Jonah Through the Centuries. Lena-Sofia Tiemeyer

Author’s Preface

      It is a gargantuan task to cover the uses and misuses of the Book of Jonah throughout the last two millennia. The present commentary does not set out to do so; rather, it aims to showcase some of the more influential re-readings of the book in Jewish, Christian, Muslim, and secular traditions. My starting point will always be the biblical text itself. I shall show how all the retellings ultimately originate within the text itself: sometimes in its theological or literary ambiguities, sometimes in its choice of words, and sometimes in a syntactical construction. In parallel, retellings are fuelled by the interpreter’s preconceived ideas of what the text ought to say, ideas that are often influenced by the interpreter’s religious background and cultural assumptions. As a result, we shall frequently observe how several retellings form clusters according to the interpreters’ religious affiliations: one set of retellings may be labelled typically mediaeval Jewish, whereas another set may be found nearly exclusively in Patristic circles.

Interpretative clusters, Jewish and Christian alike, should never be understood to exist in a vacuum. Rather, they are influenced by one another. A Christian interpretation often triggered a Jewish counter-interpretation, and vice versa. I shall endeavour to explain the dynamic behind this interchange and highlight what societal and religious factors gave rise to a given interpretation.

      Many of the Christian interpretations are strongly anti-Jewish, and some of the Jewish interpretations are, although to a significantly lesser extent, anti-Christian. I neither excuse nor condone these interpretations. It is my hope that the readers of this volume will recognize them for what they are and neither encourage nor propagate their use.

      The notion of interpretative clusters also influences the structure of my commentary. I have arranged the interpretations thematically rather than strictly chronologically. In practical terms, I shall begin with the earliest interpretation and follow that line of thought through to modern times before turning to the next-oldest interpretation, and so forth.

      My commentary progresses slowly through the Book of Jonah, verse by verse and sometimes even word by word. Some verses have given rise to a plethora of interpretations, whereas others have seldom been cited. The commentary reflects this unevenness, with the result that the discussions of key verses, such as Jonah 1:1, 3, and 2:1, will stretch over many pages. Other verses are treated much more succinctly due to the relative lack of interest shown by exegetes.

      The reception of the Book of Jonah interacts not only with the Masoretic text (MT), i.e. the received Hebrew text, but also with a wide range of translations, predominantly the Septuagint (LXX), the Aramaic Targum (TJ), and the Syriac Peshitta (S), among others. Yet, most interpretations, predominantly but not exclusively Jewish ones, have their origin in aspects associated with the Hebrew text. I have therefore opted to open the discussion of each verse with my own very literal translation of the MT into English. I have made limited effort to arrive at an idiomatically pleasing translation; rather, the translation serves to give readers insight into the exact rendering of the Hebrew text. When citing from other passages in the Bible, the translations are from the NIV (unless otherwise stated).

Throughout the commentary, I have avoided, by and large, using Hebrew characters and instead have opted for a simplified form of transliterations. At times, however, I have chosen to include the germane Hebrew words and expressions so that readers familiar with the language can grasp the logic behind a given interpretation. Likewise, when an interpretation stems from the Greek translation of Jonah, I have similarly included the Greek text to enable readers to comprehend the rationale behind the retelling. The same is true for interpretations depending on the Latin text of the Vulgate, etc. In all cases, I provide the original language, accompanied by an English translation.

      In addition, I have endeavoured to find English translations of the original sources. This means that the Jewish Sages, the Church Fathers, the Reformers, and so forth, are not cited in the original Hebrew, Aramaic, Greek, Latin, or German but in the extant English translations. For more details concerning the translations, please see the bibliography. When no translations exist, I have translated the source myself (or asked kind friends for help).

      Reception history is truly synchronic insofar as few interpreters prior to the twentieth century interpreted the Book of Jonah on its own. Jonah was considered a book within a larger canon, and interpreters allowed the rest of that canon to inform the events and concepts within the book. As a result, we should not be surprised to find interpreters drawing from a wide range of biblical passages to support or refute a given interpretation of a passage in Jonah.

      On a related note, I am fully aware that many of the perceived contradictions in the final form(s) of the Book of Jonah can be and have been explained by modern scholarship from source-critical and redaction-critical perspectives. A case in point is the tension between the narrative in Jonah 1, 3–4 and the psalm in Jonah 2. I have wilfully excluded such diachronic interpretations. This approach should be construed as neither endorsement nor rejection of diachronic explanations but as an attempt to preserve the focus of the present commentary on the received text in its final form(s).

      Finally, some technical details.