Book of Jonah

==Date==
The prophet [[Jonah]] (Hebrew: יוֹנָה, Yonā)  is mentioned in 2 Kings 14:25, which places Jonah's life during the reign of [[Jeroboam II]] (786–746&nbsp;BC), but the book of Jonah itself does not name a king or give any other details that would give the story a firm date. The majority of scholars date the book much later, to the [[Babylonian captivity|post-exilic]] period sometime between the late 5th to early 4th century BC;<ref>{{cite book|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=goq0VWw9rGIC&q=%22the+book+belongs+to+the+late+fifth+or+early+fourth+centuries+b.c.e.%22&pg=0CCsQ6AEwAA|title=Mercer Dictionary of the Bible|isbn=9780865543737|last1=Mills|first1=Watson E|last2=Bullard|first2=Roger Aubrey|year=1990|publisher=Mercer University Press }}</ref> perhaps (along with [[Book of Ruth]]) as a counter to the emphasis on racial purity in the time of [[Ezra]].<ref>An Introduction to the Bible, [[John Drane]], Lion publishing, 1990, p.182-183</ref> An even later date is sometimes proposed, with Katherine Dell arguing for the [[Jerusalem during the Hellenistic period|Hellenistic period]] (332–167 BC).<ref>{{cite book | last1 = Dell | first1 = Katherine J | title = After the exile: essays in honour of Rex Mason | chapter = Reinventing the Wheel: the Shaping of the Book of Jonah |pages = 86–89 | editor1-last = Barton | editor1-first = John | editor2-last = Reimer | editor2-first = David James | year = 1996 | publisher = Mercer University Press | isbn = 978-0-86554524-3 | chapter-url = https://books.google.com/books?id=sUb7EDXODOwC&pg=PA85 }}</ref>

Assyriologist [[Donald Wiseman]] takes issue with the idea that the story is late (or a parable). Among other arguments he mentions that the "Legends of Agade" (see [[Sargon of Akkad#Origin legends|Sargon of Akkad]] and [[Rabisu#The Curse of Agade|Rabisu]]) date to the time of the [[Old Babylonian Empire]], though later versions "usually taken as a late composition, propagandistic fairy tale or historical romance can now, on the basis of new discoveries of earlier sources, be shown to be based on a serious and reliable historical record".<ref name=Wiseman>Lecture "Archaeology and the Book of Jonah", delivered in January, 1978, published as {{cite journal |last1=Donald Wiseman |title=Jonah's Nineveh |journal=Tyndale Bulletin |date=1979 |volume=30 |pages=29–52 |url=http://www.tyndalehouse.com/TynBul/Library/TynBull_1979_30_02_Wiseman_JonahsNineveh.pdf |access-date=2023-09-20 |archive-date=2012-01-12 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120112082129/http://www.tyndalehouse.com/TynBul/Library/TynBull_1979_30_02_Wiseman_JonahsNineveh.pdf |url-status=bot: unknown |author1-link=Donald Wiseman }}</ref>