The Prophet Jonah

Jonah, one of the twelve Minor Prophets, was somewhat of a rebellious prophet who first ignored God's command to dutifully preach against the sins of the people of Nineveh. In failing to do so, God caused the ancient prophet to end up in the belly of a whale for three days. After such an event, Jonah predicted certain territories would be recovered during the reign of Jeroboam II (c/786-746), yet God changed his mind and allowed the city of Nineveh to prosper.

The Rebellious Prophet

Jonah's beginnings are a little sketchy, but has been revered as one of the prophets from the Kingdom of Israel by Christianity, Judaism and Islam. This ancient prophet is identified as the son of Amittai (mentioned in 2 Kings 14:25 and Jonah 1:1) and his story begins in Gath-hepher, a settlement north of Nazareth.

When commanded by God to go to the city of Nineveh to prophesy against their "great wickedness", Jonah became frightened and fled the "presence of the Lord" by going to Jaffa instead. (Jonah 1:1-2) At Jaffa [aka: Joffa or Joppe] Jonah boarded a ship and set sail for Tarshish, which was in the opposite direction. (Jonah 1:3)

"Then the Lord sent a great wind on the sea, and such a violent storm arose that the ship threatened to break up. All the sailors were afraid and each cried out to his own god. And they threw the cargo into the sea to lighten the ship." ~ Jonah 1:4-5

Jonah, while aboard the ship to Tarshish, continued to hide from the Lord in the lowest bowels of the vessel. Above, the frightened crew looked to their Captain for guidance, who in turn went to question the stranger that had boarded his ship and remained below deck.

"The captain went to him and said, “How can you sleep? Get up and call on your god! Maybe he will take notice of us so that we will not perish.” ~ Jonah 1:6

The crew grew restless awaiting their captain's return and drew lots to see who was responsible for the sudden doom they were facing. The lot was cast to Jonah. (Jonah 1:7-8)

In the Belly of the Whale

When the men of the ship heard that Jonah was of Hebrew lineage, they became sore afraid. But, the ancient prophet, feeling guilty for not obeying God, told the ship's crew to throw him overboard and they would be saved. (Jonah 1:9-14). At first they were hesitate to do such a deed, then changed their mind when the seas grew even rougher and they threw Jonah into the sea, which instantly calmed. The Captain and his crew became believers in the Hebrew god that day. (Jonah 1:15-16).

"Now the Lord provided a huge fish to swallow Jonah, and Jonah was in the belly of the fish three days and three nights." ~ Jonah 1:17

For the three days that Jonah was inside the whale Jonah held a continual prayer vigil. (Jonah 2:1-8) He implored and cried unto the God of the Hebrews to receive his thanks for being chosen as a special messenger and now knew his destiny was to proclaim that "Salvation comes from the Lord". (Jonah 2:9)

 "And the Lord commanded the fish, and it vomited Jonah onto dry land." ~ Jonah 2:10

Jonah's Message from the Lord

Being a reluctant prophet, Jonah did not truly understand the entire concept of God's plan when he first began his quest to Nineveh to do God's bidding.

"Jonah began by going a day’s journey into the city, proclaiming, “Forty more days and Nineveh will be overthrown.” ~ Jonah 3:4

The prophet from Gath-Hepher felt very confident in proclaiming God's word to the sinners of Nineveh. And, therefore, became angry when the God did not follow through with his threat to bring destruction upon the people. Instead the God of the Hebrews showed compassion when the Ninevites turned from their evil ways and believed His decree. (Jonah 3:10) The ancient prophet became confused by God's change of heart, considering Nineveh was an enemy of his home country, Israel; soon after, Jonah left the city that God had spared. Being alone, he prayed unto the God of his fathers, trying to understand and clarify God's mercy to the people of Nineveh. (Jonah 4:1-3) Jonah was perturbed about this. He made himself a shelter from the sun, which he hoped would help him find the answers he seeked. God provided him with a shady plant to provide some reprieve from the heat. Jonah had appreciated the coolness the Lord provided and became happy once again knowing the Lord would take care of him.  Yet the next morning when the plant had withered away and the sun scorched his skin, Jonah again became angry. (Jonah 4:8-9)

"But the Lord said, “You have been concerned about this plant, though you did not tend it or make it grow. It sprang up overnight and died overnight. And should I not have concern for the great city of Nineveh, in which there are more than a hundred and twenty thousand people who cannot tell their right hand from their left—and also many animals?” ~ Jonah 4:10-11

The Christian Perspective

In the Gospel of Matthew, Jesus makes a direct reference to the Prophet Jonah when he is asked for a miraculous sign by the Pharisees. Jesus says that the sign will be the sign of Jonah. What Jesus is implying here is that Jonah's restoration after three days inside the whale prefigures His own resurrection. 

