Cultural Literacy (pt. 3 of 3): Prophetic or Prejudice?
I’ll admit, that title’s kind of edgey, but I think it suits our subject matter, and the series (see part 2 and part 3) really well. As we continue in our exercise of cultural literacy, I’m excited to consider Jonah with you. It’s a short Old Testament text, only 4 chapters. We don’t start with a lot of context, so commentaries are helpful in understanding it. That, and considering it within the context of other Old Testament passages.
Jonah was an Old Testament prophet, and this passage is probably from somewhere between 780 BC and 740 BC. Considering this is the Old Testament, prophets still had a fairly unique role in the community of God. Given there’s no Internet, no mass production of religious text, or an institutionalized system of education that will allow for people to become intimately acquainted with the scriptures at fairly low costs (consider a Christian charter school, a Catholic elementary school, etc.), prophets represented a direct line of communication with God. These were people that God spoke through. Prophets told lay men and women what God had to say. To be sure, it wasn’t a small responsibility; operating in this role was of great significance. And given the tumultuous nature of Israel’s relationship with God in the Old Testament, prophets were paramount in people knowing what needed to be done in order to please God.
Chapter 1 opens up with a simple enough idea. God wants Jonah to prophesy to the city of Nineveh, which is in Assyria. In order to do this, he would need to leave his home, near Nazareth, and go to Assyria. It would have been a 500-mile trek. But here’s where things get interesting. As far as 500 miles would have been during that time, ironically, Jonah is resolved about going in the opposite direction, even FURTHER, to a town called Tarshish that’s 2,500 miles away. It would seem that Jonah wanted no part in a missionary journey to Nineveh, choosing to flee from God instead. But life isn’t that simple… you can’t run from God, certainly not if you’re a prophet. In the midst of running from God, Jonah experiences a sequence of divinely orchestrated setbacks to his plan, including a powerful seastorm (Jonah 1:4), a schism onboard the ship between him and his shipmates (Jonah 1:7-8), being thrown overboard by his shipmates (Jonah 1:15), and finally, being swallowed alive by a fish (Jonah 1:17) that wouldn’t vomit him up for 3 days (Jonah 1:17; Jonah 2:10). After being unwilling initially, Jonah decides to go on this mission trip and preaches to the Ninevites. As it turns out, Nineveh decides to repent.
Happy ending, right? Absolutely not. The book actually closes with Jonah expressing his frustration to God about the whole ordeal.
Part of the reason Jonah was mad was because he was probably being racist (that or self righteous). Straight up. We’ll talk about why in just a second, but let’s start with that… The book of Jonah is about a racist prophet. And it doesn’t really matter if we’re talking about the attitudinal, affective, or emotional dimension of racism (many refer to this as prejudice, meaning it’s in our mind and/or heart) or if we’re talking about the behavioral dimension of racism (many refer to this as discrimination, meaning it affects how we behave), our prophet Jonah is not reflecting the heart of God. He’s being straight up racist (I should probably note, as a minor point, ethnic groups existed in 750 BC but racial groups didn’t because racial groups wouldn’t come into use until the 1600’s or so. Either way, the premise remains the same.).
Doesn’t that give you goosebumps? I love what one commentary described as the “Pious Bias”. All of my training is in social psychology, so I do enjoy a good discussion on bias, ie. a pronounced inclination towards someone or something that meets certain conditions. Quite simply though, people who identify as men and women of faith (myself included), can frequently fall victim to a bias where we think men and women in the Bible, particularly main characters or protagonists, are there because they represent men and women of exemplary character (ie. if you’re a main character, you must be a great person). After all, how else would you get to author a book in the Bible or have a portion of scripture named after you? Certainly, all of these men and women must be saints. Right?
That’s the Pious Bias. And it’s particularly pertinent concerning a passage like Jonah.
