Who's Who in Jonah 1?

What you need: Your observation sheets for Jonah 1 or a Bible turned to Jonah 1.

Remember that the first thing we do in inductive study is look for the obvious. What do you think is probably the most obvious thing one can look for in any Bible text?

People! Let's read Jonah 1 and see who's mentioned.
Who is mentioned?
Who would you say are the main characters?
Why would you say they're the main characters?

Notice how all the other characters are only important in their relation to Jonah and God.

Often in the inductive method, marking is used to help us slow down and observe more carefully. Since Jonah and the Lord are the most important characters, let's mark each of their names to see what we learn about each.
Choose a color for Jonah (maybe ocean blue?) and another color for the Lord (I usually use gold or yellow, but you can use any color, as long as it's different from the color you chose for Jonah.).
Some people are good at marking more than one word at a time, but I usually find it easier to mark one and then the other. Besides, doing so gives me more of an opportunity to observe the text. You can circle the word, underline it, or write a letter or symbol above or near it. Mark every noun, pronoun, and synonym that refers to the Lord and/or Jonah. For example, in verse 1, you would mark "the Lord," "Jonah," and "the son of Amittai." In verse 2, you would mark "Me." In verse 3, you would mark "Jonah," "the Lord," "he," and "the Lord."

Everything I bolded refers to the Lord, and everything I italicized refers to Jonah.
Our next blog will show you what happens after we mark words.