Tolstoy references the Book of Jonah in What I Believe as means to explain that we should still be of the world and not entirely give it up for the sake of the church. I think there’s more to it then that however.
The Book of Jonah (https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=Jonah+1&version=ESV) teaches the most valuable lesson in scripture in my opinion—that ignorance (lack of knowledge) is an inevitability; it’s a consequence of knowledge to begin with, a byproduct if it. Of course lack of knowing comes along with being able to know anything in the first place, and some people are even born without the ability to be able to know their right hand from their left (Autism Spectrum Disorder for example):
"And should not I pity Nineveh, that great city, in which there are more than 120,000 persons who do not know their right hand from their left, and also much cattle?” - Jonah 4:11
“My people are destroyed for lack of knowledge [ignorance].” - Hosea 4:6
“And Jesus said, 'Father, forgive them; for they know not what they do.” - Luke 23:34
No one can know until they know, and no one can even begin to dream (imagine) of being able to see what they don’t know and therefore can’t understand, and no one asks or earns how they came out of the womb biologically; we’ve all either stumbled upon on it or your God made it so. This is what warrants anything we come to hate infinite forgiveness, because it comes from ignorance (lack of knowledge), as we were when we were kids ourselves for example, of course God can’t help but see us the same way. Yes, we’ve grown up and subsequently know better, but far from everything, no matter how old we become, everything’s doing is a doing out of a degree of lack of knowledge, especially being still so far away from the sobering influence of the knowledge of the experience of our own death.
This inevitable lack of knowledge, that’s simply a consequence of our unique and profound ability to acknowledge knowledge to the extent we can in contrast to nature to begin with (of course there’s going to be absence of it to some degree as a result), especially including the knowledge of the experience, of being poor, starving, or collectively disliked as a few examples, needs to be gained, therefore, someone needs to be willing to teach it. Jonah was hardly even willing to go about it, and even ran away initially because of his hate and contempt for the people of Nineveh, due to their debauchery (making God’s of their sense organs) and iniquity. But what if there was someone willing to go as far as to even suffer for the sake of spreading the knowledge of God, thus, the path to peace and its value? That I personally equate as our knowledge of morality, no matter the source. Hence the fruit of the tree that gained us the unique and profound ability in contrast to nature to acknowledge knowledge of morality that rendered us being made in Gods image complete. Jesus calls this book the “sign of Jonah”:
The Sign of Jonah
29 “When the crowds were increasing, he began to say, “This generation is an evil generation. It seeks for a sign, but no sign will be given to it except the sign of Jonah. 30 For as Jonah became a sign to the people of Nineveh, so will the Son of Man be to this generation.” - Luke 11:28
The sign being an influence, thus, incentive and will therefore, via a knowledge to save themselves from their inherecy to themselves, being absent the knowledge of God (of morality) otherwise; instinct leads us to sin (selfishness), knowledge leads us go be able to pierce through what instinct demands of us, away from the hell we potentially make for ourselves here in this life, becoming either a prisoner of our minds (of our conscience), or to men, ultimately. And as the storm of death begins to slowly approach the shores of your conscience, where will you have built your house (your life)? Out on the sand, with the fool? As most people would be inherently drawn to? Or with the wise man, out on the rock? "And the rain fell, and the floods came, and the winds blew and beat against that house, and it fell, and great was the fall of it.” - Matt 7:27
The Golden Rule
“Enter by the narrow gate. For the gate is wide and the way is easy that leads to destruction [selfishness], and those who enter by it are many. For the gate is narrow and the way is hard that leads to life [selflessness], and those who find it are few." - Matt 7:13 https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=Matthew+7&version=ESV
I don’t agree with walling off people from knowledge via words for words; more complex words that are just words for more simpler ones that do the job just the same. And you must have missed this:
"Jesus calls this book the “sign of Jonah”:
The Sign of Jonah
29 “When the crowds were increasing, he began to say, “This generation is an evil generation. It seeks for a sign, but no sign will be given to it except the sign of Jonah. 30 For as Jonah became a sign to the people of Nineveh, so will the Son of Man be to this generation.” - Luke 11:28
The sign being an influence, thus, incentive and will therefore, via a knowledge to save themselves from their inherecy to themselves, being absent the knowledge of God (of morality) otherwise; instinct leads us to sin (selfishness), knowledge leads us go be able to pierce through what instinct demands of us, away from the hell we potentially make for ourselves here in this life, becoming either a prisoner of our minds (of our conscience), or to men, ultimately."
So… the sign of Jonah is … using big words?
If someone thinks that’s a sign of evil, they’re only showing that they WANT to be ignorant fuckwits.
On the other hand, as Einstein said, “If you cannot explain it simply, you do not understand it well enough”.
IMO, the riduclous old-timey and mistranslated verbiage of that style of verses are exactly the “fancy words for words sake” that only contributes to people failing to understand things. Religious texts are largely just a failure at attempting to mix history, ethics, and baby’s first philosophy. Anyone who clings to such misguided, poorly worded, and often straight up outdated ways of thinking is only harming themselves, just as those poorly worded verses warn against.