The book of Jonah can be, may be, and has been read and enjoyed for millennia without having much thought put into the social background of the narrative. At the end of this tome it is time to consider if it makes any difference at all in reading the story once some social context is investigated as to the world in which it arose. At the very least, perhaps, the context may provide some readers with new vantages from which to consider the tale.

Social-science Background to the Tale

The primary consideration of the social-science approach to a work is to determine its cultural origin. For Jonah it has been argued here that the story arose out of an identifiable ethnic group as a constituent part of an empire. In this regard the locations mentioned in the story need to be understood in terms of the empire in which the story was read. Nineveh was the capital of an empire and if it stood for a political center of control over the Israelite Jonah, it could and probably did stand for the political center of Persian control over Judah when the story was written; this makes the Ninevites not total foreigners, but the rulers of the protagonist of the story and, by literary parallel, the leaders of the author of the book. The story acknowledges the human political authority of the non-Israelite (Judean) empire, but insists that it is but a step in a much higher hierarchy under the control and moral jurisdiction of Yahweh, the God of Judah.