Jonah — Hebrew and Greek compared
Choose a chapter to explore the source readings and their notes. Original references, source labels, and review records are retained.
Source guide and review record
SAINTS TRANSLATION
Jonah
V1 • Working translation draft • Sep 8, 2026
Complete reviewed working translation draft. All forty-eight Hebrew and forty-eight Greek units, alignment and comparison notes were rechecked against the declared publisher main texts. Registered reception was verified and Augustine’s relevant discussion added. No critical apparatus, manuscript collation, exhaustive reception survey or independent specialist approval is claimed.
4 chapters • 48 translation rows
Reader’s guide
Read across each row to compare independent literal-smooth English renderings of the declared Hebrew and Greek texts. Rabbinic Priority and Saints Priority identify interpretive traditions, not alternate sources of biblical wording. Actual source references remain visible.
Navigation follows the accessed Hebrew and Greek editions: chapters contain 16, 11, 10 and 11 verses, respectively, for 48 verses and 48 aligned rows. In many English Bibles, this edition’s 2:1 is 1:17, and this edition’s 2:2–11 is 2:1–10. The two declared source editions agree with each other in these chapter boundaries. Both versions’ content appears once; numbering variation does not create an addition or omission.
Source basis and review scope
Hebrew: Biblia Hebraica Stuttgartensia, fifth corrected edition (1997). Greek: Rahlfs–Hanhart Septuaginta, second revised edition (2006). Complete running texts were directly checked; the registered reception passages were consulted selectively.
Same: corresponding meaning. Similar: modest expression or emphasis difference. Different: meaningful specific detail. Divergent: addition, omission, or rearrangement. Disparate: major difference in meaning or consequence. Each row uses one governing category under the updated project reference.
Sources, Method & Decisions
Source register
[BHS1] Karl Elliger and Wilhelm Rudolph, eds., Biblia Hebraica Stuttgartensia; fifth corrected edition prepared by Adrian Schenker (1997), German Bible Society official online main text. Scope: Jonah 1, complete chapter. Access: Direct Hebrew main text. Accessed Sep 8, 2026.
[BHS2] Karl Elliger and Wilhelm Rudolph, eds., Biblia Hebraica Stuttgartensia; fifth corrected edition prepared by Adrian Schenker (1997), German Bible Society official online main text. Scope: Jonah 2, complete chapter. Access: Direct Hebrew main text. Accessed Sep 8, 2026.
[BHS3] Karl Elliger and Wilhelm Rudolph, eds., Biblia Hebraica Stuttgartensia; fifth corrected edition prepared by Adrian Schenker (1997), German Bible Society official online main text. Scope: Jonah 3, complete chapter. Access: Direct Hebrew main text. Accessed Sep 8, 2026.
[BHS4] Karl Elliger and Wilhelm Rudolph, eds., Biblia Hebraica Stuttgartensia; fifth corrected edition prepared by Adrian Schenker (1997), German Bible Society official online main text. Scope: Jonah 4, complete chapter. Access: Direct Hebrew main text. Accessed Sep 8, 2026.
[LXX1] Alfred Rahlfs, Septuaginta; second revised edition prepared by Robert Hanhart (2006), German Bible Society official online main text. Scope: Jonah 1, complete chapter. Access: Direct Greek main text. Accessed Sep 8, 2026.
[LXX2] Alfred Rahlfs, Septuaginta; second revised edition prepared by Robert Hanhart (2006), German Bible Society official online main text. Scope: Jonah 2, complete chapter. Access: Direct Greek main text. Accessed Sep 8, 2026.
[LXX3] Alfred Rahlfs, Septuaginta; second revised edition prepared by Robert Hanhart (2006), German Bible Society official online main text. Scope: Jonah 3, complete chapter. Access: Direct Greek main text. Accessed Sep 8, 2026.
[LXX4] Alfred Rahlfs, Septuaginta; second revised edition prepared by Robert Hanhart (2006), German Bible Society official online main text. Scope: Jonah 4, complete chapter. Access: Direct Greek main text. Accessed Sep 8, 2026.
