Jonah—A Quest to Identify its Genre: Festschrift for Gert Prinsloo

Henk  Potgieter

doi:10.25159/2663-6573/12282

Authors

Henk Potgieter University of Pretoria

DOI:

https://doi.org/10.25159/2663-6573/12282

Keywords:

literary form, genre, type-scene, comparison, motif(s), thanksgiving song, mercy formula

Abstract

Considering the brevity of Jonah, or perhaps because of it, it is remarkable that the literary genre of the book remains an enigma. This is not the result of a lack of attempts to classify it. Most scholars agree that Jonah is a narrative, but what type of narrative? This article proposes that Jonah is a narrative about a specific episode in a prophet’s life, namely his flight from an assignment. To verify the possibility of such a literary category, one must find similar incidents in other known prophets’ lives and compare Jonah with those episodes. Consequently, a comparison is made with the story of Moses in Exodus and Elijah in 1 Kings 19.

Metrics

Metrics Loading ...

References

Allen, L. C. 1976. The Books of Joel, Obadiah, Jonah, and Micah. NICOT. London: Hodder & Stoughton.

Alter, Robert. 1985. The Art of Biblical Narrative. New York: Basic Books.

Burrows, M. 1970. “The Literary Category of the Book of Jonah.” In Translating and Understanding the Old Testament: Essays in Honour of Herbert Gordon May, edited by H. T. Frank and W. L. Reed, 80–107. Nashville: Abingdon.

Magonet, J. 1976. Form and Meaning: Studies in the Literary Techniques in the Book of Jonah. Frankfurt: Peter Lang.

Riddle, Mark E. 2007. “ Obadiah-Jonah-Micah in Canonical Context: The Nature of Prophetic Literature and Hermeneutics.” Interpretation 61 (2): 154–64. https://doi.org/10.1177/002096430706100204 DOI: https://doi.org/10.1177/002096430706100204

Salters, R. B. 1994. Jonah & Lamentations. Old Testament Guides. Sheffield: JSOT Press.

Schellenberg, Annette. 2015. “An Anti-Prophet among the Prophets? On the Relationship of Jonah to Prophecy.” Journal for the Study of the Old Testament 39 (3): 353–71. https://doi.org/10.1177/0309089215577593 DOI: https://doi.org/10.1177/0309089215577593

Steenkamp, Y., and G. T. M. Prinsloo. 2003. “Another Look at Jonah 2.” Old Testament Essays 16 (2): 435–52.

West, M. 1984. “Irony in the Book of Jonah: Audience Identification With the Hero.” Perspectives in Religious Studies 11 (3): 233–42.