Digital Logos Edition
In this volume of the Old Testament Library, Juliana Claassens delves into the theological questions posed by the book of Jonah in the context of a community making sense of their harrowing experiences of imperial domination.
Attending to the historical and literary elements of the text, Claassens traces the narrative of Jonah as one that is steeped in the trauma inflicted by successive ancient empires and that urges its original and ongoing readers to grapple with the woundedness of the prophet and of the community that Jonah represents.
Reading Jonah through the lens of trauma hermeneutics and in conversation with feminist, postcolonial, and queer interpreters, this commentary seeks to reveal new layers of theological meaning. In particular, these interpretive strategies aim to take seriously the continuing legacies of trauma, as readers across time have reflected on the book’s theological purposes—and their consequences. Opening up how interpreters from various religious and sociocultural locations have engaged with this intriguing and confounding tale, this commentary refers at several points to Jonah’s reception in literary and artistic works, featuring illustrations throughout.
The Old Testament Library series provides fresh and authoritative treatments of important aspects of Old Testament study through commentaries and general surveys. The contributors are scholars of international standing. The editorial board consists of William P. Brown, William Marcellus McPheeters Professor of Old Testament, Columbia Theological Seminary; Brent A. Strawn, Professor of Old Testament and Professor of Law, Duke University; and C. L. Crouch, Professor of Hebrew Bible and Ancient Judaism, Radboud University.
In her masterful and compelling engagement of Jonah as a symbolic trauma narrative, Juliana Claassens truly has offered us a prophet—and a commentary—for our own time. Both critically sophisticated and grounded in an ethical commitment to the marginalized, this stellar addition to the OTL series is an unflinching yet steady companion for addressing the wounds inflicted by ancient and modern empires.
—Julia M. O’Brien, Professor Emerita, Lancaster Theological Seminary and Moravian University
Claassens reintroduces us to Jonah as a more relatable, flawed, dogged, and frustrating human being. Stripped of the book's mythical edges, this commentary invites readers to engage the numerous issues of contemporary life raised by this ancient text.
—Steed Vernyl Davidson, Executive Director, Society of Biblical Literature
Claassens traces the trauma lived out by the book's first readers who navigated the ongoing effects of the Persian Empire in their daily lives. Marginalized readers who continue to be the subjects of the persisting trauma from past and present empires may find the Jonah narrative a helpful and thus needed resource. Claassens's deliberate reading through the lenses of the marginalized lends greater complexity and depth to a narrative that could just be simplified as a story of a wayward prophet and his God who acts out of free will. A must-read for Hebrew Bible scholars, especially in the field of trauma studies, as well as for clergy and religion scholars committed to the continued plight of marginalized readers in our postcolonial and anticolonial contexts.
—Madipoane Masenya (Ngwan’a Mphahlele), Professor Emerita, Department of Biblical and Ancient Studies, University of South Africa
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