Jonas 3
John Chrysostom · Comentário Patrístico (catena)
Jonas 3:4
If you want, let us also hear this story: "Now the word of the Lord," it says, "came to Jonah, saying, 'Rise and go to Nineveh, the great city.' " He wanted to put Jonah to shame by sending him to the great city of Nineveh, because he foresaw the prophet's escape. However, let us also listen to the preaching: "Yet three days, and Nineveh shall be overthrown." Why do you, God, foretell the sufferings that you will inflict upon Nineveh? "So that I will not do what I announced." This is why God threatened with hell—so he would not lead anyone away to hell. He says, "Fear that which is spoken to you, and do not be saddened about what has been done." Why does he establish the appointed time to be only a period of three days? So that you may learn even the virtue of the barbarians—I call the Ninevites barbarians, who were able to annul in three days such anger caused by sin. I want you to marvel at the philanthropy of God, who was satisfied with three days of repentance for so many transgressions. I do not want you to sink into despair, even though you have innumerable sins. — HOMILIES ON REPENTANCE AND ALMSGIVING 5:4
Jonas 3:4
God threatens to destroy the city of Nineveh for the very reason that He might not destroy it. When God makes a threat concerning our sins, He makes the threat beforehand so that we may be sobered by fear, so that our repentance will bring about God's mercy so He will not have to follow through with the threat. (Hom. On Paralytic 3)
Jonas 3:5
Do you see how vexed God is when fasting is treated despitefully? Learn how delighted he is when fasting is honored. When Eve was maltreated, he inflicted death as a penalty upon the insolent individual. He revoked death when she was honored once again. Desiring to show you the power of this thing of importance, he gave her authority over the sentence, after the arrest, to snatch the prisoners from the middle of the journey and change their course toward life. And he did this not only for two or three or twenty people but also for a whole population, in the case of the great and marvelous city of the Ninevites, which had knelt and bowed its head over this pit of perdition and was expecting to suffer the blow from above. Like a heavenly power overseeing Nineveh's charge, fasting snatched the city from these gates of death and returned Nineveh to life. — HOMILIES ON REPENTANCE AND ALMSGIVING 5:4
Jonas 3:7
And inasmuch then as these would participate in the punishment, let them also do so in the fast. (Concerning Statues Homily III. 9)
Jonas 3:8
Recall that Daniel, passionate man though he was, spent many days fasting. He received as recompense an awesome vision so that he tamed the fury of the lions and turned them into the mildest of sheep, not by changing their nature but by diverting their purpose without loss of their ferocity. The Ninevites too made use of the remedy of fasting and won from the Lord a reprieve. Animals as well as human beings were included in the fast, so that all living things would abstain from evil practices. This total response won the favor of the Lord of all. — HOMILIES ON GENESIS 1:7
Jonas 3:9
Consider, if God had chosen to demolish everything [in a recent earthquake], what we would have suffered. I say this, so that the fear of these events may remain sharp in you and may keep everyone's resolution firm. He shook us, but he did not destroy us. If he had wished to destroy us, he would not have shaken us. But since he did not wish to destroy us, the earthquake came in advance like a herald, forewarning everyone of the anger of God, in order that we might be improved by fear and prevent the actual retribution.He has done this even for foreign nations. "Yet three days, and Nineveh shall be overthrown." Why do you not overcome the city? You threaten to destroy it. Why do you not destroy it? "Because I do not wish to destroy, for this very reason I threaten." So what is the Lord saying? "Lest I enact my impending judgment, let my word go in advance and prevent my acting." Yet three days, and Nineveh shall be overthrown. Then the prophet spoke. Today these walls speak. I say this, and I do not cease saying it, both to the poor and to the rich: consider how great is God's anger. Consider how simple his requirement: let us abstain from evil! In a brief moment of time he shattered the mind and resolution of each one of us. He shook the foundations of our hearts. — HOMILIES ON LAZARUS AND THE RICH MAN 6
Jonas 3:10
