Jonahs Flight from God based upon

Eight Images derived from Biblical

Masoretic Text
This handout contains the: 1. Lecture Outline; 2. Overview of Chapter One based upon Eight
Images from the Test; 3. English Translation of Chapter One; 4. An Overview of the Entire
Book of Jonah; and 5. Other background materials. The lecture presents psychological aspects
of contents from the first chapter of the book of Jonah by images organized in the exact order of
the text.

Lecture Outline
1. Jonah has a numinous encounter with God.
2. Jonah flees from God and buys passage on a ship sailing for Tarshish.
3. Jonah falls asleep in the hold of the sailing ship.
4. A violent storm arises.
5. The captain arouses Jonah from sleep. Jonah is on the ships deck with the ships crew.
6. Dialogue with the Mariners.
7. Mariners attempt to row the ship to safety.
8. On the deck, the Mariners throw Jonah into the sea.

Overview of Chapter 1
Image 1. Jonah has a numinous encounter with God.
Around 700 BCE, a Jewish prophet of the Northern kingdom of Israel named Jonah, receives a
revelation. In it is a command from his God, YHVH to go to Nineveh, the capital city and
center of the Assyrian Empire. There he must appear before a public audience to deliver a
message of judgment from YHVH: cry out against it; for their wickedness has come up
before Me (Jonah 1:2).

Image 2. Jonah flees from God and buys passage on a ship

sailing for Tarshish.
Jonah, instead of traveling to Nineveh to deliver the message of YHVH, runs away. He goes to
a nearby port and finds passage to a city at the then farthest western extent of civilization. The
Lecture Outline and Appendix
Copyright 2008, Robert I. Winer, M.D.

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narrator tells us that Jonah is fleeing from the presence of YHVH (Jonah 1:3). The boat
carrying Jonah sets sail.

Image 3. Jonah falls asleep in the hold of the sailing ship.

At some point after departure, a terrible storm, caused by YHVH, arises while Jonah is asleep
in the ship's hold.

Image 4. A violent storm arises.

The ships other passengers and crew become afraid since it seems as if the boat will sink.
They begin to throw the ships cargo overboard to lessen the likelihood of the boat sinking.
The danger is so grave that all aboard begin to pray to their gods.

Image 5. The captain arouses Jonah from sleep. Jonah is on

the ships deck with the ships crew.
The ships captain notices that Jonah is not present. He goes into the ships hold and finds
Jonah sleeping. He awakens him and asks him to pray to his god, knowing that he is a
different god from the ones believed in by the rest of the ships crew. Jonah then joins all of the
others.

Image 6. Dialogue with the Mariners.

A decision is made to cast a lot to determine the cause of the deadly storm. The lot falls upon
Jonah. The Mariners ask Jonah to explain himself and his part in causing the storm. He tells
them that he is a Hebrew and has YHVH as his god. He explains that the reason he is on the
ship is because he fled from YHVH. At this, the Mariners become exceedingly fearful and ask
Jonah what can be done to calm the storm. Jonah says throw me into the water and then the
storm will stop.

Image 7. Mariners attempt to row the ship to safety.

Despite hearing his words the Mariners take up their oars in an attempt to bring the boat to
shore.

Image 8. On the deck, the Mariners throw Jonah into the sea.
They fail and then decide to throw Jonah overboard. But first they pray to YHVH asking him
not to hold them accountable for taking Jonahs life. Jonah is thrown into the sea and the
storm ends. The Mariners are now described as fearing YHVH. They make a sacrifice to him
and take vows regarding him.

Lecture Outline and Appendix

Copyright 2008, Robert I. Winer, M.D.

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English Translation of Chapter One of the Book of

Jonah based upon the Hebrew Masoretic Text
and Following the King James Text.
I replace archaic word forms from the King James Version (KJV) with modern English words.
Word order changes only when the archaic word order no longer makes sense in modern English.
Insertions of various Hebrew words or acronyms are indicated by brackets.

