Jonah in the Qur’an and the Bible: A Theological Study

This article examines the Qur’an’s theological use of biblical reflexes in relation to Jonah and Yūnus. In section 1, a tripartite categorization is proposed regarding the existing theories of theological intertextuality: essential continuity, qualified continuity, and essential discontinuity. Jonah and Yūnus are examined as a testcase for these three theological intertextual theories. Section 2 discusses the distinguishing features and literary genre of the biblical book of Jonah, including theological analysis, and concludes that Jonah is an anti-prophet who is not exemplary. Section 3 examines Yūnus in the Qur’an in the context of the punishment stories and qur’anic rasulology. Each of the six qurʾanic passages in which Yūnus appears is studied, along with a selection of tafsīr, before proceeding to critical theological reflection. In section 4, several elements of theological continuity are discussed between the qur’anic Yūnus and the biblical Jonah. Then, numerous instances of theological discontinuity are considered before offering a conclusion on which theological intertextual theory best fits the relation of the qur’anic Yūnus to the biblical Jonah.