SOURCE: Sasson, Jack M. “Narrative Art and Literary Typology in Jonah.” In “Jonah”: A New Translation with Introduction, Commentary, and Interpretation, pp. 328-51. New York: Anchor Bible Vol. 24B, Doubleday, 1990.

In the following excerpt, Sasson examines the characteristics of the narrator of the Book of Jonah, explores whether the work is a satire (and, if so, a deliberate satire), and contends that Jonah plays the roles of both comic dupe and comic hero.

In inspecting Jonah's narrative art, I find it economical to concentrate on diverse literary categories advanced by commentators when they treat the book beyond history. I divide my investigations into three sections, successively focusing on: (A) the narrator, in which I assess opinions holding that the narrator uses Jonah to criticize contemporaneous doctrines or institutions; (B) the audience, in which I discuss theories that Jonah is best appreciated figuratively, as a parable or allegory; and...