CHAPTER 1
Now the word [davar] of the Lord [YHVH]1 came to Jonah [Yonah]2 the son of Amittai,
saying,
2 Arise, go to Nineveh, that great city, and cry against it; for their wickedness has come up
before me.
3 But Jonah rose up to flee to Tarshish from the presence of the Lord [YHVH], and went down
to Joppa; and he found a ship going to Tarshish: so he paid the fare and went down into it, to
go with them to Tarshish from the presence of the Lord [YHVH].
4 But the Lord [YHVH] sent out a great wind into the sea, and there was a mighty tempest in
the sea, so that the ship was likely to be broken.
5 Then the mariners were afraid, and cried every man to his god [El]3, and cast forth the wares
that were in the ship into the sea, to lighten it. But Jonah had gone down into the hold of the
ship; and he lay, and was fast asleep.
6 So the shipmaster came to him, and said to him, What do you mean, O sleeper? Arise, call
upon your God [El], may it be so that God [Elohim] will think upon us, that we perish not.
7 And they said every one to his fellow, Come, and let us cast lots, that we may know who
caused this evil to be upon us. So they cast lots, and the lot fell upon Jonah.
8 Then said they to him, Tell us, we pray thee, for what cause has this evil come upon us;
What is your occupation? And where do you come from? What is your country? And of
what people do you belong?
9 And he said to them, I am a Hebrew; and I fear the Lord [YHVH], the God [El] of heaven,
who made the sea and the dry land.
10 Then the men were exceedingly afraid, and said to him, Why have you done this? For the
men knew that he fled from the presence of the Lord [YHVH], because he had told them.
1

I use YHVH to designate the four Hebrew letters often translated into English as Yahweh or
Jehovah. The oldest Hebrew texts have no pronunciation markers, these being added by the
Masorites in approximately 900 C.E. Therefore, the actual pronunciation of YHVH is unknown.
I prefer using YHVH because it sticks closer to the actual Hebrew text and is not contradicted by
any known archaeological fact. Also, in some circles of Judaism, attempts to pronounce the
name of God are considered to be a profane action and have led to the substitute Hebrew phrase,
Ha Shem, meaning the name. In American Ashkenazi tradition, whenever the Hebrew
Scriptures are read aloud in synagogue, the reader substitutes Adonai (Lord) for YHVH. In
addition to the above stated reasons, the practice of using YHVH commends itself because it
avoids giving unnecessary offense to Jewish readers.
2
Yonah which literally means "dove."
3
El is the singular form of Elohim (translated God in English).
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11 Then said they to him, What shall we do to you, that the sea may be calm to us? For the sea
wrought, and was tempestuous.
12 And he said to them, Take me up, and cast me into the sea; then the sea will be calm to you:
for I know that for my sake this great tempest is upon you.
13 Nevertheless the men rowed hard to bring it to the land; but they could not: for the sea
wrought, and was tempestuous against them.
14 Therefore they cried to the Lord [YHVH], and said, We beseech thee, O Lord [YHVH], we
beseech thee, let us not perish for this man's life, and lay not upon us innocent blood: for
you, O Lord [YHVH], have done as it pleased you.
15 So they took up Jonah, and cast him into the sea: and the sea ceased from her raging.
16 Then the men feared the Lord [YHVH] exceedingly, and offered a sacrifice to the Lord
[YHVH], and made vows.
17 Now the Lord [YHVH] had prepared a great fish to swallow up Jonah. And Jonah was in the
belly of the fish three days and three nights.

Overview of the Book of Jonah

Chapter One Flight from God
The books first chapter begins with the image of Jonah fleeing from God after He issued him a
command to preach a message to Nineveh. What follows are the events before Jonah was
swallowed by the Great Fish. The image sequence first reveals the Hebrew prophet running to a
dock where he catches a boat to Tarshish.4 Once the boat sets sail we hear Jonahs dialogue
with the Pagan mariners about the cause of a violent storm which threatens to destroy the boat.
Chapter one closes with Jonah being thrown into the sea as a sacrifice a propitiation to the
God of Israel.

