Hebrew Corner 15: Nineveh's Response

Jonah 3:5 describes the Ninevite response to the prophet’s oracle of judgment. NASB indicates that the Ninevites "believed in God," yet in many translations the rendering is "believed God" (NIV). Which is correct? What does this phrase convey about the spiritual state of the Ninevites?

It is not going to work to ask simply, "Is the Hebrew word for ‘in’ there or not?" The reason for this is that in English the collocation "believe in X" has become an idiomatic expression indicating a significant faith commitment. The same combination would not necessarily convey the same idiomatic force in another language. This is one of the things that makes translation so tricky.

If we want to understand this verse we have to apply two of the principles we have considered in previous entries.

First is that we have to consider meaning in light of other occurrences of the same collocation (this verb + this preposition). Secondly, we have to limit our database to verbs in the same stem (here the verb is in the hiphil stem). The root is ‘aman. So we need to look at occurrences of the hiphil of ‘aman with the object introduced by the preposition b… We will find that when we compile this list (about 2 dozen occurrences), the conclusion is clear that this combination does not specifically refer to a faith commitment in general but to the act of believing that which was said. For example, one of the places where we find the combination is in Numbers 20:12 where Moses is the subject. We could not conclude that this concerns the question of Moses faith (the term is negated in this passage). He simply had failed to believe what God had said. This study also has some impact on Genesis 15:6 where the same combination is used, indicating that Abraham took God at his word.

With regard to the Ninevites, we find that the text indicates that they believed that the judgment pronounced on them by God through Jonah posed a credible threat and they responded through repentance. The language falls short of suggesting a conversion experience. The text gives no indication that they recognized the claims of Yahweh, discard their idols, proclaimed themselves monotheists and signed on as circumcised members of the covenant.

A final technical note: Even though the Hebrew preposition b is often translated "in," the preposition can (and here does) simply introduce the direct object of the verb. As such it is in the same category as the direct object marker ‘et and should not be translated.

For more information about the implications of this interpretation see J. Walton, Jonah in the Revised Expositor’s Bible Commentary.

John H. Walton (PhD, Hebrew Union College) teaches Old Testament at Wheaton College Graduate School. He is the author or coauthor of several books, including Chronological and Background Charts of the Old Testament and the forthcoming A Survey of the Old Testament (Third Edition).

Comments

[Irving Salzman]

Good post.

It appears however that 'aman' in the Hiphil stem followed by an object preceded by the preposition 'b' can, at times, indicate more than simple credence in someone's words. It appears that, at times, it can in fact indicate a faith commitment or trust in its object. While I would agree that Abraham's belief in Gen 15:6 is in God's promise in verse 5, the fact of the matter is that the same faith was credited to Abraham as righteousness. Further, it cannot be disputed that Paul held up Abraham's Gen 15:6 faith as the paradigm of salvific faith.

It can also be pointed out that 'aman in the Hiphil followed by an object prefixed with the inseparable preposition 'l' (lamed) is very often used to express credence/belief in someone's report/words. Perhaps more so than the first collocation ('aman with b).

Bruce Demarest (Denver Seminary), in his book 'The Cross and Salvation,' did an excellent similar study on the Greek word pisteuw. He showed how pisteuw with an object in the dative case often indicated no more than just credence in someone's words. However when pisteuw took its object in a prepositional phrase beginning with 'en' but especially with 'epi,' it almost always indicated a faith commitment in the object. The former was usually intellectual faith; the latter conversion faith.

One other thing: In the Gospels, Jesus contrasted the men of Nineveh with the religious leaders of his day. The latter failed to recognize who Jesus was despite the great miracle of exorcism he performed on the man who was both mute and blind. By contrast, the former did respond with repentance at the preaching of Jonah. Moreover, in Jesus' words, the Ninevites will stand up at the judgment and will actually condemn the generation that failed to respond in faith to Jesus' person, his works, and his words. If the Ninevites did not actually exercise conversion faith, this will be small comfort and consolation for them, to be sure.