Since antiquity, the issue of the inconsistency between the Book of Nahum and the Book of Jonah has been addressed, one regarding both its content and its message. At various times, it was settled in different ways. The current state of biblical research seems to allow us to put forth a daring thesis that both Books have more in common than merely Nineveh as the subject matter, which they approach from a different angle. There seem to be grounds to see these two Books as vestiges of an intracanonical debate waged within the Book of the Twelve.
It was claimed more than once that the journey of Paul and his landing on the shore of Malta in the last two chapters of the Book of Acts can be interpreted as a theological parallel to the account of death and resurrection of Jesus. There are, to be sure, some reasonable arguments in favor of that, such as close relationship between death and death risk or similarities to the journey of Jonah. But can it be convincingly argued that Luke really did intend a parallelism of this kind in Acts 27-28? The paper deals with literary elements of Luke 23-24 in order to make this hypothesis more conclusive.
The Book of Jonah is remarkably theocentric. The events underline that JHWH is truly the only God, because he has the power of over natural elements, flora and fauna and destiny of other nations who are subordinate to Him even far from the homeland of the Israelites. JHWH Himself is the origin of all creation and will lead it to its final fulfillment. There are no other gods, and JHWH alone determines what is sinful, and JHWH Himself can show mercy in response to people’s repentance. God thus pictured is the only God, full of mercy. In His infinite mercy, he is not exclusively concerned with the Jewish nation. On the contrary, JHWH sends the Prophet to the pagans and in doing so he offers His mercy and redemption to them, which is undoubtedly extraordinary in the Bible.
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