Understand Jonah through Ancient Literature

One of the most exciting features of Logos 6 just got better.

With the Ancient Literature Tool, you can study ancient Near-Eastern manuscripts, church fathers, and other relevant literature. We’ve hand-selected the very best ancient sources so you can connect passages with ancient Jewish and Christian parallels and allusions. They’re all included in the Ancient Literature Expansion Collection.

A case study: Jonah

Displayed below are the Hebrew and Greek texts for Jonah 3:3. As you can see, I’ve enabled the reverse interlinear for both texts to make it easier. There are two distinct differences between the LXX and the Masoretic text in the highlighted areas. In the Greek, Jonah proclaims that in “three days Nineva will be overturned.” But in the Hebrew, it is recorded as “forty days.” Why is there such a difference between these two versions?

Fortunately, I have the Ancient Literature Tool. When I run a passage guide on Jonah 3:4, I see that it includes a reference to the writings of Augustine, specifically, a passage in his work, City of God in which he addresses this exact issue.

Augustine’s answer is to “admonish the reader not to despise the authority of either, but to raise himself above the history, and search for those things which the history itself was written to set forth.”

Expand your understanding with more resources

While some ancient texts are included in base packages, many others are not. That’s why our product experts put together the the Ancient Literature Collection. Priced at $489.99, this collection provides important ancient near eastern texts, including the Ras Shamra Parallels, as well as the Jerusalem and Babylonian Talmuds, the Nag Hammadi Library in English, and the Dead Sea Scrolls Study Edition.

Together, these five resources add up to more than $500.00 if purchased separately. However, when you purchase the Ancient Literature collection, you get 25 volumes of searchable ancient literature resources, all for less than the cost of these five individual works! Plus, with Dynamic Pricing, you’ll never pay for a book twice. Get the Ancient Literature Collection today!