Tracing OurIsraelite Ancestors – Jonah’s Pillar
Norwegian historian and explorer Thor Heyerdahl:
“Our lack of knowledge about our own past is appalling”.
While reading an older book on Alexander the Great and I came across something very interesting regarding Jonah the Prophet of God. Somewhere around 800 B.C., Jonah was ordered by God to give warning to the Assyrians about the upcoming destruction of their Empire if they didn’t repent. But instead, Jonah headed west towards Spain (or Tarshish). Instead he was trying to escape the Father’s orders. Jonah ended up being swallowed by a whale and as the Bible says, spit out on the seashore.
I have found that if you want to read history, it’s best to get books written before the 1950’s as Tom Mitchell a British Israel legend on Biblical and Israelite historical facts, told me many years ago that “they” were changing our history and read older historical books to get the truth. These older books seem to have a lot better insight into history. The newer books have taken out the Biblical account of many historical facts.
We know lots about Alexander the Great, as he had his exploits, recorded by his personal biographer Callisthenes of Olynthus (born c. 360 B.C.—died 327 B.C.). An ancient Greek historian best known for his influential history of Greece. Callisthenes was recommended by his uncle Aristotle, who was Alexander’s former tutor who rode along with Alexander. During the campaign, Callisthenes’ main duty was to write the Alexandrou praxeis or “Deeds of Alexander”.
Callisthenes:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Callisthenes
This is what Callisthenes describes about what happened after the first battle between Alexander and Persian King Darius III….
In 333 B.C., Alexander battled Persian King Darius III and his Persian army at the Battle of Issus (Syria). The result was Alexander’s decisive win over Darius III. According to the book I was reading that was about the “Deed’s of Alexander”, Alexander the Great had his men file past Jonah’s Pillar to pay honour and camp his army nearby. So, a Pillar had been made where Jonah was spit out of the whale’s mouth and onto the shore! This according to Callisthenes! Approximately 500 years before Alexander’s Greek army paid tribute to Jonah! Very interesting!
So, I did a little research and came up with some interesting research on Jonah using Biblical and secular history…
The story from the Bible…
Book of Jonah 1 verses 3-5
3. But Jonah ran away from the Lord and headed for Tarshish (Spain). He went down to Joppa, where he found a ship bound for that port. After paying the fare, he went aboard and sailed for Tarshish (Spain) to flee from the Lord.
4. Then the Lord sent a great wind on the sea, and such a violent storm arose that the ship threatened to break up.
5. All the sailors were afraid and each cried out to his own god. And they threw the cargo into the sea to lighten the ship.
Book of Jonah 1 verses 9-12
9. He answered, “I am a Hebrew and I worship the Lord, the God of heaven, who made the sea and the dry land.”
10. This terrified them and they asked, “What have you done?” (They knew he was running away from the Lord, because he had already told them so.)
11. The sea was getting rougher and rougher. So they asked him, “What should we do to you to make the sea calm down for us?”
12. “Pick me up and throw me into the sea,” he replied, “and it will become calm. I know that it is my fault that this great storm has come upon you.”
Book of Jonah 1 verses 15-17
15. Then they took Jonah and threw him overboard, and the raging sea grew calm.
16. At this the men greatly feared the Lord, and they offered a sacrifice to the Lord and made vows to him.
17. Now the Lord provided a huge fish to swallow Jonah, and Jonah was in the belly of the fish three days and three nights.
Book of Jonah 2 verse 10
10. And the Lord commanded the fish, and it vomited Jonah onto dry land.
Book of Jonah 3 verses 1 – 3
1. Then the word of the Lord came to Jonah a second time:
2. “Go to the great city of Nineveh and proclaim to it the message I give you.”
3. Jonah obeyed the word of the Lord and went to Nineveh.
The story of Jonah is recorded in our Holy book the Bible and continues with Jonah journeying to the capital of Assyria Nineveh, to warn the Assyrians of the coming wrath of God if they don’t repent.
