JONAH, also known as the "Missionary Prophet", was an Israelite prophet against Nineveh. The author of the book is unknown, on the other hand, according to uniform Jewish and early Christian belief; Jonah wrote this narrative of which he is the central human character. If so, he likely wrote down the account of his ministry shortly after completing it. The book dates back to the eight-century, however, some scholars have suggested that the book is a parable or allegory, and should not be taken literally. But the book itself gives no hint of this and furthermore, Jesus affirmed that Jonah was swallowed by the fish and preached to Nineveh (Matthew 12:39-41), so that leaves no doubt that the events reported in this book happened in history. The entire book is written in Hebrew prose except for Jonah's prayer. In the English Bibles, Jonah is the fifth of twelve Minor Prophets. In the Hebrew canon it belonged to the composite book called "The Twelve". The book of Jonah, the Hebrew word for "Dove", is the most well known of all the Minor Prophets. The key verses in this book is Jonah 4:11 which we will see later in the text.
             According to 2 Kings 14:25, Jonah was a prophet during the days of Jeroboam II (See 2 Kings 14:23-29 for the biblical narrative of his reign). This was a time of unprecedented peace and prosperity in the northern Kingdom of Israel. Jonah was the son of Amittai from Gathhepher, (about four miles north of Nazareth), a town in the tribal territory of Zebulun (Joshua 19:13). Assyrians, with their capital in Nineveh, were in a period of retrenchment and inner turmoil. At the same time, they were well known throughout the ancient Near East as a potent military threat. The fact of the matter is, due to Israel's progressive rebellion, the prophets Hosea and Amos, contemporaries of Jonah, had declared that Jehovah would use Assyria as an instrument of punishment against His people (cf. Hosea 11:5; A...