Jonah

Book Written:  After the Babylonian exile according to HC and during the 5th century according to Baker

Time Period/Setting:  The city of Nineveh in Assyria

Author:  The author's name

Jonah is a cantankerous and unwilling prophet, rebellious and a bit of a grump.  After running away, spending three days in a whale's belly (or whatever dark place he descended into, separated from God) and finally being vomited onto shore, Jonah is still rambunctious enough to dispense his opinions of God's actions directly to the Lord. He explains to God that this is why he ran away in the first place, because he knew the Lord would be too forgiving of the sinful city of Nineveh. 

That sounds strangely familiar, no?  As when we condemn to hellfire and damnation all those people we really can't stand, the ones we've decided are unforgivable liars and cheats?  Like the Catholic politicians who support abortion and same sex marraige and for whose excommunication and public humiliation we clamor.  It really is profoundly difficult to accept that God loves Andrew Cuomo or Nancy Pelosi as much as he loves me, not to mention Hitler or the Taliban.   And yet it's so obvious how wrong the prophet is when God extends his merciful care to Jonah with a lovely bush as protection from the elements and Jonah seems to think he deserves this conveniently protective bush sprung out of nowhere. 

Jonah's direct approach with the Lord calls to mind the manner in which Moses spoke to God.   Jonah's questioning of God's ways calls to mind Job or even Qoheleth/ Ecclesiastes, as they seek to understand why life is so seemingly unjust and inscrutable at times.

For the wonderful story of Jonah in song go here for Louis Armstrong's version and here for the Nightingales telling of it.

Sirach

Just determining the author of this book constituted a little mini-study of its own.  The author's name is Jesus, from the Hebrew Yeshu'a, but he is Ben Sira or son of Eleazar who is the son of Sirach.   Consequently the book is known as the Book of Ben Sira, but for Christians it's also known as Ecclesiasticus (not to be thought of as the name of the author and so not to be confused with Ecclesiastes or Qoheleth) meaning the book of the church or churchly matters.  In addition, there is a translator mentioned, Ben Sira's grandson, who translated the book from Hebrew into Greek.

Despite all this, the book was written around 180 B.C. in Jerusalem prior to the Maccabean revolt.

As it turned out, the historical period during which the book was written proved more interesting to me than the content of the  book itself.   Ben Sira lived in a Hellenized Jerusalem and was writing against a background of several threats to Jewish culture.  According to HC, these threats are the rule of foreign kings, disputes between priestly (I presume Jewish) families vying for power, conflicts between the Ptolemies of Egypt and the Seleucids who succeeded Alexander the Great (both groups of which I, at present, know precious little), all constituting threats to Jewish religious practices and beliefs and daily living. 

The Song of Solomon

The Song of Solomon or Song of Songs (meaning the greatest song)  was not written by Solomon and in fact the author is unknown.  The reference to Solomon in the title is to add cache and give credence and greater status to the writings.  The book is thought to be written after the Hebrews returned from their Babylonian exile so post 539 B.C.

Like the books of Ruth and Ecclesiastes, there is no mention of God in the Song of Solomon.

The language is colorful, lyrical, luxuriant.  The reading is almost entertaining.  Human sexuality and married love are metaphors for God's love of his people and vice versa.

Wisdom Literature - Proverbs and Ecclesiastes

Plugging along with the wisdom literature, I continue to note that there is such a thing as wisdom literature in the Old Testament, that wisdom comes from faithfulness to God's covenant and that the book of Proverbs leaves no doubt as to what wisdom is and what it isn't.  One can be wise or a blabbermouth, wise or a slackard, wise or a liar, wise or a lousy adulterer, wise or greedy, though mostly one can just be wise or a plain old damn fool.    Baker describes wisdom literature as giving practical advice concerning human relationships and behavior, and Proverbs is certainly full of that.  Proverbs was completed in the 5th century B.C. and my understanding of the authorship is that King Solomon is not to be literally taken as the author though many of the sayings are of his time.  There is the personification of wisdom as female in the long poem at the beginning of the book and the poem at the end about the ideal wife.  I must admit that Proverbs proved tedious reading for me. 
Much more transparent and accessible this time around was the book of Ecclesiastes, written around 300 B.C.  with its author Qoheleth, a Hebrew word meaning teacher or preacher.  Ecclesiastes is the Greek translation of  the Hebrew term.   I read Ecclesiastes about 14 years ago while a Presbyterian and took a class on the book.  In fact, it was one of the first books of the Bible that I read from beginning to end, the book of Matthew being another early read.  At that time, I was utterly bewildered as to who Qoheleth could possibly be, and I was also surprised at the number of phrases from Ecclesiates that have entered common parlance (the same is true for Proverbs as in 'the race is not to the swift, nor the battle to the strong').  Other than that, I was pretty much lost.  Much of the class discussion, at least that I remember, centered around why Ecclesiastes was included in the Bible at all since the author expresses a sketchy pessimism and a resigned, somewhat hopeless air about the purpose of life and man's destiny.

But, Qoheleth, like Job didn't know about the good news, the gospel!  Thus how could he be anything but a bit skeptical and resigned?  The concept of an afterlife grew slowly in Biblical times and didn't really take hold until the 1st or 2nd century B.C.?   I believe the Maccabees were familiar with the concept.  Another wisdom book, The Wisdom of Solomon, speaks of life after death, but it's written in 50 B.C. unlike Ecclesiastes which dates to a good 250 years earlier.