Cryptically, the Zohar
alludes to the identification of Jonah with the revived child by interpreting
the biblical verse Who has gone up to heaven and come down? (Proverbs
30:4): “Who has gone up to heaven? Elijah. And come down—Jonah,
who descended to the abyss, to the depths of the sea. Jonah derived from the
power of Elijah. Elijah ascended, Jonah descended. One prayed that he might
die, and the other prayed that he might die. So he is called son of Amittai (Jonah
1:1), and it is written: The Word of YHVH in your mouth is emet, truth
(1 Kings 17:24).” (Zohar 2:197a) (Daniel C. Matt, Becoming Elijah:
Prophet of Transformation [New Haven: Yale University Press, 2022], 83)
No extant rabbinic source
connects the name of Jonah’s father, Amittai, with the word emet in the
verse from Kings; but the church father Jerome quotes this midrashic
interpretation in the introduction to his commentary on Jonah. (Ibid., 178 n.
108)
