III. TOWARDS A FOLKLORISTIC READING OF JONAH
3.1.3 Dating the Book of Jonah
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the sun (4:6-8). Thus I affirm the basic unity of the book of Jonah; this means that although the form of the psalm is different from the rest of the story it is still a part of the story that cannot be dismissed and, in fact, can be reconciled within the structure of the rest of the story. Features abound to suggest that the Jonah narrative shares a unity despite the possibility that the story's individual components are from disparate sources.203
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scholars presume that the story postdates the neo-Assyrian period on linguistic grounds, even if the story is set during that period.206
Examination of the language used and the theological claims made in the book of Jonah have been more helpful in narrowing this range, although this is partly a function of textualization and cannot rule out that stories about Jonah were told in earlier versions or different formats. There is every reason to conclude that the book of Jonah in the form that we possess dates to the postexilic period.207 There are a number of words and
phrases in the text which evince the influence of Aramaic or are known only from late Hebrew literature. A few examples from just the first chapter of the book of Jonah should demonstrate this adequately:
1) sepînâ (―ship,‖ 1:5): This is a biblical hapax legomenon but it is known in Imperial and Targumic Aramaic.208 The normative biblical Hebrew term for a vessel is ʾŏnîyâ (e.g., 1:3).209
2) ʾelōhê haššāmayim (―God of heaven,‖ 1:9): This appellative is common in writings set in the Persian period. Sasson notes that the choice of this appellative is contextual since it makes a theological statement about Israel‘s god vis-à-vis the gods of the non-Israelite sailors.210
206 Cf. Yezekiel Kaufmann, who suggests that Nineveh's status as a "grand city" in the narrative implies that the author(s) had first-hand knowledge of the city and thus dates its composition to before the city's fall in 612 BCE; The Religion of Israel (Abridged ed.; trans. Moshe Greenberg; Chicago: University of
Chicago Press, 1960), 83.
207 "Das Jonabuch wird großer Einmütigkeit in nachexilische Zeit datiert"; Gerhards, Studien zum Jonabuch, 55.
208 Sub spynh, J. Hoftijzer and K. Jongeling, Dictionary of North-West Semitic Inscriptions, Pt. 2, M-T (Leiden: Brill, 1995), 797.
209 BDB, 58.
210 Sasson, Jonah, 118.
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3) šātaq(―to calm down,‖ 1:11, 1:15): This verb is used in conjunction with hayyām (―the sea,‖ 1:11) and zaʿap (1:15)
4) yitʿaššēt (1:6): This is the only Hebrew appearance of this verb, though its Aramaic cognate appears in Dan 6:4.211
5) še, embedded as bĕšellĕmî (1:7) and bĕšellî (1:12): The relative particle še appears mainly in late Hebrew and in texts of a Northern Palestinian (i.e., under Aramaic influence) origin.212
The book of Jonah also seems to presume a working knowledge of other Hebrew biblical texts, meaning Jonah might postdate texts written during the exilic and early postexilic periods.213 André Feuillet's study of the links between Jonah and the "writing"
prophets shows harmonies among Jonah and the books and Jeremiah and Ezekiel.214 But because we are uncertain of exactly when all of these texts may be dated they are of little help in establishing a relative chronology by which to date Jonah. Previous
commentators have noted connections between Jonah 3:9 and 4:2c with Joel 2:13-14a on the basis of their theological parallel constructions:
Jon 3:9: "Who knows whether God may turn away and concede? He may turn back from his anger so that we do not perish" (mî yôdēʿ yāšûb
wĕniḥam hāʾĕlōhîm wĕšāb mēḥărôn ʾappô wĕlōʾ nōʾbed)
211 Limburg, Jonah, 29.
212 BDB, 979.
213 An interesting counterargument is made by H. Winckler, who sees the mention in II Kings as a gloss based upon the book of Jonah. "Zum Buche Jona," Altorientalische Forschungen 2 (1900): 260-265, 262.
214 Specifically, he claims that the description of what happens when Nineveh repents (fasting, rending garments) is dependent on Jeremiah 36; Feuillet, André, "Les sources du livre de Jonas" Revue Biblique 54 (1947): 161-186; see especially 169-181; Feuillet ultimately concludes that unlike those other prophetic books "le livre Jonas ne ressemble à une légend populaire" but is rather a "conte populaire" based on its folkloric motifs, op.cit. 186.
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Jon 4:2c "For I know that you are a gracious and compassionate god, slow to anger and abundant in kindness, resisting punishment" (kî yādaʿtî kî ʾattâ ēl-ḥannûn wĕraḥûm erek ʾappayim wĕrab-ḥesed wĕniḥām ʿal- hārāʿâ)
Joel 2:13-14a "Tear your hearts and not your garments, and turn to the Lord your god, for He is gracious and compassionate, slow to anger and abundant in
kindness, resisting punishment. Who knows whether He may turn away and concede?" (wĕqirʾû lĕbabkem wĕʾal-bigdêkem wêšûbû el-YHWH ĕlōhêkem kî- ḥannûn wĕraḥûm hûʾwĕniḥām ʿal-hārāʿâmî yôdēʿ yāšûb wĕniḥām)
Whether Jonah adapts Joel, usually attributed to the fourth century, directly or they simply share a common source is unclear, but taken in combination with some of the other circumstantial evidence already noted we may tentatively assign an early postexilic date to the book‘s composition. The story itself is likely older and, as I have already maintained, the topos at the narrative's heart is certainly older. There are several possible extrabiblical sources from which the book of Jonah may adapt forms or content. These suggest that some of the elements we see in the Jonah narrative possibly have antecedents in the ancient Near Eastern milieu, but without attestation the nature of these remains speculation.