and instead Jehovah is recognized as the one supreme
being whose kingdom or dominion includes all the nations of the earth. In
imagination these disciples of the prophets saw the time when rich and
poor, Jew and Gentile, should bow before Jehovah and be united in loyalty
to him. Thus arose that highest conception of the kingdom of God which is
the foundation of Jesus' teaching.

IV. The Date and Character of the Book of Jonah. From those who sat at
the feet of the earlier prophets came one of the most remarkable books of
the Old Testament. In literary form the little book of Jonah is closely
akin to the stories in the opening chapters of Genesis and the first half
of the book of Daniel. Its many Aramaic words, its quotations from the
late book of Joel, its universalism, and its missionary spirit all
indicate that it comes either from the closing years of the Persian or
from the earlier part of the Greek period. The story of Jonah, like many
similar stories in the Old Testament, was probably known to the Semites
centuries before it was employed by the author of the book to point his
great prophetic teaching. In the familiar Greek story of Hercules,
Hesione, the daughter of the Trojan king, is rescued by the hero from a
sea-monster which held her in its stomach three days. An old Egyptian tale
coming from the third millennium B.C. tells of an Egyptian who was
shipwrecked and after floating three days was swallowed by a great
sea-monster and thus carried to the land. From India comes the tradition
of a man who went to sea contrary to the commands of his mother. While on
the way the ship was seized by an unknown power and not allowed to proceed
until the offender was three times selected by lot and then cast
overboard.

V. Teachings of the Book of Jonah. The value and message of the book of
Jonah have in the past been largely overlooked because the true literary
character of the book has been misunderstood. It was never intended by its
author to be regarded as a historical narrative. Its hero Jonah, the son
of Amittai, according to II Kings 14:25, lived during the reign of
Jeroboam II (780-740 B.C.), and predicted the wide extension of the
territory of southern Israel; but the Jonah of the story is evidently a
type of the Jew of the Persian and Greek periods. By showing the pettiness
of his attitude toward the heathen the author sought to broaden the vision
and quicken the conscience of his fellow-Jews. The portrait is rem