Prophetic Humor

HT: Clark Paton

Jonah: A Visual Reader

You can access a free PDF copy of an updated edition of Sawyer Moranville's Jonah: A Visual Reader from Lingua Deo Gloria here.

Three Days in Jonah

Jay Sklar's article here makes an interesting connection between the three days in Jonah 1:17 and Jonah 3:3.

Jonah and Us

Elliot Clark has some nice illustrations and insights regarding the book of Jonah here.

Sasson on Jonah

Jack Sasson has a very nice examination of Jonah here.

The Book of Jonah in Recent Research

Aron Tillema's article in the Currents in Biblical Research is available as open access here.

Judaism, Jonah, and the Assyrians

Steven Bob has an interesting post here exploring  how rabbinic tradition addresses the question of why Jonah was sent to the Assyrians.

Significant Words in Jonah

Kie Bowman talks about "important" words in Jonah here. I hope that this comment is not too pedantic but I would suggest that it is better to speak of significant words in Jonah. The actual words in question are rather ordinary but the ways that they are used is significant. In any case, kudos for pointing out what too often goes unmentioned in preaching.

Genre and Preaching Jonah

Ed Scott raises the important question of how one's understanding of the genre of Jonah influences the preaching of Jonah here. But unfortunately he does not really address the issue other than affirming the book's historicity. I agree with that the book reflects a historical event but that is not all there is to the issue of genre. And the issue is an important one as Steven Smith in Recapturing the Voice of God has pointed out, text-driven preaching not only preaches the text but also the genre of the text.

Jonah and the Whale" The Abbott & Costello Version

Whales, Leviathan, Jonah, and the Talmud

Here is an interesting article related to recent discoveries both archaeological and actual whales in the Mediterranean Sea.

Free Logos Book for January: Exodus by Nahum Sarna

The free Logos Book for January is Nahum Sarna’s commentary on Exodus in the JPS series. You can also purchase Jonah by Uriel Simon in the same series for $1.99. You can also enter to win the 11 volume JPS series. You can access these deals here.

Free Audio from the 2014 Advanced Expository Preaching Workshop

Free audio from the 2014 Advanced Expository Preaching Workshop focusing on the book of Jonah has just been posted. You can access the audio page here or click the individual messages below.

Jonah 1 – David Allen

Jonah 2 – Steven Smith

Jonah 3 – Vern Charette

Jonah 4 – Matt McKellar

You can also access notes from David Allen's presentation here.

Notes on Jonah

Today is the Expository Preaching Workshop that I mentioned last week. This year the workshop's focus is on the book of Jonah. Even if you can't attend (like me), Dr. David Allen, one of the speakers, has made his notes available on his website here.

In One Week: 2014 Advanced Expository Preaching Workshop

There is still time to sign up for this year's Advanced Expository Preaching Workshop scheduled for Monday, October 6, 2014 in The Riley Center on the campus of Southwestern Seminary. The focus of this workshop will be the book of Jonah. Registration, including lunch, is only $25. For more information go here or call 1.877.474.4769. You can also email at RileyCenterCalendar@swbts.edu.

2014 Advanced Expository Preaching Workshop

This year's Advanced Expository Preaching Workshop is scheduled for Monday, October 6, 2014 in The Riley Center on the campus of Southwestern Seminary. The focus of this workshop will be the book of Jonah. Registration, including lunch, is only $25. For more information go here or call 1.877.474.4769. You can also email at RileyCenterCalendar@swbts.edu.

The Element of Surprise in Jonah

"The element of surprise is the key structural device employed by the writer of Jonah. Before 3:10–4:1, the writer misdirects the readers, leading them to picture Yahweh as a God of wrath who pursues persons or groups until they are appropriately punished, and leading them to see Jonah as a reluctant, passive prophet who flees the task of crying against a wicked city. The repentance of the Ninevites poses an intriguing problem, since no one has up to this point in the book repented and sought God’s forgiveness, and the question rings out: “Will this wrathful God forgive Nineveh?” The writer then springs his surprise: God does indeed repent of the evil he had intended to inflict on Nineveh, while the seemingly passive Jonah issues a furious fusillade against God (3:10 and 4:l). The element of surprise makes the readers vulnerable and therefore receptive to the writer’s basic point that Jonah’s anger and vindictiveness are inappropriate in the light of the forgiving nature of God. The final chapter emphasizes this point by means of the dialogue between Jonah and God, wherein God is clearly portrayed as one eager to forgive his creatures, while Jonah is seen to be excessively self-serving."

Alan Jon Hauser, “Jonah: In Pursuit of the Dove,” Journal of Biblical Literature 104 (1985): 37.
  

Jonah as Science Fiction

  
A video of Jonah as a science fiction epic has been produced by the creative team at Elevation Church in Charlotte, NC.The video introduced the fourth message in Pastor Steven Furtick's sermon series, "InFin8." You can read an article on the video here. It is an interesting video but someone might have told the creative team that it is Nineveh not Ninevah.
 

Douglas Stuart on "My Favorite Mistranslations"

  
In case you missed it, Dr. Douglas Stuart recently gave a series of messages at Dallas Theological Seminary on the topic of "My Favorite Mistranslations." These messages were part of the annual W. H. Griffith Thomas Memorial Lectures. Video for the four messages can be accessed here.

My Favorite Mistranslations (1 Kings 19:12)
My Favorite Mistranslations (Hosea 1:2 and 3:1)
My Favorite Mistranslations (Genesis 3:8; Proverbs 22:6)
My Favorite Mistranslations (Jonah 1:2)  

Preaching Jonah Christologically

  
See this post by Jeff Louie on how one can preach Jonah Christologically.