by
Damien F. Mackey
““Jonah” means “dove,” both in Hebrew and Aramaic;
according to Diodorus, the name of Semiramis is linked to doves as well
(the etymology is probably based on the Akkadian word for “dove,” summu/summatu).
…. The fish motif: Jonah spends three days in the belly of a fish, which
eventually
spits him out, reformed and almost reborn. Semiramis is the daughter of
the fish goddess Derceto, a kind of divine mermaid”.
Eckart Frahm
Introduction
As with the Noachic Flood, so with the
tale of Jonah, there has sprung up an abundance of legends and mythologies
whether based loosely, or more closely, upon the Hebrew original.
I touched upon just a few of these
(Oannes; Jason; Endymion) in Part Two (iii)
of my series:
Historical
Window for Jonah's Nineveh Visit. Part Two: Jonah as a Contemporary of Jeroboam
II. (iii) Putting Jonah Back Together: Fairytale?
https://www.academia.edu/32974769/Historical_Window_for_Jonahs_Nineveh_Visit._Part_Two_Jonah_as_a_Contemporary_of_Jeroboam_II._iii_Putting_Jonah_Back_Together_Fairytale
Now, whilst I have described the Hebrew versions of
Noah and Jonah as the “original” ones, conventional scholarship would almost
universally have it that the Hebrew texts were later versions of a, say,
Greco-Roman original. This is apparent from the following article (which
provides examples of other Jonah legends) whose very title betrays a presumed
Hebrew dependence upon the Greeks: “Was the
Book of Jonah inspired by Jason and the Argonauts?” http://semiticcontroversies.blogspot.com.au/2014/05/was-book-of-jonah-inspired-by-jason-and.html#!/2014/05/was-book-of-jonah-inspired-by-jason-and.html
Having
recently re-read Apollonius of Rhodes' 'Argonautica' it caused me to
recall that in the early twentieth century several classical scholars wondered;
and even argued, that some parts of the Old and New Testament had been
consciously modeled on this popular account of the exploits of Jason and his
crew of heroes. In particular they focused on the story of the romance of Jason
and Medea arguing; not implausibly, that the anointing of Jason by Medea was
the parallel drawn on by the gospels for the anointing of Jesus. (1)
In
the Old Testament: scholars have focused on the book of Jonah as being the
principle element that has been inspired by Apollonius' account of the
adventures of Jason and his crew. Gildas Hamel has argued that the name Jonah;
in terms of the book, is a deliberate anagram for Jason since Jonah in Greek is
'Ionas', while Jason in Greek is 'Iason'. Indeed Jason was a
common Greek name taken by Hellenizing jews in Palestine and viewing it as an
anagram of the Greek way of saying Jonah would go a significant way to explain
its popularity.
Elsewhere
others have noted the similarity of story of Jonah to the Greek story of
Perseus (3) and Hamel himself points out that it also bears a striking
resemblance in places to the labours of Hercules. (4)
Hamel's
thesis is simple: we know that the 'Argonautica' (in its various
editions) was a widely read Greek epic (being as popular as tales about Perseus
and Hercules for example) and was especially popular among the masses. Given
that the jews of the period that the book of Jonah was written; the late
fifth/early fourth century BC [sic], had come into significant contact with the
Greeks and their ideas via the close Greek relationship and interchange of
ideas with the Phoenicians and the Persians.
