Jonah: In Pursuit of the Dove

Hauser, Alan J.

doi:10.2307/3260591

Cited by 6 publications

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“…21-22, 37-39, 46, 54); cf. (Hauser 1985). It is ironic that the yonah, the bird characterized by its voice, and the prophet, whose role is to speak, wraps himself in silence until he arrives at a situation in which there is no longer human speech in his environs.…”

Section: Returning Home: Irony and Satire In The Book Of Jonahmentioning

confidence: 99%

Nature’s Apostle: The Dove as Communicator in the Hebrew Bible, from Ararat to Nineveh

Blondheim,

Rosenberg

2024

Religions

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The dove, the most frequently mentioned bird in the Hebrew Bible, appears in diverse contexts, spanning its appearance as an element in the narrative (as in the case of Noah’s ark), and as an allegory and metaphor (as in the cryptic “sword of the dove”—twice in Jeremiah—and “the city of the dove”—Zephaniah). The dove even appears as the proper name of a prophet (or possibly of two, both named Jonah, son of Amittai). This article applies a communication perspective to better interpret some of these texts. We argue that the dove’s communicative attributes, to include unique acoustics, remarkable power of flight, but primarily the trait of returning home—the basis for the use of doves as carrier pigeons—may either explain or deepen the interpretation of many of the references to the pigeon in the Bible. In this vein, a major focus of the article is on using the dove’s homing ability as a key for reinterpreting the Book of Jonah. We conclude by suggesting that the dove’s trait of returning and, hence, its use as envoy made it a useful symbol of the deity’s presence in the world. In the Jewish reading, it became an emblem of one of the main political and eschatological themes of the Bible: the return home from exile, beginning with the exodus and return of Jacob’s sons to Canaan and ending with the Eschaton.

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Section: Returning Home: Irony and Satire In The Book Of Jonahmentioning

confidence: 99%

Nature’s Apostle: The Dove as Communicator in the Hebrew Bible, from Ararat to Nineveh

Blondheim,

Rosenberg

2024

Religions

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“…1 The Old Testament Book of Jonah is one of the most problematic narratives from this standpoint, 2 and it has produced real scientific polemics around literary and theological interpretations of this book (Miles 1975;Berlin 1976) and the Hebrew Bible as a whole (Friedman 2000;Morreall 2001;Friedman 2002). Although most modern Bible scholars no more intend on absolute seriousness and historicity of the Book of Jonah (Band 1990: 178-179), there is still no consensus on particular qualifiers of humorous, comic, or ironic modes of writing in the Bible (Pelli 1979(Pelli -1980Hauser 1985;Moberly 2003;Peters 2018). The most popular approach to Jonah considers the book a parody of earlier prophetic writings (Miles 1975;Band 1990;Friedman 2000: 282).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“Jonah’s gourd” and its early Byzantine interpretations

Kurdybaylo

2021

EJHR

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Many modern scholars consider the Old Testament book of Jonah being written in a boldly parodic manner. The narrative engages many details that sound humorous for a modern reader. However, from the standpoint of late Antique and early Medieval patristic exegesis, it is often unclear whether Byzantine interpreters perceived such passages laughable or at least inappropriate for a prophetic writing. This study presents a few examples of early Byzantine commentaries to the episode with Jonah and a gourd (Jonah 4:6–11). None of the commentaries expresses any explicit amusement caused by the discussed text. However, the style, method, or context of each commentary appears to be passing the traditional bounds of Bible interpretation. The earlier interpreters adhere to the most expected moral reading of Jonah 4, but they use epithets, metaphors, or omissions, which produce the effect of paradox comparable to the biblical wording itself. The later commentaries tend to involve unexpected and even provocative senses. In such interpretations, God can be thought of as being able to play with a human or even to fool and deceive. What seems us humorous in the Bible, Byzantine commentators take primarily as a paradox, which they did not explain or remove but elaborate further paradoxically. The later an interpreter is, the bolder his paradoxical approach appears. The results of the study provide some clues to understanding how the interpretation of humorous, parodic, or ironical passages were developing in the history of Byzantine intellectual culture.

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Die Identifikation Kultureller Erfolgsfaktoren Bei Grenzüberschreitenden Fusionen

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Jonah: In Pursuit of the Dove

Cited by 6 publications

References 0 publications

Nature’s Apostle: The Dove as Communicator in the Hebrew Bible, from Ararat to Nineveh

Nature’s Apostle: The Dove as Communicator in the Hebrew Bible, from Ararat to Nineveh

“Jonah’s gourd” and its early Byzantine interpretations

Stand der Unternehmenskulturforschung

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