FROM IMPRECATORY TO IRONY AND WISDOM IN THE BOOK OF THE PROPHET JONAH
FROM IMPRECATORY TO IRONY AND WISDOM IN THE BOOK OF THE PROPHET JONAH

Summary/Abstract: Among these guides, a special place in the scriptural canon of the Old Testament is occupied by the prophet Jonah. In this canonical book of Holy Scripture we find special elements of irony, but they will always be accompanied by divine wisdom and morality, never separated. Jonah allegorically embodies the loneliness and quest of modern man. The sympathetic appearance, the “irony” that fills the Book of Jonah are difficult concepts to digest in the environment in which this book appeared, that's why the book was deliberately put under the name of a prophet, using a procedure known to antiquity. Another way to save the Book of Jonah might be to insert into the text concepts dear to Israel, and especially to the dominant religious authorities, so that the whole book would be given a pass. Another feature is that the Book of Jonah was placed among the prophetic writings, although, at first sight, it has little to do with them. Then another feature of this book is the literary genre used by the author - otherwise disputed even among modern exegetes of the book - one that is no longer found in any other part of the Old Testament if we think about the author's ironic tone, the history-psalm sequence -history, but also to the fact that it is the only biblical book that ends with a question posed by God to the hero. The book of Jonah in its entirety deserves its reputation because of: the last, unanswered question that intrigues the reader; to the fact that it is intended to be an event easy to remember and out of the ordinary; the circumstances, as if from a fairy tale, proposed by Iona's adventure; the sea monster, which aroused the most surprising interpretations.

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