III.  The Disciples of the Prophets.  Throughout the centuries that followed the destruction of Jerusalem the great ethical prophets of the pre-exilic period had never been without spiritual disciples.  They faithfully studied and applied in their own lives the principles laid down by their earlier guides.  Although the influence of the contemporary prophets constantly waned, yet the spirit of those earlier champions of the faith lived in the hearts of their followers.  In many of the psalms of the Psalter Amos and Isaiah and Jeremiah speak in terms adapted to the changed problems of the Jews of the Greek period.  In Psalm 46 the trust in Jehovah which Isaiah advocated has become a living force in the life of the Psalmist and of the class in behalf of which he spoke.  In the background one hears the march of the multitude armed by Alexander for world-conquest and the din of conflict as army met army; but over all stands Jehovah, protecting his sanctuary and people, supreme in the lives of men and nations.  The narrow, nationalistic, messianic hopes have long since been abandoned, and instead Jehovah is recognized as the one supreme being whose kingdom or dominion includes all the nations of the earth.  In imagination these disciples of the prophets saw the time when rich and poor, Jew and Gentile, should bow before Jehovah and be united in loyalty to him.  Thus arose that highest conception of the kingdom of God which is the foundation of Jesus’ teaching.

IV.  The Date and Character of the Book of Jonah.  From those who sat at the feet of the earlier prophets came one of the most remarkable books of the Old Testament.  In literary form the little book of Jonah is closely akin to the stories in the opening chapters of Genesis and the first half of the book of Daniel.  Its many Aramaic words, its quotations from the late book of Joel, its universalism, and its missionary spirit all indicate that it comes either from the closing years of the Persian or from the earlier part of the Greek period.  The story of Jonah, like many similar stories in the Old Testament, was probably known to the Semites centuries before it was employed by the author of the book to point his great prophetic teaching.  In the familiar Greek story of Hercules, Hesione, the daughter of the Trojan king, is rescued by the hero from a sea-monster which held her in its stomach three days.  An old Egyptian tale coming from the third millennium B.C. tells of an Egyptian who was shipwrecked and after floating three days was swallowed by a great sea-monster and thus carried to the land.  From India comes the tradition of a man who went to sea contrary to the commands of his mother.  While on the way the ship was seized by an unknown power and not allowed to proceed until the offender was three times selected by lot and then cast overboard.