Description
Preview
What you get in the Jonah Bible Atlas:
7 high definition maps in 3D-style...all created just to illustrate Jonah's story.ย If you are interested in all of our Bible maps this is also included in ourย Bible Atlas.
Sample map in the Jonah Bible Atlas
Jonah delivered just a one-liner of a prophecy:
โIn 40 days Nineveh will be destroyed (3:4).
Didnโt happen.
By definition, according to Moses, Jonah wasnโt an authentic prophet:
โIf a prophet speaks on behalf of the LORD, but the prophetโs prediction fails, then that wasnโt a message from the LORD. The prophet only presumed to speak for the LORD. No need to fear a person like thatโ (Deuteronomy 18:22).
Yet Jonah, like no other prophet in the Bible, accomplished his mission. He convinced a nationโs king and the people to repent. These were Assyrians of what is now northern Iraq, feared for their terror tactics such as impaling citizens of enemy nations. Their repentance in response to Jonah convinced God to change his plans to destroy Nineveh, their capital city.
Jonah wants fireworks
Shockingly, Jonah got mad about it.
It sounds like he wanted to see Sodom and Gomorrah fireworks in Nineveh. Jonah may have felt that Godโs change of plans made him look like a fake prophet. And Jonah may have figured that no one would ever believe his predictions again.
Jonah is a prophet who shows up inย 2 Kings 14:25. He was real. But many Bible scholars seem to read this story in the book of Jonah as fictionโlike a parable with a message about what God is like and who God cares about.
Fish catches Jonah
Jonah is most famous for trying to run away from God, getting caught in a violent storm on the Mediterranean Sea, and getting swallowed by some large fish, not identified as a whale or anything else. Three days later, the fish spits him back out on shore, like a fisherman throwing back a catch he didnโt like.
The story ends oddly, like many parables do. Jonah is sitting by a dead bush near what is now Mosul, Iraq. Heโs pouting and God is humbling him further by saying, essentially: You grew attached to that shade bush. It mattered to you. Shouldnโt the 120,000 souls in Nineveh matter to me?โ
Zingers
Thatโs called a zinger.
Some 1,300 years later, Jesus would become famous for the zingers he delivered in his fictional parables. Those stories were intended to teach people about what God is like and about how citizens of Godโs kingdom should behave.
Yet many Christians, perhaps most, read Jonahโs story as history. And they argue that if God can make the universe, he can make a fish big enough to swallow someone thicker than a beachball. Thatโs what a whale could swallow, up to about 12-15 inches or 30-40 centimeters.
Back in Nineveh, everyoneโs on board with God except Jonah, Godโs prophet.
He may have needed some time to figure things out. Like the rest of us.
WRITER
Jonah didnโt seem to write his own story. The story isnโt told in the first person, with a bunch of โIโsโ and โmeโs.โ Whoever wrote this, the story is about Jonah, son of Amittai. Jonah was a prophet who lived in Galilee, in what is now northern Israel. He lived in the village of Gath Hepher (2 Kings 14:25). Scholars associate that with the Arab village of el-Meshed, about three miles (5 km) north of Jesusโs hometown of Nazareth.
In addition to the Jonah Bible Atlas
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