1) Some want to hold this prophet Jonah, as Jerome shows that he was the son of the widow at Zarpath near Zidou, who nourished the prophet Eliam in his time, 1 Kings 17:9 and Luc 4:26. They take the reason that he calls himself a son of Amithai, that is, a son of the truthful one, because his mother said to Elijah when he had raised him from death: "Now I know that the words of your mouth are true.
002 Whosoever will, I will not believe it: but his father's name was Amithai, in Latin Verax, in German Wahrhaftig. And was of Gathhepher, which city is in the tribe of Zebulun, Jos. 19:13: for so it is written in the fourteenth chapter, v. 25, in the other book of Kings, "King Jeroboam brought again the border of Israel from Hemath even unto the sea in the plain, according to the word of the Lord God of Israel, which he spake by his servant Jonah the son of Amithai, the prophet of Gathhepher." Also the widow of Zarpath was a vain Gentile, as Christ also reports, Luc. 4, 26. But Jonah confesses here in the first chapter, v. 9, that he was a Hebrew.
3 So now we have that this Jonah has been
In the time of King Jeroboam, whose grandfather was King Jehu, at which time King Uzziah reigned in Judah. At the same time, in the same kingdom of Israel, there were the prophets Hosea, Amos, Joel, in other places and cities. From this it can be seen that this Jonah was an excellent and honorable man in the kingdom of Israel, and that God did great things through him, namely, that through his preaching the king Jeroboam was so blessed and recovered everything that Hazael, the king of Syria, had taken away from the kingdom of Israel.
4 But this is above all (that he did among his people), that he can attack such a great, mighty kingdom in Assyria, and preach so fruitfully among the Gentiles, who could not have done so much with many sermons among his own. As if God wanted to show the saying of Isaiah [Cap. 52, 15]: "He who has not heard, will hear", as an example that all who have the word abundantly despise it, and those who cannot have it, gladly accept it. As Christ himself says, Matt. 21:43, "The kingdom of God is taken from you, and given to the Gentiles who bring forth its fruits."
Another "Preface to the Prophet Jonah" is found in this volume, in the supplement to the sixth volume, before the "Interpretations on the Prophet Jonah."