Jonah in the Shadows of Eden

“Yitzhak Berger displays extraordinary textual learning as he picks up multiple verbal resonances connecting Jonah to the Tanakh.” -Benjamin D. Sommer, Jewish Theological Seminary

Yitzhak Berger advances a distinctive and markedly original interpretation of the biblical book of Jonah that resolves many of the ambiguities in the text. Berger contends that the Jonah text pulls from many inner-biblical connections, especially ones relating to the Garden of Eden. These connections provide a foundation for Berger’s reading of the story, which attributes multiple layers of meaning to this carefully crafted biblical book. Focusing on Jonah’s futile quest and his profoundly troubled response to God’s view of the sins of humanity, Berger shows how the book paints Jonah as a pacifist no less than as a moralist.

“Berger displays a virtuoso mastery and exemplary control of a spectrum of literary devices, including inner-biblical allusion, multiple resonances, and various types of wordplay . . . to propose a new interpretation of the Book of Jonah.” -The Heythrop Journal