The Book of the Twelve: Hosea-Jonah

The Oddmann In: The Question of Jonah's Entry into the Twelve, 2015

This is a manuscript read at The Society of Biblical Literature Annual Meeting in Atlanta, Georgia. In it, I argue that Jonah's three-stage compositional history should be further investigated as occurring within the developing Book of the Twelve (B12), not outside of the B12, as though it circulated independently. One of the ramifications of this hypothesis is the need to nuance further (if not abandon) the assumption that Jonah was a late addition to the B12, if not its final major stage of B12's literary formation.

2023

Jonah is considered one of the 12 Minor Prophets in the Hebrew Canon. The circumstances in Jonah are dated around 785 B.C. and in the Jewish canon it is part of a larger book “The Twelve”. In Christian Scripture it is a separate book. The short account seems to oppose narrow Jewish nationalism of the eight century B.C. The short exegetical analysis I attempt follows the processes described by Henry Virkler and Karelynne Ayayo.

Jurnal Jaffray

This article focuses on the spiritual struggles of Jonah, as narrated in the book bearing his name. While negative evaluations of Jonah's character have dominated recent scholarly work (for example, as a disobedient, stubborn, nationalistic prophet or anti-hero), this article argues that such categorizations are too simplistic and flat. Jonah is, instead, a complex, round character who dares to disobey and argue with God in the course of his struggle to understand and respond to God's attributes and purposes. Throughout Jonah's book, we see God's patience and mercy at work as he commissioned, disciplined, rescued, recommissioned, and educated Jonah. The article includes an inductive summary of the words and actions of Jonah, a literature review, a re-reading of the text in dialogue with scholarly voices focused on the spiritual struggle of the prophet, and a discussion of key pastoral implications for the calling, discernment and character formation of those in Christian ministry.

An exposition of the Hebrew text.

Reader's comment: "Thank you so much for writing & sharing 'Reading Jonah.' I work full time (hoping to go to grad school next year) so I’m on my own to keep up my hard-won Hebrew. I’m so happy! What a wonderful tool for independent learners. I’m excited to get to Ruth, too. Thank you, thank you & thank you!" –Corinna in Seattle

Journal of Hebrew Scriptures, 2009

The first part of this article reviews significant scholarly contributions on the Book of Jonah for the last ten years. Looking specifically at the work of Serge Frolov, Yvonne Sherwood, Ehud Ben Zvi, Lowell Handy and T.A. Perry demonstrates that exegesis of Jonah has entered a very fruitful period, free of the anti-Jewish biases characteristic of earlier readings and armed with more information about post-exilic Judah than ever before. Next, the article looks at God’s reference to the animals in Jon 4:11 and reads it as an expression of God’s desire for the newly submissive Ninevites to offer sacrifice to him, as the sailors do in 1:16 and Jonah vows in 2:10. Thus God is portrayed, like many ancient Near Eastern potentates, as extending his rule over peoples and exacting tribute.

An exposition of the Hebrew text.