Ship of Fools: Sleeping on board

Thread: Sleeping on board - Jesus and Jonah Board: Oblivion / Ship of Fools.

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Posted by mousethief (# 953) on :

Jonah was asleep on a ship when a fierce storm came up. The crew woke him up, and (ultimately) asked him how they could calm the storm. He told them, they (ultimately) followed his instructions, and the storm was calmed.

Jesus was asleep in a boat when a fierce storm came up. The crew woke him, and asked him to calm the storm. He did so (and stayed on board!).

I had never noticed this parallel before today, when Jonah was read in church (as on every Holy Saturday).

Do any theologian types make anything of this parallel? What do you all make of it? Is it just an interesting thing that I think is more important than it really is, or is it something everybody knew except me, or...?

Posted by Ahleal V (# 8404) on :

I too had never considered this, but it makes perfect sense.

Thankfully, St Cyril of Jerusalem got there before us:

quote:
Jonas was asleep in the ship, and snoring amidst the stormy sea; while Jesus also slept, the sea, according to God's providence , began to rise, to show in the sequel the might of Him who slept.

Cat Lect 14.17

http://www.newadvent.org/fathers/310114.htm

X

AV

Posted by Golden Key (# 1468) on :

Rummaging in mental attic...:

--Jesus said something to the effect of "this wicked generation seeks a sign, but will only get the sign of Jonah". (In the gospel of John, maybe??) I've generally heard that interpreted in terms of the warnings by Jonah and Jesus, and both of them being "buried" for 3 days.

--IIRC, Thomas Merton commented on the parallels in his book "The Sign Of Jonas".

--Does it make a difference that Jonah was running away from God (and himself!); and Jesus was God, and just taking a nap?

It's late/early here, so apologies if this doesn't make much sense.

Posted by Schroedinger's cat (# 64) on :

I think Jonah is seen very much as a prophetic story of Jesus, so there are parallels, and it is fair to draw others.

OTOH, storms/squalls are common. Paul was also caught up in a storm which was a positive aspect of his journey. It may be no more than the reality of an area with nasty storms, where they are sometimes used as indicators of Gods action.

If the bible had been set in the UK, there would have been lots of stories about rain. Some would be linked, some would not.

Posted by que sais-je (# 17185) on :

quote:
Originally posted by mousethief:
Is it just an interesting thing that I think is more important than it really is, or is it something everybody knew except me, or...?

If you are awake you might detect the storm coming and take action before the danger is acute. Waking up to a storm requires immediate decisive action. Is that significant?

Posted by Jade Constable (# 17175) on :

The sea = chaos to the ancient Hebrews (hence no more sea in the New Earth in Revelation).

Posted by John D. Ward (# 1378) on :

quote:
Originally posted by Golden Key:
R

--Jesus said something to the effect of "this wicked generation seeks a sign, but will only get the sign of Jonah". (In the gospel of John, maybe??) I've generally heard that interpreted in terms of the warnings by Jonah and Jesus, and both of them being "buried" for 3 days.

Matthew 28:39-40

Posted by Alan Cresswell (# 31) on :

Why was Jonah sleeping so soundly that the storm didn't wake him? Did he think he'd managed to pull a fast one on God, and was safe? I would have expected him at the stern, anxiously watching the coast of Israel recede half expecting a column of fire pursuing him. It's a strange aspect of the story (as though the rest isn't fishy enough).

The storm that caused the sailors to wake Jonah is clearly portrayed as of divine origin, sent to reprimand Jonah and bring him back from his foolish flight away from God. The storm on Galilee that Jesus slept through was different, no indication of it being of divine origin - and certainly not sent because of Jesus. Which is where, IMO, any parallel between the stories breaks down.

When Jesus is woken his response, to point out the lack of faith of the disciples, seems to me to be in effect saying to them "your faith is asleep, just as I was". The sea is calmed before their faith is awoken, indeed it's the act of calming the storm that awakens their faith (and, even then not all that much!). The storm is calmed before the disciples do anything (apart from wake Jesus), for Jonah the storm is calmed as a result of the actions of the sailors in throwing Jonah overboard (at Jonah's insistence and against their wishes). Which is another point of difference between the stories.

Posted by Eutychus (# 3081) on :

hosting/

It would appear this thread belongs in Kerygmania, so I'm sending it there

/hosting

Posted by Freddy (# 365) on :

quote:
Originally posted by Alan Cresswell:
seems to me to be in effect saying to them "your faith is asleep, just as I was".

Yes, I think that is it.

Another way to put it is that God seems often to be sleeping in our lives. So Jesus sleeps in the boat.

Jonah, however, sleeps because his faith is asleep.

Posted by mousethief (# 953) on :

quote:
Originally posted by Alan Cresswell:
Why was Jonah sleeping so soundly that the storm didn't wake him? Did he think he'd managed to pull a fast one on God, and was safe? I would have expected him at the stern, anxiously watching the coast of Israel recede half expecting a column of fire pursuing him.