[RASHI-JON3] Rashi, Commentary on Jonah 3:4 and 3:8; Chabad.org bilingual presentation, including an explicitly marked later gloss at 3:4. Scope: Commentary on 3:4 and 3:8. Access: Direct commentary reading; modern biblical translation not used as a base. Accessed Sep 8, 2026.
[MAT12] Gospel according to Matthew 12:40–41, Nestle–Aland Novum Testamentum Graece, 28th revised edition (2012), official German Bible Society online presentation. Scope: 12:40–41, explicit reuse and interpretation of Jonah. Access: Direct Greek main-text reading for apostolic reception only. Accessed Sep 8, 2026.
[AUG18] Augustine, The City of God XVIII.30 and XVIII.44. English translation by Marcus Dods, Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, first series, volume 2 (1887), New Advent presentation. Scope: Jonah typology and the forty/three-day reading. English author text consulted, not Latin collation. Accessed Sep 11, 2026.
Contextual term record
יהוה / κύριος → YHWH / Lord. Preserve each divine designation and do not insert “God” where absent.
דג, דגה / κῆτος → fish / sea creature. 2:1–2,11; no modern species identification or whale taxonomy imposed.
שאול / ᾅδης → Sheol / Hades. 2:3; source-specific names for the realm of the dead.
חסד / ἔλεος → steadfast love / mercy. 2:9 and 4:2; ownership in 2:9 is left open.
קיקיון / κολοκύνθη → qiqayon plant / gourd. 4:6–10; Hebrew botanical identity left unresolved.
חרישית → scorching. 4:8; provisional contextual rendering of an uncertain word describing the east wind.
רעה / κακία → wickedness, evil, disaster / wickedness, calamity. Context determines moral wrong or harmful consequence; repeated vocabulary is explained without equating God with moral wrongdoing.
Material decisions
Created the complete independent pair from directly read ancient main texts on Sep 8, 2026; no departures from the declared editions were adopted.
Used source numbering, making the common English 1:17/2:1 shift explicit.
Preserved forty days in Hebrew and three days in Greek at 3:4.
Preserved the Greek prayer moods and difficult subject at 2:5,7,8,10; no conjectural harmonization was made.
Preserved Hebrew decree versus Greek narrated compliance at 3:8.
Classified 4:4 and 4:9 provisionally as Disparate on the moral evaluation reading of Hebrew hăhêṭēḇ; documented its intensive alternative.
Final review: Sep 11, 2026. All four chapters and all forty-eight units in each declared ancient-language main text were rechecked in complete literary units, together with all comparison notes and registered reception passages. Both translations and all classification totals are retained. The 2:5 note now qualifies the question’s possible force; Augustine’s Jonah typology and explicit forty/three-day discussion were added. Critical apparatus and independent specialist review remain outstanding.
Production note: Source chapter and verse references remain visible throughout.
Open questions
Jonah 2:5: review the possible interrogative interpretation of Hebrew ʾaḵ and whether the Greek question expresses uncertainty or confident hope; Disparate remains provisional on a consequential uncertainty reading.
Jonah 2:7: the Greek wish “let the ruin of my life rise up” requires specialist syntactic and textual review; it is not silently translated as accomplished rescue.
Jonah 2:10: review the attachment and sense of Greek sōtēriou tō kyriō; the present literal wording is provisional.
Jonah 4:4,9: decide whether Hebrew hăhêṭēḇ asks about moral rightness or degree; that affects classification.
Jonah 4:6–10: confirm the best English policy for qîqāyôn and ḥărîšîṯ without importing the Greek botanical identification.
Classification totals
Same: 14 • Different: 17 • Similar: 10 • Disparate: 7. Counting unit: one aligned verse row. These are affected rows, not unique textual variants.
Disparate index
2:5, 2:6, 2:7, 3:4, 3:8, 4:4, 4:9