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
Ninevites 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 great-
est 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 repent
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 reminiscentof
Jeremiah: in the book of Jeremiah, Jerusalem is called the “great city”, which is
what Nineveh 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 passage 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
misfortunes to come and proclaimed a fast for conversion (Jer 36:9), but the king
refused to listen. Jonah, too, announces the destruction of Nineveh, but it is the
Ninevites 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 decree 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 biblical 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
generation and condemn it; for they repented at the preaching of Jonah, and be-
hold, 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
generation after another, granted a time of penance to those who desired to be
converted 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 re-
pented 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 Rom, 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
Nineveh 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 Matthew
12:41-42).
[Note on Matthew 12:41-42 states:
41-42. Nineveh was a city in Mesopotamia (modern Iraq) to which the prophet
Jonah was sent. The Ninevites did penance (John 3:6-9) because they recog-
nized the prophet and accepted his message; whereas Jerusalem does not wish
to recognize 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 Israel. Jesus is also prefigured in Solomon, whom Jewish tradition saw as
the epitome 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.