Of course by the time he went below to go to sleep, they could have been hundreds of miles away -- Tarshish, I believe, is in Spain, at the very far end of the Mediterranean from Israel. And take it from me, if you're on a ship in rough seas, there's nothing like being asleep to take your mind off your stomach.

Posted by The Silent Acolyte (# 1158) on :

mousethief, the Orthodox liturgy is chock-a-block of delicious epiphanies such as this. It's why I keep coming back, again and again.

Posted by Nigel M (# 11256) on :

I don't know whether the gospel writers consciously intended to draw a parallel between Jonah and Jesus here, but if we assume that they did then looking at it from the other end, as it were, it's an interesting question to ask about the role of the disciples. What would the analogue be of the disciples in the Jonah story? The ship's crew, presumably. So – what lesson would the gospel writers have intended to draw there?

Here are the two episodes (taking Mark's version) from the NET Bible:

quote:
Mark 4:35-41
On that day, when evening came, Jesus said to his disciples, “Let’s go across to the other side of the lake.” So after leaving the crowd, they took him along, just as he was, in the boat, and other boats were with him. Now a great windstorm developed and the waves were breaking into the boat, so that the boat was nearly swamped. But he was in the stern, sleeping on a cushion. They woke him up and said to him, “Teacher, don’t you care that we are about to die?” So he got up and rebuked the wind, and said to the sea, “Be quiet! Calm down!” Then the wind stopped, and it was dead calm. And he said to them, “Why are you cowardly? Do you still not have faith?” They were overwhelmed by fear and said to one another, “Who then is this? Even the wind and sea obey him!”

Jonah 1:4-16
The Lord hurled a powerful wind on the sea. Such a violent tempest arose on the sea that the ship threatened to break up! The sailors were so afraid that each cried out to his own god and they flung the ship’s cargo overboard to make the ship lighter. Jonah, meanwhile, had gone down into the hold below deck, had lain down, and was sound asleep. The ship’s captain approached him and said, “What are you doing asleep? Get up! Cry out to your god! Perhaps your god might take notice of us so that we might not die!” The sailors said to one another, “Come on, let’s cast lots to find out whose fault it is that this disaster has overtaken us.” So they cast lots, and Jonah was singled out. They said to him, “Tell us, whose fault is it that this disaster has overtaken us? What’s your occupation? Where do you come from? What’s your country? And who are your people?” He said to them, “I am a Hebrew! And I worship the Lord, the God of heaven, who made the sea and the dry land.” Hearing this, the men became even more afraid and said to him, “What have you done?” (The men said this because they knew that he was trying to escape from the Lord, because he had previously told them.) Because the storm was growing worse and worse, they said to him, “What should we do to you to make the sea calm down for us?” He said to them, “Pick me up and throw me into the sea to make the sea quiet down, because I know it’s my fault you are in this severe storm.” Instead, they tried to row back to land, but they were not able to do so because the storm kept growing worse and worse. So they cried out to the Lord, “Oh, please, Lord, don’t let us die on account of this man! Don’t hold us guilty of shedding innocent blood. After all, you, Lord, have done just as you pleased.” So they picked Jonah up and threw him into the sea, and the sea stopped raging. The men feared the Lord greatly, and earnestly vowed to offer lavish sacrifices to the Lord.

Posted by Waw consecutivum (# 18120) on :

I think this passage is remarkable for several reasons.

1. It is related to the motif of the Church, as is Matthew 16.13-23.

2. It and Matthew 12.37-40 are passages that liken Jesus to Jonah, so as to talk about the power of the Netherworld, and the power of Jesus over it, which ties in with the motif of the Church, that is threatened by, "the gates of Hades". The contrast with the events in Jonah is striking; the contrast between Jesus & Jonah likewise.
There is also the question why Jesus is depicted as a Jonah-figure, and as a Solomon-figure, in St. Matthew.

The narrative of the storm also recalls the passage in Matthew 7 about the house built upon the rock, that does not fall when the storms come. (That in turn echoes the reference to Lady Wisdom in Proverbs, whose house is built on seven pillars.)

The Exodus is a major New Testament theme - so when Jesus says "Be muzzled !" to the wind and the waves, and they obey Him, the passage is perhaps intended as a "miniature Exodus", with the unbelieving disciples as the despairing children of Israel.

The power of Jesus over the Netherworld by rising from death, and over the sea and the storm, and over the the storm of persecution against His Church, anticipates His announcement at the end of St Matthew's Gospel, that "all power/authority in Heaven and Earth has been given to Me" - it is a reminder to the reader & to the Church, that the power-authority that Jesus exercises over the sea and the storm is a present reality, that looks forward to the vindication of His authority-power when the new age of His Father's Kingdom is fully realised. IOW, this display of Jesus's authority has an eschatological reference.

There is a lot more to this passage than meets the eye, because it is made up of several themes from the OT, added to which are ideas important to St Matthew, or to the Church he wrote for.

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