Jonah in Luke

Someone writing a thesis on Jonah in Luke-Acts honors me by giving me a penny for my thoughts!

I have some thoughts which I will post to my blog when I reduce them to writing but initially I note the obvious. Jonah does not appear in the Gospel of Mark. I am not sure why. Second: there are at least two views of Jonah BCE and Jesus in citing Jonah in effect adopted one of the two views. The use of Jonah makes more sense in Luke than it does in Matthew. It may be that the message that Luke intends to deliver with his use of Jonah is different than Matthew even though the Jonah passages are practically identical. Further it may be that Mark did not understand why either Matthew or Luke utilized the sign of Jonah. Finally Josephus rewrote Jonah because he did not approve of the view adopted by the Lucan Jesus and desired to undermine the foundation upon which Luke relied.

This blog has previously shown how Josephus has rewritten Sacred Scripture altering the various texts relied upon by the followers of Jesus. The alteration of the covenant of circumcision undermines only the claim of Luke that Jesus is the circumcised messiah out of the house of David. The alteration of the land theology undermines only the covenant-rooted ingathering of the exiles proclaimed by Luke. As noted Josephus has altered texts relating to personalities that only appear in Luke-Acts. The alteration of the story of Lot is truly senseless. Only Luke among the gospel writers mentioned Lot and has Enochic references. Finally Josephus is responding to Luke-Acts because only the Lucan Paul successfully targeted Jews of the Diaspora promoting a covenant-rooted ingathering of exiles.

Josephus’ rewriting of Jonah is part of the same pattern.

I will post more thoughts on Jonah at a later date.

Posted January 19, 2006

Copyrighted 2006

Religion

Christianity

Gospel of Luke