One of the passages we dug into this weekend at Spring Retreat for Chi Alpha was Jonah. Being curious about the exegesis we did together, I naturally pulled out ZIBBCOT Volume 5. John Walton, whose book on Genesis 1 I loved, had some helpful things to point out. One interesting point was that at this point in history (760-750 BC, if we take the traditional date), Assyria hadn’t been a threat to Israel for a generation, and wouldn’t be for a while after Jonah dies. This is curious, since we understood most of Jonah’s obstinacy from the brutal reputation the Assyrians had. I suppose Jonah could’ve been brought up on stories of Assyrian atrocities, but it does make his rebellion that much more curious.
~alex
Alex Poulos, PhD 