They applied fasting to their wounds. Yes, they even applied extreme fasting—lying prostrate on the ground, putting on sackcloth and ashes, and lamentations. More importantly, they chose a change of life. Let us then see which of these things made them whole. And how shall we know? If we come to the physician, if we seek after him earnestly, he will not hide it from us but will even eagerly disclose it. Rather, in order that no one may be ignorant or have need to ask, he has even set down in writing the medicine that restores sinners. What then is this? "God," he said, "saw that they turned every one from his evil way, and he repented of the evil that he said he would do unto them." He did not say simply that he saw their fasting and sackcloth and ashes, but their behavior. I say this not to question fasting (God forbid!) but to exhort you that with fasting you do that which is better than fasting, the abstaining from all evil. — HOMILIES ON 2 CORINTHIANS 4:6
Jonas 3:10
And that these words are not a vain boast shall be made manifest to you for things that have already happened. What could be more stupid than the Ninevites? What more devoid of understanding? Yet, nevertheless, these barbarian, foolish people, who had not yet heard any one teaching them wisdom, who had never received such precepts from others, when they heard the prophet saying, "Yet three days, and Nineveh shall be overthrown," laid aside, within three days, the whole of their evil customs. The fornicator became chaste; the bold man meek; the grasping and extortionate moderate and kind; the slothful industrious. They did not, indeed, reform one or two or three or four vices by way of remedy, but the whole of their iniquity. But where does this appear, says someone? From the words of the prophet; for the same who had been their accuser and who had said that "the cry of their wickedness has ascended up even into heaven," himself again bears testimony of an opposite kind by saying, "God saw that every one departed from their own evil ways." He does not say from fornication or adultery or theft, but from their "own evil ways." And how did they depart? As God knew; not as people judged of the matter. After this are we not ashamed, must we not blush, if it turns out that in three days only the barbarians laid aside all their wickedness, but that we, who have been urged and taught during so many days, have not got the better of one bad habit? These people had moreover gone to the extreme of wickedness before; for when you hear it said, "The cry of their wickedness is come up before me," you can understand nothing else than the excess of their wickedness. Nevertheless within three days they were capable of being transformed to a state of complete uprightness. — HOMILIES CONCERNING THE STATUES 20:21
Jonas 3:10
They do not know the issue, and yet they do not neglect repentance. They are unacquainted with the method of the lovingkindness of God, and they are changed amid uncertainty. They had no other Ninevites to look to, who had repented and been saved. They had not read the prophets or heard the patriarchs, or benefited by counsel, or partaken of instruction, nor had they persuaded themselves that they should altogether propitiate God by repentance. For the threat did not contain this. But they doubted and hesitated about this, and yet they repented with all carefulness. What account then shall we give, when these, who had no good hopes held out to them as to the issue, gave evidence of such a change? [What account shall you give], who may be of good cheer as to God's love for humanity, and have many times received pledges of his care, and have heard the prophets and apostles, and have been instructed by the events themselves, and yet you do not strive to attain the same measure of virtue as they? Great then was the virtue too of these people, but much greater was the lovingkindness of God.… That fear was the parent of salvation; the threat removed the peril; the sentence of overthrow stayed the overthrow. Now they have a new and more marvelous issue! The sentence threatening death was the parent of life.… Was Nineveh destroyed? Quite the contrary. It arose and became more glorious, and all this intervening time has not effaced its glory. And we all yet celebrate it and marvel at it, that subsequently it has become a most safe harbor to all who sin, not allowing them to sink into despair but calling all to repentance, both by what it did and by what it gained from the providence of God, persuading us never to despair of our salvation. — HOMILIES CONCERNING THE STATUES 5:5-6
Jonas 3:10
For the fear was the cause of their safety. The threatening effected the deliverance from the peril. The sentence of destruction put a stop to the destruction. O strange and astonishing event! The threatening of death brought forth life.