Jonah 1:4

Hebrew Bible

2 “Go immediately to Nineveh, that large capital city, and announce judgment against its people because their wickedness has come to my attention.” 3 Instead, Jonah immediately headed off to Tarshish to escape from the commission of the Lord. He traveled to Joppa and found a merchant ship heading to Tarshish. So he paid the fare and went aboard it to go with them to Tarshish, far away from the Lord. 4 But the Lord hurled a powerful wind on the sea. Such a violent tempest arose on the sea that the ship threatened to break up! 5 The sailors were so afraid that each cried out to his own god and they flung the ship’s cargo overboard to make the ship lighter. Jonah, meanwhile, had gone down into the hold below deck, had lain down, and was sound asleep. 6 The ship’s captain approached him and said, “What are you doing asleep? Get up! Cry out to your god! Perhaps your god might take notice of us so that we might not die!” 7 The sailors said to one another, “Come on, let’s cast lots to find out whose fault it is that this disaster has overtaken us.” So they cast lots, and Jonah was singled out.

Mark 4:37

New Testament

35 On that day, when evening came, Jesus said to his disciples, “Let’s go across to the other side of the lake.” 36 So after leaving the crowd, they took him along, just as he was, in the boat, and other boats were with him. 37 Now a great windstorm developed and the waves were breaking into the boat, so that the boat was nearly swamped. 38 But he was in the stern, sleeping on a cushion. They woke him up and said to him, “Teacher, don’t you care that we are about to die?” 39 So he got up and rebuked the wind, and said to the sea, “Be quiet! Calm down!” Then the wind stopped, and it was dead calm. 40 And he said to them, “Why are you cowardly? Do you still not have faith?” 41 They were overwhelmed by fear and said to one another, “Who then is this? Even the wind and sea obey him!”

 Notes and References

"... Rather than regard the account of Jesus stilling the storm as exhibiting a ‘Jonah typology’, I suggest that Mark’s narrative echoes elements of the Jonah story in order to draw a striking and ironic contrast between the rather pathetic Jonah, the reluctant herald and Jesus, the true and faithful herald of the kingdom of God. I believe that there is some evidence for this type of approach. Firstly, in the book of Jonah itself, I believe that there are already signs of intentional irony (Simon 1999:9–14; Timmer 2011:72–74) such as when Jonah confesses that he serves the God who is maker of heaven and earth as he is trying to flee from God on a sailing ship (1:9), whilst the pagan sailors actually show true devotion and obedience to the point that they address their prayers to Yahweh (1:14). Secondly, in the canonical Gospels, Luke’s account of the temptation of Jesus by Satan in the wilderness (Lk 4:1–13) may be understood to draw an implicit contrast between Jesus and Israel. It is striking that Jesus is tempted on the matters of food, worship and putting God to the test, all of which are also found in the narrative of Israel’s time in the wilderness in the Pentateuch. It seems likely that a deliberate contrast is being drawn between Israel, the faithless son, and Jesus, the faithful son, even though there is no explicit statement to that effect ..."

Wilson, A. I. In the Same Boat? Jonah and Jesus as Wave-Beaten Heralds (pp. 1-8) In die Skriflig 55, 2021

 User Comments

Mark 4:39 is a word parallel to Mark 1:25 when Jesus rebukes a demon. Baal the storm god is shown inferior. This is reinforced when Jesus casts legion out of the man who exhibits the same behavior as the prophets of Baal whom Elijah defeated on mount Carmel. Jesus them goes on to raise a dead child, and show that his garment holds power, both of which can be associated with Elijah.

Robert Lindblad, November 19, 2023, 7:40 pm

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