Rabbi Natasha Mann

This piece first appeared in Rabbi Natasha's commentary on the 929 Tanakh project  here . The sudden switch of Nineveh’s spiritual state would be fanciful in many narratives, but works in the weird and wonderful world of Jonah. Jonah, recently spewed upon the land by the giant fish in which he has been living, utters a proclamation (3:4: ‘Forty days more, and Nineveh shall be overturned!’). It is four words long, does not mention God or divine prophecy, and is perhaps only uttered once. And yet the city immediately turns on its heel and repents, saving it (for the time-being) from its fate. Nineveh is a polytheistic city, and Jonah failed to mention that his proclamation was a prophecy from a universal God, but this doesn’t seem to be a problem. Unprompted, the Ninevites refer to God in a monotheistic manner. They use the name ‘E-lohim’. Though ‘E-lohim’ might look plural in number, it is used solely with singular verbs, indicating that it is God (and not a number of gods) to w...

The Book of Jonah Background of Jonah Time:  Set: Pre-Northern Dispersion (Pre-722BCE); written: Persian Period Place: Travelling Kings:  Jeroboam II (786–746 BCE)? (II Kings 14:25) Political Backdrop: ·        Assyrians are primary political threat Primary Themes of Jonah: ·        Justice, Mercy, and the Power of Teshuvah ·        Universalism and Nationalism ·        Topsy-Turvy o    The prophet disobeys God; the foreign pagans obey o    Jonah runs from his mission, but is the most successful prophet in Jewish history ·        The Genre of Jonah o    Prophetic Literature? o    Satire? o    Parable? o    Meta-Prophetic Literature? Structure of Jonah Content Verses Sectio...