I’m not sure quite what you mean by saying that it’s now fiction with a moral; just that that’s how believers do (or should) read it now, or something stronger?
I’m pretty much saying that’s how I read it.
I agree that some things in the Bible seem clearly to be intended as fiction; I’d put Jonah alongside Job in that category. And I agree that one absolutely shouldn’t go from “X is fiction” to “let’s ignore X”. But going from “X was intended as history but turns out to be wrong history” to “let’s ignore X” is more reasonable, though still not a slam-dunk (because maybe the story originated as wrong history but was kept around for the sake of things in it that don’t depend on the history).
I’m not so sure about Jonah (he seems a good deal less clear-cut than Job—at the very least, Jonah would be very hard to stage without some pretty impressive special effects) but apart from that, I think I agree with everything in this paragraph.
I’m not suggesting that Jonah was intended as a play; I think it more likely that it was just intended to be read (or told aloud). But it seems (1) not very likely to be true-as-history even if we assume that some fairly miracle-happy version of Christianity or Judaism is right, (2) quite well designed as a story-with-a-moral, and (3) very much like the sort of story-with-a-moral that would get written to make a point. (I’m guessing that the background is one of controversy over the attitudes Israelites should have towards nasty heathen foreigners. Jonah is not meant to be a sympathetic figure in this story.)
Well, Ninevah at least was a place that actually existed (according to Wikipedia). Beyond that… well, you make some good points, but I still think it’s far less clear-cut than Job.
I’m pretty much saying that’s how I read it.
I’m not so sure about Jonah (he seems a good deal less clear-cut than Job—at the very least, Jonah would be very hard to stage without some pretty impressive special effects) but apart from that, I think I agree with everything in this paragraph.
I’m not suggesting that Jonah was intended as a play; I think it more likely that it was just intended to be read (or told aloud). But it seems (1) not very likely to be true-as-history even if we assume that some fairly miracle-happy version of Christianity or Judaism is right, (2) quite well designed as a story-with-a-moral, and (3) very much like the sort of story-with-a-moral that would get written to make a point. (I’m guessing that the background is one of controversy over the attitudes Israelites should have towards nasty heathen foreigners. Jonah is not meant to be a sympathetic figure in this story.)
Well, Ninevah at least was a place that actually existed (according to Wikipedia). Beyond that… well, you make some good points, but I still think it’s far less clear-cut than Job.