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PaperclipPerfector
11mo ago
(text post)
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Notes -
Allegory and the Book of Jonah [Part 1]
Some scholars say that the Book of Jonah was composed in the 700s BC, and others claim a Hellenistic composition as late as 170 BC, but in fact both camps are wrong because the Book of Jonah is timeless.
It begins with Jonah, Son of Amittai, which can be etymologized to “Dove, Son of (my) Truth”. Foreshadowing alert. Doves in the Ancient World were used by sailors to seek out land. In Genesis, Noah releases a dove which comes back with an olive leaf in its mouth, thus confirming the presence of land — a salvation from the chaos of the waters and the consequences of God’s judgment.
Jonah is told by God to go to Ninevah (literally told to arise; rise up), the largest city in the world at one point and possessing a great history. Its cuneiform name I will leave as an exercise to the reader ( 𒀏 ). Ninevah was founded by Ashur, the grandchild of Noah. Ashur is the ancestor (in symbolic Biblical terms) of the Assyrians, and because history repeats itself, Israel and Assyrians were not on the best of terms. Jonah was commanded to go to an enemy city (!) and warn them against God’s impending judgment because of their wickedness. God wanted this city not condemned, but saved, and he chose as his emissary our old friend Jonah. And so Jonah arises, he rises to the occasion so to speak, he sets on his journey to… dip it. Jonah says (and I’m transliterating), fuck that shit are you kidding me. He goes in the complete opposite way.
In fact, and we are only on the third sentence, Jonah is said to flee to Tarshish through the port of Joppa. Pliny wrote regarding Joppa that it has antediluvian roots, that is, “before the flood”. Strabo writes that it was in Joppa that Andromeda encountered a whale, which attacked her because her mother claimed Andromeda was more beautiful than the nymphs of the sea. [These nymphs were the Nereids, the etymology of which means “true”, and were said to reveal the mysteries of Dionysus and Persephone. These mysteries involved a death and rebirth cycle and a celebration of wine in gratitude for God’s gift to wine]. The etymology of Joppa is “beautiful”. A Roman military general stationed in Judea in the early first century BC was said by Josephus to have brought the bones of the monster which attacked Andromeda from Joppa to Rome. Perhaps dinosaur or whale bones? But in any case this shows the resounding significance of this motif. This is a story that sounds out in the depths of the human spirit. The Old Man and the Sea, Moby Dick — these two leviathans of literature emerge from the same waters as Jonah.
Continuing on. Joppa was the main port for Jerusalem, at one point the only port for entry or exit for foreign vessels to Judea. And so Jonah goes from Jerusalem’s exitway to Tarshish. The etymology of Tarshish is convoluted. Some claim it is simply “sea coast”, perhaps by synecdoche. Historians identify it with an opulent and industrious Spanish city. We read in the Old Testament, “every three years came the ships of Tarshish bringing gold and silver, ivory, and apes and peacocks.” And we also read, by a prophet, “the Day of the LORD of Hosts will come against all the proud and lofty, against all that is exalted — it will be humbled — against every ship of Tarshish. So the pride of man will be brought low, and the loftiness of men will be humbled.” And so whatever Tarshish means, it means something convoluted involving wealth and opulence from far away, and perhaps this convolution is to a greater meaning.
The Book reads that Jonah paid with his wages to leave from the port city of the city of God — old Jappa by Jerusalem — to board a ship he came across traveling to an opulent city of riches, Tarshish, away from the old and important yet adversarial city of Ninevah. Ninevah is not Jonah’s city! He doesn’t belong there! Ninevah is illustrious, ancient, far away and unwelcoming. Jonah would much rather hang out in comforting splendid Tarshish. The word used to board ships is “descend”. He descended to sail to Tarshish. And in fact, this is in juxtaposition to how God describes the sinfulness of Ninevah — their wickedness “rose up to my face”. Man’s actions are oft poeticized as incense that rises up to the sense by God. Jonah was told to rise up to the occasion of the Lord’s duties, but he descended instead to a city of riches far away from where he is supposed to go.
And so concludes the first three sentences of the Book of Jonah. Will do more next week if anyone is interested.
Art:
Joppah
Ship of Tarshish
Required listening:
A song about a whale.
Loosely adjacent Weezer song. “The choo-choo train left right on time | A ticket costs only your mind | The driver said, "Hey man, we go all the way” | Of course we were willing to pay”.
Tarshish was a son of Javan, who is understood as descended from the Aryan figure Japheth. The meaning of Tarshish would indicate a city settled by Japhetites, and therefore Jonah fleeing the Jewish God's "presence" to an Aryan city.
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