Brent A. Strawn, «Jonah’s Sailors and Their Lot Casting: A Rhetorical-Critical Observation», Vol. 91 (2010) 66-76
Several considerations suggest that the sailors’ lot casting in Jonah 1 is unusual and meant to be both surprising and literarily delightful. The most important of these is the correspondence between the sailors and the Ninevites within the book’s rhetorical structure. This correspondence suggests that the sailors’ lot casting is a particularly Israelite practice with the sailors themselves appearing as adepts in Israelite ritual activity. That depiction corresponds to the Ninevites’ ability to know precisely how to repent in chapter 3. In both cases, the foreigners are portrayed in particularly pious ways in contrast to the reluctant prophet.
67
JONAH’S SAILORS THEIR LOT CASTING
AND
concerning the sailors (1,5-15). Trible’s analysis demonstrates that these
verses (units ##5-7 in her structuring of Scene One) correspond to the
verses concerning the Ninevites in 3,5-10 (units ##5-7 of Scene Two in her
structure) :
Scene One: Chapters 1-2 Scene Two: Chapters 3-4
5. Response to impending disaster 5. Response to impending disaster
(1,5) (3,5)
– by the sailors – by the Ninevites
– by Jonah
6. Unnamed captain of the ship (1,6) 6. Unnamed king of Nineveh (3,6-9)
– efforts to avert disaster by – efforts to avert disaster by
action action
words to Jonah words to the Ninevites
hope hope
7. Sailors and Jonah (1,7-15) 7. Ninevites and God (3,10)
– sailors’ proposal (1,7ab)
– sailors’ action and its result – Ninevites’ action (3,10ab)
(1,7cd)
– sailors’ questions (1,8)
– Jonah’s reply (1,9)
– sailors’ response (1,10)
– sailors’ question (1,11)
– Jonah’s reply (1,12)
– sailors’ action (1,13)
– sailors’ prayer (1,14)
– sailors’ action (1,15ab)
– result : disaster averted (1,15c) – result : disaster averted
(3,10ab) 4
Her full treatment of the book’s “external design†is found in Rhetorical
Criticism, 107-122.
This chart is excerpted from TRIBLE, Rhetorical Criticism, 110-111 (cf.
4
TRIBLE, “The Book of Jonahâ€, 475). In her overall structure, units ##5–7
c o m p r i s e portions of Episodes Two and Three of Scene One, and,
correspondingly, Episode Two in Scene Two. See also TRIBLE, Rhetorical
Criticism, 190, with comments on how the sailor episodes “balance†the
Ninevite episodes.
FOLLOW US