Book of Jonah
I really enjoyed reading the Book of Jonah. It proves that God is everywhere. I liked that Jonah was swallowed by a fish...it's so weird and funny. And then the fish just throws him up. Religious texts are so imaginative.
The Prophecy essay made a lot of interesting arguments about the Book of Jonah. The author realllllllllllllly did his research. His arguments are so articulate and detailed. The author writes, "If Ninevah repents, things will look bad for Israel who in other Prophetic books has stubbornly refused to repent." He bases his arguments off of other Prophetic books as well. I like his analysis of sacrifice in the Book of Jonah. The only sacrifices made in the book are "those that the sailors offer after Jonah is expelled from the ship and those pagan sacrifices offered by Jonah arrives in Ninevah." I think Jonah sacrifices a great deal as well. He strays from his ideals when he is compelled to visit Ninevah because he will continued to be punished if he doesn't. And he tells the sailors to throw him off the ship. It's also interesting that the author notices that it is the non-religious people who repent in the story.
The Prophecy essay made a lot of interesting arguments about the Book of Jonah. The author realllllllllllllly did his research. His arguments are so articulate and detailed. The author writes, "If Ninevah repents, things will look bad for Israel who in other Prophetic books has stubbornly refused to repent." He bases his arguments off of other Prophetic books as well. I like his analysis of sacrifice in the Book of Jonah. The only sacrifices made in the book are "those that the sailors offer after Jonah is expelled from the ship and those pagan sacrifices offered by Jonah arrives in Ninevah." I think Jonah sacrifices a great deal as well. He strays from his ideals when he is compelled to visit Ninevah because he will continued to be punished if he doesn't. And he tells the sailors to throw him off the ship. It's also interesting that the author notices that it is the non-religious people who repent in the story.
The author definitely put a ton of effort into analyzing the Book of Jonah, which for me made it a little difficult to follow because of how many topics he touched on. I appreciated how he incorporated stories from other prophecies into his analysis too. This made him appear as a more reliable source because it shows he has a lot of background in this field. The part about sacrifices was kind of confusing to me, but I'm just not familiar with a lot of religious texts.
ReplyDeleteI like your analysis of the idea of sacrifice in the writing - I definitely didn't pay as much attention to the theme of sacrifice while reading the Book of Jonah as you did because I didn't pay attention to the fact that Jonah sacrificed his ideals when forced to go to Ninevah. I did notice his self-sacrifice when he instructs the sailors to throw him overboard after he causes the storm that almost kills them all. In this moment, I felt bad for Jonah and respected that he was willing to sacrifice his life to help the people he troubled.
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