It
is unsurprising that a literate and well-read jew, which the author of Jonah
most certainly was, (5) would have drawn on the popular oral traditions of
non-jewish peoples he had come into contact with in order to ensure a wide
dissemination of his work among his target jewish audience (which was; we should
note, ultimately successful). It is also worth noting that the author of the
book of Jonah; which is set in eighth century Assyria, used the general story
of an actual Mesopotamian legend to provide the basis for his narrative. (6)
This
amalgamation of mythical narratives into the book of Jonah has predictably
given rise to a string of claims from less than careful writers that Jason was
merely a mythological derivative of Hercules (viz Robert Graves) (7) or that
the 'Argonautica' validates the truthfulness of the Bible (with the
assumption that it was written before it when in fact the inverse is almost
certainly true). (8)
Aside
from these enthusiastic attempts to re-write Greek religious history or
validate Christian cosmogony: we can further note that there was a 'Tomb of
Jason' with a drawing of what we may presume to be the Argo constructed in
the first century BC in Jerusalem. (9) This in itself would be decidedly odd if
there wasn't a strong tradition among the jews honouring Jason since the jews
were notoriously inhospitable to Greek and Roman influences at this time. (10)
We
also know that in some versions of the 'Argonautica' Jason meets with
Triton; the merman of Greek mythology, (11) and this is perhaps transliterated
via the Mesopotamian myth (12) into the famous description of Jonah's encounter
with the 'big fish'.
While
the meaning of 'Jonah' in Hebrew is 'dove' and he is guided to
land by god, while Jason and the Argonauts are led through the Clashing Rocks
by the good will of the gods and the agency of a dove. (13) Also worthy of note
is the Hebrew term for the wind blowing Jonah along used in the original text
of the book of Jonah verse 1.2; 'boreath', which is almost certainly
derived from the Greek god of the north wind: Boreas. (14)
These
are but a select few of the parallels that Hamel draws and it is clear that
what he is describing is a piece of synthesis between different religious
traditions and the formative works of Judaism, which clearly suggests that the
idea of Judaism as a 'pure religion' or even a unique religious
tradition without many non-jewish elements is increasing absurd.
The
point being that if the book of Jonah is in effect a jewish writer combing
Greek and Mesopotamian myths together then setting it in a jewish religious
context: then it offers a strong counter to the idea that the Tanakh (i.e. the
Hebrew Bible) is derived from God, but rather is a human work of mythology not
one of divine inspiration.
After
all if Jonah is simply Jason then are Yeshivas going to start using the 'Argonautica'
as an aid to studying it?
[End of quote]
But, as I have consistently noted, the
Greeks (and Romans) have often been credited with contributions to culture and
civilisation (literary, technological, architectural, etc.) that were already
in existence in far earlier times and kingdoms. And I gave a perfect example of
this from the findings of Dr. Stephanie Dalley in my article:
Sobna (Shebna) the High Priest
Dr. Dalley has been able to demonstrate (actually in situ) that the screw pump, famously attributed to Archimedes (C3rd BC), was
already being used by the Assyrians about half a millennium earlier, at the
time of Sennacherib.
[End of quote]
Mesopotamian Traditions of Jonah
“After Ninus’s death, Semiramis becomes the sole ruler of the
Assyrian empire, which she expands through numerous military campaigns.
When she eventually dies, after many years on the throne, she is,
according to
the testimony of some witnesses, turned into a dove”.
Eckart
Frahm
Jonah Coincides
with Semiramis
Now it was at the time of this same Sennacherib, or at least during the hiatus period immediately after his
assassination by two of his sons, when Assyria was in turmoil with no Assyrian
king upon the throne - but only a high functionary, or governor - that I have
identified as being, for me, the most likely period of time for Jonah’s arrival
at Nineveh.
One will find the arguments for this revised scenario set out in my
above-mentioned series: “Historical Window
for Jonah's Nineveh Visit”.
Importantly, this precise phase of neo-Assyrian history,
which featured an uncommonly powerful queen, Naqia (= Zakutu), who has actually
been likened to the famous Sammuramat (Semiramis), I have in fact newly co-ordinated
in my revision of Assyrian history:
Re-shuffling the pack of neo-Assyrian kings
with the very era of Queen Sammuramat
herself.
That would make the prophet Jonah, in
his visitation to Nineveh, an exact contemporary of Queen Sammuramat’s (of
Semiramis’s), and might therefore explain the various Jonah-style legends
associated with the Assyro-Babylonia of that queen’s day.
