Big Ideas · 20 · Jonah
The prophets were explaining a catastrophe
Jonah is an outlier. Most prophetic books don't announce a disaster that can be averted. They explain one that already happened: the fall of Israel and Judah.
The prophets are works of theodicy.
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Their main purpose was to justify God's judgment on his people. Those justifications laid the foundation for a new political theology of covenant, which reshaped the Bible's entire narrative.
Source: Why the Bible Began, pp. 318
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