Jonah in Antioch

Abstract

Though the Gospels offer a range of interpretations of the story of Jonah, early commentators found this prophetic book challenging, including those from Antioch. Working from a distinctive form of the Septuagint version, Theodore of Mopsuestia was unnerved by the “novel and extraordinary things” in the book, to which he tried to apply his distinctively literalist approach by having recourse to typology. Aware of his predecessor's interpretation, and better equipped to handle the text, Theodoret comes closer to the biblical author's theological and satirical portrait of this intriguing figure for readers in Antioch.