Eckart Frahm has discussed some of
these in his article, “Of Doves, Fish, and Goddesses: Reflections on the Literary, Religious,
and Historical Background of the Book of Jonah” (http://booksandjournals.brillonline.com/docserver/9789004324749_webready_content_s025.pdf?expires=1495845886&id=id&accname=id23226&checksum=7245DD80F40E9D4274F0A51B574FF013), the relevant parts of
which I shall produce here with occasional comments relating to my historical
reconstruction of the prophet Jonah and of Queen Sammuramat:
The Semiramis legend is best known in the version
found in the second book (1–20) of the Bibliotheca historica of Diodorus
Siculus, a first-century [BC] Roman historian writing in Greek.7 According to
Diodorus, Semiramis is the daughter of the goddess Derceto of Ascalon and a
Syrian youth.
Mackey’s comment: Likewise Queen Naqia is considered to have been
non-Assyrian: “Sennacherib died in January 681 [sic] by parricide,
probably at Nineveh. He was survived by his principal wife Naqia,
mother of his heir Esarhaddon; her non-Assyrian name suggests that she was of
either Jewish or Aramaean origin”.
Her mother, ashamed of her sinful union with a
mortal man, exposes her newborn child in the wilderness and then throws herself
into a lake, where she is changed into a fish with the head of a woman.
Mackey’s comment: Compare this with the Assyrian fish-man (pictured
above).
Against all odds, the abandoned little girl
survives, nurtured by doves, and is eventually recovered by a group of shepherds,
whose headman, Simmas, gives her the name Semiramis, after “the word which, in
the language of the Syrians, means ‘dove’ ” (Diodorus II 4.6).
Mackey’s comment: Jonah’s Hebrew name (יוֹנָה),
too, as we read, means “dove”.
Raised by Simmas, Semiramis grows up and becomes a
great beauty. In due course, she catches the eye of an Assyrian officer, Onnes,
who encounters her while inspecting the royal herds during a journey to the
Levant.
Mackey’s comment: “Onnes”, better known as “Oannes”, is often identified
with the Assyrian fish man, and also with Jonah, whose name compares favourably
with “Oannes”. Interesting that Oannes is in “the Levant”, not Assyria. And that
he is “inspecting the herds”, compatible with my view that the prophet Jonah is
to be identified with Amos the herdsman (Amos 7:14).
Onnes takes her as his wife, but their marriage has
no future. When the Assyrian king Ninus, founder of Nineveh, makes Semiramis’s
acquaintance during his siege of Bactra, he falls in love with her, forces
Onnes to commit suicide, and marries her himself. After Ninus’s death,
Semiramis becomes the sole ruler of the Assyrian empire, which she expands
through numerous military campaigns.
Mackey’s comment: Though many consider that “Ninus” refers to the
biblical Nimrod, apparent “founder of Nineveh” (cf. Genesis 10:11) - perhaps he
is a composite of Nimrod and a later Assyrian king (or kings) - he fits very well
here with Sennacherib, a builder of Nineveh, and whose death led to the
empowerment of (my composite) Sammuramat/Naqia, that is, Queen Semiramis.
Frahm continues:
When she eventually dies, after many years on the
throne, she is, according to the testimony of some witnesses, turned into a
dove.
There are several conspicuous parallels between
this strange story and the book of Jonah. The most important ones were
identified by Moshe Weinfeld in a short but highly stimulating 1991 article.8
Weinfeld, however, was interested primarily in the etymology of the name
Semiramis and dealt with the links between the two stories only in passing.
