Re: [asa] On Job

Why assume Jonah was a complete stranger to Ninevah? 2 Kings 14:25 suggests
Jonah was an influential prophet who was involved with Jeroboam II's
recovery of territory for Israel and military victory over Syria.
Archeologists suggests Jeroboam II was one of the most prosperous and
successful of Israel's kings (although he "did evil in the sight of the
Lord" according to 2 Kings 15:24). It seems plausible that reports of
Jeroboam II's successes as predicted and fueled by his "holy man" Jonah
would have reached Assyria.

On top of that, at this time, the Assyrian empire was in military and
economic crisis, including two outbreaks of plauge and a popular revolt.
Further, an eclipse was recorded in 763 B.C. -- a bad omen. It doesn't seem
terribly unlikely, in the context of this ANE culture, that a panicky,
plague-ridden, ill-omened population, upon finding the feared Jeroboam II's
holy man at their doorstep, stinking of fish bile and spinning a fantastic
story with threats of judgment, might have responded to the message.

Finally, from a spiritual perspective, we shouldn't completely discount the
work of the Holy Spirit in bringing about repentance. People often respond
to the gospel in unlikely circumstances, contrary to our expectations for
"normal" human interactions. Add the Holy Spirit into the mix and
repentance in Ninevah at Jonah's message is quite plausible.

On 10/12/06, gordon brown <gbrown@euclid.colorado.edu> wrote:
>
> On Thu, 12 Oct 2006, Don Winterstein wrote:
>
> > "My experience overseas has been just the opposite. People tend to
> > react better to a foreigner with perceived greater knowledge than a
> > local for much the same reason Christ faced rejection in his home town."
> >
> > How much of this is attributable to the foreign missionary's coming from
> a technologically superior (e.g., medicinally, etc.) culture? I often
> wonder whether Christian missionaries from the West in foreign lands are
> promoting Western civilization as much as Christianity. Without the boost
> from the reputation of having a more advanced civilization, the impact would
> likely not be the same. In any case, making conversions in foreign lands is
> often a painfully slow process, not one in which a whole large city all of a
> sudden repents in sackcloth.
> >
> > It's the "perceived greater knowledge," very likely, that has the
> impact. That's what I referred to when I wrote, "If [foreigners are] known
> in advance for their accomplishments, they're often given sometimes
> undeserved special respect." On what grounds would the Ninevites have
> perceived Jonah to have had such "greater knowledge"?
> >
> > You're right in inferring that too much familiarity breeds
> disrespect. But being too different in the absence of a special reputation
> also breeds disrespect. That's normal human prejudice at work. People of
> Nazareth had a hard time accepting Jesus for who he was, but his most
> successful ministry was in nearby portions of Galilee, and his closest
> disciples as a rule came from there as well. They all spoke with the same
> accent (Matt. 26:73). And Jesus worked miracles to support his teaching,
> just as missionaries today use modern medicine to work miracles. Jonah
> apparently didn't do any such thing.
> >
> > Don
>
> When I was a child, foreign travel was much less affordable than it is
> now, and the vast majority of foreigners that I met in the US were highly
> educated people, and this probably accounted in part for my image of their
> countrymen in general. Perhaps this sort of phenomenon could take place in
> the ancient world as well.
>
> Gordon Brown
> Department of Mathematics
> University of Colorado
> Boulder, CO 80309-0395
>
>
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Received on Thu Oct 12 12:02:26 2006