Jonasz jako świadek diaspory asyryjskiej

The exegetes have not been successful so far in determining the precise date of the creation of the Book of Jonah. The arguments presented in this academic debate are pure speculations and still arise many doubts. However, the problem of the date is crucial as without establishing the time from which the text comes it is not possible to interpret it correctly. Relying on the current research on the Book of Jonah it is difficult to answer positively the question whether Jonah was linked with Nineveh and with enslaved Israelites living in Assyria. As the current research on the date of the creation of the Book of Jonah has failed, it is necessary to look at the text from a different perspective. The analyses should concentrate on the reality described in the Book of Jonah which must be confronted with the historical data of biblical Israel and antiquity as such. Such an approach to the text allows us to draw a conclusion that the events described in the narrative best reflect the events from the Persian epoch and, to be more precise, from the time of religious reforms by the biblical characters, such as Nehemiah Tomasz Tułodziecki Uniwersytet Mikołaja Kopernika, Toruń