Chapter Two Prayer in the belly of the Great Fish

The books second chapter depicts Jonahs prayer to God from within the belly of the Great
Fish. The chapter ends with God speaking to Great Fish which resulted in Jonah being
vomited out onto dry land.

Chapter Three Jonahs delivers Gods message to Nineveh

The books third chapter begins with a repetition of Gods command to Jonah to preach to
Nineveh. However, this time he agrees. The people and the king accept Jonahs message. A fast
is proclaimed throughout the land. The chapter ends with the statement that God would no
longer destroy Nineveh. The implication is that He considered their repentance sincere.5

Tarshish is believed to be the Hebrew name for the ancient city of Tartessus whose ruins are in
southwestern Spain, near Gibraltar. Probably an analogy for the then-known ends of the earth
since it preceded the western exploration of the Americas.
5
And God saw their works, that they turned from their evil way; and God repented of the evil,
that he had said that he would do unto them; and he did it not (Jonah 3:10).
Lecture Outline and Appendix
Copyright 2008, Robert I. Winer, M.D.

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Chapter Four Jonah sits in a booth on the eastern outskirts of

Nineveh
The books fourth and final chapter begins with a statement that Jonah is angry about Gods
decision to spare Nineveh. The dejected Jonah leaves the city and sits in a booth [Sukkah] which
contemporary Jews still use to eat their evening meal during the week of the Feast of
Tabernacles. Jonah waits to see what will happen to the city of Nineveh. In the booth, some
unusual things happen and an interesting dialogue takes place between Jonah and his God.

Authorship and the empirical man, Jonah

To my knowledge, no ancient documents that mention the historical personage of Jonah exist.
Therefore, one cannot establish with certainty who it is that supposedly authored the book that
bears his name. However, since the book of Jonah came to occupy a position in the Jewish
canon of Scriptures known as the Prophets (Niveeem), there was a consensus acceptance
from religious authorities of its divine inspiration. Additionally, the first century CE Jewish
historian Josephus records that ancient Jewish opinion regarded the account of Jonahs
experience as historical (Ant. 9.10.2).
Regarding the man himself, beside the book itself, we have no primary source material
concerning Jonahs life. Jonah is mentioned in one other place in the Old Testament and three
times in the New Testament. Based upon the Tenach6 passage in 2 Kings 14:23-257, two
assertions have been made about the historical personage of Jonah:
1. Jonah lived at least part of his life during the reign of King Jeroboam of Israel (c. 782-753
BCE). This makes him a contemporary of the Biblical Prophets Joel and Amos.
2. He lived or was born in the town of Gath-hepher, which in Hebrew means "winepress of
digging." According to Joshua 19:13, Gath-hepher is a town in the territory of the Hebrew
tribe of Zebulun, in lower Galilee, approximately three miles from present-day Nazareth. In
Roman times, Gath-hepher was called Meshed. Jonahs tomb is believed to be on a hilltop
in this region.

The Hebrew word, Tenach, is an acronym of three Hebrew Letter referring to the Five Books of
Moses (Torah or Pentateuch), Prophets (Niveeem), and Writings (Ktuveem).
7
In the fifteenth year of Amaziah the son of Joash king of Judah Jeroboam the son of Joash king
of Israel began to reign in Samaria, and reigned forty and one years. 24 And he did that which
was evil in the sight of the Lord: he departed not from all the sins of Jeroboam the son of Nebat,
who made Israel to sin. 25 He restored the coast of Israel from the entering of Hamath unto the
sea of the plain, according to the word of the Lord God of Israel, which he spoke by the hand of
his servant Jonah, the son of Amittai, the prophet, which was of Gath-hepher (2 Kings 14:2325).
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Place in the Canon

According to Jewish tradition, the books of the Scriptures deemed to be prophetic are divided
into two parts:
1. Minor prophets (12 in number) in which the book of Jonah resides.
2. Major prophets (3 in number) which are Isaiah, Jeremiah, and Ezekiel.
Because the book of Jonah is not a collection of Jonah's prophecies but rather a narrative of his
calling by YHVH regarding the Assyrian city of Nineveh, some Biblical scholars and theologians
place it in a different category than the other prophetic books.

