cf. 1:17-2:10). However, the reader is now psychologically prepared
for what will happen: Jonah’s preaching will produce the desired result and the Ni-
nevites will be converted. So, the story is geared to the last chapter which poses
and solves the question that chapter 3 provokes. The episode described in this
second part is therefore a practical illustration of the scope of God’s mercy. It
was used as such in the debate with the Gnostics who argued that there was a
difference between the good God (the God revealed in the New Testament) and
the God revealed in the Old Testament: “See how the stress is laid on the grea-
test name and quality of God, his Mercy; that is, God is patient with evildoers,
and rich in mercy and compassion for those who recognize their faults and re-
pent them, as the Ninevites did. If such a Being as he is so good, you […] have
to admit that he can do no evil for, as Marcion himself once said, a good tree
cannot bear bad fruit” (Tertullian, “Adversus Marcionem”, 2, 24).
3:1-4. God renews his command to Jonah. And this time Jonah obeys. Maybe
the vows he promised to fulfil in 2:9 had to do with this — going to preach in Nine-
veh. Anyway, the success of his mission is assured, because it depends not on
Jonah but on the Lord: it would take three days to cross Nineveh (v. 3), but he
has only gone one day in his journey and the people convert (cf. 3:5).
3:5-10. The account of the conversion of the Ninevites looks like a straight copy
from other biblical passages, particularly from the prophet Jeremiah: Jeremiah is
the “prophet to the nations” (Jer 1:5), and Jonah is sent to the archetypal Gentile
city. There are many little things in this passage that are reminiscent of Jeremiah:
in the book of Jeremiah, Jerusalem is called the “great city”, which is what Nine-
veh is called here (1:2; 3:2; cf. Jer 22:8-9), and both books have similar turns of
phrase such as “let every one turn from his evil way”, and “man and beast”,
“from the greatest to the least” (3:5, 8; cf. Jer 6:14; 8:10; 36:3, 7), etc. This pas-
sage is particularly reminiscent of the call for a fast made by Jeremiah in the time
of King Jehoiakim; in Jeremiah 36 we are told how the prophet warned of misfor-
tunes to come and proclaimed a fast for conversion (Jer 36:9), but the king refu-
sed to listen. Jonah, too, announces the destruction of Nineveh, but it is the Ni-
nevites themselves who proclaim a general fast, as if God were speaking through
them. Their own king establishes what the fast will involve, and he issues a de-
cree that sounds just like something a prophet would have said (vv. 7-9); cf. Joel
2:12-14). Furthermore, the king of the Ninevites seems to be quite familiar with bi-
blical teaching, for he is well aware (cf. Jer 36:3, 9) that displays of penance will
not automatically stay God’s hand; the king has a genuine change of heart and is
ready to submit to God (v. 9), and when God sees that these people are ready to
mend their ways, he revokes his decision to punish them (v. 10). The episode
bears out Jeremiah’s teaching about repentance (cf. Jer 18:7-8).
The difference between the Ninevites and the Israelites can be seen in the use
that Jesus makes of this passage when he compares his Jewish contemporaries
with their ancestors: “The men of Nineveh will arise at the judgment with this ge-
neration and condemn it; for they repented at the preaching of Jonah, and behold,
something greater than Jonah is here” (Mt 12:41). It is not surprising, then, that
in Christian tradition, the Ninevites are referred to as a model of repentance: “Let
us cast our minds back over the history of men, and see how the Lord, in one ge-
neration after another, granted a time of penance to those who desired to be con-
verted to him. Noah preached salvation, and those who listened to him were saved.
Jonah told the Ninevites that their city would be destroyed, and they repented of
their sins and asked God for forgiveness and were saved by the power of their
pleading, even though they were not part of the chosen people” (St Clement of
Rome, “Ad Corinthios”, 7, 5-7).
And another text by a great Father of the Eastern Church says: “Do not dwell on
how little time you have, but on the love of the Master. The inhabitants of Nine-
veh cooled God’s wrath in three days. They did not despair at how little time was
left to them; their troubled souls won over the goodness of the Master, and he
brought about their salvation” (St John Chrysostom, “De incomprehensibile Dei
natura”, 6).
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Source: “The Navarre Bible: Text and Commentaries”. Biblical text from the
Revised Standard Version and New Vulgate. Commentaries by members of
the Faculty of Theology, University of Navarre, Spain.
Published by Four Courts Press, Kill Lane, Blackrock, Co. Dublin, Ireland, and
by Scepter Publishers in the United States.
From: Luke 11:29-32
The Sign of Jonah
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Commentary:
29-32. Jonah was the prophet who led the Ninevites to do penance: his actions
and preaching they saw as signifying that God had sent him (cf. note on Mat-
thew 12:41-42).
[Note on Matthew 12:41-42 states:
41-42. Nineveh was a city in Mesopotamia (modern Iraq) to which the prophet Jo-
nah was sent. The Ninevites did penance (John 3:6-9) because they recognized
the prophet and accepted his message; whereas Jerusalem does not wish to re-
cognize Jesus, of whom Jonah was merely a figure. The queen of the South was
the queen of Sheba in southwestern Arabia, who visited Solomon (1 Kings 10:1-
10) and was in awe of the wisdom with which God had endowed the King of Isra-
el. Jesus is also prefigured in Solomon, whom Jewish tradition saw as the epito-
me of the wise man. Jesus’ reproach is accentuated by the example of pagan
converts, and gives us a glimpse of the universal scope of Christianity, which will
take root among the Gentiles.
There is a certain irony in what Jesus says about “something greater” than Jonah
or Solomon having come: really, He is infinitely greater, but Jesus prefers to tone
down the difference between Himself and any figure, no matter how important, in
the Old Testament.]
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Source: “The Navarre Bible: Text and Commentaries”. Biblical text from the
Revised Standard Version and New Vulgate. Commentaries by members of
the Faculty of Theology, University of Navarre, Spain.
Published by Four Courts Press, Kill Lane, Blackrock, Co. Dublin, Ireland, and
by Scepter Publishers in the United States.