Ritualization in the book of Jonah.

This project analyzes how the book of Jonah uses ritualized practices to construct its broader message, using Catherine Bell’s framework of ritualization. For Bell, ritualization is the act of making certain actions sacred, setting them apart from profane actions. Ritualized practices permeate the book of Jonah. These practices contribute to how the book of Jonah negotiates God’s justice and mercy. In Jonah 1–3, all characters engage in ritualized practices that construct a hierarchical relationship between humans and God. The sailors’ and Ninevites’ practices are noteworthy. Both groups engage in ritualized practices that are seen not only among Yahwists, but also throughout the ancient Near East. However, the narrator describes these practices using Yahwistic language. While the sailors and Ninevites remain foreigners, the narrator casts them in a Yahwistic light. This portrayal, in part, establishes YHWH’s supremacy over and against the empire. For people to worship YHWH throughout the known world demonstrates that YHWH is a universal god, and not the empire’s deities. For regular people, like the sailors and the people of Nineveh, to come to worship Jonah’s god further demonstrates that YHWH does not need the empire’s support to enact his power, which further undercuts an empire’s claims to power. Jonah 4 depicts the titular prophet arguing with YHWH. This chapter deconstructs the hierarchal relationship Jonah 1–3 creates. The book does not conclude with a singular answer about how humans should interact with God’s mercy and justice. Instead, the book of Jonah asks the audience to consider complex ideas of how humanity ought to relate to a deity to whom they owe obedience, but whose justice and mercy prove unknowable.