jonah

So, Totaly unrelated to the bible bee :D Who was the main carachacter in the book of jonah? was it God or was it Jonah. Regardless of what other people think it is. (like skf for example) what do you think the answer is, and why?

Alright…here's how I look at it. Humanly speaking, it's Jonah. But honestly, after studying it for 3 months, I would say God is the main character. It's amazing how His wonderful and mighty attributes are proven through the story :)

God is the main Character in every story, but you could also say that since nothing happens apart from God, He is assumed–in which case Jonah is the main character.

God is the main Character in every story, but you could also say that since nothing happens apart from God, He is assumed--in which case Jonah is the main character.

Does that mean you put Jonah when it asked that question on the test? ;)

God is the main Character in every story

True that.

Does that mean you put Jonah when it asked that question on the test? ;)

No, because I knew that's not what they were looking for. :-P

And then there's stupid people like me who saw "Jonah" and thought it was a throwaway question, so I didn't even look to see that "God" was one of the answers, or I would have chosen it. =P

Oh dear… yeah, always read all of the choices. Sometimes on MemVerse quizzes I've seen an answer I knew was accurate–A, for example–and clicked it, only to find out that B is also accurate and D is "A and B."

I did that a lot this year, not reading all the answers because I found the right one quickly… It's a bad habit :P

I would say that Jonah is the main human character but the whole book is about God.

Does that mean you put Jonah when it asked that question on the test? ;)

No, because I knew that's not what they were looking for. :-P

Ditto.

     So the problem seems to be, that the Bible is ultimately about God, so you feel compelled to say that God is the main character in the story. While God certainly is the main character in the bible, He is not necessarily the main character in the book of Jonah. The main character is  the character through who's eyes we experience the story, as well as a character who we can empathize with. This is why I think that Jonah, not God, is the main character in the book of Jonah. Ultimately, The bible is a story where God is the main character, but it is comprised of stories with other main characters.

Alright...here's how I look at it. Humanly speaking, it's Jonah. But honestly, after studying it for 3 months, I would say God is the main character. It's amazing how His wonderful and mighty attributes are proven through the story :)

When the bible say "To the point of death" is it saying that Jonah actually dies?

No. His anger and hatred was so strong that he wanted to die, but he didn't actually die. I like the NASB here.

Jonah 4:8
When the sun came up God appointed a scorching east wind, and the sun beat down on Jonah’s head so that he became faint and begged with all his soul to die, saying, “Death is better to me than life.”

I was referring to in Jonah 2. I was told the other day that in some translations the one verse reading he went 'to the point of death' and because of that some people believe he actually died and there is a verse later in the NT I forget the reference but "…to the point of death even death on a cross' talking about Jesus' death. I was just curious on all your opinions on it. :)

That doesn't really make sense. If Jonah died in chapter 2, then chapters 3&4 do not exist. But they do exist, so Jonah obviously didn't die. How could Jonah have prayed that prayer if he was dead? Jesus said in Matthew 12:38-41 that Jonah was in the belly of the fish for three days and three nights. He also says that Nineveh repented at the preaching of Jonah, so he lived. Or do you think that God raised Jonah from the dead?

Well that was the person in questions opinion. They think that's what he's talking about when he says 'brought up from the pit' 'the bars closed around me' etc. I personally don't think he died and was brought back to life.

I think he was just describing the hopelessness of his state. On top of all that, his prayer can easily be interpreted as metaphoric and not literal. The part you're referring to can also be interpreted as a description of where his soul was, not his physical self. I think it was like this: Jonah got thrown overboard and thought he was going to die because he knew that he deserved death. But God had other plans, and He appointed the fish to swallow him.

Yeah that's what I think. Our youth pastor was saying that one of his professors in seminary held that view. (that Jonah died and God brought him back to life)

Yeah, I've heard that view from one of the commentaries I read, (Jonah was brought back to life). It is not impossible, since God certainly brought other people in the OT back to life, but I tend to disagree that it is what's going on in this case.

I was honestly surprised how much controversy there is surrounding the book of Jonah. It seems pretty straight forward as a story, until you start studying it.