Re: Jonah, God, and Nineveh -- Mimetic Theory and Literary Study

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Date Posted: 20:30:30 03/09/08 Sun
Author: Erin Risch
Subject: Re: Jonah, God, and Nineveh
In reply to: j.jackson 's message, "Re: Jonah, God, and Nineveh" on 06:36:12 03/04/08 Tue

This morning we were reading Jonah in church, and I was thinking about what Dr. Jackson told us our freshman year about how the Ninevites understanding Torah better than Jonah did. I wonder if a possible manifestation of this is when Jonah requests that the sailors (who aren't Ninevites, but who aren't Hebrew, either) throw him overboard.

And he said unto them: 'Take me up, and cast me forth into the sea; so shall the sea be calm unto you; for I know that for my sake this great tempest is upon you.'

Nevertheless the men rowed hard to bring it to the land; but they could not; for the sea grew more and more tempestuous against them.

It occurred to me that casting oneself overboard (i.e., suicide, which is actually a better way of running away from God than going to Tarshish is) has never been an acceptable method for dealing with God's wrath. And the sailors seem to understand that, or they are at least hesitant to effectively kill Jonah, for "nevertheless the men rowed hard to bring it to land."

Now that I've typed this up, I wonder if Dr. Jackson actually told us this, and I just remembered it but believed it to be autonomous. It's hard to tell.

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Replies:

On suicide -- Betsy Peters, 10:01:30 03/11/08 Tue
Row against the storm to stop reciprocation -- Betsy Peters, 10:08:38 03/11/08 Tue