The number of characters in the story of Jonah is very restricted. The people can be divided as belonging to three broad categories: prophets, merchant marines, and the people of Nineveh. Each of these designated “types” in society carried with it presuppositions in the ancient world and social expectations of status and behavior. These characters may be considered as belonging to the real living world of the ancient world, as being social constructs of the society in which they existed, and as literary constructions. In the circle of Jonah's author and readers, they would have carried meaning from all three.

Prophets

Jonah is the sole example of a prophet represented in the story. In fact, Jonah is never actually called “prophet” in the story; however, the book of Jonah constitutes an integral part of the Book of the Twelve and therefore the fact that he is a prophet is central to the narrative and to its having been preserved. More to the point, a series of events related in the text point the reader to the prophetic nature of Jonah's role.

What was a prophet? The usual word for prophet in Hebrew narrative sources is nabi'. That the English world “prophet” comes from Greek for a different type of person in a different cultural setting should not be a problem. The meaning which has been credited to the English word “prophet” derives not from the Greek, but from the biblical tradition to which it has been attached.