JONAH (Heb. Yonah, a "dove;" Gr. Jonas), a Hebrew prophet, son of Amittai, wag, as we learn from 2 Kings xiv, 25, a native of Gath-hepher, a t. of Galilee in Zebulun, and not far from Phenicia. He appears to have flourished about the second half of the 8th c. n.e., in the reign of Jeroboam II., and was probably, therefore, the earliest of those prophets whose writings are extant. It has been urged by Rosemntiller and other critics that the miracle recorded in the book known under his name is not to be regarded as a historical fact, but only as an allegory, founded on the Phenician myth of Hercules rescuing Hesione from the sea-monster by leaping himself into its jaws, and for three days and three nights continuing to tear its entrails. The design of the author in incor porating this myth with the actual voyage of Jonah and the conversion of the heathen Ninevites was, it is suggested, to bring out more vividly the truth that God will not permit his merciful intentions to be frustrated by the disobedience even of a prophet.
On the other hand, it has been thought by orthodox theologians generally that the lan guage of Christ (Matt. xii. 39-41; xvi. 4; Luke xi. 29), and the manner in which it is mentioned in Josephus and the Apocrypha preclude the possibility of our supposing this miracle to be other than strictly historical. Jonah has been supposed by early authori ties to have been the son of the widow of Sarepta (1 Kings xvii. 24), also to have been the pupil of Elisha. Jonah's tomb is shown at Nebi-Yunus (Prophet Jonah), near Mosul.—Leusden, Jonas Illustrates (Traj. 1692); Friedrichsen, Kritischer Ueberblick der Ansichten rem Ruch Jonas (Altona, 1817); Rosenmuller, Proleg. in Jonam; Drake's. Notes (1853); also Ewald and the more recent commentators and critics.