Was Jonah a racist?

[tonychanyt]

Oxford, racist:

having the belief that some races of people are better than others or having general beliefs about other people based only on their race; showing this through violent or unfair treatment of people of other races

A racist looks down on a person just because of his race. He is black; therefore … .

JohnMacArthur said, "If the heathens would repent in Nineveh over the preaching of a reluctant, racist, bad-attitude prophet, …"

MacArthur called Jonah a racist prophet. Jonah might have been a racist but I would not label him as such based on the biblical evidence. I think MacArthur overstated his case.

Was this Jonah's mindset: Ninevites were Assyrians, therefore … .

Jonah 1:

2 "Go to the great city of Nineveh and preach against it, because its wickedness has come up before me."

The citizens of Nineveh were Assyrians practicing wickedness. God wasn't against the Assyrian race or the Ninevite people; he was against wickedness. Jonah was against wickedness. God wasn't a racist.

Why did Jonah initially refuse to go to Nineveh? Was it due to some racist thinking?

I don't think so. Jon 4:

2 He prayed to the Lord and said, “O Lord, is not this what I said when I was yet in my country? That is why I made haste to flee to Tarshish; for I knew that you are a gracious God and merciful, slow to anger and abounding in steadfast love, and relenting from disaster.

Jonah would rather see the destruction of Nineveh because of its wickedness, not because of its race of people. Jonah was thinking: Wicked people deserve to be destroyed, even wholesale. Jonah wasn't thinking: Kill the Ninevites and Assyrians. Long live the Jews/Israelites.

There is no record of any disparaging remark from Jonah against the Ninevites or Assyrians. The only place Jonah mentioned 'Nineveh' was Jon 3:

4 "Forty more days and Nineveh will be overthrown."

Centuries later, Jesus compared himself to Jonah in Mt 12:

41 The men of Nineveh will stand at the judgment with this generation and condemn it; for they repented at the preaching of Jonah, and now One greater than Jonah is here.

Do you believe that Jesus compared himself to a racist prophet?

I don't think so.

Was Jonah a racist?

Labeling Jonah as 'racist' in the modern sense is an oversimplification.