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Title: Récit et noms de Dieu dans le livre de Jonas
Author(s): LICHTERT, Claude
Journal: Biblica
Volume: 84    Issue: 2   Date: 2003   
Pages: 247-251
DOI: 10.2143/BIB.84.2.3194469

Abstract :
The problem of the different names of God in the book of Jonah is regularly discussed by researchers. There have been attempts to resolve this question through diachronic hypotheses (as part of literary criticism), as well as by synchronic hypotheses which attribute the choice of different names for God to semantic associations or to the structure of the story as a whole. This study offers an interpretation which considers the changes in the name for God as a function of the narrative. Thus, the very act of naming God comes from the story itself and through the interaction of its characters. The analysis offered here, after a brief study of each chapter of the book, shows that the double divine name ('YHWH God') is the term that brings out the positive or negative twists and turns in the narrative. In brief, Jonah makes his way through the story with different names for God, each indicating how God’s relation with others is positive or not.

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