List of the 15 Prophets of the 8th through 5th

century BCE.
The names of the Hebrew prophets are given below (in approximate chronological order of
earliest to latest). Following the name is the approximate date of their ministry which I base
upon the reign of certain Israeli kings and / or significant historical events.

Pre-exile
Joel (790-770)
Jonah (780-760)
Amos (760-)
Obadiah (760-)
Hosea (750-732)
Micah(750-)
Isaiah (740s-680s)
Nahum (663-612 dating from the fall of Thebes in 663 to the fall of Nineveh in 612)
Zephaniah (640-609)
Jeremiah (625-586)
Habakkuk (609-597)
Ezekiel (593-)

Post-exile (after the fall of the First Temple in Jerusalem, 586

BCE)
Haggai (520-486)
Zechariah (520-)
Malachi (440-420)

Lecture Outline and Appendix

Copyright 2008, Robert I. Winer, M.D.

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Biblical Chronology
To orient the reader to the Bible, I include a brief chronology below (BCE birth date or
beginning of reign in parenthesis):
2150

Abraham beginning of the Jewish people

2050

Isaac

2000

Jacob

1910

Joseph beginning of the exile in Egypt

1450

Exodus from Egypt; Twelve tribes occupy the land of Israel

1020

Saul first king of Israel

1010

David

980

Solomon the last king of an undivided Israel

953

First Temple completed in Jerusalem

920

Israel divided into a Northern Kingdom (10 tribes known variably in the
Scriptures as Israel, Samaria, Ephraim, Jacob) and a Southern Kingdom (2 tribes
known as Judah).

720

Northern Kingdom defeated and scattered by the Assyrians

586

Destruction of the First Temple by the Babylonians

516

Second Temple built and beginning of return from the Babylonian Exile

440

Beginning date of the Malachi, the last book in the Tenach

330

Alexander the Great

70(CE)

Destruction of the Second Temple; dispersion of the Jewish people (Diaspora)

Dating
from a Biblical perspective
Since this is a psychological study, I omit a review of sources regarding the book of Jonah's
ancient authorship (see section that follows, dating from a psychological perspective, for the
justification of this approach). The majority of Biblical scholars assert that the book of Jonah
Lecture Outline and Appendix
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was written no later than the third century before the Common Era (300 BCE) approximately
500 years after he is thought to have lived. Such a disparity is not uncommon from the
theological standpoint when dealing with prophetic books from the Bible. It appears to me that
the dating of Biblical books is an inexact science chiefly because there are no extant texts that
date at the same time the books of the Tenach were supposedly written / compiled. The oldest
most complete Hebrew fragments of the Tenach date from between 200 BCE and 100 CE (Dead
Sea Scrolls). While some scholars have no difficulty in dating the Jonah text to be from around
the time (early compilation) others date it later (third century) on the basis of their being a few
words that are of Aramaic origin.
I use the Hebrew Masoretic text which dates from between 900-1000 CE. I am of the opinion
that the Masoretic text remains faithful to the original Hebrew texts based upon comparison to
earlier text fragments of Biblical books. For those not familiar with the dating / reliability of
Biblical texts, the late dating of the Masoretic text may strike them as unusual (almost 1000
years after the destruction of the Second Temple). This arose because of the ancient Jewish
tradition, going back to this time period, that once a scroll containing a Biblical text had worn
out, it should be buried. This fact accounts for the paucity of ancient extant manuscripts of
Hebrew Scriptures.

