En mer et sur terre : Jonas ou la nécessité d’une parole médiatrice

AUTEUR : PAUL BERE SJ

ABSTRACT

This study raises the issue of the way in which listeners (and not readers) worked the reception of Jonah’s story. The author suggests a theory of aurality that allows the highlighting of the aural structure of the book in order to answer this issue. The circulation of the word that results from it allows the emergence of two main poles of relations : on the one hand, YHWH who talks to elements of the cosmos that carry out YHWH’s orders, and on the other hand, Jonah who speaks to human beings (sailors and Ninivites) who act according to his words. The dynamic of words between YHWH and Jonah aims through the resistance of the latter and the performativity of his words, at convincing skeptics of the necessity of the mediating word of the prophet-watchman in order to change human behavior.