Re: [asa] On Job

At 12:01 PM 10/12/2006, David Opderbeck wrote:
>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.

@ This can't legitimately be ignored:

http://www.calvin.edu/archive/asa/200610/0138.html
http://www.calvin.edu/archive/asa/200610/0137.html

~ Janice

>
>On 10/12/06, gordon brown
><<mailto:gbrown@euclid.colorado.edu>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 12:24:55 2006