NSBT: A Gracious and Compassionate God

The book of Jonah is arguably just as jarring for us as it was for the ancients. Ninevah's repentance, Jonah's estrangement from God and the book's bracing moral conclusion all pose unsettling questions for today's readers.

For biblical theologians, Jonah also raises tough questions regarding mission and religious conversion. Here, Daniel Timmer embarks on a new reading of Jonah in order to secure its ongoing relevance for biblical theology. After an examination of the book’s historical backgrounds (in both Israel and Assyria), Timmer discusses the biblical text in detail, paying special attention to redemptive history and its Christocentric orientation. Timmer then explores the relationship between Israel and the nations—including the question of mission—and the nature of religious conversion and spirituality in the Old Testament.

This New Studies in Biblical Theology volume concludes with an injunction for scholars and lay readers to approach Jonah as a book written to facilitate spiritual change in the reader.

CONTENTS

Series preface
Author’s preface
Abbreviations
Introduction
What is the book of Jonah?
Approaching the book of Jonah

1. The nations and mission in Jonah
Universalism
The nations
Israel between universalism and mission
A definition of mission in the Old Testament
Mission in Jonah?
Mission from Pentecost onward
Evaluating contemporary approaches to mission
Mission and the priority of the gospel

2. Conversion and spirituality in Jonah and in biblical theology
Conversion in biblical theology and in Jonah
Abram’s faith
Abram’s repentance
Conversion elsewhere in the Old Testament
Approaching conversion in Jonah
Spirituality in biblical theology and in Jonah
The possibility of a unified biblical spirituality
Approaching spirituality in Jonah

3. Looking into Jonah 1
Meeting the main characters
Initial identities and contrasts
Identities clarified and remade
The aftermath of the storm

4. Looking into Jonah 2
Yahweh prepares a fish
Jonah prays
Jonah is saved from drowning

5. Looking into Jonah 3
Introduction
Assyria in the eighth century bc
Nineveh in the eighth century bc
Jonah’s message
The response of the Ninevites
The limits of Nineveh’s repentance
The response of Nineveh’s king
Who was Nineveh’s king?
Nineveh’s repentance in context
How does God ‘relent’?
God’s justice and his relenting

6. Looking into Jonah 4
Jonah’s anger against Yahweh
The root of Jonah’s anger: God’s gracious character
The fruit of Jonah’s anger: life with God impossible
Yahweh’s first response to Jonah’s anger
Jonah’s anger over his discomfort
Yahweh’s second response to Jonah’s anger
Conclusion

7. Conclusions
Christocentric interpretation and application
Sin and its consequences in Jonah
Judgment and salvation in the Day of the Lord
Jonah, mission and the gospel
Jonah, conversion and spirituality, and the gospel
Jonah, imitation of God, and the gospel
Mission, Christ-conformity and our triune God

Bibliography
Index of modern authors
Index of Scripture references
Index of ancient sources