photo sharing and upload picture albums photo forums search pictures popular photos photography help login
Dick Osseman | all galleries >> Istanbul >> Museums - Müzeler >> Pammakaristos Church > Istanbul June 2010 9616.jpg
previous | next
26-JUN-2010

Istanbul June 2010 9616.jpg

A viewer informed me: "From left to right: prophets Ionah - Malachi - Ezechiel"

From the Enc. Brit. on Ionah: "As the story is related in the Book of Jonah, the prophet Jonah is called by God to go to Nineveh (a great Assyrian city) and prophesy disaster because of the city's excessive wickedness. Jonah, in the story, feels about Nineveh as does the author of the Book of Nahum—that the city must inevitably fall because of God's judgment against it. Thus Jonah does not want to prophesy, because Nineveh might repent and thereby be saved. So he rushes down to Joppa and takes passage in a ship that will carry him in the opposite direction, thinking to escape God. A storm of unprecedented severity strikes the ship, and in spite of all that the master and crew can do, it shows signs of breaking up and foundering. Lots are cast, and Jonah confesses that it is his presence on board that is causing the storm. At his request, he is thrown overboard, and the storm subsides.

A “great fish,” appointed by God, swallows Jonah, and he stays within the fish's maw for three days and nights. He prays for deliverance and is “vomited out” on dry land (ch. 2). Again the command is heard, “Arise, go to Nineveh.” Jonah goes to Nineveh and prophesies against the city, causing the King and all the inhabitants to repent.

Jonah then becomes angry. Hoping for disaster, he sits outside the city to await its destruction. A plant springs up overnight, providing him welcome shelter from the heat, but it is destroyed by a great worm. Jonah is bitter at the destruction of the plant, but God speaks and thrusts home the final point of the story: “You pity the plant, for which you did not labor, nor did you make it grow, which came into being in a night, and perished in a night. And should not I pity Nineveh, that great city, in which there are more than a hundred and twenty thousand persons who do not know their right hand from their left, and also much cattle?” "

On Malachi: "The Book of Malachi, the last of the Twelve (Minor) Prophets, was written by an anonymous writer called Malachi, or “my messenger.” Perhaps written from about 500–450 BCE, the book is concerned with spiritual degradation, religious perversions, social injustices, and unfaithfulness to the Covenant. Priests are condemned for failing to instruct the people on their Covenant responsibilities, idolatry is attacked, and men are castigated for deliberately forgetting their marriage vows when their wives become older.

In chapter 3, the message is that Yahweh will send a messenger of the Covenant to prepare for, and announce, the day of judgment. If the people turn from their evil ways, God will bless them, and those who “feared the Lord” will be spared. The book ends with a call to remember the Covenant and with a promise to send Elijah, the 9th-century prophet who ascended into heaven in a whirlwind on a chariot, “before the great and terrible day of the Lord comes.”

On Ezechiel: "also spelled Ezechiel, Hebrew Yeḥezqel prophet-priest of ancient Israel and the subject and in part the author of an Old Testament book that bears his name. Ezekiel's early oracles (from c. 592) in Jerusalem were pronouncements of violence and destruction; his later statements addressed the hopes of the Israelites exiled in Babylon. The faith of Ezekiel in the ultimate establishment of a new covenant between God and the people of Israel has had profound influence on the postexilic reconstruction and reorganization of Judaism."

Nikon D3
1/50s f/8.0 at 140.0mm iso2500 full exif

other sizes: small medium large original auto
comment | share
Guest 15-Mar-2011 17:28
Kaandorp
The text in Ezechiel'hand: So every time the creatures moved [or stopped or rose in the air, the wheels did exactly the same] - these creatures are kind of angels supporting God as sort of throne in a phantastic vision, a so-called Theophany. (Ezech. 1:19)
Guest 02-Mar-2011 14:15
Kaandorp
From left to right: prophets Ionah - Malachi - Ezechiel