Jonah: A Moving Story

Jonah, a Moving Story Comparative commentary by jione Havea Cite Share Show Bible Passage In the Qur'an, Yunus (Jonah) did not preach. Nineveh did not need to be preached against. Without Jonah saying a word, the people believed, and Allah let them enjoy life for a while (Surah 37:147–148). In the Old Testament/Hebrew Bible, meanwhile, Jonah preached five Hebrew words to announce impending doom upon Nineveh (3:4 NRSV). But the king and people of Nineveh ‘believed God; they proclaimed a fast, and everyone, great and small, put on sackcloth’ (3:5). Their aim was to make God relent, so that they would not perish (3:9). And it worked. God relented (3:10). Nineveh’s people saved themselves on account of their accepting words, purposeful actions, and renewed hearts. A short story like Jonah, with its performative actions (see Mathews 2016) and shifting plot (see Rees 2016), invites readings that move and relocate details, and readings that juxtapose the biblical narrative with other texts (see Havea 2016; Kunz-Lübcke 2016). Those readings are normal, i argue, despite the obsession of biblical scholars with being ‘faithful to the text’. What does it mean to be faithful to a text, when the plot of that text is selective and relenting (pun intended) in the first place? My readings of the three artworks with Jonah 3 showed that artists too move details around. The plants in the Eritrean painting remind me of the slender plant that the Qur'an moved from the hinterland (in the Hebrew narrative) to the shore. The artist was a Christian priest, but his work makes room for the Qur'an. In the cathedral relief, a plant shades Jonah; in the Eritrean painting, plants fill the space between the sea and the city. The plants in the Eritrean painting serve the function of Jonah’s audience in the cathedral relief: the audience and the plants show that narrative spaces are peopled and ‘planted’. In other words, these artists see something that readers of biblical texts fail to see. The plants in the cathedral relief and the Eritrean painting invite another reading of Behnam Keryo’s calligraphy. In my first reading, shaped by my worldviews as a saltwater native, i saw ripples. But i am also a native of dry (is)land, and the calligraphy may also be seen as a canopy. While the other two artworks look at plants from the side, Keryo’s calligraphy invites us to look at plants from above as well. This second reading affirms Keryo’s concern for calm in the sea and over the land, a calm that is possible when the plant world is seen and affirmed from all sides. In the biblical and Qur'anic texts, the plant serves the interest of Jonah. In the juxtaposition of the three artworks in this reflection, the plant world serves the interests of the sea and of the land. In other words, we humans need to look beyond the breaths upon our noses. As a biblical and cultural critic, i value the ways in which these artworks challenge me to rethink the connection between scriptural texts and interpretations. I was trained to privilege the ancient text, but i have learned that scriptures negotiate, and textual details move; furthermore, interpretations evolve and relent. Keryo did another calligraphic work (2006), using Aramaic text by St Ephrem of Nisibis (also known as Ephrem the Syrian; 306–73 CE), which partly seems to lay the blame for Nineveh’s judgement on its beautiful women. Nineveh was saved because ‘the impertinents have weaned their eyes to observe not women’ (Keryo 2006). I do not know which calligraphy was made first, but they may illustrate ‘relenting’ in the work of one artist. While one work (that partly lays the blame on beautiful women) is an example of ‘men’s business’, the other work relents that testosterone-filled stance with a sea-and-land-affirming script(ure). Against the testosterone-filled and classist—for the audience are men of the cloth—stance of the Eritrean painting, the cathedral relief puts women who are not interested in Jonah’s preaching before viewers and worshippers. These two artworks appeal to different sides of the pulpit, where men too are not interested in the preached words. In closing, i wonder: how might the artists who created these three works add the fasting animals (3:7–8) to their artworks? When humans fast, the animal and plant worlds have a chance to relax … and calmness becomes more possible for the sea and the (is)land. References havea, jione. 2016. ‘Sitting Jonah with Job: Resailing Intertextuality’, The Bible & Critical Theory, 12: 94–108. Available at https://www.bibleandcriticaltheory.com/issues/vol12-no1-2016/vol-12-no-1-2016-sitting-jonah-with-job-resailing-intertextuality/ [accessed 31 July 2023] Kunz-Lübke, Andreas. 2016. ‘Jonah, Robinsons and Unlimited Gods: Re-reading Jonah as a Sea Adventure Story’, The Bible & Critical Theory, 12: 62–78. Available at https://www.bibleandcriticaltheory.com/issues/vol12-no1-2016/vol-12-no-1-2016-jonah-robinsons-and-unlimited-gods-re-reading-jonah-as-a-sea-adventure-story/ [accessed 31 July 2023] Mathews, Jeanette. 2016. ‘Jonah as a Performance: Performance Critical Guidelines for Reading a Prophetic Text’, The Bible & Critical Theory, 12: 23–39. Available at https://www.bibleandcriticaltheory.com/issues/vol12-no1-2016/vol-12-no-1-2016-jonah-as-a-performance-performance-critical-guidelines-for-reading-a-prophetic-text/ [accessed 31 July 2023] Rees, Anthony. 2016. ‘Getting Up and Going Down: Towards a Spatial Poetics of Jonah’, The Bible & Critical Theory, 12: 40–48. Available at https://www.bibleandcriticaltheory.com/issues/vol12-no1-2016/vol-12-no-1-2016-getting-up-and-going-down-towards-a-spatial-poetics-of-jonah/ [accessed 31 July 2023]