What Jonah Has to Say About Compatibilism

           This week marks our third week delving into the question, “Who is writing the script of my life?” As we continue to seek the answer to this question, I feel inclined to remind you that what we are doing is brave. Our willingness to dig deeper into the unknown and, thus, uncomfortable areas of our lives is something many people never even dare to attempt. So while we may not agree on everything, let us agree on this: the actions we are taking to better understand ourselves are worthy of recognition.

Furthermore, while last week’s assignment was tailored to exploring the issue of free will and determinism in a modernized way, this week we take a look into certain Biblical texts to see what scholars have to say about the issue. Out of the four passages we reviewed, I found myself familiar with all of them, although the arguments presented were very new to me. In fact, I find it intriguing and, in some ways, surprising what scholars have to say about these verses in light of free will and determinism.

That being said, if you have been following along with my posts, you are familiar with the classic category I identify most to and that is compatibilism. Compatibilist consume the space between free will and determinism, believing that neither can exist without the other. In other words, you could say compatibilists are the hippies of this argument as they seek to find a balance between the two. With that said, for the sake of this post, I will be taking a close look at Jonah 1:1-2:10 to help you and I better understand why this is a text favored by those who advocate compatibilism.   

Whether you have heard the tale of Jonah and the whale a million times or not, this is an interesting passage worth directing your attention to. Growing up in Vacation Bible School, I encountered this story many times, but unsurprisingly always got stuck on the part where God sends the big fish to swallow Jonah. Now that I am older and wiser—so I’d like to think—I see that this story has a lot more to offer.

If we take a few steps back, we see that God’s initial calling to Jonah was for him to go to Nineveh, located east of Israel. And yet, what did Jonah do? He did exactly what many of us would do; he ignored God’s command and fled the opposite direction. It did not take long for this act of free will to meet face to face with its deterministic repercussions. While on a ship headed to Tarshish, a city located west of Israel, Jonah and his fellow sea mates encountered a storm. Within biblical context, this storm is attributed to God’s wrath for Jonah for not following His initial command. Clearly, Jonah was given the freedom to decide whether he would go to Nineveh or not and upon choosing otherwise, God stepped in. I think this story paints a perfect picture of what compatibilism looks like and if you consider your own life in retrospect to Jonah’s, maybe you will find that we all share a bit of that same nature. Furthermore, as someone who resonates most with compatibilists, this was an eye-opening text that I can now use in support of my perspective.