One point that’s really resonated with me as I’ve looked at different commentaries is that Jonah is the ONLY Old Testament prophet that the Bible says ran away from God. In that sense, Jonah is better known for his infamy than anything else. He was better known for his disobedience and hardness of heart. Don’t get me wrong, I’m not trying to slander the guy. We’re all human. But based on what we KNOW about Old Testament prophets, Jonah is one of a kind in that regard. It’s only fitting that we take note. That’s part of reading the situation, after all.
Beyond that though, as far as I can tell, the man has racism and prejudice in his heart. Hey, Cultural Exegesis, right? All I’m trying to do is read the situation, which I’ll get into much more shortly. But the man was a prophet, and he wasn’t particularly thrilled about taking this message to the Ninevites, perhaps because they were Assyrian, or perhaps because they weren’t Jewish (maybe both). To be fair though, in order to get a better sense of whether or not Jonah was motivated, in part, by racism, we’d have to rule out some alternative explanations. For instance, Jonah may simply be a prophet who wrestled with disobedience, more generally speaking, and maybe ethnic background had nothing to do with it. Indeed, if Jonah had this response to every group of people God told him to reach out to, Jews included, we could hardly call the man racist. We would just say he’s disobedient or obstinate.
According to 2 Kings 14 (verse 25), it certainly appears Jonah was willing to prophesy to the Jews. The flip side is we don’t actually know how Jonah responded to God prior to prophesying to the Jews; we only know that it is something that he eventually did, according to the writer of 2 Kings. Somehow though, I have difficulty imagining that Jonah fled Nazareth every time God told him to go prophesy, although that’s certainly possible. I mean, if that’s how Jonah felt about prophesying to the Jews, why live in Nazareth at all? I rule this out. My impression is it’s more likely his response had something to do with God telling him to prophesy to the Ninevites
There’s also the possibility Jonah didn’t want to go on this trek because it was extremely far, but again, that’s highly unlikely. Jonah was so resistant to the idea of God’s plan for him to preach to the Ninevites that he was willing to leave his home, near Nazareth, to trek to Tarshsis. At 2,500 miles away, that journey was 5 times further than the one to Nineveh (500 miles). Given it’s FIVE TIMES further, I would imagine it’s more costly as well. With this in mind, it’s doubtful the distance or costs of the journey were primary motivators for Jonah’s disinterest in preaching to the people of Nineveh. I’m ruling this out, too.
Finally, there’s also the possibility that Jonah wasn’t racist and he was just being self-righteous. In Jonah’s mind, the Ninevites are “really bad people” (we’ll talk about that shortly), and maybe he’d prefer to preach to “wholesome, good people”. To be sure, this is very much a distinct possibility. But given the nature of Jew-Gentile relations in 750 BC, it’s difficult for me to imagine Jonah condemning an ethnic group as “really bad people” without any underlying prejudice or discrimination subsequently following. In other words, if it is true that he didn’t want to preach to them because he was self-righteous, psychological science would say he’s probably willing to discriminate and show prejudice in many, many other ways, too. To be clear, we can’t know for sure, but that’s my take.
In reading the full text, I think it’s safe to say at this point our prophet Jonah was motivated at least in part by racism, albeit with only 4 chapters, admittedly, we don’t have much information. What’s interesting about commentaries on Jonah, though, is that some scholars actually don’t believe Jonah had a repentant heart throughout the text, including the final chapter. If you notice how the passage reads, it’s kind of like catching a movie halfway through which has a sudden and unexpected ending, which leaves you with questions. It’s not entirely clear how, or if, Jonah reconciled his walk with God after this whole ordeal. In chapter 4, you certainly don’t get the vibe Jonah was happy with God… but we really don’t know what happens after that.
I’ll get to my observations though.
Observation 1: The Assyrians were merciless, killers and Jonah was probably no stranger to that.
It’s true. The Assyrians were the dominant power of the Middle East, from 900 to early 600 BC. And historical artifacts can only leave us to assume they, in essence, rewrote everything their contemporaries new about human torture and imperial conquest. Historians believe that the Assyrians were responsible for ruthless tactics like forcing prisoners to grind the bones of their comrades (!!!), ripping the tongues from the mouths of prisoners, and raping all the women of the city before taking them captive. Beyond that, they regularly cut off noses, ears, fingers, and other appendages, in addition to impaling soldiers on stakes and/or lighting them on fire and letting them burn.
