Was the Book of Jonah inspired by Jason and the Argonauts?
Having recently re-read Apollonius of Rhodes' 'Argonautica' it caused me to recall that in the early twentieth century several classical scholars wondered; and even argued, that some parts of the Old and New Testament had been consciously modelled on this popular account of the exploits of Jason and his crew of heroes. In particular they focused on the story of the romance of Jason and Medea arguing not implausibly that the anointing of Jason by Medea was the parallel drawn on by the gospels for the anointing of Jesus. (1)
In the Old Testament: scholars have focused on the book of Jonah as being the principle element that has been inspired by Apollonius' account of the adventures of Jason and his crew. Gildas Hamel has argued that the name Jonah - in terms of the book - is a deliberate anagram for Jason since Jonah in Greek is 'Ionas', while Jason in Greek is 'Iason'. Indeed, Jason was a common Greek name taken by Hellenizing jews in Palestine and viewing it as an anagram of the Greek way of saying Jonah would go a significant way to explain its popularity.
Elsewhere others have noted the similarity of story of Jonah to the Greek story of Perseus (3) and Hamel himself points out that it also bears a striking resemblance in places to the labours of Hercules. (4)
Hamel's thesis is simple: we know that the 'Argonautica' (in its various editions) was a widely read Greek epic (being as popular as tales about Perseus and Hercules for example) and was especially popular among the masses. Given that the jews of the period that the book of Jonah was written - the late fifth/early fourth century BC - had come into significant contact with the Greeks and their ideas via the close Greek relationship and interchange of ideas with the Phoenicians and the Persians.
It is unsurprising that a literate and well-read jew - which the author of Jonah most certainly was - (5) would have drawn on the popular oral traditions of non-jewish peoples he had come into contact in order to ensure a wide dissemination of his work among his target jewish audience (which was ultimately successful). It is also worth noting that the author of the book of Jonah - which is set in eighth century Assyria - used the general story of an actual Mesopotamian legend to provide the basis for his narrative. (6)
This amalgamation of mythical narratives into the book of Jonah has predictably given rise to a string of claims from less than careful writers that Jason was merely a mythological derivative of Hercules (viz Robert Graves) (7) or that the 'Argonautica' validates the truthfulness of the Bible (with the assumption that it was written before it when in fact the inverse is almost certainly true). (8)
Aside from these enthusiastic attempts to re-write Greek religious history or validate Christian cosmogony: we can further note that there was a 'Tomb of Jason' with a drawing of what we may presume to be the Argo constructed in the first century BC in Jerusalem. (9) This in itself would be decidedly odd if there wasn't a strong tradition among the Hellenizing jews honouring Jason since the jews were notoriously inhospitable to Greek and Roman influences at this time. (10)
We also know that in some versions of the 'Argonautica' Jason meets with Triton; the merman of Greek mythology, (11) and this is perhaps transliterated via the Mesopotamian myth (12) into the famous description of Jonah's encounter with the 'big fish'.
While the meaning of 'Jonah' in Hebrew is 'dove' and he is guided to land by god, while Jason and the Argonauts are led through the Clashing Rocks by the good will of the gods and the agency of a dove. (13) Also worthy of note is the Hebrew term for the wind blowing Jonah along used in the original text of the book of Jonah verse 1.2 'boreath', which is almost certainly derived from the Greek god of the north wind: Boreas. (14)
These are but a select few of the parallels that Hamel draws and it is clear that what he is describing is a piece of synthesis between different religious traditions and the formative works of Judaism, which clearly suggests that the idea of Judaism as a 'pure religion' or even a unique religious tradition without many non-jewish elements is increasing absurd.
The point being that if the book of Jonah is in effect a jewish writer combing Greek and Mesopotamian myths together then setting it in a jewish religious context: then it offers a strong counter to the idea that the Tanakh (i.e. the Hebrew Bible) is derived from God, but rather is a human work of mythology not one of divine inspiration.
After all if Jonah is simply Jason then are Yeshivas going to start using the 'Argonautica' as an aid to studying it?
References
(1) Arthur Drews, Joseph McCabe (Trans.), 1912, 'The Witnesses to the Historiocity of Jesus', Open Court: Chicago, pp. 196-197
(2) Gildas Hamel, 1995, 'Taking the Argo to Ninevah: Jonah and Jason in a Mediterrean Context', Judaism, Vol. 44, No. 3, pp. 341-359
(3) The Christian Fathers implicitly realized the derivation from the story of Perseus of some elements of jewish mythology as represented in the Tanakh and condemned it out of hand accordingly. See Daniel Ogden, 2008, 'Perseus', 1st Edition, Routledge: New York, p. 125
(4) Hamel, Op. Cit.
(5) Evan Heimlich, 2010, 'Darwin's Fortune, Jonah's Shipmates and the Persistence of Chance', pp. 160-163 in Patrick Curry (Ed.), 2010, 'Divination: Perspectives for a New Millennium', 1st Edition, Ashgate: Burlington
(6) Gwendolyn Leick, 2001, 'Mesopotamia: The Invention of the City', 1st Edition, Penguin: New York, pp. 219-223
(7) Jason Colavito, 2014, 'Jason and the Argonauts through the Ages', 1st Edition, McFarland: Jefferson, pp. 225-226; on Graves and his habit of making things up in relation to Greek myths and religion see Revilo Oliver, 2006, 'America's Decline: The Education of a Conservative', 2nd Edition, Historical Review Press: Uckfield, pp. 145-147
(8) Anatoly Formenko, 2005, 'History: Fiction or Science?', Vol. 2, Delamere: Paris, p. 342
(9) Hamel, Op. Cit.
(10) On this please see Peter Schaefer, 1995, 'The History of the Jews in Antiquity: The Jews of Palestine from Alexander the Great to the Arab Conquest', 1st Edition, Routledge: New York, pp. 65-98
(11) Hamel, Op. Cit.
(12) Leick, Op. Cit., pp. 219-223
(13) Hamel, Op. Cit.
(14) Ibid.