Blah blah blah. We already know Jonah's story — or we think we do. Here’s what years of surface-level familiarity can do: it makes us skip past the details. We read right over names and places without stopping to ask who they really were, or where those places actually sat in the ancient world. When we skip those details, we miss the full weight of what God was doing.
Most of us learned about Jonah 🐋 in Sunday school. Prophet runs from God, gets swallowed by a fish, eventually goes to Nineveh. Blah blah blah. We know the story — or we think we do.
But here’s what years of surface-level familiarity can do: it makes us skip past 😵💫 the details. We read right over names and places without stopping to ask who they really were, or where those places actually sat in the ancient world. When we skip those details, we miss the full weight of what God was doing 🩵.
That’s where character studies and place studies come in. These are two of the most practical tools in a Bible student’s toolbox, and Jonah chapter 1 is a perfect place to practice them.
A character study is exactly what it sounds like: you stop and dig into a person in the text. Not just what they did in this passage, but who they were. To get started, ask yourself a few questions:
- What does this person’s name mean?
- Where are they from?
- Are they mentioned anywhere else in the Bible?
- What did the original audience already know about them when they heard this name?
Then go looking for answers! 🤓 A Bible dictionary or concordance is a great starting point. Online tools like Blue Letter Bible or Bible Hub make it easy to search a person’s name across the entire Bible and trace every reference. A good study Bible (I've used my NIV Life Application Bible since I received it as a gift 30 years ago!) will often include background notes on key figures as well.
Try this with Jonah. His full name — Jonah son of Amittai — is worth searching. You may be surprised what turns up outside of this book, and what that context reveals about who he was before he ever reached the Joppa docks.
What you’re looking for isn’t just biographical trivia. You’re trying to understand what this person’s choices meant — and why they matter to you as a reader today.
And ... for OUR CHARACTER STUDY of Jonah, we also studied to understand one aspect of Jonah's character that was pretty important: Jonah was a prophet for the LORD. Read the first mention of Jonah in 2 Kings 14: 25, but read the entire chapter (at least!) for context!
A place study works the same way, but for locations. When a city or region is named in Scripture, it’s worth pausing to ask:
- Where was/is this place geographically?
- What was it known for in the ancient world?
- Who lived there?
- Does it appear elsewhere in the Bible, and if so, in what context?
- What would this name have meant to the original audience?
Geography in the Bible is rarely neutral. Locations carry history, reputation, and meaning — and understanding them can completely change how you read a passage.
Jonah 1 gives you three locations to work with. Each one is worth its own study!
Here are a few tips:
Joppa is where Jonah goes to find a ship. Look it up in a Bible dictionary or search it in Blue Letter Bible. Look at every passage where Joppa appears — in the Old Testament and the New. Pay attention to who else passed through this city and what happened there. You may find a connection that makes you look at this port city very differently.
Tarshish is where Jonah is trying to go, to run away from the LORD. This one is fascinating to research because the answer isn’t entirely settled. Look it up in a Bible concordance, then search the word across Scripture. Notice how it’s described — what kind of place it was, how far it was, what it represented. Then sit with the geography: Nineveh was one direction. Tarshish was the other. What does that tell you about Jonah’s state of mind?
Nineveh is the city God told Jonah to go to — and arguably the most important location to study in this entire book. Search on Bible Hub and look at how other biblical writers describe it. Pay attention to the prophets. Notice who lived there. What you find about Nineveh won’t just explain Jonah’s resistance; it will make it feel completely understandable.
You don’t need a seminary library. Here are the tools that make this kind of study accessible to anyone:
Online tools: Blue Letter Bible (blueletterbible.org) and Bible Hub (biblehub.com) are both free and powerful. You can search names, places, and original language words, and cross-reference passages with ease. There are dictionaries, concordances, commentaries, maps and MORE!
A study Bible: Look for one with maps, introductory notes for each book, and in-text annotations. These are especially helpful for historical and geographical context.
A Bible dictionary or concordance: These give you focused entries on people, places, and themes. A concordance helps you trace a word or name through every appearance in Scripture.
Remember: Check your church library or local public library to see if they have resources you can borrow!
When you do character studies and place studies, the Bible stops being a flat collection of stories and starts becoming a living, textured world.
The people become real.
The decisions carry weight.
The geography makes the distances — physical and spiritual — feel significant.
In Jonah 1, you have a prophet running as far as the ancient world allowed, in the opposite direction from where God was sending him. Understanding who he was, and where those places were, changes the story from a simple fish tale into something that asks harder questions — about obedience, about mercy🩵, and about our own instinct to run.
Don’t settle for the version of the story you already know. Go dig🤓