One particularly unpleasant military tactic they were well known for was burying prisoners in the desert sand up to their shoulders. They would then bound the man’s mouth and leave him there to die. How long do you live buried in sand, with no water? A week? Maybe two?
While all of this may seem extremely arbitrary, from an imperial perspective, it was both efficient, effective, and practical. Although this isn’t the information age, or social media generation, word still travels fast.
Consider the Israelites stunning victory over the Egyptians in Exodus (Exodus 14:26-30). If you read the passages that follow, Israel’s adversaries had heard many things concerning that military account (Joshua 2:10; Joshua 9:9). And that was only one battle. Imagine if you’re the Assyrians, and you’ve vanquished all of the neighboring cities within the span of a few decades, using merciless like the ones I described.
Not only is it quite likely that Jonah was aware of how ruthless and merciless the Assyrians were, but it’s even possible he lost someone he cared dearly about at their hands. If that’s the case (it may not be, but let’s say it was, for the sake of the argument), it would certainly be hard not to make this personal.
In chapter 4, Jonah shares a little bit of his thoughts with God. He says He KNEW that the Ninevites would repent if he prophesied to them. Either he believed he was a particularly convincing prophet, he truly believed in the power of God to stir their hearts, or maybe some combination of the two. But the Ninevites repenting should be good news, right?
Not quite.
My impression: I don’t get the vibe Jonah felt they were deserving of God’s grace. I don’t get the vibe Jonah felt they deserved God’s mercy, after mercilessly killing so many people.
To modernize this a bit, maybe it would be the equivalent of sharing the gospel message with ISIS terrorists, knowing they’re plotting suicide bombings not too far from your home. The gut reaction is probably, “No way! Anybody but them!” This is where we find Jonah: trying to reconcile his responsibility as a prophet, delighting in the repentance of men, while very much wanting wrath and judgement for a group of people he doesn’t have a flattering impression of (The Assyrians).
What kind of people deserve salvation? What type of people deserve the forgiveness of sins? Shouldn’t forgiveness be reserved for people who are generally good, as opposed to a group of people as awful as the Assyrians?
As a man sent on a missionary trip to Nineveh, I’m sure these are questions Jonah wrestled with.
There’s another point here worth considering, too, particularly because this passage is from the Old Testament.
Observation 2: Nineveh’s repentance would make an unrepentant Israel look really, really bad.
Throughout the Old Testament, Israel wrestles with obedience to God. Between being disobedient to God, and having an unrepentant heart, Israel wrestled continuously with the Lord. This passage takes place a few decades before the Assyrian captivity, so another way of thinking about this is Israel is only a few decades away from doom at the hands of the people of Nineveh, for their unwillingness to repent. At this point, I’m sure Jonah’s no stranger to the fact that Israel isn’t moving in a positive direction.
The Jews are idolatrous. They’re prideful and hard of heart. They’re disunified. Their political system is a sham. Their leadership is corrupt. And they have a very contentious relationship with spiritually minded individuals, particularly influential ones (like prophets).
Geopolitically, Israel during this time is basically a nobody. Certainly, they’re nothing compared to the likes of the Roman Empire, or the Babylonian Empire, or the Assyrian Empire. Make no mistake about it. Assyria was a military machine, and the Assyrian empire is the first empire in the history of mankind. And it was incredibly successful. The Bible makes the opposite point about Israel in Deuteronomy 7:7. God clearly did not pick the Jews to be His people because they were the mightiest or strongest of the Earth. Quite the contrary. Later, in Isaiah 41 (verse 14), God goes on to call Israel a worm. Small. Insignificant. Modest in power and self-sufficiency. Absolutely nothing impressive.
All facts.
Some 500 miles away though, in Assyria, we have the mighty city of Nineveh.
Cosmopolitan.
