[In Jonah 1 t]he sailors are innocent victims of God’s terror; Jonah is the guilty victim. His struggles with Yahweh threaten others, and his speeches compound the predicament. He declares Yahweh to be “the god of heaven, who made the sea and the dry land” at the same time that he seeks to flee from this deity. Jonah’s flight betrays his words, and his words mock his flight. Moreover, his belated acceptance of responsibility belies his concern for others. Ostensibly he offers himself as the sacrificial victim to save the sailors, but his ulterior motive is to defy Yahweh by being hurled into the sea. Egotism parades as altruism. Jonah manifests the gap between cognitive speech and existential behavior or the gap between faithfulness and deception. His mode of being endangers others and betrays God. --Phyllis Trible, “The Book of Jonah,” in New Interpreter’s Bible, Vol. 7
Posted on: Wed, 15 Oct 2014 05:48:18 +0000
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