Jonah

The book of Jonah has created quite a bit of controversy surrounding its historicity. This question aside, the message of its four chapters is crystal clear: God’s love and mercy extends beyond his people to the most unlikely recipients. The critical commentaries by Limburg, Sasson, and Simon, and Wolff all have their strengths, though if you had to only choose one I would highly recommend Sasson. My pick for top pastoral commentary, however, is Allen‘s work in NICOT, primarily for his balancing of scholarship and theological reflection. In this regard, Trible is also excellent.

Another monograph on Jonah that deserves mention is Phyllis Trible’s excellent Rhetorical Criticism: Context, Method and the Book of Jonah (Guides to Biblical Scholarship; Augsburg Fortress, 1994; Buy from Amazon.ca – Buy from Amazon.com). This is a very handy guide to rhetorical criticism that uses the book of Jonah as an extended example.

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