This, and the fact that Weinfeld’s observations have been largely overlooked by
the Hebrew Bible scholars who have written about Jonah since his article
appeared, has prompted me to revisit the issue here. The main features the two
stories have in common are the following:
• The dove motif and the names of the protagonists:
“Jonah” means “dove,” both in Hebrew and Aramaic; according to Diodorus, the
name of Semiramis is linked to doves as well (the etymology is probably based
on the Akkadian word for “dove,” summu/summatu). As seen above,
other features of the Semiramis story are likewise associated with doves.
• The fish motif: Jonah spends three days in the
belly of a fish, which eventually spits him out, reformed and almost reborn.
Semiramis is the daughter of the fish goddess Derceto, a kind of divine
mermaid.9 It may be meaningful that the Hebrew word for fish used in the book
of Jonah, דג , appears once,
in Jonah 2:2, with a feminine ending.10
• Eastern Mediterranean port cities: Jonah boards a
ship in Joppa, while Semiramis’s mother is worshipped in Ascalon. Both are
cities on the Eastern Mediterranean. They are located some 40 kilometers apart,
but during certain periods, especially in the late eighth and seventh centuries
[BC], Jaffa belonged to the territory of Ascalon.11 It may or may not be
noteworthy that 9 Others have suggested that the fish motif in Jonah goes back
to Indian models (see Meik Gerhards, “Zum motivgeschichtlichen Hintergrund der
Verschlingung des Jona,” TZ 59 [2003]: 222–47), but this seems rather
far-fetched, not least because the relevant Indian texts are all very late.
Among the many attempts made over the centuries to explain the episode, there
are some that border on the comical. Note, for example, the suggestion by the
18th-century German professor and abbot Hermann von der Hardt (mentioned by
Gerhards, “Verschlingung,” 222 n. 4) that Jonah had actually reached an alehouse
on an island in the middle of the sea that was called “The Whale” (see Ludwig
von Holberg, Allgemeine Kirchenhistorie von dem Jahr Christi 1700 bis 1750,
Funfter Teil [Ulm/Leipzig 1773], 156–57).
…. according to the early Jewish hagiographic
collection Vitae prophetarum
Jonah was born near Azotos (Ashdod), situated
between Ascalon and Joppa,
whence he later moved, together with his mother(!),
to Tyre.12
• The Assyrian capital Nineveh: The life journey of
both Jonah and Semiramis
ends in Nineveh, capital of the Assyrian empire.
Mackey’s comment: That “Jonah was born near Azotos
(Ashdod), situated between Ascalon and Joppa” accord tolerably well with my
Jonah was born near Azotos (Ashdod),
situated between Ascalon and Joppa”, that the prophet Jonah (= Micah) hailed
from Moresheth-Gath (See Map).
A few other features of the two stories invite
comparison as well, although
their similarities are less obvious. In Jonah 3:6,
the Assyrian king bears the title
“king of Nineveh” and not “king of Assyria,” which
is used for him elsewhere
in the Bible. ….
Mackey’s comment: “King of Nineveh”, we have found, could indicate
a “governor” of the city. The likeliest candidate at the time would seem to me
to be the highly important Ahikar, second only to the king of Assyria.
…. Finally, there is the issue of the name of Semiramis’s
first husband, Onnes. As has
been observed before,14 “Onnes” is apparently
derived from the name of the
Mesopotamian primeval sage Uanna(-Adapa), who was
known to the Greeks
as Oannes. The Babylonians and Assyrians imagined
Uanna/Oannes as a creature
with the body of a fish, which makes him the male
counterpart of the mermaid-
like goddess Derceto and provides a further, albeit
indirect, link with the
Jonah story. ….
Or, there is this other consideration (Grant R. Jeffrey, Unveiling Mysteries of the Bible, p. 107):
It
is interesting to note that both the Greek translation of the Old Testament,
the Septuagint, and the New Testament Greek text
spell the name Jonah as Oannes
with the addition of the letter I
before it (Ioannes). The eminent Assyriologist
Dr Herman V. Hilprecht revealed that in the Assyrian inscriptions the letter J in foreign words is written as I, or is dropped completely.
