The Prophet Jonah (source)
The Sign of Jonah, by Fr. John Breck
Of the fifteen Old Testament passages read in Orthodox practice at the vesperal Divine Liturgy of Holy Saturday, the fourth consists of the entire, brief book of Jonah. Although the book is numbered among the “Minor Prophets,” it is unique: rather than offer a compilation of prophetic utterances, it recounts a spiritual pilgrimage. However we may assess its “historicity,” the work is preserved in the Church’s canon of Scripture because of its timeless proclamation of God’s universal saving grace and love. It is a story of rebellion and redemption, of God’s forgiveness and mercy extended alike to Jew and Gentile, saint and sinner, you and me.
To the Fathers of the Church, Jonah is a “type,” a prophetic image that points forward to and is fulfilled by Jesus Christ, the eternal Son of God. The blessed Augustine declares, “as Jonah went from the [wooden] ship into the belly of the whale, so Christ went from the tree [of the cross] into the tomb, or into the abyss of death. As Jonah was sacrificed for those endangered by the storm, so Christ was offered for those who are drowning in the storm of this world” (Letter 102). St Cyril of Jerusalem compares Jonah and Jesus in the following way. Both were sent by God to preach repentance; both were able to calm the tempestuous sea; both sojourned in a place of death and emerged by the will and power of God. “As Jonah was in the belly of the fish three days and three nights, so will the Son of Man be three days and three nights in the heart of the earth” (Catechetical Lectures, on Mt. 12:40). In the case of Jonah, however, the calming of the sea and his “resurrection” from the belly of the great fish are works wrought by God, whereas in the case of Jesus the miraculous power is His own as One of the Holy Trinity.
More specifically, Jonah is an image of the Jewish people in the time of their reconstruction following the Exile into Babylon. The prophet is identified as “Jonah, son of Amittai,” who lived under the reign of King Jeroboam II (ca.786-746; 2 Ki. 14:25). Most commentators, however, date the book during the post-Exilic period (from the late 6th century BC). At that time, the great figures of Ezra, Nehemiah and the prophet Obadiah were struggling to preserve Jewish tradition over against the religious syncretism and idolatry of surrounding pagan countries. The result was to lead Israel into a period of strict isolation, expressed as a rejection and even a despising of heathen nations. Jonah, by this reading, is a didactic figure, who finally, if reluctantly, proclaims God’s pardon to the repentant people of Nineveh. Thereby he serves to prepare for the coming of Christ, the Messiah, whose life, death and resurrection will work redemption not only for the chosen people of Israel, but for the world as a whole.
Twice in His recorded teachings Jesus speaks of “the sign of Jonah” (Mt 12:39; Lk 11:29). These are parallel passages, although each evangelist has shaped the received tradition in such a way as to drive home a particular theological point. If the Church has retained the prophecy of Jonah in its Holy Saturday lectionary, it is primarily because of the parallel between Jonah and Jesus presented in images of death, burial and resurrection. The prophet, having been cast into the sea (an image of chaos and death), is swallowed by a “great fish” or “whale,” symbol of the tomb; after three days and nights he is expelled onto the shore, in order to continue his mission to call the Ninevites to repentance. The Lord Jesus is crucified, then buried in Joseph’s tomb, to rise “on the third day,” in order to pursue His own mission to call the world to repentance and salvation. The message of Holy Saturday, with the reading of the prophecy of Jonah, is the message of victory over death, of Christ’s resurrection and the destruction of the power of Sheol. It is the paschal message that proclaims God’s universal love, offered freely and without limit to both Hebrew and Ninevite, to Jew and Gentile alike, that is, to all those who seek their salvation through the person and work of the Son of God.
The sign of Jonah, though, is not limited to a prophetic announcement of Christ’s resurrection. In St Luke’s version of Jesus’ saying (11:29-32), there is no allusion to resurrection at all. Here Jesus declares, “This generation is an evil generation. It seeks a sign, but no sign shall be given to it except the sign of Jonah. For as Jonah became a sign to the men of Nineveh, so will the Son of Man be to this generation.” If Jonah is not a “sign,” a wondrous portent, of Christ’s victory over death in this Gospel, then in what sense is he a sign? To the evangelist Luke, the sign is Jonah’s proclamation, his fervent appeal to the Ninevites to repent of their sinful ways, to abandon their idolatry, and to commit their lives to the God of Israel, the unique Lord of heaven and earth. Jesus, like Jonah, comes from afar (may we see here an allusion to His “preexistence,” His eternal presence with the Father?). He comes, like his predecessor, as a prophetic witness to God’s work of salvation that seeks to embrace all of humankind. And like that earlier message, Jesus’ words summon an “evil generation”—which signifies every generation, including our own—to repent: to turn from and reject the deception of idolatry and the lure of sinful and corrupting behavior, in order to welcome and embrace the One who comes to proclaim and to offer salvation to all.
On Holy Saturday the Church announces the good news of Christ’s resurrection, and it does so in part by recalling the story of the reluctant prophet Jonah. Together with his story, however, there goes a summons that takes its final shape in these words of Jesus, that resurrection from death and salvation to eternal life are offered to those—to all those, but only to those—who hear the prophetic call to repentance, heed that call, and embrace, with faith and with love, the One God and Author of Life.
Christ is risen!
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The Holy Prophet Jonah (source)
The Book of Jonah
1Now the word of the Lord came to Jonas the son of Amathi, saying, 2Rise, and go to Nineve, the great city, and preach in it; for the cry of its wickedness is come up to me. 3But Jonas rose up to flee to Tharsis from the presence of the Lord. And he went down to Joppa, and found a ship going to Tharsis: and he paid his fare, and went up into it, to sail with them to Tharsis from the presence of the Lord.
