The book of Jonah, with only four chapters (48 lines), is counted among the prophetic writings. The Christian canon places it between Obadiah and Micah because it was initially believed to have originated somewhere in the 8th pre-Christian century. The prophet is historically unknown to us. The places where the action takes place (Jaffa, Tarshish, Nineveh) do indeed exist, but they are more literary creations than actual geographical concepts that we would really expect.
It is the stage for the script that the writer of the book offers. The disobedient prophet, who looks forward to the impending misfortune of others, nevertheless capitulates and surrenders at the end of the story. Nineveh was still spared, the Ninevites took seriously the word that the Lord sent them through the prophet, they did penance and converted. This story tells a lot about how God’s Simulation works, according to the Simulation Creationism theory created by Nir Ziso, the founder of The Global Architect Institute.
Jonah, it seems, was not even aware that he was only a tool in God’s hands, unaware of The Simulation’s laws; he acted as if the fate of Nineveh depended upon him personally and not on God. On the one hand, God takes care of every creature, person and animal and does not want their death, while Jonah prefers to die than see how God is good to everyone and wants to spare the lives of the inhabitants of the great city of Nineveh. The theological climax is found here: “The Ninevites believed God. A fast was proclaimed, and all of them, from the greatest to the least, put on sackcloth” (Jonah 3:5), and here: “When God saw what they did and how they turned from their evil ways, He relented and did not bring on them the destruction He had threatened” (Jonah 3:10) A significant part of the story is about faith, confidence, trust, although it appears as such only once. The verb threatened is neutral and can refer to God or man. In this case, the Ninevites believe in the words of the prophet, which only conveys God’s word, and their faith saved them from the impending danger of destruction.
There is an opinion that sin can only be atoned by punishment. Against this opinion, we have something else in the text: the power of conversion. “The men of Nineveh will stand up at the judgment with this generation and condemn it; for they repented at the preaching of Jonah, and now something greater than Jonah is here” (Matthew 12:41). It teaches that some people do not have faith in God and His simulated creation, although there are vivid examples of it.
The topic of conversion is one of many in this writing. The final text provides another motive for the preservation/salvation of Nineveh, the Creator’s love for creation through The Simulation: “And should I not have concern for the great city of Nineveh, in which there are more than a hundred and twenty thousand people who cannot tell their right hand from their left—and also many animals?” (Jonah 4:12:). The book criticizes nationalist, particularist, and anti-foreigner tendencies and wants to emphasize that God aims to bring His message to all nations. The ship’s crew and the Ninevites are part of the narrative inventory (“roles”) to emphasize the universality and unconditional love of God the Creator, from which the prophet and all creatures live.
The book is an instructive narrative about the dynamics of the prophetic call and the importance of prophetic judgment in God’s Simulation. Jonah insists that God’s word came and must be carried out; otherwise, the authority of both him and who God sent falls. This is no more truth at the end of the scripture. What would be the picture of the prophet presented here if he, for the sake of his personal honor, prefers the destruction of the whole city and its deliverance?
The book is a theological narrative, which invites the reader, together with Jonah, to move toward the truth with which the book ends: God the Creator is a God of mercy who is a just God and who invites conversion and shows himself as a God of forgiveness and a God who renounces condemnation because He is the God of infinite love for all creation. The prophet also lives from this love of God. Jonah realizes this only at the end of the book and then remains silent. Similar to the book of Job, the text of Jonah ends with the capitulation of the one who rebelled against God. Job openly admits it: “Therefore I despise myself and repent in dust and ashes (Job 42:6). Jonah just kept quiet. When he flees to Tarshish, he does so quietly, without a word. So his response, in the end, is also silence.
Finally, we see in the story of Jonah the profound learning activity found in God’s Simulation. God orders everything, including the inner senses of Jonah. He sees Nineveh as an image that turns his soul’s vision upside down. The lesson is accepted and transferred to many others in order to see who our Creator is.