from a psychological perspective

The question of dating of a Biblical text is not of the same importance to the psychologist as it is
to the scholar or adherent of a particular faith. For the latter dating takes on a theological
significance or becomes an integral pre-requisite of a particular doctrine. The psychologist, on
the other hand, finds it a great benefit for there to be a generally agreed upon date of origin for a
particular sacred text because this allows one to make hypothesis or statements about the level of
psychological development of the collective and / or the imago dei8 at a particular time in history.
Jung distinguishes two layers or regions of the unconscious: the personal and collective
unconscious. Jung uses personal unconscious to refer to images that are unique to the
individual and acquired during life. Whereas the collective unconscious relates to an
unconscious ordering factor (archetype) behind the archetypal image that is asserted to be
common to all human being and present at birth (not-acquired during life). When referring to the
collective unconscious Jung means a layer of psyche in which each individual human being
shares the same psychic pre-structure and potentiality of readiness to action.
Jung also describes another layer, the ancestral, which perhaps may be conceptualized as being
above the archetypal / collective layer and below the personal layer. In his seminars, Jung
asserted that within this ancestral layer are national, tribal, or family divisions each of which
might be conceived as being progressively closer to the personal unconscious. I suggest that
Jungs ancestral layer be considered when one looks at the Hebrew Scriptures psychologically.
My opinion is that such an ancestral layers may contain ethnic or familial psychic units /
structures that have a strong biological basis and are perhaps partially determined through
inheritance. It seems reasonable to suggest that such inherited factors lead toward unique
tendencies and temperaments which the individual carries with him or her during life. I also
8

Latin for image of God

Lecture Outline and Appendix

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suggest that ancestral layer factors are more causally-based than with those associated with an
archetypal constellation. However, the extent to which these units influence the structure of the
unconscious cannot be determined with any degree of reliability in a particular individual. Their
influence is hinted at but cannot, at this present time, be more definitively understood.
Unfortunately, great harm has resulted from the abuse and misuse of psychic factors related to
this supposed ancestral layer. However, from the standpoint of psychology, it is my opinion
that we cannot dare to leave this matter unexplored. One can at least make an attempt to frame a
psychological discussion and understanding of the ancestral layer, while at the same time
acknowledging that in the past it provided fuel for those inclined toward racism, prejudice, and
genocide. I feel that acting as if there is no empirical evidence for such a layer may be like
denying that there are genetic disease which are more prominent in a particular ethnic group.
I suggest that we must attempt to understand the projective / identificational factors that operate
whenever one grapples with a psychic field in which significant unknowns exist. This is
especially crucial in psychological Scriptural studies. I am of the opinion that the ancestral
layer of psyche will, at some time in the future, again be part of psychological exploration,
particularly in studies concerning the differences between the Western and Eastern imago dei.
Additionally, in this discussion, historical factors must also be considered to properly amplify the
material (embed it in its original matrix / milieu). Arguing from the standpoint of early dating,
the book of Jonah arose at a particular time moment (approximately 700 BCE) and under certain
conditions (the collision between two distinct ethnicities, the Hebrew people, and the Assyrian
people. From a psychological standpoint, this Zeitgeist was at the beginnings of a period one
might call tribal Monotheism.
What we know of the recorded continuous written history of human consciousness is not much
beyond six or seven thousand years. I write continuous to acknowledge the fact that there does
exist a minimal number of other written fragments or images produced by humans that are older,
such as the animal painting found in French caves dating 25,000 years ago. However, if one
excludes such fragments / images then it is not unreasonable to suggest that this 5000-6000 years
of recorded history (or in a more limited sense relating to this papers religious history
discernible directly from the Judeo-Christian Scriptures of the Tenach and New Testament) may
provide valuable information about the changes which human consciousness has undergone
during this time period.

Lecture Outline and Appendix

Copyright 2008, Robert I. Winer, M.D.

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