4And the Lord raised up a wind on the sea; and there was a great storm on the sea, and the ship was in danger of being broken. 5And the sailors were alarmed, and cried every one to his god, and cast out the wares that were in the ship into the sea, that it might be lightened of them. But Jonas was gone down into the hold of the ship, and was asleep, and snored. 6And the shipmaster came to him, and said to him, Why snorest thou? arise, and call upon thy God, that God may save us, and we perish not.
7And each man said to his neighbour, Come, let us cast lots, and find out for whose sake this mischief is upon us. So they cast lots, and the lot fell upon Jonas. 8And they said to him, Tell us what is thine occupation, and whence comest thou, and of what country and what people art thou? 9And he said to them, I am a servant of the Lord; and I worship the Lord God of heaven, who made the sea, and the dry land.
10Then the men feared exceedingly, and said to him, What is this that thou hast done? for the men knew that he was fleeing from the face of the Lord, because he had told them.
11And they said to him, What shall we do to thee, that the sea may be calm to us? for the sea rose, and lifted its wave exceedingly. 12And Jonas said to them, Take me up, and cast me into the sea, and the sea shall be calm to you: for I know that for my sake this great tempest is upon you. 13And the men tried hard to return to the land, and were not able: for the sea rose and grew more and more tempestuous against them. 14And they cried to the Lord, and said, Forbid it, Lord: let us not perish for the sake of this man's life, and bring not righteous blood upon us: for thou, Lord, hast done as thou wouldest.
15So they took Jonas, and cast him out into the sea: and the sea ceased from its raging. 16And the men feared the Lord very greatly, and offered a sacrifice to the Lord, and vowed vows.
17Now the Lord had commanded a great whale to swallow up Jonas: and Jonas was in the belly of the whale three days and three nights.
Icon depicting the Book of Jonah (source)
1And Jonas prayed to the Lord his God out of the belly of the whale,
2and said, I cried in my affliction to the Lord my God, and he hearkened to me, even to my cry out of the belly of hell: thou heardest my voice.
3Thou didst cast me into the depths of the heart of the sea, and the floods compassed me: all thy billows and thy waves have passed upon me.
4And I said, I am cast out of thy presence: shall I indeed look again toward thy holy temple?
5Water was poured around me to the soul: the lowest deep compassed me, my head went down
6to the clefts of the mountains; I went down into the earth, whose bars are the everlasting barriers: yet, O Lord my God, let my ruined life be restored.
7When my soul was failing me, I remembered the Lord; and may my prayer come to thee into thy holy temple.
8They that observe vanities and lies have forsaken their own mercy.
9But I will sacrifice to thee with the voice of praise and thanksgiving: all that I have vowed I will pay to thee, the Lord of my salvation.
10And the whale was commanded by the Lord, and it cast up Jonas on the dry land.
The Prophet Jonah from the Menologion of Basil (source)
1And the word of the Lord came to Jonas the second time, saying, 2Rise, go to Nineve, the great city, and preach in it according to the former preaching which I spoke to thee of. 3And Jonas arose, and went to Nineve, as the Lord had spoken. Now Nineve was an exceeding great city, of about three days' journey. 4And Jonas began to enter into the city about a day's journey, and he proclaimed, and said, Yet three days, and Nineve shall be overthrown.
5And the men of Nineve believed God, and proclaimed a fast, and put on sackcloths, from the greatest of them to the least of them. 6And the word reached the king of Nineve, and he arose from off his throne, and took off his raiment from him, and put on sackcloth, and sat on ashes. 7And proclamation was made, and it was commanded in Nineve by the king an by his great men, saying, Let not men, or cattle, or oxen, or sheep, taste any thing, nor feed, nor drink water. 8So men and cattle were clothed with sackcloths, and cried earnestly to God; and they turned every one from their evil way, and from the iniquity that was in their hands, saying, 9Who knows if God will repent, and turn from his fierce anger, and so we shall not perish?
10And God saw their works, that they turned from their evil ways; and God repented of the evil which he had said he would do to them; and he did it not.
The Prophet Jonah from the Paris Psalter (source)
1But Jonas was very deeply grieved, and he was confounded. 2And he prayed to the Lord, and said, O Lord, were not these my words when I was yet in my land? therefore I made haste to flee to Tharsis; because I knew that thou are merciful and compassionate, long-suffering, and abundant in kindness, and repentest of evil. 3And now, Lord God, take my life from me; for it is better for me to die than to live. 4And the Lord said to Jonas, Art thou very much grieved?
5And Jonas went out from the city, and sat over against the city; and he made for himself there a booth, and he sat under it, until he should perceive what would become of the city. 6And the Lord God commanded a gourd, and it came up over the head of Jonas, to be a shadow over his head, to shade him from his calamities: and Jonas rejoiced with great joy for the gourd. 7And God commanded a worm the next morning, and it smote the gourd, and it withered away. 8And it came to pass at the rising of the sun, that God commanded a burning east wind; and the sun smote on the head of Jonas, and he fainted, and despaired of his life, and said, It is better for me to die than to live.
9And God said to Jonas, Art thou very much grieved for the gourd? And he said, I am very much grieved, even to death. 10And the Lord said, Thou hadst pity on the gourd, for which thou has not suffered, neither didst thou rear it; which came up before night, and perished before another night: 11and shall not I spare Nineve, the great city, in which dwell more than twelve myriads of human beings, who do not know their right hand or their left hand; and also much cattle?
-The Book of Jonah, read at Vesperal Liturgy on Great Saturday
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The Prophet Jonah (source)
Through the prayers of our Holy Fathers, Lord Jesus Christ our God, have mercy on us and save us! Amen!
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