Jonah son of Amittai; the name Jonah is derived from the Hebrew word ‘yonah’ meaning “dove.”
The secular story of Jonah….
So now we pick up the secular part of the story of Jonah. Jonah’s Pillar is where the whale spat out Jonah…..
Near the western end of the Pass of Jonah at the sea coast, is the Pillar of Jonah [Yunus], where the prophet Jonah was disgorged by the whale that had swallowed him.
Yumus is the name for Jonah in Muslim culture.
They regard Jonah as a Prophet.
This small sign on the side of the road shows a location on a beach by the Mediterranean where conjecture says Jonah was spit up by the large fish. It makes sense that Jonah would wash up at this location because he could head straight to Nineveh.
Personal story on a visit to Jonah’s pillar:
https://www.west2east.org/stories/jonahpillar
After Jonah regains his mission, he leaves the beach and heads toward Nineveh using a pass that is now named after him…Jonah Pass!
Now what evidence do we have that Jonah even went to Nineveh?
There was a Tomb in today’s Mosul Iraq near where the ancient Assyrian Capitol of Nineveh was located!
Originally a Church turned Mosque, had originally held the body of Jonah and the whale that swallowed Jonah!!!!!
Tomb of Jonah
The Tomb of Jonah is an ancient site believed to be the burial place of the prophet Jonah. It is located in the city of Nineveh, which is in modern-day Iraq. Nineveh was the capital of the Assyrian Empire, and Jonah’s story is famously linked to the biblical narrative found in the Old Testament.
For thousands of years, this Church turned Mosque was the home for Jonah! Jonah’s Tomb! I can only imagine the Pilgrimages to this site with 10s of thousands of Christians over the course of centuries, coming here to pay tribute to Jonah!
In the fourth century Jerome wrote in his Commentary on Jonah, that Jonah’s tomb was displayed in a small village near Sepphoris.
In the Biblical Book of Jonah, the prophet was sent to prophesy not to Israelites but to the people of Nineveh, and as a result Jonah has always been especially venerated in the Assyrian Church of the East. The church where Jonah’s body was kept became a holy place for Assyrian Christians.
“No more genuine, alas, than the body of Jonah are the remains of his whale, which are suspended over the tomb,” wrote 1920’s British traveler Sir Harry Charles Luke.
Over the years, the remains of the whale dwindled to a single tooth, and then even that relic disappeared. In 2008, the U.S. Army presented the Imam with a museum quality replica of a sperm whale tooth to take its place. A half-dozen places claimed to be the site of his tomb. But none had any relics of Jonah’s Tomb or fragments of the whale except this Church turned Mosque in Nineveh!
The Tomb of Jonah was also known as the “Shrine of Prophet Jonah”, who is revered as a prophet by Jews, Christians, and Muslims.
On July 24th 2014, Jonah’s Tomb was destroyed by ISIS.
From an article…
On Friday, the media reported that ISIS, the Islamist group that has established a “caliphate” in parts of Syria and Iraq, had destroyed the centuries-old Tomb of Jonah in Mosul, Iraq. Present-day Mosul encompasses the site of the ancient Assyrian capital of Nineveh, where, the Bible teaches, the Prophet Jonah preached.
Although this is disputed, a tradition holds that Jonah was buried within the city, on Tell Nebi Yunus, or Hill of the Prophet Jonah.
An Assyrian church stood over the tomb for centuries. After the Muslim conquest, the church became a mosque; the structure that ISIS destroyed last week dated to the 14th century. In addition to the tomb, the mosque once held the remains of the whale that had swallowed Jonah, including one of its teeth.
After the destruction of the mosque, The U.S. Army got involved to help out.
The U.S. Army had announced that they would help in the recovery of the relics and artifacts that are buried in the rubble of Tomb of Jonah.
This article combines the Biblical and historical accounts of the story of Jonah. As most Biblical researchers can always find secular history to back up Biblical stories. The Bible is a book of truth, and it is our book to guide us to a healthy Christian life.
