Literal Commentary on Jonah

A Literal Commentary on the Book of Jonah the Prophet Again, a literal commentary on the Book of Jonah the Prophet. This is that Jonah was used as a type and seal of this matter concerning the Lord, and when all the prophets were sent to the people, he alone was commanded to prophesy to the nations, that he might flee and not deliver this decree, and that he might contend with the people. For he knew that God does not wish to destroy the Ninevites, but to turn them to him. Chapter 1: "Arise, go to Nineveh, that great city, and proclaim to them the repentance of their city." At that time, this was the great city of the Assyrians, which was spread out in wickedness and established in iniquity and licentiousness and drunken habits. Because it had risen up, all this great evil of theirs, until it would stir up destruction, like that of Sodom which had occurred before. He fled to Tarshish. For if he had perceived that the Ninevites would perish completely, he would not have fled. But he knew that they would repent, and that good would come upon them, and he rejoiced, supposing that this flight would be hidden and that he would escape, while knowing that God is everywhere. He fled, supposing in himself that the working of his Lord was not everywhere, but in the land of the kingdom. Tarshish is Tarsus of Cilicia. And when he went up into the ship, he went down into its hold and slept. They cast the lots. The sea became calm after they had thrown him. They sacrificed sacrifices, not into the sea did they sacrifice, but they confessed that they would no longer serve idols, but that they sacrificed to God, the Lord of the sea and the dry land.

and called to the Lord, for the spirit was in the belly of the whale, as a sign that he would stand in it and pray. And from the belly of the whale, which is the belly of Sheol, this prophecy is that which is known by the spirit that came out with the sign when I was in the belly of the whale, as in the depths of Sheol. I called you and you answered me. The mountains were not shaken, but were hidden among the mountains. And the mountains came within the sea, and were covered as a sign that was swallowed among the mountains, and the mountains came and stood above his head. And the earth took hold and showed that it would never be united with those who descended to the lower depths of the earth, which are with the world and were not inhabited, and were covered above me, and as if within gates and bars that cannot be opened forever. I thought that I would be imprisoned forever. And the Lord commanded the whale, and it cast him out at the place where it had swallowed him, on its shore with its head. And Jonah stood and went as he was commanded to the Ninevites, when he was driven appropriately by what had happened to him. The city was great for God, with divine proclamation. It had come to greatness and the number of its inhabitants was large. The repentance was for three days, not that the city was spacious, but that if a man wished to go around the whole of it and proclaim in all its streets, for three days he would be able to go around the whole of it and proclaim in all its streets, and know how great it was. Jonah began to repent. The sign was changed, if they did not repent. And on the first day of this, the proclamation was received, and they immediately began to repent.

And when Jonah saw that on the day of the gourd he had not perished, the ship was not lost to him, he thought that it was a revelation, and he sought death for himself, that which sits outside in the shelter of the grave, that something of the event might be shown in it. The sun commanded God to the burning one, that when the heat of his heat was not delayed upon the head of Jonah, he would show and boil him, and he would not know among his seas, the children who until then do not distinguish good from evil, and pure from iniquitous and sinful. And the multitude of the city is like those who are equal to the children. Because in their likeness, pure from iniquitous. The end of the history of Jonah. The sign of Jonah the prophet. Jonah was prophesied in the days of Hezekiah, and Jacob of Edessa said that he is not the son of the widow whom Elijah revived, when he looked at the distances of the time from Ahab until Hezekiah. The fleeing to Tarshish is one of the types of Cilicia, and another in the region of Phrygia, and another in India. And all three of them Cyril mentions in the commentary on Isaiah. The shipwreck is in the sea of the whale. The vomiting out of the whale. The repentance of the Ninevites. The salvation. The casting of the gourd and its loss. For he fled to Tarshish because it was not pleasing to him that he should preach to the nations. And Jerusalem is the only holy place, and he knew that they were destined to be destroyed. And because of this, God was angry with him, and it was a burden upon him that the prophet had revealed and fled. For he was hindered from the mission, and it was not pleasing to him that God should do the kindness of prophecy to the nations. Because he loved his own people.

And the sea was stirred up against the ship only that one in which Jonah was. And as for the other ships, they were calm and were not disturbed toward the shore. They were warning him, but he did not want to turn back, because he knew that he himself was the cause. Jonah is a type of the peoples. He did not want to turn back because the prophets had not been sent to the peoples, and there was no custom; and now, because of what? The ship is a type of the Church. The sea of injustice. The sailors of the prophets. Jonah of the Lord. The shore and the rest, because there is no salvation in the death of others except in the Lord. The questioning of the sailors is like the questioning of the chief priests. They took him up and cast him into the sea, that by its will Jesus died. The prayer of the sailors, that it not be considered a sin against them, is the mystery of the prophets, that when they were casting lots over Jesus, they were praying that the lots not be considered an insult, because they were casting lots for the death of God. The sea became calm; the world was silent from the disturbances of evil at the death of the Lord. The fish is the mystery of death. Three days, like the three days of the Lord in the tomb. The prayer of Jonah is the mystery of the proclamation in Sheol. The casting up of the fish is the mystery of the resurrection, the going forth from the tomb. The going forth of the apostles after him to the peoples. He preached for three days to the length and breadth of the city, but in three days the proclamation was heard. In Hebrew it is written for three days. In Syriac it is written forty, and both are true. After three days it turned from evil to good, and it began to repent for forty days, and put on sackcloth and ashes, and at the end of the days the Lord had mercy on her, because on the fortieth day, when they despaired that they would perish in it, the Lord saved them.

And Jonah went out and sat upon the shore, and he was amazed that it was not he who had lied, and that he would not again be in the assembly of the peoples. And he covered himself with the fringe of a gourd. Again, the type of the Church is shown from the outside of the gourd. The truth is a people who were rejoicing in the gourds. The worm is a type of that which the worm ate and not the head; it was astonished and dried it up. And the sun of righteousness, when it rose from the grave, dried up the oppressive people who did not know the house of the sea to the left, for while they were sinning they did not know that they were committing sin, because they had no law. And because of this, the foolish ones were changed because of this, for it was not fitting that the wrath of God should be with them. This is what Jonah proclaimed, that he had lied, that the type was not changed with the cause of his youth, but his word was confirmed in that it was changed from evils to goods. The end of Jonah.