"For as Jonah was three days and three nights in the belly of a huge fish, so the Son of Man will be three days and three nights in the heart of the earth. The men of Nineveh will stand up at the judgment with this generation and condemn it; for they repented at the preaching of Jonah, and now something greater than Jonah is here." ~ Matthew 12:40-41

When it finally dawned on Jonah that God would save those whom believed upon him and came to accept such a conclusion, the ancient prophet finally understood the plan God had presented him.

The Jewish Perspective

According to Jewish tradition, Jonah was the boy brought back to life by Elijah the Prophet, and shares many of his characteristics (in particular, his desire for "strict judgment"). Another prominent idea in Judaism concerning Jonah is the ability to repent and be forgiven by God. Even though the prophet refused to ask the people of Nineveh to repent in the beginning, he soon learned the truth he was seeking was all about forgiveness to begin with. It did not matter that Nineveh was the enemy of Israel: God showed mercy. 

The phrase in Jonah 3:1, "and the word of God came unto Jonah the second time," is interpreted by Rabbi Akiba to imply that God spoke only twice to him; therefore the "word of God" to him in 2 Kings 14:25 has no reference to a prophecy which Jonah delivered in the days of Jeroboam II., but must be taken in the sense that [as at Nineveh] Jonah's words changed evil to good, so under Jeroboam, Israel experienced a change of fortune (Yevamot 98a)

The Islamic Perspective 

In Islam, Yunus (Jonah) is revered as prophet who was faithful to God and delivered His message. The story's similarities in the Hebrew narrative are almost the same as in the holy Islamic Bible (Qur'an). In Muslim tradition, the ancient prophet came from the Tribe of Benjamin and was the only Minor Prophet mentioned by name in the Qur'an.

"So also was Yunus among those sent (by Us). When he ran away (like a slave from captivity) to the ship (fully) laden, He (agreed to) cast lots, and he was condemned: Then the big Fish did swallow him, and he had done acts worthy of blame. Had it not been that he (repented and) glorified Allah, He would certainly have remained inside the Fish till the Day of Resurrection."— Qur'an, chapter 37 (As-Saaffat), verse 139–144

Jonah was mentioned by the Prophet Muhammad on various occasions. One of the sayings of Muhammad, in the collection of Imam Bukhari, states that the Islamic prophet said, "One should not say that I am better than Yunus".  This is understood by both mainstream Muslims and historians to have been stated by Muhammad to emphasize the notion of equality between all the prophets and the law of making no distinction between any of the messengers.

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 Interesting Tidbits

• At the present time, Nineveh's location is marked by excavations of five gates, parts of walls on four sides, and two large mounds: the hill of Kuyunjik and hill of Nabi Yunus.

• On Nabi Yunus there was a shrine dedicated to the prophet Jonah, which was revered by both Muslims and Christians, as it was believed to hold Jonah's tomb. .

• The town of Gath-hepher has retained its name to this day. It is near the Gallilean Arab town of Mashhad, where a monument for Jonah [Nebi Yunes] still exists.

• In the city of Ashdod the light-tower hill is called Givat-Yonah, on the holy Muslim site of Nebi Yunes, which according to traditions of the three monotheistic Abrahamic religions, is the site where Jonah was thrown by the large fish.

• The city of Jaffa has a main street named after Jonah. The ancient port of Jaffa is still intact and functional. Archeological diggings found that the port was functioning at this location as early as 300 BC.

• Jonah's burial place according to the Jewish tradition is in the village of his birth, Gath-hepher, in the Galilee region of Israel. 

• Another sanctuary and mosque called Nebi Yunes is in the Palestinian West Bank town of Halhul, 5 km (3.1 mi) north of Hebron. Muslim tradition has it that this is the burial site of Jonah the prophet

• The sanctuary of Jama Naballa Jonas is another place that, according to Christian and Muslim tradition, claims to be Jonah's grave, near the city of Mosul (present-day Iraq), near the ancient remnants of Nineveh. On July 24, 2014, the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL) destroyed the masjid, near Mosul, containing the tomb as part of a campaign to destroy religious sanctuaries it deemed to be idolatrous.