Literature

The book of Jonah is the least understood of all the books in the Old Testament. Many modern critics label it as myth. That is a major reason why they don’t understand this book. Some religious scholars label the book of Jonah as history only. They forget that Jonah was a prophet and that his book is one of the minor prophets.

The men God inspired to canonize the Bible knew this book was primarily prophecy. That means it was written for a time beyond Jonah’s generation. All of the major and minor prophets have an end-time focus. This is because 90 percent of Bible prophecy is fulfilled in these latter days. The book of Jonah is for any age, but mainly for today as we shall see. It contains a strong warning for God’s Church.

This book is about what happened to Jonah, first of all—and why. “Now the word of the Lord came unto Jonah the son of Amittai, saying, Arise, go to Nineveh, that great city, and cry against it; for their wickedness is come up before me” (Jonah 1:1-2). The wickedness of Nineveh was so great that it came up before God. Then God decided a warning message must be sent to this great city. Nineveh was the capital of Assyria, the most powerful empire of the world at that time. Assyria today is called Germany. (Write for our free publication Germany and the Holy Roman Empire.) Most historians think Nineveh was the largest city of that time. The historian Diodorus says it was the greatest city of antiquity. It was located on the eastern bank of the Tigris River. Nineveh had 100-foot-high walls built around it, with 1,500 towers, 200 feet high.