Are you curious on the different ways Christians, Jews and Muslims understand the Book of Jonah in our Hebrew Bible?
Today, we’re honored to learn from Dr. Amy Erickson about her insightful and detailed commentary on the book of Jonah — and ways to better appreciate this story through academic and various theological lenses.
In this podcast on Jonah, Dr. Amy Erickson talks about Christian and Jewish understandings of Jonah, why Jonah has been viewed as both the villain and a type of Christ, she talks about why Jonah has a theological problem with God, she discusses Islamic interpretations of Jonah’s prophecy that Nineveh would be overthrown, and gives fascinating insights on how to understand the odd ending of the story. The episode ends with her personal takeaways on Jonah and advice on how to study this complex and fascinating story.
Dr. Amy Erickson is associate professor of Hebrew Bible and the director of the Masters of Theological Studies program at the Iliff School of Theology. Learn more about her new commentary on Jonah at Eerdmans Publishing.
You can listen (or download) the complete podcast here:
You can subscribe or download this episode on iTunes, Spotify, Google Podcasts or Stitcher. You can also subscribe to the video series on YouTube.
Here are some video clips from our conversation:
• Christian Interpretations of Jonah
• Jonah as Villain & Type of Christ
• Jewish Interpretations of Jonah
• Humor & Absurdity in Jonah
• Challenging God & Problem of Evil
• Jonah’s Prayer of Deliverance
• Three Days & Nights
• Jonah’s Prophecy
• Islamic Interpretations of Jonah
• King of Nineveh vs King of Assyria
• Why Does Jonah Wait & Watch
• The Odd Ending of Jonah: Question or Statement
• Genre of Jonah
• Personal Takeaways of Jonah’s Story
You can catch the full video with Dr. Amy Erickson discussing the Book of Jonah here.
Dr. Amy Erickson
Dr. Amy Erickson is associate professor of Hebrew Bible and the director of the Masters of Theological Studies (MTS) program at the Iliff School of Theology.
Erickson teaches a range of courses in biblical interpretation, including The Body and Sexuality in the Hebrew Bible, (Re-)Constructing Identity in the Persian Period, and The Afterlives of Jonah. Her research interests include Hebrew poetry, metaphor theory, theories of identity and constructions of the self, poetic and mythological texts in ancient Near Eastern literature, and the history of interpretation.
Erickson has written articles on Jonah, Job, the Psalms, Zechariah, and Amos for academic journals and edited volumes. She is a regular contributor to The Encyclopedia of the Bible and Its Reception (de Gruyter), workingpreacher.org and the Huffington Post ON Scripture. She is currently writing a commentary on the book of Jonah and the history of its interpretation for a new series, published by Wm. B. Eerdmans, entitled Illuminations.
An active member of the Society of Biblical Literature, Erickson currently co-chairs the section Megilloth (“Scrolls,” which includes the book of Song of Songs, Ruth, Lamentations, Ecclesiastes, and Esther).