Wealthy.
Influential.
Massive.
Relevant.
Highly esteemed.
Basically, everything that Israel was not. What would happen if the Ninevites turned to God? Would there be some competition now for God’s love? Would there be enough blessings to go around? What if God decides to make the Assyrians His chosen people instead? Certainly, it would be easier to change the world through the Assyrian empire than it would a divided Jewish Kingdom. The Assyrians, after all, were already changing the world, conquering one adversary at a time.
Could it be that maybe our racist prophet is actually wrestling with something much deeper? What if this was simply spite towards a group of people that (outwardly) appear very, very successful? To modernize a bit, how about that Asian American coworker with three degrees that seems to flourish at everything they touch, or that Jewish person who owns all the property in your neighborhood, and quietly closed on another townhouse over the weekend? I’m talking about, they’re just BOSSING (obviously I’m appealing to something in social psychology called positive stereotypes, but I’m illustrating an example). Could it be that Jonah has such a deep, profound admiration for the Ninevites that he’s actually jealous of them and all they’ve accomplished? Social psychology would tell us, yes, in case you were wondering. It’s very much possible to have prejudice towards highly successful people, too, because those groups are better positioned to compete for resources than stigmatized ones.
The ONE thing the Jews have over Assyria is Yahweh. And now, all of a sudden, God wants Jonah to go prophesy to them. Of course Jonah had issues with that. We have to read the situation, right?
But there’s another point, here. What would it say about God’s chosen people if they’re unwilling to hear the voice of God through a Jewish prophet, but this ruthless group of killers, who don’t even know anything about Yahweh, hear a message from a prophet concerning a God they know very little about and they repent? I mean, heck, if you can go from slitting men’s throats and raping their women to hearing the voice of God from a strange man from a foreign country, what exactly is the excuse of the Jewish men and women?
I don’t think Jonah was naïve to this.
In fact, I think Jonah would have preferred to spend more time at home, trying to help the Jews get their act together. When Jonah heard the message from God to go all the way to Nineveh, I’m sure he knew exactly what that meant. I’m sure he was embarrassed for his people. Jonah himself even said it. He KNEW the Ninevites would repent (Jonah 4:2). As a Jewish man, I’m sure he took great pride in his people and their heritage. The repentance of the Ninevite people, although a victory for the Kingdom of God, would be a great embarrassment for the Jews.
Let me be very, very clear. The book of Jonah is only 4 chapters. There are many, many things that we don’t know and we’ll probably never know. I don’t know whether or not Jonah was racist or prejudice, and whether he was or not is entirely tangential to the point I’m making. At the heart, our exercise is focused on important Christian principles, and that’s the biggest takeaway.
If you were alive during 750 BC or so and you’re doing your Cultural Exegesis, it may go something along the lines of:
Jonah: Jewish
Assyrians/Ninevites: Gentiles
Jonah: Prophet
Assyrians/Ninevites: Merciless Killers
Jews: Hear prophesy every day and are unrepentant
Assyrians/Ninevites: Have not received a Jewish prophet
Conclusion: If Jonah isn’t willing to go 500 miles to Nineveh to preach, it would be really hypocritical, BUT if he can go to the Ninevites and preach to this group of merciless killers, rapists, and thieves, that would be really, really powerful.
Bringing it all together.
Let me be clear, I don’t think reading situations is a revolutionary idea. Quite the contrary. We do it pretty regularly when we read books, watch movies, view television shows, etc. Context is everything.
For many reasons though, we seem disinterested, or unwilling, to see how present (or past) cultural developments influence living out the Gospel in important ways. I think being culturally literate will only make us more effective as disciples. It’s not everything. It’s not the most important thing. But I do think it’s a versatile and relevant skill. Certainly, it’s better than cultural illiteracy. The church doesn’t exist in a vacuum after all. With that in mind, I can’t help but feel understanding present culture will aid us greatly in understanding how to communicate God’s message, as modern day ‘prophets’. My opinion, anyway.
Some random thoughts.
Nnamdi