In Defense of Divine Justice: An Intertextual Approach to the Book of Jonah (review)

This book is a revised dissertation written under the supervision of David S. Vanderhooft at Boston College. Muldoon has written a useful compendium of the historical-critical issues attendant to the vexing theological challenges posed by the book of Jonah. It is well-placed in the CBQ Monograph Series, which, while open to theological treatises, insists on fairly strict historical-critical approaches to theological questions: "Monographs dealing with descriptive biblical theological topics would also be quite acceptable, on the understanding that such studies reflect competence in historical-critical scholarship exemplified by the series in general" (from the series website: http://cba.cua.edu/guide.cfm). Accordingly, although the title of Muldoon's monograph contains the word "intertextual," this is not meant in the Kristevan sense many of us have come to appreciate and employ, but is meant in a strict historically allusive sense. As such, the three main chapters (3, 4, and 5) are dedicated to rehearsing the historical-literary connections between Muldoon's choices of intertextual reading partners—Malachi, 2 Kings, and selections from a miscellany of prophetic books, respectively.

Chapter 1 ("Problems and Premises in the Interpretation of Jonah") sets up the theological conundrum concisely, the methodological approaches the author will take in order to offer a new reading, as well as a critique of three categories in which previous Jonah interpretations tend to fall. The theological "problem" that Jonah is dealing with is a traditional theodic one: "Yhwh's apparent quiescence in the face of evil" (p. 4). In other words, Jonah cannot bear the possibility that Nineveh will receive a reprieve after their appalling behavior toward the Israelites; and thus interestingly, it is God's merciful characteristics he protests against rather than God's justice (which more often is a source of suffering for the Israelites vis-à-vis the prophetic books). Muldoon is particularly and admirably concerned to counteract the anti-Jewish flavor of much of biblical scholarship that condemns Jonah's apparent xenophobia and lack of charity in contrast to the righteous Gentiles with whom he has to interact (sailors and Ninevites). Her solution to this exegetical bias is not to deny Jonah's desire for retributive justice, but rather to understand it in his particular context, and more importantly to reread the ending of the book of Jonah not as an apologia for YHWH's merciful disposition toward the Ninevites, but as a prophetic forewarning of Nineveh's imminent (if not immediate) demise, thus vindicating Jonah's desires.

Chapter 2 ("Dating Jonah: Historical, Literary, and Linguistic Analysis") works against the current trend of finding all but futile any further attempts at diachronic analysis. While admitting that the book of Jonah "does indeed pose a web of problems to the diachronic critic" (p. 32), Muldoon forges ahead with a review of previous dating solutions and finally settles on a date in the early Persian period (mid-sixth through relatively early fifth centuries).

Chapters 3 ("Thematic Parallels between Jonah and Malachi"), 4 ("Jonah Ben Amittai in 2 Kings and in Jonah"), and 5 ("Prophetic Imagery in Jonah 4 and the Fate of Nineveh") get to the heart of Muldoon's project—that is, to "view Jonah against the backdrop of the intellectual positions that characterized the time and place in which the book may have originated" (p. 64). The inclusion of "may" seems pivotal here: given the admittedly provisional nature of the diachronic conclusions arrived at in chapter 2, it seems a little risky to stake her conclusions on a firm historical context, which is why members of the guild are turning increasingly toward synchronic intertextual approaches that do not rely on historical factuality, but nonetheless provide interesting theological insights into what biblical texts "mean" (in opposition to what they "meant"). Having said that, I find many of Muldoon's intertextual observations useful whether or not they can be pinned to a...